Developer
What does key rotation actually involve in a running system?
If rotation has never been rehearsed, assume the system cannot do it.
The answer
Rotating the key material is the easy part. The work is everything attached to it: every service holding the old key, every contract with the old address in an allowlist, every runbook naming the old signer set, and a rehearsal proving the new arrangement can produce a valid signature before the old one is retired. Systems that cannot rotate keep the same keys for years, which is the risk the rotation policy existed to prevent.
The inventory that makes rotation possible
Write down where the key is referenced before you need to rotate: services, on-chain allowlists, monitoring, backup arrangements, and the documents naming who holds what. Rotations fail on the reference nobody remembered, and the time to find it is not the day the rotation is urgent.
Overlap, then retire
Bring the new arrangement into service alongside the old one, prove it signs, and only then retire the previous key. A cutover with no overlap turns any missed reference into an outage with no path back — and staff departures, the most common reason rotation becomes urgent, rarely arrive with notice.
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