Bitcoin Forum

Who owns the bitcoin after someone died?  How to state this in the will? Please share your thoughts.

They need to leave all email passwords, phone numbers, all related Bitcoin wallets. Because if they do not let the family know, then the Bitcoin number will be lost.
Bitcoin is not the same as gold or bank deposit, it does not identify the account owner or the family account holder. It just password and lock, email, phone number ....

If one user keep hold of large volume of bitcoin and if he dies unexpectedly then surely it goes under the lost bitcoin list if none has the private keys to retain and make use of it. So it's better to have a separate record for all such details or need to share the details with the dependents of you.

A question that will be pertinent in the future, if bitcoin skyrockets! I think the only way another person could get the BTC is by knowing the password, 2FA, and all the other intended things that you need in order to see and manage your BTC. Maybe you write them in the will, and for whom you want the coins to go.

If the owner of those bitcoin died and didn't able to give any information about on the information which are needed to access that wallet then those coins are already lost forever and no one would able to access it as long you didn't able to input the right keys for access.Therefore if you do really have the plans on inheriting someone on your bitcoin holdings then you must give them all the information of the wallet.Just put it on a paper or anything that be write up and incase you die they do already have those keys.

Yeah, those are ways to go about it but one don't even need to wait till they are sick before disclosing to someone close. I think this is proper thing to do because death don't give notice.

If you want to make sure that the one who you are willing to take over your bitcoin when you will die than just put your hardware wallet or paper wallet in bank's safe deposit box and write the name of the one who you want to take custody of those bitcoin in bank's agreement form.

Only thing what you can do to avoid such situation is to let your spouse, siblings , parents or friends let any one of them is all aware about your id and password , exchanges and total coins you own it so that they are aware about it and can sell it if they wish after you are done in this world .

After one died with 100 bitcoin at the least, bitcoin price will soar high. It will never changed its projectiles but to increase to as minimum as 10000$. You can always send time deposit at that particular account or hire an attorney for that matter. It can be done by hardwork and trials.

If they keep a paper wallet, then it won't be much of an issue. Also, the person who died can simply put all the information in the will (password, address, keys). It will just get passed down like any other item of inheritance.

i am also curious to what will happen when too if someone dies without handing his private keys and other personal belongings or bitcoin as well to his/her family or beneficiaries. been also curious to what will happen if your family has no knowledge about it? or how are they going to use it, or maybe they aren't interested? but I am sure they would be interested if that someone who died has a large volume of it.

Here is a quote from the official website:


Maybe soon enough some service will appear to help people save their bitcoins from their death. But I'm sure that most of BTC users are too young to die so they just don't think about testament because most of the solutions may lead to lower security of their private keys.

If one dies and doens't leave anything behind the bitcoins would remain in that address for eternity, unless someone ends up finding the private key of someone. Therefore it's very important for people who own large amounts of bitcoin to include their private key (and passphrass) into their will just in case.

If a person didn't provide his wallet details like id, password etc. to his/her family members before he died then no one owns his/her bitcoins because they will remain there in the wallet forever and no one will able to access them without password and private keys. I think bitcoin is an asset as all other assets, so there should be a way to state bitcoin in the will too that after death of a person some closest and trustworthy family members can access his/her wallet details.

If you have provided your emails and passwords to your heir or spouse they can access or otherwise they will end up in the blockchain with your private key forever

When the amount of bitcoins some one is holding is not important, meaning it's less than 1 or 2 bitcoins then these bitcoins will be lost if the user has kept them in a desktop or hardware wallet without sharing the seed, the 12 or 24 words needed to recover a wallet.

If the user is keeping more than 2 bitcoins and up to an indefinite number for his own good he should share the seed with his wife or if is not married with his siblings or parents at least if he fears that some misfortune may happen to him, like an accident for example.

The owner of the coins is the owner of the private keys. If you control them yourself you have to let it somewhere for others to access it. If you have the BTC in some party wallet , you should have the passwords or the pasword recovery available to whoever stays behind.
If not the BTC will remain unaccessible....

This question has already been asked and answered multiple times on this forum. Please do not repeat the same thing over and over.

With that said, just to answer in case you missed the other thread... You need to make sure your family is aware of how to use Bitcoin. Not necessarily now, but in your will. Leave your private key and an explanation of how to use it to retrieve your Bitcoin. Make it as detailed as possible so they do not make any mistakes. Last thing you want is them sending to the wrong address or something. hahaha

If he dies and no one knows about its private key, then all he have done will be wasted because it will be forever gone. So to those who have a lot of bitcoins there, you should let someone know  who you really trust the mostn. about your private key and everything you are concerned about to  so that he will know what to do about if unexpected things happened to you

This ^

This is why it is of utmost importance, even if you have a relatively small amount of Bitcoin today (like 0.5 or lower) to write a will and inform your relatives about it. Not every one obviously, but whomever you plan to give the BTC should you die must know how to upload private keys to access the Bitcoin and you should also teach them how to exchange it for other cryptos and USD.

Someday bitcoins are lost forever and no one would able to access it, i think for sure is, if you have a bitcoin, you need to exchange it emidiatly to be sure, and your money is save it to a bank, then if you have an emergency you have a money saved.

Yes, everyone should have at least someone on their life that they could left the Bitcoin in case of death or in case of an accident that this person can't access his wallet, so he needs someone to do it for him. I think there isn't problem to share the private keys/passwords with someone very trustful, principally if this one is a relative or your parent. That is the only solution possible for this, otherwise the Bitcoins will be lost forever and no one will have the chance to enjoy it.

If the priv keys or wallets were not passed down, it will be lost FOREVER!

Make secured encrypted USB backups and let your loved ones know where it is placed at home + in a safety deposit box in a bank.

This is a valid argument for still needing banks :) 

Well if someone died He/She should secure the security of the wallets and give it to the people or family that he will entrust his coins. He should write down or keep on the USB all the username, password, wallet address, private keys etc. to be able to access by his family or anyone whom he wanted to give the bitcoins.

It will just be in the wallet if the family or relatives don't have access to the wallet and it would just be added to the coins that will be lost forever. If you have a significant amount of coins then it would be better to teach someone in your family how to use it because we never know what the future will be so you better be ready and have a separate record of your wallets and private keys so that in case something happens, they will know how to access your accounts.

You can give a copy of it in your lawyer and then to some trusted family or friend. You better have multiple copies of it because once you have no records of it then it is lost. Unlike when you have money in the bank or other properties then your heir can get it through the process of law but in bitcoin, if you don't have keys then you don't own it.

Then those coins would be freezed for the eternity, if nobody had access to your wallet then nobody is going to be able to open it and spending your bitcoins, so if you die, then your bitcoins are going to follow you anywhere. But i think it would be good if  before someone's die, left the private key to their children, so those bitcoins will be in movement and they would not be quiet in that wallet forever.

Bitcoins will still remain in the wallet if no one has acces into its wallet besides the owner who will be dead,no changes or transaction will happen if the user will be dead and no one will go inside its wallet

If someone will die and has a lot of bitcoin he should atleast saved all the important datas to access all his wallets for safe keeping and entrust it to his hairs kids, brother and sister or any person whom he wanted to leave all his assets. If he died and he did not secure and entrust all the necessary details the bitcoin cannot be used by the people whom he wanted to give it. So better yet keep all the security and entrust to the people whom you think will be your successor.

The same as bitcoin, death cant be predicted, what if a rich wallet owner just died unexpectedly? So it would just be lost in his wallet. And leave to his predecessors how to hack the wallet. It is just not easy to divulge where we put all our passkeys to just anyone. Because from what i see, btc assets can't just easily be tracked because of many codes and any verification in any wallet especially in a private wallet. Because for me i tend to have many wallets and not just store it on one wallet because of some risks.

as long as there are no other people know the private keys then the bitcoin will still in the wallet. unless before he died, he tells someone or his family that he own bitcoin and tells the keys, then that person can have access to use the bitcoin from him. the bitcoin will not be use and can not be move because we don't have anything, we can only see the amount in the wallet.

The bitcoin would remain in the wallet forever. If no one know the private key no one could get their hands on that bitcoin and that would be lost forever.

The bitcoins will be lost if the private keys are irretrievable. Since privatekeys is next to impossible (by today's standards) to be generated, then there is no way anyone can ever retrieve those bitcoins in the wallet.

If it would be in a will then the best thing to do is print the private key or the mnemonics on a document separate from the will. Place it in a security deposit box and probably that would be placed in the will.

This is interesting topic. One has to leave copies of private keys and educate the person on how to transfer Bitcoin. Otherwise what good the keys serve if person is unable to make sense of them.

If one passes away unexpectedly then that BTC is lost forever. So we can say that as amount BTC decreases due to lost keys and demand being same, the price of BTC will increase.

The f with this question? Lol.
Obviously it will be gone forever. Unless someone stumbles on the diseased owner’s things amd find some private keys in one storage. Or if one of his family and friends find it. Because crypto currencies have no banks. You are your own bank when it comes to crypto currencies. So better get a lawyer to know where you hold your possesions to make sure your family gets what you have when you die.

If one wants to transfer ownership of his/her bitcoin to someone when he/she dies, just simply open a vault in the bank. Then put the private keys in the bank's vault in form of paper or anything where private key can be inscribed. After that make a last will stating that the owner of the vault would like to pass the things inside his vault to a certain person. That way, it will go to the one whom he/she wanted to pass the btc on to when it's original holder dies.

