Bitcoin Forum

what do you think about inheritance service? if something will happen what will your family do with your bitcoins? do they have access to your wallet? do they even know what bitcoin is?
I really think that there is a place for inheritance service in the near future  :)

There's absolutely no such need for a service for such a simple problem. How can you trust a centralized entity to give your Bitcoins to your family upon death, when you can't trust your family with your wallet?
It's completely useless, just ensure that they have access to your private keys.

I've given thought to this as well, some sort of multi-sig solution with a deadman switch where you can also provide your family with instructions.


No reason it can't be a dApp... and by your logic no one would write a will because everyone's family would already have free use of their stuff.

This. Im not sure if I will have kids yet so that's not a problem so far. As far as my family goes, I think it's all our case the fact that none of our family members has any idea of what bitcoin is, let alone how in hell enter your password in your bitcoin core node and take control of the keys (and most importantly, kept them safe). Telling someone else to do it for you is a recipe for getting your BTC stolen from your family.

Honestly, I don't even want to think about it. Im still young and I hope I can retire with my BTC, im not thinking about inheritance but how to make more BTC.

I can definitely see a use for it but it would have to be something totally decentralized.  Perhaps a service that you tied to a second bitcoin address to that you give the beneficiary access to.  The bitcoin inheritance service could have some type of logic bomb where if the account was not accessed for X number of days it would automatically transfer the funds to the the address your family had access to.  Could also be done with a regular bank account integrating something like the Coinbase API

Hey
No one in my family knows about my private key and everything else, bitcoins is something that they know about for sure.
Inheritance service in Bitcoin world is something that will for sure be officially given a place and accepted if bitcoins continue to flourish, also even now non officially you can give the key to your family members and friends and no one will ever ask you if you wrote about bitcoins its key and wallet in your last will, because you can write anything you want the others to have... Bitcoins are no big deal so even now if you want to you can do that too.

Put the private key in a box (write a will) and an ELI5 guide. Tada!
It is just like having money in a bank, in a virtual card,etc...

That's something to think about in the future when Bitcoin gets into the mainstream. At the present it seems like there will be no takers for such a service.

There will be no such thing as an inheritance service. Because a last will and testament can exactly do what you are saying. A last will of a person is the best way in which your heir can inherit the things and properties you have left when you are still living in this world. And to answer your question, no the Lawyers who will be taking care of your Bitcoin wallet when you are dead don't even have to know the passwords of your wallet, they can even just instruct your heirs on how to operate the Bitcoin wallets themselves.

I do not think the need for inheritance services, all we need is how we can educate children when they learn enough to reveal our personal secrets as we go, and our children can open access our secret wallets and take what we left behind. So the child can feel the result of the bitcoin we leave behind

Right, but that's exactly what wills are for, and a will with the private keys
and instructions as to who gets what is all that's needed.  There doesn't need to
be a service for this, which would probably be a scam anyway.  If you write a will,
that's all you need to do.

Even I am of the opinion that we don't need any such service. In my personal case my wife knows all about bitcoin and if or when any such situation as mentioned in the op occurs my wife knows it all what to do and how to access the bitcoins I hold in my wallet. But yes other members may have different case but still I don't think any of them would allow third party intervention and would let them play with their bitcoins.

A will either requires trust, or an insecure storage of private keys, probably both. It makes much more sense to use this programmable money to its potential, a trustless and decentralized deadman switch would be a much more reliable solution and should be trivial from a technical perspective. As for saying any such service would have to be a scam, you'd have to apply that logic to lawyers too then. The "service" need only be an interface to do what is already possible in a decentralized and trustless way.

Why do you need such a service anyway? Do you not trust your family with your bitcoin? I know they might not know about it, but you can do them a favor and right your will attempting to explain what bitcoin is all about. Plus, I am sure that there is someone whom you can trust. Let is say you do not trust any of your family. Let is also say they can get greedy. But I think that there is another member whom you can share your stories with. I mean if you do not trust your family, then who are you going to trust? Despite the problems I am facing with my family members, I always see the positive side. I trust my mom to the fullest. So I think you should give your wallet to your mom.

That already exists. A will is most often in a sealed envelope, and you just need to add to it the keys to your wallet. Lawyers have been handling those kinds of things for decades.

But this is a different space. Do lawyer even know how to deal with bitcoin private keys? how do you know you can trust them? Has this ever been done before?

I would need to see how this actually went down in a real case, I just can't trust people including lawyers.

The problem is, do your family know bitcoin? I guess even with last wills, you're family will not be able to know those ifthey didn't know what bitcoin is. So let's say they know what bitcoin is, then why do we need to pass it to the lawyer if we can pass it to our family directly. I mean yes you don't know when you will be dying but I guess you can say something to your family that can give them a clue about it right?

