Key Management & Execution Engine

When curators launch a vault, they choose how capital is held and how is executed. Upshift supports two models. Both key management and execution engines follow the same safety model: non-custodial by construction, policy-gated execution, and independent NAV validation. The difference is the operational style that fits the curator needs.

August Subaccount (smart-contract wallet)

A smart-contract wallet deployed by August and owned by the vault. Curator receives a trader role and execute against a whitelisted set of protocols and tokens. The same address works across EVM chains, with built-in swap and bridging modules. August calculates NAV across spot, DeFi, perps, and options. Whitelist policies are on-chain, cryptographically enforced and verifiable.

Fordefi (MPC)

A shared MPC workspace operated jointly with August, governed by transaction-level policy controls. Curators propose NAV updates that August’s pricing engine validates. This suits curators who prefer an MPC key-management and signing workflow. Fordefi policies are maintained off-chain.

Dimension	August Subaccount	Fordefi (MPC)
What it is	A smart-contract wallet deployed by August, owned by the vault. You receive a trader/strategist role.	A shared MPC workspace operated jointly with August, governed by transaction policies. You propose and execute through it.
Best for	Strategies that live on and off-chain and benefit from native cross-chain execution and August's full prime-brokerage surface. Integrations with CeFi.	Curators who want MPC key management and a familiar institutional signing workflow.
Execution surface	Whitelisted protocols and tokens; swap module and bridge module (LayerZero / Stargate, Chainlink CCIP); same address across EVM chains.	Policy-gated transactions across approved venues.
Custody control	Non-custodial by design; funds can only move between whitelisted strategy contracts and the vault, never to an external wallet.	MPC threshold signing with off-chain policy controls.
NAV	August calculates NAV across spot, DeFi, perps, and options.	Curator proposes NAV updates; August's pricing engine validates them.