Bitcoin Forum

(hypothetically) When I die I'd like my children to have all my bitcoins. So I was thinking of writing a will to give each of them equal amount but to make it more fun I'd hide the keys from my wallet and make it a quest.

Hmm... but still your question is really good what will happen when we die... You could try to put the quest and when they find it they will be able to take those bitcoins, but still the hardest is to make sure that each will get the equal portion. I mean you can even complicate it like each child gets an priv key from a multi sig and all but fighting over left overs could be hard to avoid, I mean it all depends on how they see the world and money in general.

But it is a good idea to think about it and I think that it should be included in will in some form at least.

Yeah, good idea with the multisig.

Sounds like a beginning of an exciting movie!
But don't make too complicated tasks for the quest. Otherwise, children will have to share bitcoins with your grandchildren  ;)

That is a good question, how will they even find out of my bitcoin since I do not tell anyone my password to my wallets, so will my bitcoin just stay in my wallet without anyone knowing. This might be a good idea to give your bitcoin to your kids or family, but if no one knew the password to your online wallets how would there be anyway to transfer it? Maybe write down the password to your wallet on your will? That would raise a bunch of security issues though, so I guess the solution for this will be difficult.
 
Don’t make the quest too hard though, your kids will be going crazy.
 
This is an amazing idea though, if i died i wouldn’t just want my bitcoin to go to waste. But how would you make sure that the bitcoin be split equally. Maybe having 2 different wallets to give to 2 different inheritors.

I do not have much Bitcoin but I think it is a very sensible to make a will for children and your close relatives or friends. We plan eventually to do this for my Wife's Son and also for my Daughter so they have something to remember us.

A desire which for me is quite confusing and makes me think to do like this

By then (hopefully 50+ years from now :D) if Bitcoin is still a thing, smart contracts would be at large so it would be just a matter of setting up a contract to send exact portions of your coins to already existing addresses (owned by your kids). Writing down a quest for each of them and providing keys to your lawyer would be fun and might also ease the pain, I think it would be a positive move :)

Don't have any kids so this is no problem for me. Après nous le déluge.

It will be fun if they can not unravel the quest ;D

indeed feels like a good movie to begin with. its going to be a feud when all kids are going to be greedy. if btc will be more than a million by the time you die, its going to be a war. i wonder what kind of lawyers will fix all these.

I have no children and ideally will never have any.

If I did I'd have to think long and hard about it. A depressingly large amount of families seem to come apart at the seams when money's up for grabs.

The quest element would add the opportunity for them to slowly murder each other.

Very pressing issue, I do not want to die yet, huh))
But answering the question I can say that bitcoin was a part of my capital, right? I would accordingly include it in the will as my children would have more, but when I die (I hope not soon, hahah) I think everything will be built on the crypto currency, respectively In a few years, this question will not have to be asked since he will not require an answer

I think it's a great idea. If you have time, make it a large game that includes your personal items and multiple quests that they'll be able to spend some time on and get rewards. Make paper wallets with small amounts, like 10% of the money you want to leave them on each and hide them in the places that are special for you and your wife. Like one in a place that you met her, your favourite holiday spot, a place where you took your kids. When you're gone they will go there once more, explore and get a gift from you. Just be prepared to leave them crying for days after something like that, but emotions are good. They show we aren't made only for those boring jobs we're doing.

I would but I am definitely not going to play any funny games with my future kids after I am dead because I don't want to look like a complete jerk  ;D I will include the hardware wallet with my will and give it to the lawyer.

Why don't you just simply make each of your child a wallet and divide your bitcoin and send it to each of their wallet,
seems like it is easier that way instead of putting it in your will just make sure to give them all the information they need to be able to use it.

Like any other asset, our bitcoins should be included in any will. But to be honest I do not see the need to provide them by means of a quest, because it seems to me a ridiculous way of unnecessarily provoking confrontation and jeopardizing both the familiar coexistence and even the appearance of those bitcoins, but each one is free to dispose of his bitcoins as he or she wishes.

