Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin as a Decentralized Cryptocurrency has no physical structure just like the bank. It’s basically stored in a digital wallet/account being operated from a mobile device and its security embedded there also. In creating Defi wallet or block chain account no available section for next of kin or third party details Its always advised to keep Recovery Phrase details secret  in save location, these will help in recovering the wallet.

Literally bitcoin details remain secret and personal to me. If I continue to keep my details secret of what use would it be to me when I’m no more and my love ones can’t benefit from my bitcoin? Here is my question what happens to the bitcoin of someone who died and didn’t disclose his/her wallet details to anyone? please I need response . Would the bitcoin be abandoned in the wallet forever?? Would it be a waste of bitcoin?

There are many different approaches to this, but I have come to a conclusion about Shamir's secret sharing which can be an effective way to this type of issue. Let us take for example, that you have 4 children, you can use the Shamir's secret sharing cryptographic algorithm to use the seed phrase to generate four secrets, the secret can be set to have 3 shares, which means 3 secrets is enough to reconstruct the seed phrase. You will have to let your 3 children know about this, educated them what bitcoin and cryptocurrencies generally is all about, then give them their own secrets. In case any thing happen to anyone, the three remaining can reconstruct the seed phrase. Also, for more ease of recovery, the shares can be set to 2 instead of three, I'm which only two secrets will be needed to reconstruct the seed phrase or private key.

But, also another approach which is the best is the use of multisig, in which M out of N users can be able to sign a transaction, so out of 3 children, you can set it to 2 children that will be able to sign the transaction, so any of the 2 children will be able to unlock the funds in case of anything. This is one of the best approach, but fathers do not want children to know their assets until they leave the world, but multisig can not offer such, your children will be able to know the assets on the multisig wallet unlike shamir's secret sharing when children will only be able to use the shares to reconstruct the seed phrase or private key, if they are loyal in the family.

Yes, your bitcoins will be forever left in your wallet if you die today. Maybe you will give your child a private key to pass your bitcoins on to your child. So, if you are dead, your child will inherit your bitcoin and will not be buried in your wallet forever.

https://medium.com/shiftcrypto/prepare-your-bitcoins-for-your-heirs-dfc537811df2
This is a pretty detailed guide which covers most of OP doubts. Surely, whenever we die we no longer have access to our beloved keys: for this reason it is of extreme importance to make sure that somebody we love will be able to access our btc stash. If we do not make sure about this our stash is gone forever.

If you do nothing at all, your funds will never move after you die. In reality, you're actually taking those unspent outputs out of circulation forever, so you'll be responsible for a tiny increase in bitcoin price... Less supply + equal demand should increase the price :)

In my case: I have one daughter. She knows where to find my hardware wallets, she knows the pincode and i've taught her the basics. After I die, she'll be able to spend everything I held my whole life. I tried to make things as simple as possible for her: no hidden messages, no extra encryption, no ssss, just a hardware wallet and the proper gui... Making her jump over hurdles will only decrease the odds she'll actually be able to spend my funds, and i'd rather have her rob me wile i'm still alive than increase the odds she won't be able to spend my holdings after i die.

I will advise this to be the simple solution to what fear op has raised and concern to every body. This is not only bitcoin keys though, it is concerning all cryptocurrency coins. We can let our trusted people know about the blockchain and cryptocurrency for at least the sake of how to unlock our wallets. This will help to ensure that our investment and sweat are not lost to the wallet and blockchain.

If you didn't give the key phrases for the wallet, it wouldn't be accessed anymore. It would be part of the void in BTC, lol :o. It's just easier to leave an instruction or reference to how they would retrieve your BTC. It's best to have it like that and make the instructions secure enough, so no one has access to it other than your children. Those recovery phrases would be the key for them to accessing it. If it's unexpected, maybe there's an unencrypted wallet software used by the person who died, and someone can get access to it. That would really depend on you.

this sounds scarry  . its like a dead body that have never been discovered and didnt bring properly to his last resort . bitcoins that are stuck in a wallet can haunt too ? jk ;")  .

op you look so worried , do you have lots of bitcoin stored on your wallets ? you should act and do whats best for them . you already have couple of suggestions like giving the keys or other login details to the closest people around you  .  anyway theres a topic that i have read before where the wallet or the address can send amounts automatically to the set address . why wont they implement same thing  where the funds where automatically sent to the set address if no activity was found after some time or based on the time the user have set .

Your bitcoin will die with you. No one can get your bitcoin except you yourself. Remember the known phrases? Not your keys not your coins. If ever you are keeping the key yourself and no one has wonder thay you have bitcoin then the bitcoin will die with you.

