Bitcoin Forum

Over the past decade, the number of Bitcoin investors and other types of crypto assets has grown tremendously. Based on data by Coinmetrics, there are currently around 12 million Bitcoin millionaires in the world. However, there are those who die every year, without heirs who can access Bitcoin. The amount reaches 4 million Bitcoin (around US $ 40 billion), according to Coincover.
Meanwhile, based on the results of a survey by the Cremation Institute, of 1,150 respondents, 89 percent of them are very worried about losing their crypt assets. However, only 23 percent have a specific plan to pass it on to the closest person, for example to their husband, wife or children.
I think this is a very good idea, and I hope that someday there will be a crypto exchange and a crypto wallet that provides inherited features, so users will be safe and comfortable.

I don't think it's necessary to think to have an app or another exchange to have access to the private keys for that. Basic instruction towards your inheritance would suffice. Might it be linked to help them understand how to extract the crypto or just plain message with what the inheritance is, probably something related to that sense?

Not your keys, not your coins.

To have such a feature will most likely require a centralized authority to have access to your wallet's private keys, which is obviously a no-go. The simplest thing I can think of is simply having a written instructions on how and where to get your written mnemonic phrase, and how to import it on a hardware wallet or something.

And then, all of a sudden, comes the idea of a third-party storage facility that would erase all the worries and anxieties of everyone possibly dying, missing, acquiring amnesia, and so on without ever sharing their seed or their private keys to the closest person they can trust! Something like a... bank? :D

Crypto exchange will fix the inheritance for their customers? that's not a good idea imo.

You can set this on your own and just like what you have said on that report, there are people who have already planned it well. It's a matter of talk and discussion to your closest relative how you can give bitcoin to them as your last will.

One of the better ideas that I've discovered so far is the use of multisig.

A 2-of-4 multisig is set up for the user. 2 of the key is held by the owner while one of the key is given to the heir and the other is included inside one of the clause of the will. That way, the heir cannot access the funds without the key being released from the will. There are several services that does this for you for a small fee.

A deed or will is enough to pass on a crypto wallet or storage, or you can even just let someone from your family know what to do with your crypto in case of emergency. Creating such feature will beat the purpose of being anonymous, and having a third party to entrust your money once you pass away. This will require a lot of process for both you and the platform. I doubt if exchange or wallets will go to that extent.

Also, take note that even highly secured platforms are getting hacked. You don't want all your credentials and even all your crypto assets to be kept in a platform susceptible to hacking.

This says it all. They're scared of how to pass their crypto assets? Plan for it. It's not that it's impossible for a 3rd party to be responsible for crypto inheritance, but rather there's no need to. Crypto assets are supposed to be anonymous assets, and leaving them up to third party to give to your family basically states who you are already. You can just plan ahead of time and update the plan regularly, especially if you're nearing death. Third parties can do whatever the hell they want with your wallets and keys even before it's given to your descendants.

Just use banks in the end though if you don't want to plan anything. Crypto could be said to be the asset for the ones who want security and the ones who are doing everything they can manually about it, and banks/fiat are the ones that just are too lazy to even bother and just want everything to be automated aka done by others.

For me, the inheritance of bitcoin should be done by the owner of the bitcoin themselves through leaving a note which contains the passphrase or accounts which contain the bitcoins. Because having an application to do it is not trusted especially an exchange that isn't providing us the private key to the accounts.

Or maybe, what looks more legal is to have an attorney process the inheritance just like how the usual assets inherited.

It would be more trustworthy that way, that the owner gives the key to his wallet personally to his heir. And personally, that's what I would do. It's probably a trust issue, but mostly being cautious. As a saying goes, "Money is the root of all evil."

Maybe. But bitcoin is decentralized. So, IMO, maybe an attorney is not that necessary. Just the proper agreement of the owner and his heir.

Inheritance and will are probably one of the simplest use cases for bitcoin. One of the main examples that Andreas Antonopuolos shares in his old video on advanced bitcoin scripting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU3Sr07Qnxg) involved a similar multisig implementation that he explains in a very easy to understand way. The video is worth a watch. He also explains how the stack in bitcoin scripts works for verification of signatures and transactions.

12 million Bitcoin millionaires???Are you kidding me?
The entire amount of Bitcoin users worldwide is around 12 million(maybe less) and you are writing about 12 million BTC millionaires.This is most likely fake/wrong data.
Anyway,if less rich BTC users plan to give their crypto wealth to their kids,more BTC will stay inactive after they die,which means that the total BTC market supply will get even more limited,which means that Bitcoin price has a better chance of going to the moon.
I usually don't care about what the rich people are going with their assets,so this topic isn't that interesting to me.I will always stay poor...

I don't think that it is necessary with this crypto world, there are many ways that their family can now their accounts once the wallet owner dies, its better that your wallet accounts information is saved on your desktop or on the paper that hey can see once you will get die or better, you may tell it o them so you wouldn't have a problem telling to them your sccount information, if you really love your family, you should trust them with you bug heart, there is nothing bad that they will do with your wallet, just trust them.
Indeed if you are a bitcoin investor, and you have invested a huge amount of money, you should think that you may get die for some other days and your money should be used by you family, you should know how they can access on your account

That's a good idea but I think we don't need it anymore, there are many things that we should fix first before creating what you are saying, if you are hilding big amount of money or you are investing so much more money, you should think that there are many things that might happen on you, you should have a plan how this money can be used by your families once you get died, if you don't have any plan about that and you get die, your money would be wasted, your hard work and effort to gain that money will be now wasted because no one uses it.
Well said, that us possible to do for the people who are investing in bitcoin, there will be many fake websites that will do the same thing when it will be created.