I discussed this with my partner recently.. He's not very familiar with crypto wallets but I've created some instructions for him, should something happen to me. He knows where my wallets/drives are and kinda knows the information he'll need to get at my coins.. I'm sure he'll be able to work it out with the info I have given him.

That's all I have as a plan for now but I'm only 37 and have just under $100k in crypto. Over the next year or so as my wallets increase, I'd like to have a better plan than that.

I was recently looking into a service in Australia (where I live) that can insure your Bitcoins, trading accounts and provide a service similar to what you are talking about but I'm not sure about it: https://bitcointrader.org.au/ (https://bitcointrader.org.au/)

I'd love to hear from anyone in Australia who has used this service, what are your thoughts? Good/bad experience?

I don't think it's worth it. If you can get away with not involving third parties in Bitcoin transactions, then don't. It's a somewhat trivial problem, but I see how some people are concerned given how there are wallets out there with dead owners. That's mostly because people were not able to foresee the value in crypto though. I would assume that it's certainly a consideration for older people now. It's very simple to write down private keys on your will, or leave a piece of paper in your vault. There's no need to avail of any service.

I agree. A lawyer is a single point of failure.  With a decentralized solution that deposited the funds to an account after x number of days of  inactivity by the person who signed up for this decentralized service there would be no need to trust a 3rd party (lawyer)

The idea is great and I’m 100 percent supportive to it. Any service that is legit, licence by the government and backing up by the same financial institutions manage by banks. A educational plan that can be paid accordingly with bitcoin monthly or spend on an agreement. But it should be legally binding that can question on court.

Life and family with bitcoin is what earning really means and to profit with purpose is the what matters most.

Why would someone store their information in somewhere to be accessed by their family upon their death while they can give them directly to someone within the family who they trust? I don't find it reasonable at all to giveaway your private keys or any information which can be used to access the money stored to someone you are not even familiar with in real life. I would rather give them to my brothers, or sisters, whom i want to access my funds after i'm gone.
Well, for now, i haven't given any information to anyone on how they can access my accounts, but they surely know about Bitcoin and that i have money stored in Bitcoins. Maybe i will have to think about it later in life, if i stayed alive, of course.

Yes leaving a lawyer in charge of your private keys would be very risky.  Not only would he have access, any number of paralegals or secretaries could have access too.  If they have those keys they can rob you with no trace.  Much better to have a decentralized solution to protect your decentralized currency.  Normally lawyers would be agents of trust for a bank account or maybe a safe deposit box, where if they tried to withdraw the funds or access the safe deposit box there would be records of their identity and in the case of a bank transfer, an easy to follow paper trail. Leaving private keys with a lawyer would be  like leaving him untraceable cash.  Except no one would even have to inconvenience themselves to sneak it out of the office.  Anyone could instantly take it if they can get so much as a glance at those private keys to write them down or take a quick photo.

Lighting idea , I support it and I think many persons will do so , because it helps to not loose owned bitcoins because of death , inheritants will be very thankful since they can use inherited money but what I noticed is that this service is applicable for relatively large amounts of bitcoins and such services should be created by well reputated persons/companies

Yes, it's necessary. Bitcoin is an asset. Of course, you can also inherit. It doesn't take long before countries and companies pay attention to it

I don't mind if bitcoin provides inheritance service, for example. as long as my family can live happily, I can do everything even giving them my private key of my wallet. family is everything. if it is really provided, I 100% support it. moreover, I consider that bitcoin is an asset, so it is appropriate to be an inheritance to my family.

for the moment I have not thought about it yet, everyone around me does not have access to my wallet but I will tell my parents or my family at the right time.

Bitcoin is a valuable asset.  Indeed it should be inherited and given as inheritance.  It could be worth more than what it is priced now.  Just show or teach your family member especially your children the one you want to pass your bitcoin on how to use it.  

Educating the children about the benefits of bitcoins so that they can know it's importance is very necessary so that in your absence they can manage it and not sell it hastily whenever they feel that they need money to do things. Bitcoin though a currency is an investment asset that when saved without spending makes the investor lots of money.

I wouldn't since it is not stable and may change. I do not want to take risks when it comes to my family or my children specially about their future. Bitcoins is a good investment but not a security asset. I will still invest but I will make sure I have a separated insurance money for my family.

this would be a good scam to build an ICO! thanks for the idea man!

Give it a few hours (that's all you need really) and I'll have a great white paper and a site build for this!

Give me all your ethers!