This is why it should be a good practice not to hold your funds in bitcoin insteas use the bank service that will allow immediately family to get the funds from a  deceased family member legally. The banks will allow it to be withdrawn if all requirements will be submitted that include legal actions.

This is fun question and many people do ask it when they first time get struck with it!

Well lots of research has already been done on this and according one of the article there are around 4 million bitcoins which are already lost in the time. Nobody knows if they will ever become available for use. They are in the circulation but not used since they are locked out somewhere on the hard-disk, or the biggest holder like Mr. Satoshi has most of it and it's still ambiguous if we will get it or not.

Actual Lost Bitcoins in the Time. (https://cryptotips.eu/en/knowledge-base/how-many-bitcoins-are-there-in-circulation-lost-bitcoin-and-more/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20recent%20study,mined%2C%20only%2014%20million%20remain./)

This is ridiculously huge amount of money that's stuck.

Surely your will be locked out into this pool as well.  :)

Lost forever. There are millions of bitcoins that were assumed to be lost forever. If you have never told anyone your private keys, it won't move an inch and it will be considered to be gone forever. The reason why we have to tell it to our loved ones is when you think that you can't take it anymore or at least give them instruction and teach them how to recover phrases or the private key of yours. Simple knowledge about recovery will make them use your bitcoin as your last will to them.

Obviously it will be lost forever, that's why you need to have some plans or contingency. As the saying goes, you are your own bank, so you need to take care of it and somewhat learn how to recover it in case of death.

You can read a medium post here: Letter to Loved Ones: a template for your crypto estate planning (https://medium.com/@pamelawjd/letter-to-loved-ones-a-template-for-your-crypto-estate-planning-4ee0975434e4). It is an old article, but it is still applicable at this time.

Despite the fact that there is no provision for third party in the blockchain wallet process there are still known ways in which you can pass on your founds and grant access to your personal wallet and one of those popular way is to reveal your wallet key of back up phrase to your love ones in that way if any thing happen to you they have access to your wallet.

What if Satoshi was dead? I hope he is just fine and enjoying his life right now.
He possesses the most bitcoin for himself, that estimated Satoshi Nakamoto has more than 1 million bitcoins, claimed as 'lost Satoshi Coins'
While we agreed that 'lost bitcoins' make the rest of the coins worth slightly more, there is still a doubt.
it is estimated that more than 4 million Bitcoins are lost forever, and there are many stories of how hackers have been trying for years to crack a bitcoin wallet that contains lost bitcoins, which cannot be accessed. Therefore, the Forum Leader (a person in charge) Theymos (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=35) ever stated to do soft fork to destroy 'Satoshi lost coins' (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1469099.0) in order to prevent disastrous monetary (bitcoin) inflation.
However, Theymos stated he never said any such thing, the idea is not to destroy coins, but to prevent lost and insecure coins from being stolen. > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1469099.msg14823504#msg14823504

Source:
read more (https://nairametrics.com/2020/07/13/30-billion-worth-of-btcs-have-disappeared-forever/)
and more (https://news.bitcoin.com/theymos-bitcoins-satoshi-destroyed/)

Bitcoin calls for writing of will to every owner, It is disappointing to know the low rate of writing will even in USA is as low as 60% for Adult. Another important process is the protecting the information to access the asset. I dont support saving such anonymous coin in banks or with any public asset security that is onground. Am still waiting for project idea that can prove their transparency while they secure assets that are transferable to one's progeny or relatives.

Bitcoin gives death a unique challenge. As Bitcoin exist only in virtual form. If you pass away without leaving the private key to anyone, your bitcoins are effectively unavailable to anyone.

So you need tell to your family to one who you really trust and give them your information of your account or wallet that having bitcoin incase if the day you die there is someone who open your wallet and sell your bitcoin because it's better to get your family member your money than hold in the wallet forever. But it's hard to trust to family members sometimes because maybe other do wrong thing when you still alive.

It would be stay on your wallet and nobody could access it or send it.
This is also the reason why I let my family know that I am earning through Bitcoin and I have some savings on it so if that time comes they would only need to seek help from someone who have knowledge on how to access it or I would leave some note and guide how to use it.
If you want to keep it a secrete to your family you could always create a note or guide on a usd flash drive that would be given to them if something happens to you.

You will not lose your  bitcoins even if you die though it will not be accessible to your loved ones if the one who knows your private keys is yourself. We are not a fortune teller to predict when we will die so, make sure you are prepared incase of unfortune events like death, you should give those private keys to your trusted family and friends. It will be a waste of all the hardships you had made when you are still alive if your bitcoins will not be used.

