very long countdown art project

Put a battery backed RTC on it, can check the displayed time left against the actual current time & adjust accordingly.
Then all you need to store is the end date. Replace the battery every few years.
70 years * 365.25 days/year * 24 hr/day * 60 minutes/hr * 60 seconds/hr = 2,209,032,000 seconds
Guess that is 10 digits.