I never thought about it seriously because I'm still young and I don't have kids. I think that I will give private keys of my bitcoin to lawyer and after my death, he will give it my childrens, same as all other my property. But I don't like idea to make a quest to make it more fun. I don't it's a best time to play games after your father dies.
Well, that's a point :D But personally, I don't want that after my death, my bitcoins would be lost forever.

LOL.....I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at something so depressing.

But yes, include it in your will. Technically it's money, so  technically it's an asset.

It is a precious relic that we can make a puzzle to our children so they can learn what they should be looking for and it makes our children so curious that if they do not know anything about bitcoin they will know because we have left the treasure We are on bitcoin and all that we have to actually store the keywords somewhere without having to be known to others first and must be sure the person who will find it is just our child.

Yes, that would be easier but I want them to have fun and distract them from my death and also I want them to use their brains if they want my money)

If you're worried about your kids murdering each other over your stored coins, you might as well be sure not to leave them anything or they might do the same over your house, car or anything else that you own.

I'd make a challenge for them, since including it in my will and making it official would probably mean huge taxes.

handing over passwords to lawyers is more concerning.

or you can simply just hand those btc to them while you are still alive, you'd be glad to know how they handle such amount assuming 1 btc is more than $500k. money to a young man means freedom.

I think it will be a good gift for my grandchildren.
Maybe bitcoin will cost millions ;D

If I understand it correctly, the seed for the wallet (like in Electrum) can fully reproduce the wallet.

So if I have 2 kids, I could give each of them half the seed.

Makes it impossible for 1 of them to 'grab all', but together they can reproduce my bitcoins even if they can't access my computer anymore.

Can anyone comment whether this could work or raises potential concerns?

The Treasure Hunt / Quest is a very good idea. I used to draw treasure maps for my kids when they were much younger and they used to search for hours to get to their treasures. It usually consisted of some chocolates, but it was great fun. I think this will be a good reminder for them, if I did the same. Just make sure you give the final solution to someone you trust, just as a backup. < clues might get lost and they might never find your bitcoin stash in the end >

Well Done, this was a very good idea. ^smile^

What I would do instead of having an equal sum is to have sort of puzzles that vary in difficulty. Obviously, the most difficult puzzle will contain the largest prize, and in this case would be bitcoins :P

Your idea is great, you're actually giving me ideas already how to write my will even though i've only in my 20s and have no kids lol.

This seems like a good way to get the most coins to whoever that has the most intelligence out of my future kids in a fair, civilised manner. No one can dispute that the test was unfair because they're given the same clues.

People on this forum have done puzzles regarding brainwallet to prove how secure it is, i think it should be something like this.

I won't be including this to the will, rather I would explain my kids about the importance of bitcoin as well teach them the way it can be used in a good way. As OP stated if the keys were placed as a quest till the end it won't be used by anyone else.

It was brought up by my sister before. She asked me what's going to happen to my bitcoins if I die. I said, nothing. They don't know about bitcoins. If I had the time, I might just make a step by step tutorial on how to withdraw all these funds to become fiat money. My last will will be like a tutorial. That would be so funny. Others' last will goes like, "My house will go to my sister whom I loved a lot." and then my last will will be like "My private keys are in my drawer. To convert it to fiat, step 1. ..." lol ;D

I will not make it a quest. Making it a quest and have some clues/hints to solve the puzzle sure is a fun thing to do. But that gives a tendency for the kids to not find the bitcoins as well. If I die, I want to have the assurance that they will actually use my wealth which I spent a lot of time on.

Talk about going out in style. I wish I had a lot of bitcoins to begin with, but since I only got a few and I am not certain what the value of bitcoin would be many years from now, I would simply stick with the conventional way of passing (whatever) wealth I would have accumulated. Although I would assume that technology would have radically changed by the time I am really old, I would like to minimize the risks as much for my last will and testament.

Hah. Great question.