Why do you need a separate service for the same. Legal firms are already there who provides such service. The only thing you will have to do is to create a will and register it. Legal firms are obligated to maintain the secrecy of your details. If they do not adhere to that, you can get a great indemnification. Just pass on the private key in a sealed envelope to the legal firm along with the will and your next generation will receive it in a similar way after your demise. That's very simple and doesn't require a fortune to create a will.

Don't really need a plithora of new services for cryptocurrency. Whatever we have already, can be used with little smartness!

Yes, for me this is the 'right way', although bitcoin is a new asset, it can still follow the same protocol on how to transfer your inheritance to your love ones or next of kin. I'm a advocate of keep it simple theory, so in essence, we can apply this simply but yet cost effective route. Just talk to who you ever wanted to transfer, or better it as early as today educate them, and write everything down. I don't like third party services as it will defeat the purpose of bitcoin's decentralization.

What I don't understand is :

If those 89% are worried about loosing their assets when they die , why are they not talking it out with any personal lawyer or maybe their wallet company ?

The thing is , it is advisable now a days to actually go and search your options , most wallet companies are providing inheritance plans for free. You can even add nominee in your account.

I do use a mobile wallet and few months back I received an email from Zebpay.
I will show you guys the SC of that -
https://i.ibb.co/LPYmFFv/Screenshot-20200710-100022.png (https://ibb.co/n069GGR)

Therefore I do believe that if you talk it out with the wallet you are using , you can very easily ask them to add this feature if this isn't yet added.

For people with paper wallets and hardware wallets they should give precise information to some person they trust more than anything which can be followed up upon their death.
You can also hire any lawyer to give some random things to your family upon your demise and just hide the hardware wallet in one of them , hopefully they will know what to do with it .

The total number of BTC adopters around the world is still pretty low currently. On top of this, the number of investors who invested huge amounts usually treat them like stocks or other assets and don't focus on passing it down to their family members.

Various reasons could be laziness, they don't think they will die anytime soon, family members might find crypto too complicated to understand etc. This applies to FIAT too if you think about it.

I agree I hope that one day there would be a service provider that could set it up like if you haven't log in for a certain of time they would send all the account information or details on your chosen person.
You would create an account on their platform and put up a email or any contact information for who would inherit your crypto on their platform.
I think this could be a good on exchanges when so we wouldn't worry about a thing.

You can just write your seed phrase in your testament, why not?

bitcoin was created so that everyone stores and handles their own money without needing anybody else, least of which a crypto exchange that is considered the shadiest and riskiest services around these parts. that means the individual is in full control and has to think about passing on their secrets themselves just like they should think about their own security.
i don't see the need for centralized service here, specially when inheritance is just as easy as writing your keys down in your will.

Indeed, some need a centralized something to keep their coins, promise they'll refund in case of troubles, handle inheritance and so on.
From the beginning of civilization there always were many people that need to believe in something so they can sleep better.

But the banks are good option. But not to hold the coins, no. One can rent a deposit box in a bank and store the seed and instructions for the family. Afaik safe deposit box can be opened either by the owner, either by the family, but in the second case the family has to provide death certificate. So yes, banks (their deposit boxes) can be a valid option.


Because we don't want to give presents to the lawyers which may be handling the testament.

Bitcoin is asset and it is must be inherite like many other assets. But the matter is because Bitcoin is not regulated in many countries people do not inform that they have Bitcoin and relatives do not know about this. These bitcoins are lost.

I don't get it why they have to worry about their asset while they can delegate to someone they trust to access their private wallet. If they still worry, perhaps, they need to learn more about how to delegate or teach someone that they trust, so there will be no problem in the future. We don't have that app because we can tell other people that we have bitcoin, and if something bad happens to us, they can still continue from what we did, and they can use that bitcoin for their life. If you have an investment, you will have a plan for what you want to do with your investment, and if you use your investment for your family, you must tell them about the investment. You need to explain how they can use the investment, so what you did now is not useless.

Why need to worry about your crypto asset or bitcoin to be inherited? If their is one or more people in your family who also know about crypto,i think it's not the problem to recover your crypto wealth if ever your gone. Bitcoin is a decentralize digital currency and i think it's not good idea to have a third party to save your password and private key.

The point there is nobody can say the exchange that can be hacked or not. The best thing to do is to keep your coin in your private wallet that the phrase are secured with you. Further on it to be sure that if you are no more, someone can carry on with your coin assets is to disclose to a third party. Third party is risky but we can not avoid it. A close relative that is trusted can or trusted child.

A bank deposit box is, quite frankly, a good idea although it sounds a little bit awkward considering that Bitcoin is trying to empower every single individual to be his/her own bank. But why not? Admittedly, humans are poor safe-keepers. Until and unless they learn to grow responsible over their private keys, seeds, PINs, or even their funds themselves, a bank sounds a nice option.

While I initially had just paper wallets and a seed in one of my notebooks, the more I tried to follow better and stronger security, the less the chances are that my relatives would ever be able to recover my coins for I die.

This is probably one of the biggest flaws yet most amazing things Bitcoin has: you can literally have all your money inside your brain. If I had to make some very well hidden and encrypted wallets and store all my funds there, what are the chances my relatives would find my wallets and know where to get my passwords from?

The idea of making some "inheritance" feature is not going to work though. Not with Bitcoin - what's yours shall stay yours.

I find it silly that people pay other entities to store their values. Poor safe-keeping comes mostly from laziness as most people do not research properly.

Storing your Bitcoins in a bank safe makes no sense imo. You have a coin that is decentralized and are adding a third party into the game. Why live with the constant stress of having your money stolen/seized when you could simply store it properly somewhere?

Do you trust the bank more than you trust yourself? Because I'd be constantly terrorized by the thoughts that some authority may find my seed out and consider the fact that I own Bitcoin a suspicious thing, or the idea that the people working at the safe may not be the best willing ones.