This scenario you painted is already happening. People are dying intestate and some are likely holding one cryptocurrency or the other. This is the obvious reason the 21million estimated total Bitcoin supply can never actually be in circulation. Many are already lost as at the moment. And yes it is good to leave vital information to a next of kin of wallet IDs, password and any stuff that can ensure smooth transfer once owner dies.

I have thought about this for a very long time and I decided to do it old school, leave a will or a note and place it somewhere wherein the only person that will only be able to access it is my direct descendant like my kid and will be able to get the note after they reach a certain age. Wrote all the necessary and important information so no one will be able to access it.

Access bitcoin does not require any additional information if known code. If you have a large amount of coins that you can't be sure of anybody. Known cases when inheritance is a war between relatives. May be it makes sense to rent a banking cell? The Bank will admit to it only those whom you designate in the will.

Life is too short  and we are all going to die.  As long as you are still alive just make sure to find your trusted beneficiary. The main risk in this plan is human error. The Bitcoins can only be pass on to the beneficiary if all the wallet pieces come together. If even one person loses theirs, not of them will be able to collect the Bitcoin.

When one dies, all his property goes to his next of kin but if he had kept some in the bank unknown or some underground unknown to his people then its wasted for life for the ones in banks outside the reach of his family, its either forfeited to government or some unscrupulous bankers who have gotten the wind that the individual is dead.

The same thing in bitcoin but here what happens is only if someone can hack your wallet, before they can have access to it, otherwise its lost forever and there is nothing anyone can do about. Death will come one way or the other but only a few people are  notified of impending deaths. That actually sends us a message and for me, I have a diary where I kept all that relates to my password and pins.

While for bitcoin, I have tried to show a family member the way its being done.

The bitcoins will be forever trapped in the address it is stored in. This is one of the inherent problems with bitcoins and such will be hard to remedy. If you want to give your bitcoins to your loved ones when you die, then it is possible to do it through a will. You have to safely transfer the private key to them through some way that won't expose those sensitive information to anyone else but your loved ones.

You Own It

Bitcoin gives you the security that only you can open your address with your private keys and no one else, even in case of emergency when your family needs the money in your absence. They simply can't access it because your everyone knows that one should keep there personal keys as safe as they can.
So life and death being uncertain in life you should always write down the keys somewhere and told your closed and loyal one, so in the case of emergency your hard earned can be used by someone you care.

It is really a funny question that what would happen to the bitcoins if someone dies. I think the answer is quite simple that if he has not shared his pass keys and his wallet amounts with any close relative or a friend then they all would go useless.

The security regarding digital wallets could not be questions in such a scenario and the end result would be hacking by some professional and everything would get disappeared at sometime.

No one if he didn't pass the private keys or his accounts username and password on web wallets if he is storing it there. What will do you mean? Is that the last will? Just state the information needed, importing of private keys write every single detail on a piece of paper or put that in a flash drive. And if he didn't pass it on those coins will be forgotten forever and no one will ever recover that.

If he/she died and no one in the family know about bitcoin or don't understand about it, then his bitcoin is lying there in his wallet forever, considered as lost bitcoin until someone find his private key and use it which is unlikely. Teaching family member about bitcoin is a good way to avoid this, then leave your private key in deposit box or something so they can use it after you died.

If someone die who own a large amount of bitcoin ithink the btc is useless  even you rent some hackers to brute force the wallet you cannot open it beacuse every wallet has a privet key to secure or to control the wallet only the owner can manage it .and also maybe the family also knows about it maybe the owner left the private key to their family but they doesn't now how to use it. Cuase even me if i know that i own large amount of money then next days i will be die. I will give my money to my family or the private key .also message how to withdraw all the money inside the wallet. Cuase it will be useless if no one knows about it.  

If the person will share his bitcoins or just the private keys to the person who can he trust then the bitcoins will continue to live and they will still be in the circulation where the person will sell bitcoin and use the fiat money for his wants and other things that he want to buy like personal needs and so on. It is best to share or tell people that you can trust the instructions on what are the things to do on bitcoin if we died.

I'm not sure who owns bitcoin if someone died. Maybe one of their family member or relatives. It is still heritage for someone who owns their bitcoin. Or maybe if I die, I would teach my son on how to do bitcoin for their future. It is better to learn early than late.

Exactly you are not able to get your bitcoins with you once you died. So as you said, yes there should be one person who is trustable and you can share your personal security ids and passwords with him/her so that when you are passed away those bitcoins couldn’t be worthless. That wouldn’t be replacement of died person but somehow can be satisfactory assets for the family.

If the owner of the bitcoins leaves behind his email, password and phone number and other login and verification details then his family member or any other person can use the bitcoins of the deceased person.

That is a very interesting question that I already ask myself and others, it seems that the bitcoins of the holder that already died will be considered a stagnant bitcoin if he doesn't reserve any form of identification for his/her family and friends to retrieve it especially to those people that died in accidents.
If a Bitcoin owner dies without passing on the private key then there is no one will never gain access to the wealth inside of that specific wallet again.

I hope someday that there is a technology that you can lock it up with yourself when you are alive and you can tell or write your last will testament that will only be enable when you die.

so i really conclude that you also need to leave something behind or just put it on a safe so that in case some accident might occur, or whatever it is, there are beneficiaries like your family or friends. i am also looking forward to somekind of technology that could possibly help this kind of situation, as i have been asking it myself though what to do.

Your bitcoin will be lost forever and that is why it is very important to share your bitcoin information to a very trusted person(s) like your parent if you are still young and your wife if you are already married. Even if no one died but was in emergency situations like involving an accident in which you need a huge amount to save your life, your trusted person(s) will do the transaction in your behalf to easily withdraw your bitcoin and use it for your own good.

If you know to yourself that you are going to die of course I think you need to tell your Password, Private key or seed word if there is. It is something like you are inheriting your possessions to your love ones before you die in this world.

Exactly. Your all bitcoins and all savings would be worthless if that can’t be used for anyone after you death. So as you said, you must take care of those are loyal to you and your much beloved, your family. What would be profitable if your own family can’t use your earnings after you are no more? So better is to make someone noticed about your passwords and keys.

I have seen an announcement in the alternative cryptocurrencies section that there is an ICO that is pushing hard to promote their project wherein when a bitcoin user dies, there will be the one who inherits the bitcoins he have, though I can't remember what is the name of that ICO.

You don't need to share your private key(s) with them before you die, though. It sounds like that is what you are implying. In reality, you could leave them in a deposit box in your will, and give your inheritor the key including instructions on how to access the wallet, and retrieve the Bitcoin. It should not be too difficult for them so long as you give thorough instruction.

The person must have the key to open his wallet before he dies,that's what his son or the will holder should look for.it's like a mystery movie that must be solved.

If someone owns bitcoin died he/she must state in his /her will every information needed to open btc account..and leave it to his/her lawyer as persons  life seems so unpredictable..

This is a brilliant question since BTC is anonymous and confidential in forms only you who own the account wallet knows the passwords this is not like some other investment that you can assign somebody as dependents that can claim legally your asset in case you pass away since BTC is decentralized system there is no law concerning on this matter.in order that you can hand down your asset to your family or love one’s it is just mutual trust to the person or persons whom you believed you can rely on to leave all information regarding password, account name, and other necessary information.

I think he needs someone which could explain it better and teach those who will inherit it in case he will die or either way he can create a video with him explaining it step by step while the Attorney has the will as how will they distribute the inheritance.

Bitcoin is not owned by anyone. The number of bitcoin belonging to a specific address is accessible only to the person who possess the private key or seed words. If the owner of such a private key dies without having kept and backup for their successors to access it then the coins are lost forever in the blockchain and are not retrievable. Thus one should keep a backup with proper instructions for their successors to use their bitcoins after their death -
 Otherwise they are lost.

Indeed, that is what we need to do in order to make sure that everything will be going okay even we are in the end at of our life and need to leave the world. Bitcoin is a very complicated thing for a person who is not educated about it so it is better to make back ups and put some instructions on it so if something goes wrong then they can still use it.

interesting, so at some point no more BTC will be mined and a lot will start to go out of use
so the rate should increase and after some time the amount of currency may decrease so much (stay at unused wallets) that it will become unusable ...

I understand those people who care about their savings in bitcoins in case of a sudden death. But why leave bitcoins in legacy? If your heirs do not recognize bitcoins, then it won't do them any good. If the heirs know what is bitcoins and how to use them it is more convenient to give them in managing their accounts in advance.

Another way would be to store the bitcoins in hardware wallet and keys required to open it should be stored in the vault or locker. I mean both the hardware wallet and keys should be stored there. And keys to access that particular vault should be granted to the person you wanted to. This way no one will know what is inside the locker is. and desired person only gets to know what is left for him or her. One needs to make sure that detailed instructions should be written on piece of paper or in any other form available for intended person to retrieve those coins when needed.
When secret is shared with more than one person, it no longer remains a secret. Thus above mentioned way is more useful.

Those bitcoins are good as gone if no one knew the private keys to his/her wallet. To avoid such incidents where the owner suddenly dies, it would be wise to have a cold storage and somehow instruct someone to open it only in the right time.