I'm too young to have a will (and kinda early to have children to be honest), but when I get a bit older (40s?) I'd surely write a will just so if ever an accident happens to me(hopefully not) or if I get like memory problems. and yes, I'd definitely divide it equally between my children.

About the quest:
I'm not sure if I'd like to do this to be honest. I'm not sure if my future children would be willing to do a quest recently after my death. haha. I'd prefer like a year after my death, this can probably be achievable by asking a close friend or relative to do give the quest to my children after a while.

I wouldn't make the quest too hard, but I'd make it short and special like.. have an encrypted text file containing the private key/recovery phrases with a password being like, my 5 favorite places or landmarks on our local city or something. That'll be interesting enough I think.

I don't see any fun in that

Besides, Bitcoin is not like home where you live and have to stay while you are still overground, so if you are seriously looking for fun, you could run the quest before you are going to kick the bucket finally. In this way, you can enjoy the thrill of the game yourself, share the joy of the victory with your children, brighten up your last days somewhat, and maybe alleviate the pain and misery of your last hours

Even before Bitcoin arrived I always had a similar plan for my will. I don't own much at all in terms of property (nil) or money (next to nil) but I do "own" quite a bit of... intellectual property? Knowledge anyway. My simple set-up was that my email would send an automated message to some of my closest friends in the event I didn't log in after more than 30 days (a likelihood that I've died).

I suppose there is an element of fun in sending off people in search of inheritance. Perhaps when I finally own my first 1 BTC:)

So it would be like treasure hunting and the smarter one will inherit your wealth.  Exciting but how about the other family member.  Maybe just give everyone bitcoin.  Let them create their own wallet.  Maybe I will include bitcoins in my last will but not all of it.  I will exchange it to fiat then distribute them equally.

This idea is only good for film scripts. I don't understand why kids create difficulties. It is much easier to separate these bitcoins to different wallets and leave each of the kids in the will. Who will get your coins if quest is not solved. You need to wondering about you. how about the old senile?

A good smart contract and there is no need for a will, lol.  Although it would be a pain to have a scripted TX that checks various places for your death daily. But, you could include a simple task in your will that fires off the entire rest of the payouts.  In that case the whole lot of people in your will are paid with Bitcoin.  Each person is paid as a part of the output. That is easy.

I would do that for sure if I had enough to give away to special family members. At present I don't really hold much that would be worth considering to put in a will, but if I ever make enough Bitcoin, I will surely do that as our Loved Ones need to be taken care of.

This is really a good thinking but here I am thinking quite different from you because it is more better to explain them for the Bitcoin instead of giving them the address of Bitcoin private key , Because if you will teach your children for the Bitcoin that how to deal and how to manage and how to make in wiseful ways then they will be able to use in better ways  of the Bitcoin that you will make before the die .
If you will ask for the private key then I will suggest you for the print out and then put it at safe place and tell your children how to use it to get in online .

The very reason why we save and hold bitcoin for long is for future , for having a comfortable life so why make it hard for them. That's right to teach them ahead of time if they are capable already in understanding things for are savings not to get wasted.

A quest is nice, never thought about it. As they keep growing up, every kid will have a knowledge of something they will never forget and apparently only them knows or I may keep hinting them about things they shold know and never forget. I may just include all those in the quest. At first, maybe let's say I have 2 kids, so I will just open 2 different wallets, fill up the 2 as I want and make sure they are at least familiar with bitcoin so it won't be strange or hard when trying to collect their inheritance. Then I will open 2 different safe in banks if possible and make them the next of kin. I will let them know they can access it only when I'm deceased which the banks would know that too already. Voila! Their first quest starts from there until they are able to find the wallet details that leads to their lovely inheritance.

Gosh! I just finished writing an epistle... ;D but really why will I go through that stress when I can just put the wallet details in a bank safe for them?

Well if ever a have a lot of bitcoin, I would do so, because if ever I won't be able to pass it on to my family if ever I die, all the sleepless night investing and searching for coins would be a waste. 