If you don't tell your family that you have bitcoin, no one will know about that, and they will not be able to use your bitcoin for anything. Your bitcoin will be store in the wallet without anyone who can access the wallet. I hope you can tell your family about bitcoin and how they can access your bitcoin wallet to use it for their own good. If they can achieve success to make more money from your bitcoin, they will thank you, and they will not forget you even if you already died.

Maybe you can teach them about bitcoin, how to use bitcoin, and how to secure the bitcoin in the wallet to know the basic things to use bitcoin. One day, if you die and tell them about your bitcoin, they will use it as your legacy, and they will have the opportunity to continue your plan to grow the bitcoin amount or anything you want to make it.

On the first part, well nothing from this world will be of use to you when you're no more so at that point bitcoin is just like anything else, bank account, house, car, teddybear. On the second part, think of bitcoins as your secret stash or treasure, unless you share with your family the map of the treasure it will stay buried there forever.


Yes and no.
Yes as they will be abandoned forever and no, they will not be a waste. think of it as your last good deed in this world.

Better be ready in emergency things that may come across the road that we don't really expect like accident or serious sickness.

Mine is stored in my ledger and my Eldest son and my wife has an access(since my children are trustworthy and lovable)
so in any case that i die without expectation they will handle my funds.

My wife also have knowledge in crypto so basically she will keep my way of dealing in this community and market.

The answer is already there, if you won't be able to make use of your Bitcoin or simply, no one will benefit from it, it is as good as lost because there is no chance to retrieve it if private keys are not known by other people aside from yourself. This would be a tough situation and I myself let my brother know my private keys just to be ready with this scenario. Since he is knowledgeable with this technology, things won't go wrong I think. There will be a day you will trust someone, and that is just money to not be selfish.

actually if you don't make such good action for your cryptocurrency now that you are alive then when you  suddenly then it will gone in the air.

there are cases that many Crypto holder dies and all their assets is died together with them.
the problem is He is talking in not expected time and He did not mentioned about any parties knowing or having access in His currencies so in that He will surely Lose all the coins.

Always expect the unexpected. No one actually knows when a person will die, so we should always be ready for it.

Same as you, I tell one of my family members about bitcoin and cryptocurrency; that is why my brother knows where I hid all of my private keys and how to access all of my crypto wallets because they will need it in case of emergency. Telling one of your family members about your bitcoins or your crypto investments is important because if they didn't know about it, all of your bitcoin or funds will only stay in your wallet and cannot be taken.

The answer is obvious enough.  If you die without disclosing your seed phrase to your next of kin or someone you'd love to have it, then definitely your coins will be abandoned permanently in the wallet having no benefits whatsoever to either you or your loved ones.
The only way to prevent this from happening is give your seed phrase to trusted individuals. Note that the key word there is 'Trusted'. If the individual isn't trusted, then you run the risk of having your coins looted.

As you can see no one has escape death if it's their time to leave this world, then they cannot extend it anymore and most of the time death comes like a thief in the night. Meaning it never failed to surprise people who passed away. My point is, we never know when death comes to us. It is better to prepare ourselves for it. One of the things to secure our BTC whenever death comes to us like a thief in the night is to research well how will it be passed to our children or whoever you want to keep it just after you die.

A clear and concise answer to the OP ; When you die without anyone knew you have stored Btc in an offline wallet, then Btc will be included in the "lost Btc". But, If you have stored in an exchange, It'll still be included in the circulation as the exchange literally holds your Btc.


I doubt that those were all the total number of Btc that has been lost. There are actually some old addresses that hasn't been moved for how many years that were considered as lost Btc, but has been moved on the latter.
If Satoshi will be forever anonymous, then I guess that's the only accurate number amongst the list.

If ever you die today, nothing will save your Bitcoin if nobody knows about your address and keys and that it be included in the number of lost BTC. I know we don't know what will happen next and definitely, we can't assure ourselves that everything will be fine by tomorrow or in the coming days. That makes it very important to let some members of our family knows what we do, our investment.

Firstly I hope for you to have a long life. But, depending on you and where you hold your bitcoins there can be many theories. Since bitcoin is decentralized and governments or organizations can't control it, they can't find your sons/daughters and pass them anything left from you. So theoretically, if you don't do anything about it, your assess would be lost forever. As a simple solution, you can easily hold your backup seeds, plus a piece of paper on a safebox, so whenever you gone, the others can can get access to your backup seeds and the testament you left for them.

The coin will be wasted and die with you if you store it inside a safe wallet and no one knows about your private keys, that's how things works within decentralized system.

So better to make sure that you trusted someone close to you in order not to waste your investment, saving the private key and share the information to whoever you trusted will let you not to waste your money.