If the owner dont leave the password or private key, then the bitcoin will stuck forever and can be consider gone because the account dont have any reset password feature
And it can be included in the will if that person want to give it to someone, give the password or private key to the person that you trusted and give the wallet id to the person that you want to give

Bitcoin is very secured platform for every users, so that if you don't have the password then how can you withdraw your Bitcoin. so that if some one passes away without giving her or his password then those amount of Bitcoin will not be explored. so it will be worthless and stuck.

I think you should just have to save your wallet's password or the offline wallets that you are using to hold your bitcoin,
And give it to someone you want to use it or the person you want to have it.

This is main reason why I remember my bitcoin wallet password on my laptop always,also email password.If I diea somebody will be easy able to cashout my bitcoin or wait until it grow more.I have really good antivirus,I know how to not be hacked and I am not scared.

The truth is, once all the private informations were not revealed and cannot be retrieved, the bitcoin stored will be out of the flow. It will be considered as burned bitcoin. Bitcoins which are out of the flow is one factor which causes  the bitcoin value do increase. Every year, there were large volume of bitcoin recorded that was out of the flow. For you to be able to secure and keep your bitcoin from being wasted, try to keep the private information to another storage which close related someone can access it in a specific time. Loss bitcoin is really advantage for other users, thus for you to keep it away from losing forever, make a wise storage of all the most important information about your bitcoin.

It may have an advantage but it also has disadvantages if you keep the information of your bitcoin in your family because they cannot access your account when you die. So, if that's the case, it's better to tell your family ahead of time that you had a bitcoin account and you will going to reveal it through the papers that you will put in a secret place that only your trusted child or let's just say members of the family would be able to access and will have it in the future.

Unfortunately, they are lost forever. Most people write their seeds or private keys on pieces of paper though, so some might be retrievable. I wish there was a way to recover coins that have been out of circulation, but such a backdoor would surely have consequences on security. It's also worth noting that, the lower the supply, the more value Bitcoin could potentially have.

This is a vey interesting topic. I don't have the actual answer for this but i am curious of what will really happen when a bitcoin owner died. In my opinion, the bitcoin of the died person can still be continued by someone who knows his or her access on bitcoin. I have this opinion since personally i have someone who knows my access of account in bitcoin. However if the case is not like mine then i think his/her account and money would still be on his wallet and maybe the admin of this website has somebody monitorung each accounts and one thr account has been inactive for certain period of time they would just purge the account and have the money as their profit.

If you have a huge BTC amount, and you didnt share the private keys and password to your loveones, and you died unexpectedly.. That BTC is lost forever. Mch better talk to your lawyer and family about your lastwill.

I think the person who will die will give all of his/her accounts and wallets to the person he wants to manage it. In that way, even the person already died, his/her account will still be working but the bitcoin and money that will be earn, will be given to the person who manages it. It is either his/her family, relatives, or close friends.

If you will not share your ideas and the secrets of your bitcoin to your loved ones then it will be hard for you to be comfortable that if you will die then your loved ones will get the bitcoins. It is better to assess to a lawyer and ask for some agreement that if you will die then he will give the instructions that you made for them in order to get the bitcoins.

My family knows about my investments and they know I have "bitcoins in my computer"

A few months ago I burned a dvd with my wallet.dat and a txt file with very detailed instructions. Including all my online wallets and exchange accounts login details. With that they will be able to access all my coins and sell them for local currency. Or that's what I hope. If they don't understand my very detailed instructions, then they don't deserve my bitcoins LOL

I love that security and safe mode of bitcoins. Even after your death if you don’t pass your private keys and passwords to anyone loyal around you, they all will be just a wastage. Better it would be and always be advised to have a copy of passwords and keys and let them know to anyone who is among top of your beneficiaries, else all your hard work will just ruined.

Nothing will happen to the coins and they will remain in the wallet till the end of world because security system are well designed so that no one can use your coin without permission or without giving resources to anyone, and if someone is not living but owe the coins that coins will remain his, and best solution to it is sharing key with trustworthy person so that your loved one can use them in time of need.

I hope to know the legality of this because it is our investment we’re talking about and our family as beneficiaries. And me I don’t have the idea of such especially our authorities and government hasn’t yet passed a bill or even bother to studies such implementation to our country.

The only assurances that this bitcoin your holding won’t go to waste if your dead is teach your wife or your children’s about how to operate wallet to withdrawn such on the time they are on themselves alone.

If the person knows that he will die someday, if he want to give the bitcoin, he will give the passcode and private key of the wallet to the one he trust to give and if not, the coin will be gone.

of course someone died without take all infomation of bitcoin wallet for a other someone then all bitcoin on wallet will be lost

You need a detailed will along with probably a video will. This along will detailed instructions written down should give access to all your accounts. But I believe this will be the last thing on peoples mind if somebody who is

in crypto passes. It will be unfortunate but some bitcoins due to this and forgetting passwords along the way will happen. I wonder if we will ever get the true supply amount seeing how it will never be 21 million fully.

No one, no individual, no even billionaires owns bitcoin the only thing that can cause bitcoin to die is when people stop using it. This is the beauty of this currency is the fact that no one own's it or controls it unlike the centralized fiat currency that is regulated and controlled by bankers who exploit people by there debt based system. That's why many people love and embrace bitcoin because of it's decentralized nature, send coins globally, low fees, quick confirmation time and secured.

Hmm... Good question. It is best to coldly store your bitcoins. If this is done, you can mention it in a will and it will be given to anyone or anything you designate.

Maybe in the future when bitcoin gets to be as accepted and as stable as our fiat money today, maybe they will be able to do something like a benefactors or something like a transfer of bitcoin to the closest relative. But now, what will happen if the owner of the wallet died, there is nothing but loss. Those bitcoin and any other coins will be lost, unless he shared his accounts information with his family.

Maybe you mean ICO DigiPulse. Token sale is taking place at moment. You can see in this topic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2203117.0) or on official website DigiPulse (https://www.digipulse.io?r=389)

Everyone dies and we are not aware when it will happen, “knows that he will die” is confusing to understand. So we must give those information ahead of time but be conscious to the one you’ve trust and it is important that someone is worthy enough for it.

Soon as the bitcoin be legalized on each country this options and process will be available, so better to be prepared.

I think that you need to take care of yourself so that relatives know access to your coins and after death they could use them. Perhaps in the future will improve the transfer of crypto-currency by inheritance.

If he gives complete information to the family members of course bitcoin will be safe and will not be lost, but if he does not tell anyone then bitcoin will be lost so we must provide information about our account to people we trust.

Those bitcoins would be lost if the bitcoin holder would die and didnt even tend to pass up those keys regarding on accessing to the wallet.State this on will and entrusting to your lawyer is somehow a risky thing because you wont even know if that lawyer would tend to get those coins.

Well that’s an issue these days, bitcoin provides you high level of security and complete control over your money but in case you forget your password, there is no way of recovering it. You cannot claim those bitcoin as yours. For the solution of this problem, it is highly recommended to share your passwords or key at least with someone who is damn close to you or mention them in your diaries etc.

The coins will be lost forever unless someone finds the private keys for the wallet. A better idea is to go to Digipulse and use their inheritance service so the coins will be passed on to the selected next of kin. More info here: https://www.digipulse.io/ (https://www.digipulse.io/)

Ordinarily, when one dies, their next of kin takes over their accounts. Just like in a conventional setting. Any Bitcoin enthusiast and account holder should clearly state in their will how they intend to have their Bitcoin earnings shared. The first thing to do is to reveal to your will administrator your account details and instructions on how the Bitcoin could be shared or who should rightfully inherit it.

A person can share their secrets with her wife/ Husband or with their children who are next owner of his assets, i think he should write all the information about bitcoin in a proper way so that after his death his family member can easily access to his bitcoin wallet, but he has done so then he need to take good care his important document while is alive.

Far as i know after that someone who was holding bitcoin dies, all his bitcoins will remain in his wallet forever, and there is no way to take them out of there without the password or the private key, or whatever he was using to unlock it, it is impossible to recover it.
So this is what i know, i dont know if it is true or not.

With the technology we have now, this is pretty much it. It doesnt transfer to your legal representatives like your property and bank account, or even your email addresses in some cases would. So, its always better to share at least a bit of information with someone you trust with your money.

We all know that bitcoin is a cryptocurrency the one who own and keeping it needs a lot of things like encrypted signature, password and other thing for the digital transaction and at a time that the holder die maybe its bitcoin will be hide forever .

I think nothing because bitcoin wallet is like a bank account. After the death of one person, anyone from his family can use his bitcoin. And the things will go on smoothly. The death of one person should not affect the trade of invest in bitcoin because it is a coin business and after the death of bread winner his son or daughter can continue this business without any hesitation and hurdles.

One must share his private key with the trustworthy person around him so any of unfortunate happens the coins may come into use of his remaining family, adopting this techniques wallets signup must ask for the backup trustworthy person so that coin cannot be lost at any cost through these phenomena coin will stay in the hands of the loved ones of died person.

I hope it is not wrong to post it here, since the topic has the same question, we had before having an idea of launching an ICO for Digital inheritance.
Since it seems that a lot of people from this topic are interested in such a thing, I hope you also would be interested in our ICO digipulse.io (http://digipulse.io).
also we are having a discussion of it https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2203117.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2203117.0)

Yes that post is also related to this one but this is the valid one that if one died then his coin will stay in his wallet and they will be protected and if private key is not shared to anyone then there will be no one in the world who can access them and death is the fortunate thing one must share his private key with some trustworthy person so that after him his loved one can use these coins.