In the case of Bitcoin inheritance it will depend on the person in whose absence he will teach everything the only person who will inherit Bitcoin This will make it much easier to save his cryptocurrency. Most people teach their family everything. Banks are good at saving money but investing in crypto is the safest way to keep Bitcoin safe.

I think it's a bad idea to provide inherited features in exchanges or wallets, it will add a new problem. And also surely we feel uncomfortable,
because other parties come to know our private key. Regarding the inheritance of Bitcoin, we don't need help from other parties, we just
need to make guidance for the closest person. How to do it in accordance with the way each person, which is considered effective.

First of all, the bank deposit box is not something free (at least not as far as I know), and it is subject to theft at any time, and like you said it seems a bit strange to keep BTC in the bank, personally I would not choose such an option. There are a lot of options to make sure that after death the funds get into the right hands, and it all depends on how much we trust someone.

Many divide their seed into several parts and divide it into family members, but there is one weak point - any family member can lose this information at any time, or can die at the same or about the same time as the owner which makes the rest of the seed almost worthless. The question remains how to balance between the security of a will, and a safe way for someone not to abuse it during our lifetime.

Maybe this idea will help someone -> Using Locktime for inheritance planning, backups or gifts (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5180850.0)

It came to my mind after I imagine myself getting a lot of bitcoin, just even 1.0 BTC I had planned it where I would place it when I'm old but I never actually thought that I would inherit it to my heirs.

I don't think getting it done with 3rd party services is good, I don't feel like I'm using it if ever  ???

What's best that I can think of is written instruction personally made by me so my heirs would really understand, I'll keep it in a safe, I'll make the easier password combination as possible for them to know and that's it.

There's no way my kids will not know bitcoin or crypto, coz I'm their dad.

Isn't that supposed to be the choice of every Bitcoin holder?
We really don't know when we will die. However, if we want to inherit our Bitcoin, we certainly don't just inherit it. But you also have to prepare them so that the BTC that you inherit will not be easily discharged and can also be utilized better. Will this relate to the education of BTC and cryptocurrency early? Maybe yes.

Similar topics have been discussed before. The pandemic made thinking about sudden death quite realistic, so people have been wondering about BTC inheritance lately. I think there are at least a few different approaches one can take to the inheritance issue:
1. Use code to ensure that some cryptos can only be accessed in the future (something LoyceV created a discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5180850.0) about).
2. Use a third party that will have access to your cryptos and supposedly pass them on to your heirs when the time comes. This comes with certain risks and centralization, but this is what's been suggested in China if I understood it right: https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-citizens-are-now-able-to-inherit-cryptocurrency.
3. Make your own arrangements. You know your loved once very well, so you can probably figure out a way to give them access to your coins that would be most appropriate given the nature of the relationship and their character. For example, my spouse and I know all passwords and other such info of each other, including private key, and all our money is common money to us. But I get it that many people have different financial arrangements.

I don't know how this will work if the third party exchange seems not to be trusted.

I think there's no need a service like OP said, I guess, there's a possible bad consequence may happen something hacking or leaking to your private key which possible becomes wipeout your all crypto asset.

Just manually store in your home, a vault box or something places that safe and put a guide to someone who will inherit that easy for them to understand and how to use. It's very crucial if there is a third party involved, we don't know if they are the ones who will hack you.

Bitcoin and other crypto currencies have become an asset to the holders, a project possession where you chose what to be done with it. In as much as it is a property one can tell his/her next of kin how to get access to the properties on their demise. But making an app as to able the transfer of these coins is already a step into involving a third party, hence, centralized. More risk is said to have set in.
In my opinion these app ain't really needed, if you want to make sure your coins are inherited after your demise you can go ahead and tell your secret keys to those you'd wish have them when you are gone.

This is something that comes up from time to time around here.  What you need to do, and not just for crypotcurrency but for all of your assets combined, is to establish a proper Will.  There is quite a bit of helpful info in this thread I created a while back- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5133913.msg50682170#msg50682170

This has also been bothering me, I will really like to know how bitcoin can be passed to a next of kin. Maybe the owners should always write down their wallet seeds and phrases and acquaint their next of kins with it.

This isn't a popular option with wallet and their users because every feature that would allow members of your family to access your money could also potentially compromise the safety of your wallet.

It's all easy and clear when only you have access and there's only 1 person with private keys. Adding someone lese to the mix that would have to prove that you're dead to access the money would allow hackers to forge death certificates or social engineer their way into the wallet. Leaving your keys for your family to access could also make a burglar get his hands on them.

I agree with you. A person can make his own way on how to bequeath his/her bitcoin without any thirf party involve because it is not a goof idea that you can share your private key and password to others or let's say having a crypto bank and give them all the necessary details about your acount or wallet. It will lead for your fund to lose because someone can access your wallet anytime. Not a good idea.

This is already enough and if ever i do hold up that huge amounts of coins then i will surely think of first on how it would be inherited by my loved ones when i die.
A simple message nor a video tutorial or show up some links on how to open a bitcoin wallet and how to convert or spend it up would really be better compared if
we do just tend to use up 3rd party services or some sort.

We cant trust up no matter how reputable they are  and can you assure that they would give out your coins once you had passed away? I dont think so yet
everything can easily be denied on.

i dont like it aswell . its risky to trust someone because you will not know what happen to them in the future and worst they can take your coins with them  .

the most safest way is to hold your private keys with you and if you want it to inherit with your family  , just educate them first so that theyl know how to decrypt a secret message  because we dont want to write our keys on a simpliest manner  to avoid being stole by unathorized people

If you're planning to inherit your bitcoin to your family or close friends or relatives, then you might teach them earlier and educate them all about bitcoin.Just in case the time comes,they know what to do with and will not lost you hard-earned bitcoin.