I can only imagine that the people who does not aware to pass the key to anybody  will only causing the bitcoin availability reduced more and more as gime goes by.
Imagine 100 people with average 1 bitcoin holding disappeared because of the death every year and the numbers could continue increases.
Of course if you aware about all of the urgency passing the key to somebody you trust then it is clear you are fine and the bitcoin safe from the risk of extinction. This is maybe sounds a little bit exaggerated but yes it is what it is.

If you don't die by accident, you can give someone your pass phrase while in the sickbed. If your seeds are revealed to anyone trusted by you, your coins are forever safe and can be used only by the person who has access to your account.

It's better to share your bitcoin with your family, so if something happens to you, you can give your bitcoin as a legacy to them. You can teach your family about bitcoin so that they can use bitcoin as you. But if you don't teach them or don't share your bitcoin with them, your bitcoin will be staying in your wallet without anyone can use or spend. That will not be good for you because your bitcoin can not help them to have a better life in the future. But I pray to you that you can have a long life and health.

The problem when sharing your seed right now is that they may try to access your coins and withdraw. I don't want to do that as well.
You better just breathe until you can find a place to lie down before dying. But probably just make it sure they know the password of your laptop.
I don't think your kids will just throw away your laptop without checking what is in there. I'm sure they will read some of the text files or notes you have there. If you can save today a file containing details so they can have access whenever you left all of a sudden.  That might just benefit them.

If you or anyone die and his or her love did not know password or private key, there is no chance to recover BTC or any other coins. This is as highly secure if anybody hide his wallet key in safe place  and at the same time its highly insecure if anyone did not keep key in safe place. So batter you can say your key safe house point to your love one and if you die he or she can recover your BTC.

thanks.

Don't banks have physical structures in your location? Or was that an error or you mean online banking or probably something else?

 There are couple of inheritance services for Bitcoin as far as I can tell. If you want something simple, just have some company build you a simple alarm device that has to ring every two months or so, and can only be turn off with a code you control or can be turn off by trusted/reputable members of your family incase you are no longer available to turn it off. But you'll have to give the members of your family different secret codes each that they all need to input into the device each to turn off its alarm. Once each member input their code, the device responds with something like "is my owner (or the owner's name used instead) still alive?" if they click yes, the device goes back to another long month of silence... If no is clicked by everyone, the device instructs them where to find your Bitcoin/crypto keys.

Obviously, your bitcoin will remain abandoned in your wallet forever. If you want them to know that you have bitcoin, then at least tell your loved ones. And right now, teach them how to use bitcoin or how to use the recovery phase. At least your bitcoin will benefit them if there's something bad happen to you.

If you die today and nobody has access to your wallet, your bitcoin will remain forever. Part of the reason why many people have shared many way to prevent this. If you have bitcoin in your wallet, it is advisable to print your seed phrase and keep it save the same way you keep your other valuable documents and possibly give a tips about what seed phrase is

I think the family members will need to input this together and receive the final instruction together. If they are not together, the sound of the alarm could be reduce to a minimum level, probably with no option to off the alarm completely. The alarm could come with a red light that could be activated aswell until the family members are together to input their codes and answer their short questions

If you set up a nominee, only then your blood relatives can go and claim for your money or it will be gone too. And for that, they will need to present their official identity proof before they are given the authority of the funds. If you want to make your loved ones happy, just share the recovery phrase or at least the private key with one of your most trustworthy persons whom you want to have your btc when you are not alive. I pray this should not happen and will ask God for your long life so that you witness how btc changes lives.

You can write down your Recovery Phrase or private key in your testament so that your child or perhaps your love's ones can easily access your wallet after you pass away. If you even want a more secured way to keep your code secretly, find a secret spot and hide your code their, remember to note down the location in your testament, too. Or perhaps you can transfer all of your bitcoin into money when you get old so that it will make everything easier for your family in holding your assets

I guess it would be useless if your family do not know how to use bitcoin. Teaching them how important the our privacies are and what companies are doing to steal our data can disclose them the truth lie under our modern society. Then, they will eager to use the blockchain so that they understand how to convert fiat into cryptos

These questions have been debated for a very long time already, as a fellow holder it will be good if you can prefer to this kind of happenings especially if you are holding a
huge amount of portfolio in your wallets so your relatives or families can benefit to your money if in case you will die unexpectedly.

Last will is the best option for it and only your trusted family members or relatives can withdraw your money in case there are something that will happen to you because if you cannot
transfer your private keys to your family or relatives when you die then your money will be sitting in your wallet forever and no one can use it therefore we can consider it as as waste of bitcoin.