No one can claim it as long as they hold the private keys for the wallet if that's there in your wallet.

That's a repetitive shit everyone knows.

How about putting the private keys and username and password in shared folder to the one we trust. This would work the same way as joint account in banks where both the holders can get money on their will.

With such mutual understanding and claims that could go easy.

From the point of view of the law is not clear. But if after death you just want to send bitcoin to their relatives, let them in the will as its private keys from a wallet.

Tragic is some kind of topic, why they are to you after death, put in a coffin with you, who besides you need money on purses, well, if you do not declassify the passwords in the will, of course.

there isn't any protocol that defines what happens to BTC after someone passes aways. To start with, how would a "wallet" know if someone is dead or alive, it's agnostic, it doesn't care. There are some services I saw recently though that try to provide access to funds, in case of a decesased person, but I haven't looked much into it. As the industry matures we might see some services that can automate inheritance, but generally, if you're the only one with the private key/access to your wallet and die, your BTC will stay there forever, unaccessible by anyone.

the bitcoins that are left by the dead ones will be useless. our wallets are not like bank that can hold it for too long even after long inactivity.unless you left a note containing your private keys, emails, and phone number.

If someone who own a bitcoin and has died then it cannot be justify by the law by whom it heirs, because it is an electronics money encrypted with security so therefore it cannot be use unless the decease has written down all the dedicated password of the account, encrypted key of all the wallet, bitcoin address use and other requirement like the E.mail address.

if one day, bitcoin will dead, i will continue my surf with WAVES :) but if we need to wait to death of btc, probably it take some time.

Bitcoins also die with you if you don't share your private key, password etc with someone. You should talk with her/him and explain what is bitcoin and altcoins. And than all efforts that you gave will continue with lucky person after you. Maybe your child or your friend will be untroubled.

no one knows, unless the owner give it to his or her son or daughter for him or her to be able to manage the company of bitcoin to continue the profit of bitcoin. If he or she can't give the important details that is needed i think the coins lost it forever unless they will know what is the password of it or the key of it.

If the runner of bitcoin investment dies then it will create problems not for bitcoin but for his family because investment in bitcoin needs knowledge and skills and may his siblings don’t have the idea how to continue and it will be worse thing for them. The bitcoin investment can be disturbed due to their interest. If it happens all over the world I am sure that the market cap will fell down so much.

The moment wealth is being transferred from one generation to another, so also I believe bitcoin can also be transferred all that is needed is to give the beneficiary the password and how to go about having access to it. After that whatever the beneficiary decided to do with it is no longer the owners problem after all he has gone. While some generation have been able to pass their wealth from one generation to another, others have been unfortunate to end it in their own era.

That is how important is the details or instructions for managing the bitcoin wallet accounts because if someone died then they can get the manual or the instruction about bitcoin and they can use it to get the bitcoin that is for them and they can either keep it for a longer time or they can just sell it for them to have money to build their own business or to use it on whatever they want.

Unfortunately my country still not legalize bitcoin yet so it's less popular in my country.
So it's difficult to find people who interest on bitcoin so I'm also difficult to find people to explain about bitcoin. It's not impossible but it's need some time

It is an interesting question for me, simply that someone who owns a Bitcoin number died if they leave e-wallet information like the account and password that will be used by relatives or who inherited BTC. And if they died suddenly, the number of Bitcoins that will last forever and not be used, is attributed to the type of speculation, lol.

If the owner states the private key or either wallet password then it can be passed on to the recipients in his will, if not then there is no way to move those coins, only you can watch and dream about them.

The bitcoin will hide if no one will know that person e-mail address and password, so i think we should keep our e-mail address in a note ,just in case we are in emergency our family will own our bitcoin .

Initially speaking, you have to share some informations about what you are currently doing in your life with your family, you have to be open to them, as for example bitcoins, still there is no use if they have your priv keys or personal informations if they doesn't even know bitcoin that well, you have to teach them slowly and introduce to crypto, and then let alone have your informations stored for them to access easily, not only you but also them if they got interested.

for a person who has bitcoin and the person dies then the money or the bitcoin asset will be lost and burned if it does not have a clear identity, therefore the market usually ask for more specific data self to solve such problems, so bitcoin can be melted in can be withdrawn.

It is interesting for sure but it is the different question that the money through the bitcoin is the main thing and the profit of the bitcoin is higher than the other currencies, it is not possible to make the bitcoin dead because it is the main source to make the income for a lot of the people, so it is quite impossible now, the power of the bitcoin is increasing day by day and now almost all the people are investing in the bitcoin.

well the bitcoin was held by the deceased will be lost no one knew about it and whoever knows the password of deceased wallet wallet or web wallet will be a new owner if the deceased has no will prepared before he died and if the is a will whoever the person stated in the will selected by the deceased will be the owner of his/her wallet

Different people have different thinking about these situations. May some people withdraw their investment due to non-runner and many can continue their investment in bitcoin if they have any knowledge and skills how to get earnings from this investment.

And is some one has the ability to join this forum and can make money from signature campaign then he will never quit because it is the source of earnings.

For now I think, if you died and you got loys of bitcoin or altacoins in your wallet, I guess its gonna be lost forever, until someone finds a way to retrieve those lost coins. One way of preventing that to actually happen is sharing your account information with someone you trust, like, a family member, this way even if something happens to you, your coins will safe and wouldn't be lost.

I personally always keep passwords, private key and connect with bitcoin in a flash disk, and my wife knows it, I've been doing this for a long time if there's important data I save right away, to prevent unnecessary things.

Bitcoin will not disappear of course and still stored well in the wallet address because it has a password and other private key that can be stored on a computer or a note in the mobile. And it certainly could be that someone who died has already told to his/her nearest person or family about the bitcoin wallet address he/she owns or already tells all the files containing the account, password, email, private keys, on his/her computer or mobile. so of course the ownership of bitcoin will move on to his/her nearest person or family who can continue the activity with bitcoin owned by that dead people.

If someone didn't leave his keys to someone else then that would belong to the bitcoin that cannot be accessed forever. If you have a hefty amount then surely you wouldn't want to just be lost forever so you can start having some legal set up or you can have a trusted family member or friend to know your account so that they can still make use of your wealth when you die. We don't know the future so it's better to always be prepared.

If you die, you share your private key to someone who will get your bitcoin number because of the high security of bitcoin. Only those who hold the private key will be the owner of the bitcoin value in your wallet. Its legitimacy in the world is not so unknown in your own country can put it into the will or not

One should share his private key of wallet with someone trustworthy so that if he will be no more than that trustworthy person can access the coin to use them in time of need and this will be a really good approach so that you loved ones cannot get into any trouble of finance after user death and there must be a primary email at the signup so that one can use coins and this will give them benefit as in past,

It is like as someone finds treausre, he digs the land and buries it in there then he passes away. There are two possibilities in which it is impossible to discover that treasure. First in which no one other than him knows about the treasure and second, people know but don't have any idea about the area where treausre lies. That treasure is BTC. The only way to get the waelth of a dead bitcin holder is to know all the information required for it.

Best thing you have done dude. There must be one person in your life to whom you can blindly trust. And make sure that comes from your blood relatives or our wife. Keep your passwords and private keys up to you but these loyal person must know it too. Because you don’t know what will be going to happen the very next moment, better is to tell them so that they can get usage of it.

The bitcoin will be stored in the wallet after one died.Because it has a password and other private key that can be stored on a computer or a note in the mobile. And it certainly could be that someone who died has already told to his/her nearest person or family about the bitcoin wallet he/she owns or already tells all the files containing the account, password, email, private keys, on his/her computer or mobile.

Yeah that’s the right way to transfer coins to the family of the passed person and there must be a form at the start signup of the wallet that to the trust worthy information and one must have to share private key with him so that after him in time of need there will be no difficulty for the money and if this system will be implemented then every coin will be safe and they will definitely delivered to their owners lefts.

I think in real it can be possible to have a form and through a proper way you can transfer your assets to your dear or your children and other family member, but I think case of bitcoin or any other  currency the option option you have to share your private key to your family, we usually do share our secret information with our wife our children and in fact they are the real insister of  your assets. so through this way we can transfer our bitcoin to the right person.

I don’t think so that someone is going to lose his bitcoins after his death. You can tell about your wallet and all the necessary information related to the bitcoin to someone in your family whom you trust. There is no way that you can lose your bitcoins.

Your bitcoins will remain in your wallet and anyone whom you have made your next of kin will be able to get those bitcoins after your death.

Bitcoin is just like other currencies like dollar. The only difference is this that bitcoin is the digital currency and it cannot be touched. In case the owner of bitcoins died, nothing will happen to the bitcoins. Bitcoins will remain in his wallet just like money remains in your account after you die. Any of your close relative will claim those bitcoins and he will get those bitcoins. There is no need to worry about.

i think if the person who died shared the bitcoin to his love ones bitcoin will not be waste it can be very helpful. the family of the bitcoin user will be the owner of the bitcoin for sure because it is a waste when the bitcoin buried.

The bitcoin will remain to its wallet unless the owner gives all of his passwords and accounts to someone or to his/her family and relatives. It is better if someone who are going to die will give his password and accounts to his family so that they will have money for them to sustain their daily needs even if youre gone. Also in that way, they can learn how to earn and use bitcoin. They can have the capability to earn their own money through bitcoin and that will be your last help to them before you die.