I don't think that I'll agree with this statement.

It would be just better if you will just teach somebody in your family the basics of crypto like selling, buying, storing, transferring, how to access crypto etc. In that way if your time will come, just give your private keys to your whoever will inherit your coins and he/she will have access into it already. This is what I'm planning to do in the future. Teaching my kids and others the basics of crypto.

It is not necessary, just include your crypto details in your will and testament, that works just fine, no need for innovation when something works just fine, what might be bnetter to focus on is the insurance of your cryptocurrency in the case that they got stolen or something, like how credit card works where you can freeze the usage of it if it is involved in a fraud or it got stolen.

I prefer to inherited the Bitcoin that I have by manual, which is to directly tell people we believe how to access my wallets. Simple and
not complicated, if you have to use inherited features more risky. Even since the beginning of collecting Bitcoin,I have planned everything.
By teaching my family.

What's been stated in the OP is the reality that is taking place with the bitcoin users around the world. Only 23% of the crypto assets getting inherited is all because of the trust factors and it's digital presence. Even if some company takes over to provide support on inheriting the assets to the close ones, it can't be trusted completely. Because a single key gives access to ownership the entire assets.

Good is to create awareness on how to make bitcoin usable when the person holding it face sudden death. Myself has filed each and every recovery phrase and detailed how wallets need to be accessed.

That has been going on since time immemorial.  

As to poor safe-keeping, laziness is one of the main reasons. There are several others. One of which is the fact that you are always a prey. Another is that a lot of people are simply incompetent safe-keepers. They even keep on losing their phones where a lot of vital information are kept. How could you make such a person a bank to himself/herself?


To be honest, this is where the discussion might get prejudiced, arguing along the line of "I am using a decentralized currency, why would I even consider a third party?" or "I am for Bitcoin, why would I even think that I can trust a bank?"

I remember that even the respectable Hal Finney considered a sort of a Bitcoin-backed bank as something worth looking into, although on different grounds and not on having Bitcoin as inheritance. For me, a very rudimentary form of bank, a simple storage facility, which is fully registered and regulated for accountability, complete with insurance, and so on could actually function very well.

More often than not, the stress does not come from having your money stored in a bank. The stress comes by having your money stored in your drawer.


Personally, I trust myself more than the banks. This may not be true at all for the rest.


There seem to be as many ways to keep everything safe as to lose them.

There was this App that comes across my wall one time and made me interested to read and check

https://inftech.io/

It seems that the team allows us to KeepSafe our crypto asset specially if we are looking for something that we can put our asset as inheritance .

You can check guys and might get your interest as well,I am not with the team i just find it worth a read.

That is what we should do if we want to give the bitcoin to our family or someone we trust. We can teach them the basics of using bitcoin so they can use it after we died. We should tell how they can solve the problem if they confuse about something related to bitcoin because they can get that experience in the future. And if we don't tell them, they will not find a way to solve the problem, and they can not continue what they do. We need to tell them many things about using bitcoin because that can make them understand the bitcoin function in their life.

Uhh no, I don't think a third-party service is necessary in passing on some crypto heirloom when one can easily divulge such sensitive information to their family if they know that their time here is nearing its end. I actually left hints about my crypto stash to my family and how to find and access it should I ever pass away unexpectedly. In that way, the only thing I'd ever do is to leave more clues to point them in the right direction into unlocking my wallet and using those coins for their good. No third-party intervention needed, plus the risk of losing the coins due to some theft or hack is close to none.

The idea is great but I don't think that is necessary though, I think the owner himself needs to be aware of his status and have some kind of protection/ backup for his Bitcoin. That should and must be the right thing to do with everything especially with this field which involves crypto where you can lose all your assets because you lose your private key and have nothing to backup.
So it's like backing things up, the owner needs to point out the inheritance himself, let the wallets do the more important works.

It's an obligation that the owner/user needs to know while dealing
with this investment currency, he needs to observe every necessary
protections.


It's the first thing in mind that needs to established once you started
dealing with bitcoin/crypto, everything should be in place so whatever
happens you are well prepared.


That's right, everything should be done accordingly for future references.

Teach them some basic knowledge about bitcoin, wallets, and transactions. That will suffice the idea.

Having it with a third party isn't really a good idea. But I've heard that there's some exchange or platform, I forgot what country is that which is trying to fix this problem but still, I don't like the idea.

It is necessary if you want to "fix the world".
We have to assume that some people will never tell anyone that they own Bitcoins and the coins will become lost the moment their owners die. This means that the number of coins in circulation will continue to decreas to the point when there's maybe 10% of the innitial 21 million left. I wouldn't worry about it too much though, unless you care so much about future generations and their access to Bitcoin. IMO, they will find a way or create their own, better version of BTC. Nothing lasts forever.

This situation has been discussed so many times on here. And most suggestion users give is to get a lawyer to get a lawyer. Involving a third party isn't a good idea in my opinion as this takes away the purpose of Bitcoin which is decentralization.
Another problem is volatility, asset may become worthless(maybe) at the time of inheritance.
Using wallets that offers such might be a good idea though there's centralisation. Others suggested it but I haven't tried it myself.

That is not a good idea.
It would be much better If you just teach one or two of your family member, could be your wife or grown up children how to import or access your offline wallet or any wallet that could be accessible with keys and phrases, and they need to find these keys when you're gone. At least that's the very first step to make, then let them know you have Bitcoin.

Entrusting your Bitcoin or alts to a third party to inherit them to your family members doesn't sound safe, specially If none of your family member knew you have it.
Though, the good side of It is, It don't get lost in circulation though It's dormant to the exchange.