Like a treasure map where X marks the spot ? Sounds fun. I also have thought about this. I will do it eventually. Small clues and stuff. Have the private key etched into the wall somewhere private. Just make sure whoever the map is meant for will actually find the bitcoins though. Would be really bad if you went to all that trouble just to lose your whole fortune.

For me I will state on my will about my bitcoin wallet and keys and that every child I have has an equal share and it is depend on them on how do they used it, if they cash-out all of those or to continuing it and I won't make it a quest for them.

How old are you right now, mate? If there are still several decades left of your life, we don't know whether bitcoin is still alive at that time. Well, provided it still is, there will be a great actual bounty hunting for your children. I guess it would be much fun. But I think it would also be prudent of you to invest some in actual business. That way, in case bitcoin will perish into thin air when you die, they still have something left.

If you do it this way, then I would suggest that you create paper wallets for each of them. This will reduce conflict, when some of them might say that they should hoard and others saying that they should sell. If they have their own paper wallet, then they can do what they want, without the need to get any other siblings approval. You do not want your Will to be the reason of conflict in your family. ^hmmmmm^

Geez, you're already giving me ideas though i'm still young and dont have kids:P

It would be definitely interesting to do that, instead of just giving lump sum payments to them and making them lazy fatasses. I mean to access the bitcoins they'd have to eearn it with their intelligence. If i have multilpe kids then i guess this is a good way to cut the BS, winner takes all because they're smarter than you.

I'm thinking of some sort of puzzle where one clue leads to another and in the end average people just end up giving up. If they do find it though, then they'll definitely hold in their hands or should i say PC the best global currency that has yet been created by man, and it'll positively impact their future for sure.

I think I will just even it out so everyone gets the same amount of bitcoin.

Depending on how much you manage to get before you pass you could have some kind of system where each month you would have a portion of their bitcoin sent to a wallet which you will have already created for them, either way it is definitely something that we all should give some thought to.

its a great idea I recon!

And its something we all should be considering really
especially if there are a lot of coins in the wallet  ;)

The next question is how would you go about creating a "trail" for your beneficiaries to follow?

Money is no laughing matter so making it a quest sounds fun but if they don't figure it out then you have wasted everyones time and your money would be gone forever. I don't see a problem with including bitcoin in a will though and when I write one I will seriously consider it, I wouldn't even need to keep the private keys anywhere if I left them on an exchange. I'm pretty sure they would have to abide by the rulings of the will anyway.

I will also do the same divide my bitcoin holding fairly and its up to them if they want to use it or hold it. I just hope by that time they already know how to use bitcoin since I am the only one who is using bitcoin as of now in my family though I already informed them about this.

I will also inherited my btcoin to my children, I think bitcoin is a very good investment for future better than fiat, but I wont make it as a quest, I will just write a will and then give it to my lawyer, I afraid they not understand the quest and then cant solve it, and then my bitcoin will be locked forever

It is a creative idea to make the treasures your child is looking for with a puzzle, maybe it will make them understand how difficult it is to make money like looking for treasure, if not try not to get what they try and it becomes useless or futile. But it also has its drawbacks for me if you include a complicated puzzle to find the bitcoin you have save, it will make it harder for them and worse if your child has decided not to look for it or hopelessly will be in vain, Everything you want will be in vain, of course that's not what you want from the beginning of your planning.

I will surely include it in my will since it a part of my wealth and I will not just left it with no one using it since that would be a waste. Also I am a fan of detective stories so I might as well make some codes to make it fun and for them to remember how their father made his children struggle to get their inheritance and understand what Bitcoin is. That would be fun even if I'm in afterlife. Also Bitcoin at that time will surely have a high price!

It depends how you treat Bitcoin and what it is to you. Of course if you treat it as part of your estates you'll definitely list it in your will and perhaps show how one can get access to the private keys.