To anticipate those possibilities. It is best that the user should notify everything related to Bitcoin secrets such as Account, email, password, phone number to the nearest person such as wife, child or relative. so Bitcoin and its investments are not lost and some continue.

Anyone who get involved in this business will probably keep a hard and soft copy of every information related to bitcoin adresses..and be kept by those trusted person.Bitcoin will never loss to its wallet unless it is being hacked by hackers.Lets be practical because anything would happen with just a blink of an eye so it is better to tell our loveones about crypto because in the first place we are doing this for our families sake for them to have a brighter future. 

I agree. That's your best option. Of course you should entrust it to a trustworthy person whom you really trust. You can also just put your accounts into one spreadsheet and just put a password in it or on a piece of paper and put it in a vault or something. Then before you die, just tell them the password or the code so that they can access all your private keys, account etc. Because when you die, all of your bitcoins will be homeless. No one will own it. No one will know how to access it. It's like the Schrödinger's cat, your bitcoin is there but at the same time it is not there as it is lost forever.

  I think He/she should back up her/his file and one his/her member of family that know a little bit about bitcoin must know it so if ever there will be happen he/she will know where it and how to withdraw it... i think thats the best way

In Norway bitcoin is classified as a financial asset, so whoever gets your inheritance gets that as well. If no one knows about your bitcoin I guess no one will get it, which could be bad in the long run. However this should cause the other coins to appreciate in value, so it's no biggie. In Norway there are strict rules about inheritance, and those rules + a will should decide who gets the bitcoins.

You can always write down in the will the data's to access your bitcoin wallet, or you can delegate this job to a lawyer to distribute certain amounts of bitcoin in thew wallets of the inheritors.

I think no one will own it unless someone knows how to acces his account but when it comes to that no one know if hes using bitcoin ir not there are facts that wee need to accept if you want to give some information to your family or love ines about your account and bitcoin then much more better if they had idea on what you were doing in the internet it self so you will be save atleast from financial problem you can help them as well.

This is something that we must anticipate and prepare for so that in the case of our demise we will make sure that in our demise, our bitcoins will not get lost for all eternity but rather we can bequeath our wallet to those we want them to have.

So you're talking about the beneficiaries. Well it is somehow a disadvantage for a decentralized currency. Because no one is handling this kind of currency, then all your earnings will be lost.

Now there are ways that can assure you that even if the user died all your earnings will be in good hands. I'm not saying that you will die soon but, this is just an assurance, so that it will not go to waste. And that is by letting those person that you trust know about how you earn money and how can they also earn it the same as you did. Also make copies of your account related information (in details), so that they can still use it even if you're gone.

The bitcoin of the owner will remain in his/her wallet after he/sge died unless they tell their accounts and password to someone they know or to their family and relatives. It is better for the person to tell to his/her family to manage the bitcoin that will be left from them. In that way, he/she can still support his/her family through their financial needs even though they are already gone. Also, the family members will have the knowledge about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and earn or use it on their own.

For me, if i have a child, i teach my child what about bitcoin and i give it my account when my child become a good earner in bitcoin, amd if i die, my child will get all my Bitcoins and all my accounts.

I guess if someone died all his bitcoins and alt coins are still in his wallet but it will be unable to be used unless there is someone in your family who knows your email or wallet.This one is really avoidable but we do not know when we are going to die. I suggest introducing them to bitcoin and all of them make their own account and earn money on their own, then they can be trusted to know account and your wallet so if something bad happens to you, they can use the bitcoins in your wallet.

What will happen with bitcoin after death, know that bitcoin will continue to run even if there are members who have died, in btc no change even if there is someone who has started studying in btc membership forum. Other people will never know even if someone has died, they just learn about their future in the future, and how to add btc balance.

They just focus on their existing tasks and continue the struggle that has been done. So still btc will run well even though there is news of someone who abandoned btc activity ever started.

As for me .I think once all the private informations were not revealed and cannot be retrieved, the bitcoin stored will be out of the flow. It will be considered as burned bitcoin. Bitcoins which are out of the flow is one factor which causes  the bitcoin value do increase. Every year, there were large or big volume of bitcoin recorded that was out of the flow. For you to be able to secure and keep your bitcoin from being wasted, try to keep the private information to another storage which close related someone can access it in a specific time ..

There will have to be some mechanism of estate planning involved to make sure the wealth stored in crypto is accessible to heirs. It's the same thing with cash, if you hide cash somewhere any nobody knows where it is when you die, there's no way to recover it and it's just lost. Crypto owners who intend for their heirs to have access to whatever crypto wealth they own upon their death will need to plan ahead to ensure it's accessible, because it won't be otherwise.

They don't need to state the will because when you have bitcoin you have also your wallet. And if the owner of that wallet died and he wants it to give it to someone or love ones he just only need to give the access of his/her wallet to person that will receive that wallet.

Anticipate we can use a lot of things ranging from providing basic knowledge about bitcoin so that people who we can trust can take our assets for our family later. I suggest we use our family to know all our data and assets

Actually I do not really know what might happen after someone who has a bitcoin dies. But I think for him to be able to pass this to one of his family members or even his relatives is that he must do some preparations on what to do whenever he will die unexpectedly. Maybe he can share this to his most trusted family member or even write a diary about how his love ones can be able to access his bitcoins once he have already died. Because nowadays, I do not even know if it will be stated in the last will and testament before he dies or he just really have to tell someone about it so that they can be able to use it.

Yes.I agree with you.Bitcoin is as like a profit.If you want your generation to enjoy the holding bitcoin,just share the knowledge of wallet to your son or daughter.If you not share that means,it will became useless after your death.You are investing the life savings money,so you should take care of your wallet.Don't waste it.

If you die, and you were bot able to entrust ypur private key or password to anyone, your bitcoin on your wallet or cold storage will be useless because no one will not be able to access it. Maybe, it is better to let someone you really trust know what you want to do if ever you will die.

I always believed this is one of the biggest flaws of Bitcoins. Most people don't think about such things. And it's not easy. How does one leave behind their key, and make sure nobody takes it.

What about those scenarios where the kids kill their parents for inheritance.

If you create a will and have to give a lawyer your private keys. All of them, what's to say they won't eventually steal it one day.

Everyone who has bitcoins, there should be family members who know the keywords, emails, and all the bitcoin wallets. So later if the owner suddenly died there will be people who continue or dilute the existing bitcoin, so bitcoin is not lost at all.

I think it will still remain on the account of the person who died. Unless of course, he or she left his or her credentials to someone for them to be able to open the account of the deceased person. Also, I think there is a policy for some of the wallets that states the steps of what to do in case of what happens.

Well, if you successfully handed it down to someone else, and then they to someone else, eventually someone down the line is going to mess everything up and those Bitcoins will be lost forever.

I think bitcoin is good to be a legacy to your family especially if you are a parents. Good to leave your bitcoin to your children or wife. To know your account is the great legacy to be their source.

The deceased would have had to entrust their wallet and private key to someone before passing away, or keep it in a safe place and pass it down to someone through a will. However, there have been reports where people die and the Bitcoin cannot be retrieved.

If the bitcoin holder dies and no ine knows about his wallet and private keys, this digital currency would be out of reach forever. Not like in the banks that if the account holder dies, the beneficiary can just show the death certificate and all money on the account of the deceased can be claimed. So for bitcoin holders, we need to think of a way on how we can transfer our private keys keys to someone we trust.

To simply put the solution is to diversify the BTC wealth among the family members coz u never know..

I think nothing special will happen to the bitcoin of a individual if he will died. If there is a family member that knew what is the account password and uswr of that person his earned or saved bitcoin will not be waste and can be used by his family so that even if he died he can still help his love ones here in earth. So I suggest to you that you must put some hints on your account or tell one person all about your bitcoin so that in case of emergency there is someone who can access your account.

I think if the person won't leave any information regarding his holdings, more so information that he has been into the bitcoin market. Then, the coins that he has would just be held in storage until it loses value. We should remember that bitcoin, even if it is the strongest has a market cap, therefore, even if the coins are in storage, it has been already counted as it was released in the market. Thus, the saturation would decrease, but it would render the held coins valueless because it won't be back to the market anymore to circulate.

Dying, most of time is an unforeseen event, so bitcoin users need to have someone they trust to have access to their accounts in case they die. Bitcoin is not something physical that you can leave to your loved one and owners will always be anonymous. Or better yet leave all wallets and access keys in a safety deposit box and demand a written agreement that only your loved ones have the right to use it in case you die.

When the owner of Bitcoin will die then all his hardwork,time and money he earned will be wasted .This is because Bitcoin's are stored in online wallets which are opened by a private key or they work with a pin which only the owner knows .So if the owner will die then no other person will be able to access those wallets.I personally will suggest you to share your private key with a person such as your child , your father , your brother so that after your death your money can be used by your family.You can also keep regular checks on your wallets inorder to assure that your money is not being used unnecessarily.

Yes.That's one thing we are ought to do.I personally have my own memory card where i put all my transactions in bitcoin,its wallets and access keys so when i'm gone,my family would find it easy to claim all my hardwork earned bitcoins and use them for their own survival.Of course my partner also had already been aware how to transact all this things.At least with this,my family will still have chances to continue my journey in bitcoin or just keep them for our kids education.