For such a feature to surface, it must be done by a centralized exchanges and i think it's a good idea because i've heard lot of story on this topic as when people died, the people closeer to them often tends not to be able to crack open the wallet leading to loss of assets. I believe this will serve as some sort of insurance for crypto holders and traders 

Private keys and phrases are available for a family member to access the bitcoin wallet. I think that is enough to make the bitcoin inheritance be given to that family member. We don't need third parties to do that, that would be very risky and there's a possibility that we may lose such amount of bitcoin. You can just leave those keys and phrases anywhere safe in our house and make instructions or something like a word puzzle for them to find it.

The cryptocurrency market is always an uncertain market.
A lot can happen here in a very short time. You can become so rich in a very short time and again you can lose everything here. I will not say that there is no risk, but with Bitcoin I consider myself safe. This is my opinion many may disagree with this.

Choosing a lawyer to process the inheritance rights of bitcoin holders is indeed a pretty good suggestion. So there will be inheritance rights for someone appointed for a private key that can access the Wallet.

and the inherited private key containing bitcoin will be stored in a bank account, so only those who have inheritance rights can actually open it.

Many other ways you can do, just choose which is the best way to pass down what we have safely.

That could be a good way, doing a legal process to make sure that the heir will really inherit it,

Or simply explain it personally to someone you want to inherit your bitcoin. This will also be a good way since you can really explain and answer the upcoming questions that come up to the mind of your heir. At least you can give a clear and full explanation he/she needs.

Legality is safe as the inherited thing have a good amount value.


Hands on knowledge is the best choice, giving the in depth explanation to the person you wanted to inherit your bitcoin
from that way you'll be explain further every data that he needed to know about the thing that he'll going to received from
you.

Inheritance features such as ability to claim traders asset in case he's dead will be OK but this can only be possible on centralized exchange that a lot people give thumb down over DEX. By the I'm curious to know the percentage of bitcoin holders that will store huge amount of bitcoin in an exchange rather than hardware and dex wallet. I'm of opinion that people should consider bitcoin like an asset and properties and also include it when preparing will with detail info on how to access it in case of death

It’s a lot better to burn your own family in inheritance but like a retirement fund or even a savings account no one knows how much you own them or how much you own them or how you can actually access them outside. Bitcoin provides a secure place to store assets that can be kept secret from everyone. But it only applies to centralized.

This is very interesting question. It seems that everything is simple. You just need to transfer files and private keys on USB flash drive and give it to your relatives and that’s all. But on the other hand, if a person passes away suddenly, then in this situation your accumulations will sink into oblivion and there is no way to access them.

I don't know if this is a standard on some countries but for my custodial wallet when I was sending my KYC information they also asked to list down to successors just in case if something happened to me so I think it is possible of what you are asking to be done by a custodial wallet company if they want to make inheritance something possible on their end. If not the best thing I can think of it through lawyers who specialized at wills and at the same time crypto knowledge since we all know private keys  and passwords is something sensitive in this scenario and I think trusting them normally like what you will do with wills is something achievable if the law firm also specializes in that kind of field.

Everything can be simplified by just writing everything in a testament, or creating a video with a full explanation on how the inheritor can access to the inheritance, highly recommended to use a ledger, not an exchange or an online wallet to access the inheritance, but in my case, if the inheritor is already mature I will ask as a condition to first learn about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency before getting the private keys.

I doubt the possibility of the bitcoin that have been beign regained. These people die not relating the whereabout of their private keys to family members, thereby reducing the total circulation and also the increase in the price of the available bitcoin. now, we are hoping to see cases where people get to leave their will behind as private keys for the generations to come to inherit else it will only get to reduction in total circulation.

Yes, just like after we die either we have created a will whereby we transfer the house or bank balance to others then in the same way we should be transferring this crypto as well. Only thing here we need to write down ask the details and provide them so that the crypto which we had bought it does not go waste and can be utilized by the person with whom you had shared it and make his/her life more better as hopefully it would be good value worth it. So rather than ignoring we should be handing them to the near and dear ones and ask them to use it after we leave the earth.

Whom i want to give my Bitcoin, I will definitely explain about Bitcoin to him , i will teach him about it. if he want to learn properly and feel interest about crypto then i will give some Bitcoin to him otherwise I will choose someone else who is interested. I don't want to give my bitcoin to someone who is completely illiterate about it.

It seems to be a great idea in my opinion bitcoin is supposed to be inherited maybe something similar to a bank account, But I guess the problem here is bitcoin is still not yet adopted in a lot of countries even here in my country. Some bitcoin wallet doesn't really support this feature may be a lot of companies doesn't really pay attention to it.

Having inherited features in your bitcoin wallet might just mean doing something like a KYC that might be a big deal for some users. Also, a small percentage of bitcoin was already lost because of this problem.

In most cases on where we do inherit our coins is on our own family.For now i can just trust up my wife to know everything that ive been holding since well this is just some personal reasons

yet we cant trust up fully our wives. lol. When it comes to inheritance then im already minding on giving out some basic instructions incase if i do pass away.

So that those coins wont really be put up in no use and your own family will able to benefit from it.

The first thing you need to do is to make your wife understand on why you store your coins and what your aims in future so that she will not be tempt to get those balances when she see a huge volume on your wallet

In my case my wife literally know on what I am doing since most of the time I'm using her web wallet to do a cash out  on remittance  :).

Bitcoin is a very valuable crypto asset, everyone should be worried about losing this asset. Bitcoin can be inherited as long as the person receiving this asset understands about Cryptocurrency. If you need an application about legacy programs of course this app should be safe as they will store private keys. From now on we may have to provide information about our assets against wives and children (children who grow and understand the online world).

I personally have taught my wife to learn digital currency trading. So when I am not automatically there is my wife who will later inherit the crypto-currency assets.

