A method for the reversible crosslinking of, for example, adhesives or coating materials, and a composition stable on storage at room temperature for implementing the crosslinking reaction. The reversible crosslinking method allows very rapid crosslinking even at a low first temperature, and undoing of the crosslinks at higher temperatures, thereby recovering thermoplastic processability and, for example, allowing the originally bonded substrates to be parted from one another again easily. A particular aspect is that a plurality of cycles of crosslinking and undoing of the crosslinks are possible with the present system. A feature of the system used for the reversible crosslinking is that it contains two components, A and B, where component A is a compound having at least two protected dithioester functionalities, preferably cyanodithioester functionalities, and component B is a compound having at least two diene functionalities.