Bitcoin Forum

What will happen to your Bitcoins when you die, will they be lost forever?

I feel that this is something that is overlooked by most Bitcoin users.

Do any of you have a system in place to allow loved-ones to access your funds when you pass on? What is the best way to do this? please share your wisdom in this thread.

Ultimately it's a trade-off between short-term personal security and long-term financial planning.

If you give a password, private key, whatever, to a third party, that's obviously a risk that your data or wallet addresses will be accessed without your consent. Similarly, in the United States, the government can compel a third party to give up the information as well. On the other hand, you die, and your BTC is in a password protected wallet and you haven't told anyone, you're screwed. I haven't read of any sort of solution to this kind of problem.

nope. when I die my bitcoins also goes to the grave.
I had my buddy to hold my private key as a precaution, but he have no interest in bitcoins at the moment.
yeah, I know some people think of that as stupid (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=994266.msg10891386#msg10891386)

If you're storing a sizeable fund long-term in Bitcoin then yes you're probably going to need a way to hand that over to your friends or family when you pass on. Sounds like the ideal use of a paper wallet to me.

"Son, could you manage my bitcoin for me after I passing away?"

I don't have kid, but decided to have it soon ;D

nLockTime can be used to create a transaction that cannot be spent for a period of time. I am thinking that it may be possible to make a system that will allow a loved one to access your funds when you haven't used your wallet in X years. I am curious to know if anyone has put any thought into this. Giving up the password isn't the best way to do this as there is no easy way to remove the persons access at a later date if you change your mind (what if they try and kill you?!) and there is no audit trail, so if money is stolen it's a he-said she-said situation.

Never thought of this... But if only he have the access of the address and if he don't tell the others the access, then the coins is like burnt. That's why Bitcoin is precious as the supply will decrease because of this.

An unencrypted paper wallet sounds like a great find for an opportunist burglar.

be sure not to give your private keys to him too soon.  :P or you might come home one day and finds out that there was a big party.  ;D

Ive printed out the private keys and put in a bank with other things that will be given to my children, ive already taught one child how bitcoin works, etc. But my wife as the same info and knowledge, I would want my loved ones to have them. they wont do me any good, lol....

This is a reasonably good way to do this. One could store a wallet backup encrypted with a key belonging to the loved one in a bank vault. Any crooked DEA agent with a warrant would not be able to access the funds as it would be encrypted. One risk is that the bank might give the backup to the loved one earlier than expected, perhaps via social engineering - maybe even a fraudster could use social engineering to gain access or maybe a rogue bank employee. Or perhaps the bank refuses to give it to the loved one, in some countries/circumstances it can take years of legal battles to get access to vaults that contain wills etc. While this is a step in the right direction, I still think there is a better way to do this with cryptography where we aren't relying on banks (remind you of anything :D ).

I've got an elaborate scavenger hunt set up in case something happens to me, so a buddy can get access to my coins, but only if I'm out of the picture, be that dead/jail/etc. I also have it specified that my BTC go to my sister, however he gets a commision for helping her get the BTC since shes not very techsavvy.

Interesting. How can you guarantee that your buddy can only access the funds when you are dead?

I have a safe deposit box.  It contains (part of) my key.  If I die, the bank will give my wife a key to it.  While I am not dead, they won't.  My wife has the other part of the key in her files.

I don't have a system set up ATM, but a good way to go about doing it would be to either have a paper wallet locked up or a multi-sig wallet. I would probably go for the former, but I don't have much to worry about right now.

Did you just literally split the string in two? that is a bad idea, if this was an electrum seed, then the person would only need to crack 64bits to gain access. This is very easy to do, the Bitcoin network can crack a 64bit key in just 1 minute 40 seconds. Be careful! both your bank and your wife have full access to your funds.

Problem is they will also give it to a crooked DEA agent with a warrant. Also there can be legal issues when it comes to accessing vaults, it is quite common, it could mean that your family will have to battle it out in court for a number of years to access the vault. It's a pretty good solution, but not good enough IMO.

Me and my bitcoins will never be separated till death do us part.hahaha,

I have never thought about what I will do but hopefully that is a long time a way so I will have a while to think about it. I guess it would have to be a way where there is no possible way of the person they are going to, to access them when you are alive.

well, the question here is actually "what would happen to your bitcoins when death do you part", not "how long will you hold on to your bitcoins"

No.  They are keysplits.  The thing in the deposit box and the thing in my wife's files need to be combined in a very particular way in order to yield a key that would open my bitcoin wallet.  It is a procedure she knows how to do.  