Even without that kind of feature, people can still inherit bitcoin and other digital assets. We just need to plan for it since we never when our time ends. If they are actually scared of losing their assets, it's better to tell or teach people you trusted about crypto so they know what to do about your asset when you die.

Why would you depend your asset on other people to give it to your family, when you can tell it to them directly. It's still better for your family or the one who you want to inherit your digital asset to personally know how to deal with crypto. That's why I'm slowing introducing and teaching these things with my siblings for them to be aware of.

Nobody knows for sure, that is why we should have to tell someone who can be trusted or aware of what we do. Tell your closest friends or any from our family is the best option but don't just tell them instead, better to give them time to access it when there is time just to assure that they can really open it once we are gone.


It might the reason that he can't trust to any member of the family that makes them no choice but to trust others. It some cases that no one is capable enough to take care of his wallet. Only it needs assurance to keep safe not for the assurance that someone of the family will put it at risk.

The easiest way can indeed be done like that. But everyone's mind, everyone's circumstances may be different and need help by a third party to pass on the inheritance in the form of a private key to someone who has already been chosen.

The family is the first person to know all this, because we don't know when we will die and leave this cryptocurrency asset.

I personally made some good plans for the future against my bitcoin stash, the family will be aware of my total holdings and when anything happened they should take my portfolios. Bitcoin will inherited and this will depend on the individuals in concerns. Those who have gone beyond has talked about their fatal experience of losing their bitcoin forever because they haven't made the necessary plans for their stored Bitcoin. You create the wallets and send their respective bitcoin stash to everyone.

Agree on that and also there are online application that would help them to give what order or something that they want to the chosen person that they want to receive the message. Having a vault will help them also to hide what piece of information they wrote in that paper to let the trustee know everything after they managed to open the security code of the vault.

I can't mention everything that is needed but if they could just think it thoroughly they might have to come up an idea just like mine.

Using  3rd party service for a circumstance like this may vary, we have different of way of living so some of us may not want or do not afford what it takes to use it. Why do we need to think so much about it? this also should be a matter of an amount, why do you need a jigsaw like puzzle for 0.00001btc. Now if you know your family well then you won't be needing any help of this kind of service in the future, if ever, you can just leave it open to them just before you die.

Just leave voice record then!

a person with good morale and judgement can turn stupid in minutes after having a wallet with more than $1M so entrusting BTC to someone that he would give it to your kid or wife may not be a good idea. hard to trust 3rd party to do that even if there is a eye biometrics system that only your kid or wife's eye can unlock the BTC. one thing that you might just have to do before dying is to train any of your kid who is interested to learn all the stuff.

Im thinking about this and accidents are a surprise so we never know when will it happen. My plan is to just say it to my partner so she will be using something in the future. It might give her some wrong ideas but I will just explain that she needs to know it now. Other than that, I could just add it in my last will and testament.

If you are not a loner then you will be providing all those information to your relatives especially the close ones and that is how i manage things even though i am not having a huge stash of coins right now my partner and my parents are aware of my cryptocurrency craze for years and hence they knows where to search if i perish suddenly.

Isn't where you put the seed the most important thing?  I mean if you put the seed in say two different bank safes... well, you need the other phrase in the other bank etc.  If you keep it at home, well couldn't fire or theft easily make this a huge issue?  I heard about crytosteel so that protects against fires?  But where do you hide it... or is it in plain site?

I think you need to educate your family member about bitcoin so that it will not difficult for them to inherit bitcoin or any crypto wealth that you have in your wallet if ever you past away. It's so simple,isn't it? No need third party to store or to entrust your wallet password and private key.

You can inherit bitcoin without any help, simply by giving your access to your wife, children, or to whom you want to leave them. If you make a controlling authority, then it will not be quite in the style of bitcoin, since it's not supposed be controlled from one place.

This thread makes me think again! It is true that we need heirs because the assets are very valuable. I will try that to accept the inheritance of course people we can trust. Children and wives are the closest people and from now on we provide this information, in order to learn about the technology of Bitcoin.

About crypto wallets that provide inherited features, the security, of course, the first priority. This inherited person is in control because they have private keys. From this moment on we begin to think about our successors. We can introduce this technology to people we believe because one day it can be useful to them.

There is an advice from a friend in past to write a note having every details from passwords,private keys and even mnemonic words .

then Put them all attached in your last will and testament.

That is one of the safest way to inherit our crypto assets.

But i believe that there is one project in past that gives cryptonians have an option to keep safe their currencies in unexpected deaths.

try to check this
https://inftech.io/

Though i am not connected in that company ,i just wanna share for others to check.

It can be done, if there is an organization engaged in that field, some sort of insurance maybe? I'm very surprised by the number of bitcoins that can't be accessed, and where people can find out the bitcoins that can't be accessed. Is there a separate site for that information or information about the features of bitcoin that can be accessed. does anyone want to share this information?

Back again about institutions that move to provide inheritance rights from a bitcoin assets. Like only lawyers, that surahs or assets can be inherited in a way that complies with applicable law in the country. Maybe this will be a good breakthrough for the government to look further about cryptocurrency.

     Seems pointless at first thought but if you think about it thoroughly, the idea turns put to be quite great. I mean, the issue is real enough for everyone who owns any type of crypto currency. Since no one knows when and how they would die, it would be pretty amazing to have apps that grants family members or specific people chosen by the owner him/herself just in case some accidents happen.

     On the other hand though, the owner of the coins can brief their chosen person in advance about crypto currencies and all then be done with it so the owner can be put at ease and not worry where his/her hard earned crypto currencies would end up when he/she dies tomorrow or the day after. The only thing about this though is that it truly is quite risky in many ways.