When a person dies suddenly, without leaving any e-wallet, private key, JSON file to unlock the e-wallet, then surely the Bitcoin number they own will not be used by anyone. So it's a good idea to back up your information to a safe place where your loved ones can access when you die suddenly and leave no information. It is safest to save the number of coins owned by cold wallet instead of saving it with the hot wallet.

Yes, that is basically it! If you own some bitcoins and died unexpectedly without given any of your family members your private key you died with your bitcoins. One piece of advice here, if you are putting huge amount of money into bitcoin make sure you give your wallet private key to someone you really trust. e.g. a father, mother, brother, sister, or even a trusted friend.

That's why you need to share everything about your Bitcoin specially to your partner. Cause you can never tell what will happen. It better to be prepare than nothing,  so that if ever bad happen at least theirs someone who can manage your Bitcoin.

If a Bitcoin user has an accident and resulted in death, of course all of Bitcoin's property investment assets will disappear, unless the person keeps everything confidential like a phone number, account and password to a child or wife.

Data access can be stored safely in a lot of ways, electronic or human: for centuries - still now, of course - people left "last wills" to a notary, for exemple, with sensible information. If you don't completely trust an officer, you can let the info crypted and the pass to your family, that can access only after death.

without telling other people that we have bitcoin, no matter how much the amount, that bitcoin cannot be used by anyone and will still bury with the wallet. but for myself, I will tell my family that I have bitcoin and I will give to them and tell the information to them about how to use bitcoin so they can continue what I did and they can have a better life in the future. gladly, some of my family know that I am involved in bitcoin and they support me and they have their own bitcoin so if something happens to me, I guess they will know what they supposed to do.

the victim will not be able to get his family the bitcoins that he have especially when the family doesn't even know what is the passwords or the private keys of the died one. it will be just cause the bitcoin to lose and it will never be retrieved anymore.

will be just like an inheritance that will be given to people you believe to replace you in managing your bitcoin assets. the first thing you should probably do is give a testament to someone you think will be able to manage your bitcoin assets you have to do because of course everyone will never know when he will experience death. I think you have to give this will wisely means that you have to give a testament about your bitcoin assets to someone who deserves to have it like for example to your wife or to your child. so I think they will be able to take advantage of bitcoin assets that you have right.

yes it is true, bitcoin will be like a treasure, it's another thing when before we give the keyword to the family, then bitcoin will be a very precious heritage of course. then we should tell the keywords to families we can trust.

IF one of us dies woth bitcoin on his bitcoin wallet and he did not give the credentials to your account then i think that would be forever lost to the network. I havent encountered yet a system or an application that could work around this if there are please share

Yes, all of your coins will be useless when you die. For me i think it would be better to note your account, wallet, password and keep it to a place you know they can only see when the time comes they have to clean or look for your things as they misses you a lot like that ideas. Or if you really trust your husband/wife and kids then let them know.

if I depend on it, if the assets that I have that much, I will give To my family but if his assets a little I will let in the wallet only .

We all don't know when will our live end so just to be sure about our earnings and our loved ones future, one of them should know all your accounts's passwords. It can be your partner, your sister or your brother. They should know all your passwords and accounts for them to access your earnings whenever your gone or else, your earnings will come to nothing.

Eventually, it will become inheritable. Another interesting question if we will we ever have bitcoin banks and wealth management funds.

The value of the continuous bitcoin pushed up and down between $ 14,000 and $ 15,000 suggests that this is a value that investors can accept it, and it may also be the area where speculators want to squeeze. Bitcoin price to buy more bitcoin. I think this is a very safe buy for bitcoin as it has very good support in this area.

It will become inheritable once you shared your private details to your love ones. In terms of bitcoin banks I dont think it will happen. So many will verify it and its advantages to all users if this would haplen.

You need to let you data access, of course, and there are plenty of methods to do this, without to reveal anything in the meanwhile you are alive.
But you need to act now and to be prepared. (actually, just a closed envelope in a safe place could be enough)

If you don't take care NOW, nobody could access your bitcoin.
You can write your data access and let them somewhere for your family. Not too difficult.

It would be difficult to explain bitcoin in inheritance if the inherited person does not understand about bitcoin, my advice should be to tell someone about our work in bitcoin, so if we die then someone will continue our work on bitcoin.

You could even get the person due the inheritance to get a wallet. Then you can put the coins in a smart contract that will pay out to the recipient if it doesn't get a signature from your wallet for say 30 days.

Could do it with solidity not sure about how you would do it on the lighting network.  That way you don't to share private key or rely on paper wallet executor etc.

I like the idea of just leaving all the information on a piece of paper sealed in an envelope for those we leave behind to find. I bet it would be a surprise especially if Bitcoin will hit super high price levels when we get older.  ::)

If you die and don let the needed access info, anything will be lost forever.
But it's very simple to organize thins in a way that your family can receive your capital.

Inheritable? digital currencies can't be inherited unless the owner of that bitcoin or maybe other digital currencies give his private key to people who wants to use it before they're death or maybe it is included in his last will and testament, if not, then I think that bitcoin will be lost forever, no one can use it and no one will be able to encrypt it since bitcoin wallets are quite secured. Unless it is a wallet of an exchange.

Yes that is true, but the thing is, we should also have to make them understand what we are doing, what skills do they need in order for them to utilize when the person who owns it died. Not only that, we also have to let them understand the changes of its price and the times on when it is used efficiently.

So the right move here is to, to teach everything you know as much as possible.

If you don't let the private key somewhere, nobody in the future can use your money and it will be lost forever.

If you don't let somewhere your data access, they will remain unused (it seems that there are BILLIONS of dollars in bitcoin that can't be accessed anymore...

Dying is inevitable. We'll never know when our time is up. That's why, i write down everything, as in everything that has something to do with my bitcoin works. Starting from my email, all that is related with the wallet, the campaign i've been working on, everything. I made sure that i do not miss a single information. I entrust all of this to my dear daughter. Because all of this is for her. I just don't want my hard work go to waste and disappear into thin air.

I will have a plan for the bitcoin I have before I die. I will dedicate 20% of my property to my children, and the rest of my life will go to charity to help those in need. Whatever you do, when successful, you should be concerned and share with the social community that has sprouted for you. Never think of yourself and forget about everyone.

Yes, like any other property, we also must give same important for this digital property also. Yes, bitcoin is being recognized as digital asset hence we must nominate who is going to use bitcoin after us. This is kind of responsibility for a every bitcoiner so that they can be sure their hard work will not be wasting after them.

When we are handling over our other property to our next-generation then why not we cannot plan what we are going to do with our bitcoin after our life. It is a mandatory for every bitcoiner with their bitcoin savings.

If he keep bitcoin in exchanges wallet of course bitcoin belongs to exchanges owner, but if he keep bitcoin in offline wallet whereas no one knows about bitcoin then bitcoin will disappear.

Nobody will get this coins whitout access to owners wallet :-\ But i think that information will not help to get free bitcoins ;D Much better to improve yourself and ganing your own goods

even if he  puts his bitcoin in an online exchanges,  he can only be the one who can acces and spend it because he is the only one who knows his password and private keys. online exchanges cannot possibly open your account if they cannot know the details for it not unless they can hack it but that was less likely to happen, that is why it is really suggested to leave your important details like password and private keys to your loved ones or any trusted person that will unlock your account if something bad could happen to you.

for sure nothing because even if the owner of the wallet have not private key of the dead one for sure he/she can't access on it meaning to say that bitcoins in that wallet will be forever there except the owner of that website decide on it.

it happens here someone who own bitcoins died and the family member dont know how to claim those bitcoin , the friend asking for help but we cant help him we only says that they should know the password of the departed for the to be able to withdraw the bitcoin unless it will be forever in his wallet .

Most important is the key of the bitcoin wallet. You can write the key of the wallet in the will.

If there is a list of people that own the most bitcoins, in the future the is a possibility one might find themselves here as bitcoins would be shared among people around the world
correctly said if no will was left expect coins to remain intact if they are stored in a private wallet but if it happens to be a third party wallet with gives you no access to the private key, you have a chance of getting the bitcoins maybe via a court order or something but using a pvt key is the easiest way around this.

Bitcoin will be gone if we don't share our key to our family or love one, i know that we should not share our key  anyone but for me im willing to share it to my family for them to get my bitcoin if there is something happen to me.

That is the I think the ideal scenario, if the person who died would leave every safeguard detail like passwords and the likes to someone so that he can have access to their holdings. However, in the event that they didn't leave anything, then the holdings will just be there in stash and won't be used until the time it would be dissolved or at least be excluded in the count of asset in the circulation. However, since there is a ceiling with regarding to the circulating quantity of any coin in the market, then the amount of circulation would be decreased that if the holding is of a substantial amount, it may actually be a contributing factor to decrease the supply, and thus if there is an increase in demand, it will have a hand in making the price of the coin a tad little higher.

I think if someone died and that person had a bitcoin wallet or accounts, their bitcoin will remain in their wallet not unless they gave their passwords and accounts to someone to manage their bitcoin. The best way to do if you are near to death is to give all of your accounts to your family members. In that way, they can have the capability to earn their own money and also, you helped them.

It will remain untouched if the person who died did not leave any trace of his or her private information to a trusted person. Because it is very essential because one can not acces your account unless the person accidentally falls to account phishing.