This topic has come up a few times over the years that I've seen, and I did a write up about it as well.  Now my write up is more geared/focused on bitcoin "collectibles" (think coins that have been turned in to paper wallets), but it still works just the same regardless what way you hold your bitcoin. Below is the link to the write up I did.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5134350.msg50703294#msg50703294

If you ever die, all your Bitcoins as well as the other cryptocurrencies stored in your wallet will remain untouchable or unspent for the reason that no one have the access to your account and no one can manage to access your cryptos stored in your wallet. So better make sure that you have already set plans on how can someone from your family or one person your truly trust the most can be able to access as well as use your cryptos in your wallet once you are already gone. Better make sure that someone will benefit from the ones you have worked hard for it will just remain in there if you will not make any other way possible on how they can be able to make use of those crypto. Assure that someone have the access on it as well as educated to make good use of it as early as possible so if ever you die unexpectedly, someone can use and be your beneficiary for the cryptos you have left on your account.

There's no single answer to that question. If you pass away without leaving anyone the private key, your bitcoins effectively become inaccessible to anyone. Similarly, if you leave your private key behind without a clear explanation of what it is and how to use it, your bitcoins are likely to stay lost. The simplest way is to make sure that your heirs are aware of your bitcoin account and that you either trust them with the private key now, or store the private key in a suitably secure location such as a safety deposit box.

In this case, you can always leave some hints to your beloved one, so that it can be helpful for them to get access to your key store. Maybe not only your wallet, other important things that they should be known after your dead.

Several threads might be interesting for you to read about bitcoin inheritance which you might be getting some idea that had already been mentioned.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5194028.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5097720.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5106560.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5245183

Aside into those threads above and on my opinion.I do already tell my wife about my crypto holdings and in case i die then they are much aware
on how to pull off those funds. Explain everything to her but frankly speaking i havent speak out yet all of my assets.
I cant really just my wife fully.  :D

I can tell you from direct experience. My friend died six months ago due to lungs cancer. I can't say that is not expected, because the struggle with the disease lasted a long time. somehow we hoped he would get away with it and we never talked about "what if" and how to allow someone to have access to his portfolio.
Now six months ago I still trying to take anything, from his different wallets and exchange which they use and have funds on them. I get access to his email account (with the consent of his wife and children) but on some exchanges, I need to do verification, which is impossible now. Also, I try to recover his hard disk to find key files, seeds, passwords ... which goes very hard. I find something, but he named is on a very specific way which significantly complicates the whole thing.
for now, I can't tell his family how much money locked he has until I can transfer them to the fresh wallet. But the fact is that I may be able to recover 15-20% max.

This has been quite a topic lately but for the meantime users who owned Bitcoin should leave a clue or something to their loved ones once they die. There are different methods in doing this and it is being debated already before since Bitcoin is not supported yet by passing the next owner if the ones who owned that Bitcoin is dead. So, putting something like a clue or a passphrase to a certain paper and hid it or give it to someone you can trust to pass it if you die.

Yeah, it is going to be lost forever. It won't move from your wallet at all. Isn't this what is supposed to happen? Your keys, you own the coins. No one else owns it even after your death!

If you want your "love" ones to have access to your wallet after your death, you will have to share all the details with them. As long as you trust them, I don't see any harm in sharing everything with them. And I think there are some third party services that might be able to do this for you. After your death, they will be able to pass your keys to your loved ones. But in this case, you will either have to use their centralized wallet or share your keys with them which again brings the problem of trust, centralization and "Not your keys, not your coins".

This is a great topic, I’m in love in this topic but it difficult to reply, but I just have to say if you have any one close to you, You can be to tell them about your wallet, Give them the password to wallet, or the recovery phrase.Tell them about bitcoin market and how to convert the money to physical cash, this is all I have to say

My advice is, you have to tell your wallet and password to your family, to your wife, your children, or you can also write down each of your wallets on paper and stick them on the wall.  and if you don't tell them, your bitcoins will be lost.  it happened to my friend, when he forgot his bitcoin password wallet.  52 Bitcoin in his wallet cannot be accessed.

Include it in your will along with other personal file of yours, it would be better if you will put instructions or links of tutorials if you don't want to let anybody else knew that you have bitcoin now. Print the instructions if it's in a trezor or details how to access it, however if it's so sudden this may not be possible only those old and who got sick can plan it so just better have someone you trust know it early that you have some of it.