Ah ok, I assume something like a OTP or Shamir's Secret Sharing, which is a lot better than just literally chopping the private key in two (something I have found out that people are doing!). Securely splitting the key is essentially the same as encrypting it with a password or asymmetric key that the recipient has, you still need both the password and encrypted wallet to open it, encrypting it has the added advantage that you can use your bitcoin clients built-in encryption features to do it, which is better than learning off procedures and relying on third party tools that may not be around in the future, you can also preserve your address labels too which could help with potential tax/legal issues.

I thought about doing multi sig. but i think that would make it too complicated for them(my family members) i I feel safe with one copy in the banks vault and another copy with a trusted family member thats in their huge gun safe. I guess coinbase has a cool vault system, but then you have to trust that coinbase will always be around and honest... I know my way isnt the absolute best way, but Im comfortable with it. If a bank manager looked at the paper, they probably wouldnt know what to do.. And I trust the family member with the other copy with my life and is probably the most honest person I know. So, Im good..well, my family is good.. now lets hope bitcoin goes to the moon one of these days, lol...

the moment i saw this thread i just realized that no person could use my bitcoins when i die, so i will give access to my brother to my bitcoin wallet later.. btw, my brother dont have any interest in bitcoin yet as because he is still studying :)

If I was dead for an accident, like car accident, earthquake, I am afraid my btc will be lost forever. So does everyone, right?

If I got a serious disease, I would tell my parents to sell my btc to fiat money. At least they can get the fiat money to spend on my disease, or give money to them.

Here is what I am thinking:

Whenever you send Bitcoins from your wallet, your wallet creates another transaction that sends all of the remainder of your bitcoin to the recipients Bitcoin address. This transaction isn't broadcasted, it is just signed and saved to a file locally, and the transaction has an nLockTime that prevents it from being spent for X years.

If you do not send any Bitcoins from your wallet for X years, the recipient can simply grab the signed transaction and spend it. IMO this is the best way to do it, I have been thinking about working on it, but I've not played around with transaction scripts or nlocktime before so I have some learning to do first. I am still curious to know what others are doing and if anyone has implemented something similar to this or something better or if anyone's got any suggestions.

The main disadvantage of this is if the recipient were to steal the transaction file they could wait X years and steal any coins you did not move even if you are alive, so you need to move all of your bitcoins at least once every X years, which isn't a big deal IMO and I reckon most people will probably do that naturally.

I have followed an identical strategy. The only difference being the entire seed is there in the safe deposit box.
My wife isn't that tech savvy, so I keep reminding her once in a while of the key in the safe deposit box.  :)

Well it hasn't been much of a problem for fiat because in banks you can just open a joint account and if anything happens to me, my other half can still access the fund. This way, there must be a mutual trust because in this scenario, both parties have the right to access and spend it. For bitcoin, I guess, it's asimilar thing. The private key is also held by my partner, so if something happens to me, she can still have it. Again, it's a question of trust over here.

I was surprised to see a lot of people have thought of a way for this.

Very interesting topic, I've never thought of it this way.

If I'm honest I don't have a contingency plan based on this, perhaps I should investigate!

there was a thread about a guy losing his son, trying to access his son's bitcoins. it's sad :/

never thought about this before, but I am not holding much either. If I hold a good chunk of bitcoins, probably I would give my privkey to my brother.

old runescape minion has the private key for when it happens, he knows what to do them

only my family can have access to them, but they don't know how to use bitcoin

if you have a very trustworthy friend/parent you can just give him your key, and hoping he does not lose it or something like that

I have a how-to document setup for them with some of their passwords I already know.

The amount of bitcoin I own is not worth of having a contingency plan. So right now I am not worried about what happens when I die. If I get a certain point, then I will think of something.

If you print out your keys for your relatives after your death then make sure you use pigment based ink, not water based ink. The pigment based ink lasts 100 years, but the water based ink can fade over the course of a few years.

Got two different systems in place. They are not 100% foolproof but I'm also reducing the probability that these will be needed in a medium time scale by donating Bitcoin here :P :

http://www.sens.org/

(Bitcoin in their frontpage but they are getting very little)

I will be honest a little while ago i got very ill and had this concern so i taught my partner how to use bitcoin and open the wallet transfer to localbitcoin and make a deal, luckily i trust her with everything of me so i don't need to worry about her ripping me off and also i am still here so alls well that ends well.