If the securities are not disclosed to any other person, the quantity of bitcoin had would not be identified or used anymore. This keeps causing the shortage of circulating supply because when holders keep losing their bitcoin asset or fraction, it keeps reducing the circulating supply.

While we're alive people who have bitcoin account should write his/her password and anything important related from bitcoin and should his/her family know about this just in case he/she died they will know what to do because we dont know when will death come.

Nothing, they will just be on your wallet forever unless that someone has access to your private key, but if you didn't created another copy and you just died, there is nothing that anyone can do in order to recover those bitcoins (or just cashing them out)

There are two cases may arise, to earn the Bitcoins or to loose it forever.
This was the reason why we really need to share our Bitcoin identification to our family. We should make them know about this cryptocurrency so that if bad things happen, our money will not wasted. We have no papers regarding this Bitcoins and the only thing we can use is our email and password.

It's not a pleasant discussion, but we need to take measures, if we care about our family, just in case.
There are plenty of method to let you beloved to receive your data access, if you die.
But it must be done now!

Yes, even if i'm relatevely young I was thinking about this yesterday.
The issue is to educate my partner to the crypto world  ;D

I also have been quite long time to prepare this because I too often work in front of a computer and that makes me become sick easily. so I am really preparing people who can be trusted to held my assets if one day something happened to me. because bitcoin is an asset and I believe someday bitcoin will become a very valuable currency.

But how are you going to know when are you going to die? I pray that you live a real long, healthy and wealthy life but nobody can predict the time of his death. What if someone expires all of sudden. In that scenario, all of his bitcoin would be lost as no one would know about his address, wallet and all such credentials. Therefore, we need to share this information with someone.

If you don't take the right precautions now, they will be lost forever.
But it's very simple to let in a safe place you data access, just in case...
It's disturbing, but we don't know when our moment will be, so... best to be ready!

This is the thing that I am most afraid of. I feel sorry for myself. but I feel more sorry for bitcoin. will gradually fall in supply

Well that's life we don't know when the time comes so we must have a list about our bitcoins so that they can get what i earn in case my time comes.

It will remain unused but I think that this statement is depicting a confusing and blur notion about the actual reality .The thing or the fact I must say might get clear when we would say this the other way round, the coins would not get utilized by the owner or his relatives but they will get circulated to the original bitcoin chain and hence, there would be no benefit of saving those for such a long time even lifetime.

if there is someone who died and the person has some bitcoin assets or other crypto coins, it can actually be inherited the origin of his heirs have a private key from the owner of the dead bitcoin earlier, my advice keep your private key in an email and bequeath to someone you trust before you die

Very simple: if you don't let somewhere your data access, your bitcoin will be lost forever.
(it seem that about 20% of bitcoin are unavailable, due to private key lost and death)

It should  be  someone not somewhere I think.
We have to choose carefully the best people to entrust our bitcoin. It is similar to all seen and concrete assets we have here on earth while living that has to have last will and testament so there is legal manner in passing over an asset or wealth. With this, the password and all other information required to continuously use bitcoin has to be transferred.

If a Bitcoin owner suddenly dies without leaving the account information as well as the wallet's private key, then the asset will no longer exist and will not be used. To use the cryptos, you must have a private key to log into your wallet. As a result, people should keep their wallet and account information on the exchange floors in a safe place.

There are some ICOs who are working towards this problem. t is a problem that needs to be solved, so definitely will be happy to see more of these ICOs to present their solution for this problem.

That is why a bitcoin owner should have to share his most private information to someone he really have trust to, like inheritance of wealth.
Maybe a daughter, son, or relative will do. Or best thing I am thinking is to innovate a software that can automatically transfer bitcoin of dead ones to the wallet of his entrusted heir.

In the event that the bitcoin account holder suddenly died, the whole account could not be access without the correct log in details. However, a person can make his last will and testament especially those who are rich, I believe we can include the bitcoin account details  but we can keep it in a sealed envelope and to be kept in a secured place just like in a bolt. Although there is a password recovery option, some pertinent information are still required to process it or keep it in a diary that no one can read while you are still alive.  Life is uncertain, we never know what gonna happen to us any minute so better to secure this matter and leave what we have for our family's benefit.

If you own a huge amount in bitcoin and suddenly you are off in this world, maybe they will donate your coins to charity, I guess so.

We can said that no one will own your bitcoin unless someone else is able to access your wallet

If the owner/holder of bitcoins died, no one will have take benefit unless his/her accounts and wallet password are entrusted to someone who is close to him. Or else all his holding will live in cold storage forever and no one will found it.

This is something many forget, we never know when we are going to die, and so we need to have everything in order all the time that way if something happens to us all our effort is not wasted and can benefit our loved ones, after all I will be very pissed if I worked as hard as I have and then everything was lost and not a single member of my family benefited from my investments and my effort.

I think it is better to tell our family that we have a huge amount of bitcoin and we can give to them first before we donate to charity. I think they need to know how much our money so we can tell them to use our money for a good things. but if we don't tell anyone how much bitcoin we have, then the bitcoin will be staying in that wallet without anyone could use.

Everyone must plan for after die for your family. Please think about after you..

It's relatively simple to determine who controls a Bitcoin wallet. It's the person with access to the keys.  :D

If you do not make preparations for the future, your coins will remain inaccessible to your loved ones for eternity.  Or at least until quantum computing becomes a more viable thing. Make sure to state your Bitcoin in your will and testament, or at the very least, leave your key with a trusted party, in case of your untimely demise. Given the potential for price growth, I would rather be safe, than sorry!

Families are more deserving of all that we have after death. at least we provide knowledge to open the security of our wallets. so whenever they can access our wallets in secret. this is important so that our assets are not owned by the wrong people.

Actually that was a disadvantage of being too secured in the account of Bitcoin because we cannot be able to surpass anyone's account. So when someone who owns Bitcoin die, no one will benefit on it unless he leaves his email account together with the password so someone who he trust will going to have an access with it and for sure he was the heir of the Bitcoin account owner who have died which surely benefit his part.

the one who left this world must left complete data for opening the wallet including address and password. when there is wallet which the owner forgotten about its password or address. and *poof* the wallet would be gone. it is still there, but no one could open it.

There is also the chance that someone out of luck is able to generate the same address and the same private key that you have, that is incredibly unlikely but given enough time it can happen, this is one of the main reasons of why we need to take precautions and to keep our relatives up to date about the measures we have taken so that money is not lost.

and this means the wallet can not be used by others, so supply of btc decreases. with decreasing supply then btc price will increase significantly. but preferably bitcoiner provides important data to the heir

If the man died and he did not give his password to his love ones then no one can open his wallet. No one can get his bitcoin. So it will just stay a digital currency that will be stock in his wallet. Unless someone will hack his wallet.

the bitcoin amount will remain in that wallet without anyone can access or used it. the bitcoin will stay for a long time until someone knows the private keys and the password so he can move the bitcoin amount or use it for another thing. and for that person which found any bitcoin in that wallet, it will be like he found a gold in the cave and he will be a rich person in one night ;D

All those who have bought bitcoins have placed those bitcoins in their wallets and that they need to provide certain information like that of private key, email etc. to claim those bitcoins and to prove that all those bitcoins belong to them. If you have shared all that necessary information with someone whom you trust and whom you think will never cheat you, then that person can claim those bitcoins after your death.

I think this will be a huge problem in cryptocurrencies in future. So the most people who own cryptocurrencies in the past years and die, they dont tell other people or their family member how much they own and where the hide their private keys. So i think in the past there are a lot of bitcoins wo where lost. After a while they start to dump all their stuff. So if you are smart you should tell at least your parents or someone who you want to give you cryptocurrencies when you pass away!

Bitcoin is different from gold or bank deposits, and if you have to tell your children the keys and addresses after you die, your bitcoin will always be in your wallet and no one can take it away. Therefore, it is best to keep a separate record for all such details.

It is not possible for two people to have same address. In that case it won’t be treated as two different entities, rather it would be one. In simple words, no two houses in this world have same address or else it would be the same house.

Same stands good for the private key. Every holder has a unique address and private key that only belongs to him.And if someone dies, those coins are as good as gone.

What I believe is that we should at least take in confidence one of our family member or someone who is really close to us. May be we can state a will to our lawyer which talks about the keys of wallets or things like that. Bitcoin is just an assist but digital one and it is the right of our family to have it after us. We should have some such plans in order not to waste bitcoin that we earned hard way after our death.

that's all really needed in this case, so everything will go smoothly even if the person who has the bitcoin dies.

The discussion was already tackled in other threads here in forum. The only way to make a sense on your bitcoins in wallet is to make a back up key or any printed materials that will be used by your inherited family. If you knows the future, you will plan for it.

If the person has not left the details of his investment like username and password of exchange he was using, all that investment is gone. That is similar in banks if you do not have a nominee.

If bitcoin dies then I think it would be a heavy influence on the price of this virtual money market. But there is no thought that this market will end under it. For now, I find this platform very good to be thriving.

the bad thing could be happen if they dont leave all acces to wallet,meanwhile bitcoin or alternate currency price is going exspensive.so no one of our family enjoy our work for years.

I think it happend a lot in the past, that somebody who owned bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies died and nobody of their family and friends know something about their invest. And while clear up their stuff they found some paper with private keys, and they throw in the trash can. So this could happen to everybody. Thats why you should tell your parents something or write it up in your testament. Because it can happend to anybody everybody.