This is pretty much the case basically. No other way for people to get a hold of your precious bitcoins when you die, not even your relatives. Though this may sound sad, there are other ways of entrusting your relatives of this which includes dividing your seed phrases to more people in order to ensure that whoever decides to open your wallet, it will be of course through a built consensus between this group. Personally, I plan on doing this trick to ensure that no single person in the family can get a hold of it and hog it for themselves. If you gotta take it, you have to share it.

bitcoin uses decentralized per to per system and does not use one admin so the owner is responsible for his own bitco because this wallet knows our own keys, so the responsibility itself is different from the bank, there is proof of transfer and works with the accountability of bank officers and it is done with meetings between people, so now our bitcoins move to the bank before getting sick or we tell the key sibling and how to take our bitcoins in the wallet.

Adding your crypto in your will should make the transfer official. Those wallets you mentioned have seed phrases as a backup so it shouldn't be that hard to set up a quick step by step for your children to open your wallet and claim your bitcoin/eos. Or even better do the same thing as mocaccino did and teach your children how to use bitcoin wallets.

if no one else can access the wallet then BTC and other cryptos will be eternal there.
Is it wasting bitcoins?
In my perception, it can become a "holder" which will make the limited amount of BTC even rarer, so the price will increase. Well, no one will be harmed, but it's a shame if the BTC is just trapped there. so it's better to make notes or the like regarding your crypto ownership. So that when something untoward happens, there is someone you trust who can access and use the asset properly.

Your Bitcoin will just disappear if no one knows the private key of your Bitcoin wallet, so my advice is that you should give the private key you have to someone you love and trust, because as you say if you are die right now, then Bitcoin that you have will not be lost in your wallet, because the people you love and trust will be able to take Bitcoin that you have in your Bitcoin wallet.

Your Bitcoin will be lost if you die. There are some premium services such as Casa Covenant (https://cointelegraph.com/news/casa-unveils-new-solution-to-what-happens-to-my-bitcoin-when-i-die) that make it possible for you to inherit your Bitcoin to your family. I works using 3 of 5 multisig where the keys are distiributed amongst an estate lawyer, Casa, and then another key is stored in a safety deposit box. The other keys are owned by the user so they can still have access to their coins while they are alive.

If you wish your funds to be used by your children and loved ones, then it is good to secure your secret key on a safer place. Some users stated before death if we give the secret key, then it'll be a big problem creator/children will get to know about the holdings. Every house will be having separate places where important documents will be kept. These places weren't used by the kids unnecessarily, so for sure your private keys can reach the children with ease.

Absolutely indeed. Your coins will be useless after all if you fail to pass it to someone after your death. Even if you owned a hundred bitcoin, it will remain just a number unless someone opened it and convert to fiat.

So my advice for you guys, while still early, make the most trusted person you had your crypto apprentice. Slowly teach him everything you know about it and make him appreciate the value of it so that when the time comes he will not waste it badly :). This is my plan but I think my time is still far away so I will postpone it for now lol.

Having no physical structure like banks, is not a bad thing because you're not bound with laws and rules by those corporations. Yet you've given a freewill to choose what you do with your money without regulations. There are many tools out there to automate the process, and send you emails to your love one's, once you're no longer in this world or you could try to give your credentials to the most trusted people.

We do not control our life and we can not say what can be happen to us when we go out to work, maybe it would be better if we have notes and it says all the important things especially our private keys and passwords. In a safe and secure place where our family knows it too, those place we know that they will look upon it when we are no longer in this world. Because if we are not able to leave all the important keys to our loved ones it will surely be wasted and no one will benefit on it.

Therefore it is very important to tell the people closest to us, all important data that we store. Including the Bitcoin we have,
so if something happens to us, suppose we die. The Bitcoin we have will not be in vain and can be passed on to our families.
If only we know how to access our wallets, of course it will not provide benefits for our loved ones. So from that, I have told
my wife about all the Bitcoin that I have. So that my Bitcoin is not in vain.

This is the thing if no one knows about your seed or any wallet information you have then your bitcoin will be stored on the wallet forever, If ever someone dies and then he/she do no give any clue about the seeds then the money that is in the wallet will be wasted, all your hard works and time earning and saving that money would be a waste of time because no one can access it, that is the worst thing that might happen.

For me, I suggest that there should be someone you trust who knows about your seed, it could be your family, relatives or closest friends because there are many things that might happen to everyone, we cannot predict the future, everything can happen for a second. Imagine you spent so many years just to acquire the amount of money you have then all of a sudden you die without someone who can benefit from all of your hard work.

I don't think it's possible to recover the bitcoin of a person who died and didn't reveal the details of his wallet to anyone because no one knows the password key of his wallet it will be deleted forever. Therefore if you teach your personal information and work to someone you trust before you die he will be able to recover it later in your absence which will help a lot in the work of the family in that case there is no possibility of getting lost forever.