I think multisignature wallets could be good to set up so out of 3 you/partner/child 2 will work to release the funds. This should be worked on but BitHalo is s very good start for this scenario.

What will happen with your money when you die?

btw, I plan to take my encrypted wallet in the grave, so no one can assess my bits. That way I'll be doing a big favor to bitcoin ecosystem and reducing total available supply.

I think Bitcoins are completely irrelevant to death. If you're about to die....who rlly cares about your BTC

I voted: no

I don't have any system to allow my parents, brothers or sisters to access my bitcoin funds. Maybe I should start to think about this eventuality, also for my future son (as heredity or something like that, maybe for their study).

Um... what if you have a lot of Bitcoin, >$100k, how will your family survive without it?

I just voted yes .

I allow my mother/father to access my bitcoins .
however the best way is that write your bitcoin details on somewhere else . and told them that only opens when i dies .
if you dont tell someone about bitcoins of yours your all bitcoins will be useless forever .

If you die and your coins are protected by strong encryption, or nobody knows about your coins. That means they will be lost forever, and that is actually a good thing. Because lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. So think of it as a donation to everyone - that is something that Satoshi once said...

Right now I am thinking about this... I am having some BTC25 in my possession. But the only person who is knowledgeable in Bitcoin in my family is my cousin, whom I don't trust.

You could give it to your family and also explain how it works so them knowing how it works does  not limit your decisions on who to give it to. But they might not care how it works which is another problem.

Teaching your son is a 'must' at the earliest opportunity, until then you should put a system in place to who you believe to be the most trusted member of your family! There would be nothing worse than about to meet your maker and not have enough time to tell your family how to release the coin and how to use it etc, if that time comes they should already know and the last minutes you get can be spent telling them the important things. Plus once a 'trusted' member of the family knows the deal then that is one less worry. I have my Dad know everything he needs to to gain access to the funds and i trust in my heart he will give it to who it needs to as he does not need the money, but my family does.  I vote yes.

One time we certainly have a family of our own.

Tell and teach them what we are doing and doing, and I think we can cooperate with them after they know and understand.

And if we die, at least they know what they should do with what we have.

Very interesting topic, it really got me thinking. I voted no. I don't have many Bitcoins to start with and I also don't feel there is a need to teach someone how to spend my funds if something happens to me, just yet. I'll most probably teach my family how to spend them...

Better start thinking of ways to make the funds spendable in case of problems...

Teaching your kids is easy.  Give them US$150 worth of bitcoin and point them at the NewEgg site.  Show them how to do it once, that's all they'll need.  :-)

Can someone make a guide to "save" our bitcoin (when we will die) so our relatives can take possess of it and them will not be lost for ever. Thanks for the attention.


PS: we can think this aspect as negative & positive aspect, because your bitcoin is secure but when we will go who will take possess of them?

I have encrypted paper wallets with the password elsewhere. By the time I'm dead they'll either be worthless or everyone'll know how to make use of them. Ideally they'd all be spent in the run up to croaking anyway.

Nice thread. Got me right in to the feels trip (don't ask why). I haven't planned anything yet about where will my bitcoins go in case I died accidentally or naturally, but I think I might as well put it in a paper wallet and laminate it, put it in some secret place that I know, and maybe in my deathbed (or if ever I didn't get the chance to relay the information. accidents) I'll tell a clue that leads to the paper wallet, along with the necessary privkeys as well. The one who knows where the clue would lead him/her is the one who definitely know me as a person, not just some other living being that existed.

If I die suddently then all crypto coin UXTOs are left for oblivion, but if I know I'm dying soon I will convert all cryptos to fiat.
I don't hand out any paper wallets for some reasons.

lol.. I don't trust my wife. In case of a possible divorce, she will steal all my coins. My kid is too young to understand any of this. And my parents are not that tech savy... to use Bitcoins.  ;D

I am storing majority of my Bitcoins in cold storage. My family is aware of Bitcoin and has some idea what it`s and how to use cold storage. I am pretty sure that this is fine. I do not want to keep my property with me  8)

Well most of think the same way, this s not gonna happen to me anytime soon, right.
Your post did start me thinking about this issue, currently I have no system in place do deal with my BTC after I m not around anymore. My family knows about my involvement in BTC but none of them would know how to get my BTC, what are my passwords etc. I ll work on this.