     Or just leave everything to the lawyers and let them do their job. That is, if the owner of the coins has one or can afford one.

This is the sole reason why our loved ones betray us. Greed has become so worse these days that even siblings can kill each other for money.
Not only siblings but even children kill their parents for their inheritance. So we wouldn't want our loved ones harm us for the precious crypto we are inheriting to them.

Besides that, unless and until we ourselves don't find a way to inherit the crypto by making a will or making a secret riddle to crack the inherited crypto , it would require a third party to inherit the crypto which is against it's peer to peer payments and decentralization.

Agree with you,much better to talk your family or closest relative on how they can access your account,password and private key if ever your gone.But i think making a testament earlier with the third party like attorney is not a good idea. What if you teach your family member about bitcoin and how to use it so that they already have knowledge in bitcoin or other cypto currency,they already have knowledge on how to access a wallet and if you  suddenly disappear or gone they will find your account ,password and private in your things easily.

Kids aren't interested to learn this kind of stuff to be honest about finance and decentralized money n all, they just want to play Minecraft these days. So I guess it is up to you to make this boring subject interesting to your kid and teach him from early days of his life as interest will definitely grow with time and he will start looking into these kind of things by himself and then you can drop the bomb of $1M btc on him. But beware he can do anything in order to get these coins, so after disclosing your secret you would also have to sleep with one eye open. ;D

You don’t really need an exchange to handle this for you. If you have a safe in your house you can just put the keys on papers and store them in your safe just as you do with paper money. I believe that majority of those that has a safe in their house, their families are aware of it. You can then keep the key to your safe in a place that your family can access it in your room.

If something happens, they can go to where the keys to the safe is kept and then take the key to unlock the safe and have access to your crypto private keys that are stored in your safe. That way they have access to your cryptocurrency. But this depends on your situation, I do see some people that say they don’t really trust anyone in their family, so try to plan accordingly.

P.S: I don’t see why you shouldn’t trust your family members. If you don’t trust your family, then it doesn’t make any sense. Try to fix any problem you’re having with them. Your choice tho'.

Such feature will only be available in a centralized system. If you want a crypto exchange or a wallet to provide that feature, you will have to provide the keys to them so that they can pass it on. That mean you are handing over your coins to them (by giving your key). I don't see any other way over here.
The only way you can do this is to trust them with your keys (but then again, this means you no longer own the key), or give some hints or store something somewhere they will eventually look at after you pass away.

Yes, actually it can happen. It's well known some husbands don't trust their wives, some wives don't trust their husbands and some parents can't trust their children for different reasons, then to store private keys somewhere their families know how to reach to it can be risky.
On these cases some centralization is needed and I see no problem since the holder thinks it's the best way to solve the situation. The implementation on exchanges is a valid idea, but for now it can be done by depositing the private keys at a bank account, for an example (of course with assurance).

Castoid services are facing growing demand for cryptocurrency inheritance services. This problem was not raised before the Covid-19 pandemic, but now investors want to guarantee the transfer of the accumulated cryptocurrency. Inheritance rights are transferred by cryptocentric services, they are valid after death established by the state, or they use smart contracts. Oracles obtain information about the death of the key holder from medical databases and state registries by issuing an NFT token in ERC 721 format to the heirs. Access to the multisignature or the original phrase, which is located in a decentralized storage, is opened. I read that Casa Hodl and Unchained Capital have announced this issue.

the best option is to tell the immediate family. Because close relatives know about us. Services such as third parties are only an option if they do not have good relations with the family because they are related to several problems.

Today's sound recording is too old-fashioned. making video recordings more interesting for now, more information can be shared via video.

It is good to think that you can be able to pass your Bitcoin holdings into the next generation as part of your last will or inheritance for them to have a benefit on the future.

There is no really in need of any crypto exchange or wallet that have feature like what you were thinking of because it will just make things complicated. Why in need to do that when you can instantly state it into your family or into the one you have a full trust with. If you are really worry about how you can be able to make your Bitcoins be inherited into your family if ever you already pass away, then you must start educating your family or closest relative about Bitcoin so that they would be educated on how they can have an access into your assets. That would be the best thing to do instead of relying or depending into any exchange. Just left a written or printed note where your private keys or password is in there and let them know where it is once it is really time for them to have it. Just simple as that. With that knowing you have let them know what Bitcoin is and how they can make use into it and how they can access it, you don't have to worry anymore on how can you be able to inherit your Bitcoins to them.

It’s better to share the details with close family members so that once you are not their others can make use of it and can sell and get the money as they would require money at that point of time. So, either can share with siblings/spouse/children/relatives or whoever is close to you and needs to know so you can let them know to take care of it when you are not their around.

Actually, if you can make a reasonable email which provides information about your relatives and proof of identity, there is a high chance you can inherit those crypto available on an exchange or a wallet. But I guess if you want others to use your coins if you pass away, you just simply write a testament that includes your account name, email address, password as well as 2FA authenticator and all the information that is necessary. And remember to give them instruction on how to use cryptocurrencies. There are still many people unfamiliar with this new technologies.

It is a very good development to prevent the massive loss of bitcoin while the asset could be transferred to ones progeny but how many projects are looking into this, most project wants to create their coin and mop the bitcoin and ethereum order in the trade. There few concern to this security and integrity of transfer of asset.

There are some wallets that cannot be passed unless the owner of it gives the password of his account to other but still cannot change the accounts identity. If the mass adaptation occurs, these kind of system should be fixed right a way or else the Bitcoin of the user dies without expecting it will be hurried under the sea and no one can access on it that might end up being a trash on crypto economy. Mass adaptation is really getting closer so we should really make ourselves ready for it.