It all depends on the signs of death, whether you are sick or whatever you were aware of before you died and there is still an opportunity to tell your Bitcoin wallet private key in person or email.
And there's nothing wrong with giving your bitcoin wallet keys in good health to someone you trust if you think that far, and giving your wallet keys to your wife or other family members to keep your bitcoins handy and well guarded.

Nice thread mate.Just perfect for this strange time where the world is full of uncertainties. This must be the important topic that we should always consider as a bitcoiner. And it should be wise and necessary to keep a secured notebook or anything that we listed all our digital wallets, private keys/recovery phrases. And I think we should always introduce this bitcoin world, the digital wallets and keys as well as the assets that we had stored to our loved ones as preparation to easily use and access our accounts in case we'll suddenly pass away. Because if we just keep it forever to ourselves, it will just be lost and so much wasted.

That same reason that we as crypto Holders must learn to keep safa and some emergency Work in case there is something related happen.
Like telling one of your closest family member about the addresses you have?
and also you can at least make a paper copy of those addresses and let them find it on your files when you die,with letter telling them how to claim those amounts.

Your bitcoin will be locked forever in your wallet not unless there is someone you trust has the access to your wallet, pr if you have left your access to someone before dying. The only option I can think of is to leave a Will along with the instruction on how to access your private key or wallet once you pass it on.

Life is unpredictable if when as much as possible we need a secret option to all-important key in bitcoin. right here, the BTC plan is important because in this world of bitcoin it seems like we are digging the deep ground to get gold. Then we are all experiencing more difficulties, therefore we have to select one of our own family to know our private key for benefits where maybe tomorrow or the day after we will disappear. In fact. Because we have nothing to carry out, the best way today is to share our blessing to anyone to enjoy while we are breathing.

Simply put— the Bitcoin will be lost forever. This is a major point for me that we will never have the whole 21million total supply in circulation. Never! A lot of Bitcoin has been lost already through this kind of occurrence.

Yes! Except someone is able to brute force their way to opening that wallet. Otherwise, it remains lost in the deceased's wallet.

My advice to you on this is to always copy out the vitals of the wallet like the private key or passphrase you're using on a piece of paper. Take that risk of writing it out offline but keep the paper safe and out of wandering eyes.

It can't be used. You kept your Bitcoin in secret and that would be useless to you since you are gone.



It will be there forever and ever unless someone hacked into that wallet which I don't think will happen in this time.



I don't think so. As there are a lot of Bitcoins unused inside of wallets, I think that also means the value of Bitcoin could increase. Lesser Bitcoins in the circulations that means a good value of Bitcoin, IMO.

This is why you have to prepare a will for your child or family...
you can prepare it or keep all the secrets of your wallet in the reminder application and tell your family that one day if I die please open that application. if you don't have it set up then of course the coins stored in your wallet will just be there forever.

When you die today or tomorrow how about with your bitcoin fund? I think depend with your self how many people and your family know how assets bitcoin and altcoin do you have, when you keep silent and hidden your bitcoin maybe when you die always remember with your bitcoin on wallet, but if you give to your family about how much bitcoin do you have and you give them your email or wallet data they will take your bitcoin and give half donation. Before do you think bad happen to you always give and tell to your family and your best friend because is most important when some thing bad happen to you like you got an accident your family could sell bitcoin for your healthy.

This question has been asked and answered several times: if you keep your Bitcoin a secret and don’t let your family know about it, then you’re on your own, and if anything should happen tomorrow, nobody would know about it, they wouldn’t know that you have stored Bitcoin in any wallet and the coins will be gone forever. So, my advice is that you should share the secret with your family.

I have seen people who say that they can’t share secrets with their family, because they don’t trust anyone lol. Any family where there is no trust is not truly a family, because what makes up a family is trust, love, and nothing more. If you can’t trust your family enough to share information that has to do with your cryptocurrency with them, then it’s of no need worrying about things like this, just enjoy your life while it lasts.

Or, if there is someone who able to hacked your wallet by doing random used of any private keys.

Next to impossible but that's the only way to access your assets if you didn't save your private key and there's no one who knows about your private key, the very reason why you should always backed it up and you should trust someone to know about the privates keys.



Your assets can only inherited if you formally have this last will or you provide information to someone you love who knowledgeable enough to use the system and enjoy all your save assets once you left this world.

Death does not move toward a signal :'(. So the significant gadgets need to be conveyed with someone so that he/she can operate appropriately after your / my death. No one knew about my wallet and if I died unexpectedly it was all in vain. Bitcoin will keep up in my wallet overdue and will be of no purpose. It is adequately not to do extremely nonsense. At least one has to confess bitcoin, wallet, and pin so that these do not languish.