There is no point into making it a quest, when you die your kids will not want to get fun, they will be sad, there is the possibility they don’t even look for the coins if your quest is too hard, just leave clear instructions about how to retrieve the coins and be done with it.

LMAO. I don't know if I would make it a quest, as you say... but I would definitely put them in my will, including clear instructions on how to use/sell them!

I thought of this also but if you let the beneficiaries know the amount of "treasure"
they could hope to uncover and keep, well then im sure they would figure it out no
matter what and of course its not going to be impossibly difficult after all you want
those bitcoins found!

If I have millions worth of bitcoin in my wallet, then definitely I will include this in my will. But if not then I won't. But if I own like huge amount of bitcoin, I will let my wife learn how to "unlock" and withdraw the funds. I don't want them to go to the hassle of retrieving it when I'm gone. Right now, my wife already knew it but don't know how much bitcoin I have.

Yes I would, why not. Bitcoin could be asset just like everything else and it would be shame to get waisted. I would leave the special instructions in that case but also make sure that it comes to hands of person who realy.knows how to use it and what to do with Bitcoins. Sometimes people leave to others realy stupid things in their will so why wouldn't they leave Bitcoin.

This is quite a unique request and only someone that has an interest in technology can make good of bitcoin and passing it on to your children will not be easy as anybody with knowledge of your private key can spend your money

Create a paper wallet, maby engrave the QR code into steel or something, to make it look better, and then you can handle it like a physical commodity and you can create any kind of quest you disire.

Another option would be a smart contract like etherum has (I heard it should come to BTC to in the future, but not sure about that), or just use etherum  :D

I think it will be great if the children are all not on good terms with each other, the quest for the fortune will heal old wounds and bound them together at the same time.i think it will incorporate that into my will as well and not will it only be for bitcoins, but other things as well.

SO you are actually planning to create a massive chaos among your children. Good luck with that! If they get a simple hint that they can become a millionaire by your bitcoins, they will be driven by their instincts and destroy their fate.

If you want to give them something, do it with grace and smile on your face. Then only your gift will be accepted by the almighty and your children will also be happy. Never try to create a chaos among them, it may ruin their life. Just a bit of advice.

this was the most interesting question i seen in bitcointalk . Really it depends on persons decision and priority for me money just a thing to live my life decently . If i am reaching oldage still keeping bitcoin then i will distribute when i alive . Otherwise i will spend bitcoin to have the wishes in life may be roaming around world or other stuffs.

You will need to find ways to do it or the coins will be lost, and this is something that you cannot trust to anyone else except your heirs because as you said anyone that has the private keys or the seed of your wallet has complete control of your coins that are in there.

How would they find the Bitcoin in the end? This would be very hard because you can't exactly own Bitcoin without the private keys. Do you want to make it some sort of puzzle or something?

They only way that I see this working is splitting the Bitcoin, before you die, to __ (Insert number of children you have here) Bitcoin wallets. From their you could give each child some clues and hints in your will to find the password for each account. This way it is still something like a quest and you can make sure that the funds are split equally.

Maybe you could give each child a  private key from a multi sig... But it will still end up with fighting and quarrels over the amount that each child gets.

But it is a good idea and it has got me thinking too...

Dude just give the bitcoins without rodeo to your kids xD

While the idea of the quest is a bad one, you need to device a way to give those coins to your heirs in your will, you cannot give the coins to them because then they could spend them immediately, and if they're kids, they will very likely squander those coins.

Yes i will do it if i would have some bitcoins in my savings, because i think it is also a part of our wealth as other currencies we have. However hiding the keys to make it a quest is a quite funny idea  ;D.

good idea, because we have to consider the long term for our extended family later

I see it as a futile exercise because since I would have died then I don't get to know who is more intelligent and even get to see the fun part of the quest. Rather, when I am sure I have enough to sustain me in my life time then I can give them the quest in my life time for the rest while I watch them and ensure the rules of the game are kept so they don't get to kill each other and in case no one is able to break it, I can provide them the solution rather than losing the whole coins forever.