If you leave the details of your investment like private keys, then your family members can access that money. Otherwise that money is lost forever.

It's very simple to solve this problem, (actually, just a close envelope with access data is enough) but you have to think NOW!

It is very simple and exactly one has to share the details with the family members and let them know that you have invested or bought this all coins and kept in which wallet. Else you will lose out your hard work and money earned from this crypto currency.

It is like with bank account, if he didn't give whole things like email number or special numbers to his account those bitcoins will be forever his and no one will be able to touch them.

If you want to anticipate this, you can provide all the passwords and private keys on your account and wallet to someone you trust or can be with your family, because after all bitcoin is a valuable asset that must be passed on ownership to be useful to people around.

It depends who would you want to hold your bitcoin, your legal wife or the mistress, it is sad to tell that we need to answer such question, of course if not in our husband/wife then it must be in our children if they are already at least a teenager but if not then it should with our friend who are close to us or our relatives.

No one owns it, because it will remain on the wallet if the access to the wallet is not transferred  to some one before the owner dies. Even if someone lose their access to their wallet, no one will even be able to use that bitcoin. So, it is better to make sure that some one in your family or some one you trust knows your access to your wallet.

Of course, if you are going to just give away your passwords, go there to your relatives, so that in case of an accident your Good is not lost, then all of this needs to be taught to your relatives, at least to the original basics of crypto currency.

If the owners of bitcoin dies and did not give out the password to his or her wallet to his family then the bitcoin will remain in that wallet without anyone to get access. 

this is what I fear happens to me, whenever someone can die and who knows when he will die,
therefore I keep a written will about what I leave to my family and I keep it in a Bank.

Never forget the person that has the private keys is the one that owns the bitcoin it's as simple as that, that means that if you die and no one knows the private keys of your addresses then those bitcoins are lost forever, so the only way to protect your bitcoins is to somehow give access to your private keys to your inheritors but only after you have died.

Yes it should be done on all bitcoin users, but it would be safer to store it on a paper which is then stored in the safest place, but if it can store it in many places then it will be better.

If someone have bitcoin and she/his dying much better give to the person they trust all there private key and email so they can open it when it's needed. But I think for me only few people can do that because they can convert to cash if they want and give to their family  that they trust.

This is good question because thats could happen to anyone. If we want to share our private key with others, everybody always talk to us that we should not share it. But maybe we can seal our private key and place it on deposit bank so our dependant can take it when one holder died

You are mistaken, it's completely possible for two different people around the world to generate the very same address it is called address collision, and this means that they both have the very same private key so any funds in that address can be controlled by those two people, as I have said that is incredibly unlikely but it can happen and it could be a way to recover some of the lost coins.

I think this will be a colossal issue in digital currencies in future. So the a great many people who claim cryptographic forms of money in the previous years and pass on, they dont tell other individuals or their relative the amount they possess and where the shroud their private keys. So I think in the past there are a ton of bitcoins wo where lost. Sooner or later they begin to dump all their stuff. So in the event that you are brilliant you should tell in any event your folks or somebody who you need to give you cryptographic forms of money when you pass away.

All things considered that was an impediment of being excessively secured in the record of Bitcoin in light of the fact that we can't have the capacity to outperform anybody's record. So when somebody who claims Bitcoin bite the dust, nobody will profit on it unless he leaves his email account together with the secret key so somebody who he trust will going to have an entrance with it and for beyond any doubt he was the beneficiary of the Bitcoin account proprietor who have kicked the bucket which most likely advantage his part.

It will be a big lost if the owner dies. What my resolution to this situation were all that I do is for my family. This is something that I need to assure that my Bitcoin will be pass to my wife, son and daughter. What I do is to provide a safe were password is shared to my wife, so whatever happen to me my wife knows what to do. Where on that safe is kept the hard file and USB where all the keys to my Bitcoin account is save. The second option will be a bank deposit box. Same what my safe has, added will be the will. How will it be dividend or who will continue it.

Bitcoin is just another form of money/asset class and we can mention in our will that the private keys, exchange login/KYC details, hardware wallets, paper wallets should be handed over to the X person(s) in case of his death or inability to act in a sound manner. However, I would recommend you consulting your legal consultant to make sure that you are making right choices of words while preparing your will.

While that is a possibility, at the same time we need to recognize that bitcoin is very susceptible to theft in that particular point, your lawyer or anyone that you trust in order to give your private keys to your loved ones could steal your bitcoins because you need to remember that the one that has possession of the private keys can do whatever he wants with those coins.

Its very important that you must share your password, private keys and seeds of your wallets with the person you trust the most so that they can take advantage of your money after you in case of their financial need.But keep in mind that bitcoin is prone to theft easily if someone has access to your wallets. Keep your family members aware about it through saving them in mails and phone otherwise they will be lying in cold storage permanently.

I think that it will just stock in wallets of the holder which is really a disadvantage if no one will know our private keys. It is better that we'll have somebody to share our private keys with. We better share it with a person whom we trust so much so that if this case happens, our family could get our earnings and it will benefit them as well.

Bitcoin will obviously become to waste and the cryptocurrency you are holding will not circulate in the market, if you knew that you are near death then the best thing to do is just pass your coins to another person or sell it immediately in the market.

If you think your money is safe in the bank you may be in for a big surprise. Banks are insured only up to a certain amount against bankruptcy, which happens more often then you think, and are obliged to take your money and give it to the government, which also happens more often then you think. Much safer in your cryptographically protected digital wallet.

The same things that happen to the rest of someone’s money when they die. Bitcoins aren't magic.Most people leave a will. That clearly sets out where all your property goes when you die.If you don't have a will, the following people will receive your money. All of it goes to the top person, unless they die, then it all goes to the next person down, and so on:

Your spouse/children (50/50 split, then split among children).

Parents (split between them).

Siblings (split among them).

Grandparents (split 50/50 between both sets of grandparents).

The government gets your money if you have no living relatives or a will.

No one if a person has not left the data from his wallet ... It is a completely decentralized network without central control, no one except you has access to coins.

If the person holding the bitcoin dies and leaves no clue about bitcoin it seems to be gone forever. So as a better preparation you save like a privacy key to your closest family, that's better. Like you leave your treasure.

When a person who owns BTC unfortunately unfortunately died, the BTC actually exists, as if without a password, login name, address wallet. It is not possible to convert BTC into real money to use, so one advice for you is to copy the password, and related stuff so that if later unfortunately missed your relatives still have usable

If you're married tell it to your husband or wife and if you have kids tell it to them or if  you don't have that just wrote it in a piece of paper then put in the corner where your family can easily see it so you'll not too much worried if someone couldn't get your accumulated bitcoins.

I think if you just told your wife or husband and your kids that you have your Bitcoin in your PC that will not be a problem. You can just keep a paper somewhere in your house, maybe in your safe and then your family can just use that if something bad happens to you. If you will die and your family or even your friends do not know you have Bitcoin, it will be a goner.

No problem of btc if holding private key , password, username is known by anyone of his family. Exchanger or Wallet will know private key not man. So if any one dies no problem.

I think, that answer is more than obvious, because if the person who was holding bitcoins didn't share private keys with his family or friends, then after his death, bitcoins will just loss and no one will able to spend them. One time  I thought about idea "bitcoin as an inheritance", I mean a place, where people can hold their bitcoins, and after death, his family will get info via SMS or mail about how to get access to it.

You can easily transfer it to offspring by stating your password and username in the will

Thanks for bringing this up, it's a very common belief that no matter how much money you have in a bank you'll always get it back since the governments back your funds, but what it is going to happen when the government is the one that is facing bankruptcy? They are not going to be able to protect your money especially when you need them the most, this has happened many times just in this decade and it will keep happening, this is why satoshi created bitcoin in the first place to help people to manage their own money and not depend on anyone else.

It will definitely a big loss. Because you can even tell atleast one member of your family that is trusted for you. You can give him or her you provate keys or passwords so that when you died or when youre gone they can use the money for good and you leave a good legacy to your family giving them the wealth that you earn when you are still living.

If you never share your account to anyone then unfortunately you met your end so soon, then nobody can access your account therefore it’s good as lost fortune. You need a backup plan in case of emergency; you need to share it to the most trusted person in your life.

I agree with you, we will never know when we're going to die so better to have a back up on everything and aside from giving access to someone whom you trusted the most better also to open up a bank account in all the accumulated savings you've earned from bitcoin with your beneficiaries as well.

If you knew already that you have a disease or any illnesses and you feel dying because of this then you must give your private account to your family such as your username, password and key to your wallet so they can access your bitcoin account. You must teach them in working here so they will be the one to follow up your work especially if you do investment, trading and mining so they will know how to do and get it.

Well, basically if the owner of that bitcoin dies and nobody knows any information about that certain wallet account then bitcoin dies with him/her. It is because the account is already inaccessible therefore the bitcoin in there can also be considered as dead.Thus,whatever business or investments we are taking we have to make it sure that anyone within the family must know all the informations/accounts so our loved ones can enjoy it if anything happens to us.It sad but true that we don't own our life, we can't even control it and we do not how long we can stay here on earth, only GOD knows.

I think the owner does’nt operate its wallet, i think he has people operating it and they are paid. So there is nothing to worry about, since the owner is wealthy he hired trusted people for this.