As of now, I do not have any reasons for me to tell my private keys and password to acces my different portfolio and my wallets to my family or relatives because for me it is careless decision. You may have misconception but it is not that I do not trust my family, I'm just afraid that they may use it in not good ways. I know that we humans have not information about when we will die and it is the reason why I have now plan to write my private keys and password and I will keep it in my cabinet.

One of the solutions is to save all relevant data about your Bitcoin wallet in some external memory, like USB and store it somwhere safe like bank vault or something. Of course, your family members need to know that information and how to get it in case that something happens to owner or there is need for inheritance.

Or maybe in the google drive. Of course, the account that will be used is the account that was not being used in any online activity to keep it safe but the details were shared to someone dear to you. This is what I was doing right now, and I am sure that if ever that there is something bad happen to me, my bitcoin will be inherited to the person I trusted.

If in your family no one understands the use of cryptocurrency, then the key access you leave will not function optimally. Start educating one of the people you are closest to and trust, teach the cryptocurrency ecosystem, so that when you really "go" then there is one person who can use it well. It will function more optimally.

I share everything with my wife, I teach her about many things related to what I do in the crypto world. So, one day I "go" first, I feel calm because my wife already knows what she must do. We also keep all important notes related to the wallet in a book.

It was your decision, sometimes we can't fully give trust to our family for some reason. And not also because they are your family or our relatives we can entrust everything we have but crypto is different, careless hands will cause damages.

And for me, I'll do the same. Only I give them some hints and overview of what is crypto and how it does, may exposing them is good to help but handling our private keys and password is a little bit sensitive. We need to be more careful because a single mistake is very regrettable and we already know what will happen next.

Yes it is good idea to share and to teach them the concept of cryptocurrencies and how to use it. My wallet have bitcoins and some altcoins and I also told them that when there is bad thing happens to me, just open the vault in my room and they will see my private keys around it. We should have copy of our private keys and store it in a safe place for us to ensure that our family can use it whenever there is something wrong happen to us.

I think this is not a good idea too because it's like a hassle for this kind of features again for the development team of the exchanges and also the aim of their platform is to have the word "Exchange" or "Trade" they don't want to be a time capsule for everyone just want to store their funds and wait for the one who will open the account and inherit all of those funds because all of the responsibility of keeping those are in the user only you don't need to have to get more problematic because of this kind of action.

Also, it is not good storing your funds to the exchange because it takes a lot of trouble what if they want to close the platform so there are no rules about it according to them because they always take a not before leaving to the world of exchange and also for sure there is a time an allotment for those who want to get their fund, better to store those into the safe wallet or better withdraw your funds and cash it out immediately no problem to the user at the same time to the developer team.

It is not a good idea.

We can't entrust our funds to the exchanges which shall be inherited by any of our children or relatives or whoever we want to give it. There are too many factors to consider that we shouldn't consider doing it if the time comes they will start offering such service.

This will be a big problem if there is an application service or site regarding the heir to a personal Bitcoin wallet holder in the future, even though the linked site is fully trustworthy and can store our security keywords, it will not guarantee 100% safe, because it is very likely that it will invite more scammers to create similar fake sites or can even invite more hackers to be able to crack security keywords

Based on my research. Bitcoins are stored in a virtual wallet. A separate “private key” allows the owner access to the wallet's contents. If a Bitcoin owner dies without passing on the private key, his heirs may discover his wallet only to realize that they will never gain access to the wealth inside.

Not many user agree with this idea being developed. There is no guarantee of security if the private key of our asset are held by someone else. Small amount may not be a problem, but if there are enough asset, it will increase the risk of loss on the part of the owner. There are simpler ways if someone want to inherit asset to his family after death, and one of them is a private lawyer.

Let me correct it. It is not "based on my research". That sentences are completely wrong. You should say this : "Based on Cointelegraph article research" (& i did some cyrillic works).. bla bla bla (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1926895.msg55143251#msg55143251)

This topic is something that I haven’t really thought about and I am glad that I get to read people’s opinion.
I see the point that this could become a new way for scammers to form schemes and it is not really guaranteed. I think that a lawyer is a good idea.
But won’t there be any issue that Bitcoin is not part of the government regulation but will be took care by a person of the law? Anyway it’s just a wild thought.

BTCBTCOver the past decade, the number of Bitcoin investors and other types of crypto assets has grown tremendously. Based on data by Coinmetrics, there are currently around 12 million Bitcoin millionaires in the world. However, there are those who die every year, without heirs who can access Bitcoin. The amount reaches 4 million Bitcoin (around US $ 40 billion), according to Coincover.

We can accomplish that without giving our private data to an outsider, rather than depending on a unified association to deal with the passing on our legacy, we ought to do that without anyone's help by getting our friends and family engaged with the business we're into. On the off chance that you don't instruct them and make them experience passionate feelings for the innovation, they're probably going to auction every one of your coins on the off chance that they get their hands on them when you're no more. Rather than keeping them as home in spite of the fact that trade not many to deal with dire necessities. Teach your cherished one on bitcoin.

Not here to shill and I don't own it but I think Safe Haven are developing something called Inhereti which solves this very purpose.it's kind of a digital will that you pass on.
Have a look at the details on how it works though as I haven't read it in depth.

If you want to transfer your crypto to your relatives, then there should be no problem with that. But if you die and there is no one to transfer their bitcoins to, they should return to the market. I think so. Or go to the crypto tax account.

If we would think of it, it is actually a matter that should be handled as soon as the moderators of bitcoin can. If ever a whale or a person holding large amount of bitcoin dies, would it be detrimental for bitcoin's value as time passes by? It would be best if some of the person's relative or closest friend has a key access with all his bitcoin so that it wouldn't go to waste or be stucked on a deceased person's wallet forever. It will also be a great help for many who wants to make sure that his wealth will be beneficial for his family even when he's already gone in this world.