I don't agree with the second part of your post. You never know what may happen in the future, and therefore it is always safe to keep some of these things as a secret even from your family. I have seen a perfect example in front of my own eyes. One of my friends (this was the guy who introduced me to Bitcoins in 2017) went through his divorce proceedings in 2018. His wife was unaware of the fact that almost 80% of his wealth is stored in the form of cryptocurrency. She got most of the remaining 20% (divorce rules are very much biased towards women in India), but my friend avoided becoming bankrupt, as he never disclosed his cryptocurrency holdings.

Though death is inevitable able, and that why we all must prepare for it, bitcoin wallet is expected to be handle safely to avoid being hacked or any form of loss but there could be ways one can be overprotective and still fall into loss, I will always advice that we have a written details of the our private codes and atleast have someone we can entrust it with. If no member of your family can handle your account at your absence,well! Your account will one day diffuse.

I really think we already have tons of that kind of Bitcoin already the ones that has been mined and hasn't been moved for a very long time I think some of the owners are already deceased.
So it is better to have someone who you could trust to know about everything that you have so that your family could still use what you have left behind instead of just being lost on that wallet forever.
It is your money so it is better to let them have it instead of making it vanish forever.

You're right mate, the only thing we should do to avoid our exit be painful to those dear to our heart is just exposing private keys to them that if anything happen to our lives they should ensure to claim the coins from wallets. Personally, only a brother who's dear to could recover my funds if anything got to do with my exit from the planet. Doing not this which will make our coins unavailable won't attract profit on our way to exit.   

Yeah it's a truth that bitcoin is a decentralized and no one can sign for your cash out like the process banks who are centralized does if someone departure on earth,  no i really dont believe that, but if someone departures siblings can benefit from your  bitcoin if you have existing bitcoin in wallet, through the user private key, because through a private key someone can equally have access or penetrate into hidden wallet, but I think it will come to pass if one of the relatives knows the rudiments of bitcoin.

If you don't give the private key to anyone, those bitcoins will stay there forever. Nobody can make transactions or even transfer bitcoins without the Private key.

Better create a diary and with it the printed private keys if you like your family to have access on your Bitcoin and other crypto assets. May your family use it wisely and continue to support Bitcoin.

Then, why not share to your loveones your bitcoin wallet and private key and teach them early how to use it if you are worried enough that they will not be able to use your bitcoin if you will die. There's a lot of way I think if you want your loveones inherit your bitcoins.

You will lose your bitcoins for good if you do not give the private keys of your bitcoin wallet to heirs such as wife, children and parents.  In general, every bitcoin user must give the private key of their bitcoin wallet to someone they care about so that their bitcoin is not lost after they die.

I believe that all the bitcoin in our wallet will be lost (unusable) if we do not have the private key that has been safely stored and passed on to trusted relatives or family. I know that the OP's question isn't the first time user have asked the community as there have been several user asking about the same thing before, but taking a little time to think about this will is important and I think it will have a big impact once we go. I believe that there are users who trust bitcoin as a store of value as well as an asset for their future investment. Hence, it is very useful to inherit wallet detail for someone who can be trusted in case something happen to the owner.

Be careful in securing our wallet and asset so that they can be of use to our loved ones after we die. If Satoshi leaves his private key with someone, then I'm sure all the bitcoin in his wallet can be transferred without any drama.

Am afraid of revealing my keys to family members because of the possibility in them going away with my funds, those around me can't be trusted as things has happened before now which has actually revealed their true status to me. So, me reveal my keys to family members is like giving them out to scammers or fraudsters, Maybe in future i can trust someone for this.   At the moment if anything strike my Bitcoins will go into extinction.  

If you don't share your recovery phrase, private key etc. info with anyone and keep to yourself, then your wallet will be gone forever. I know this is frustrating when you think about it but there is nothing else to do to prevent this from being happened. I hope that a system can be developed to resolve this thing. Otherwise, I think people won't be comfortable with it.

Have a nice tutorial about how to withdraw and cash out the bitcoin or any cryptocurrency you are holding and make sure your relatives and family members know about a bank locker that you hold and you need to inform them about the tutorial if anything happens to you by accident, other than that there is no way anyone who is not aware of the details of the cryptocurrency market neglect these things even if they find the private key.

When it gets to money, humans tend to change even with little amount of money.
I'd firstly educate them on what cryptocurrency and carry them along. Then I'd know the one that serious with crypto and if it's all of them, then I distribute the secret key among them so they can put it together when it's needed

I'm thinking about this topic for a week now because we can't say when will be our time will end. The way I can see for my close family member to access it is to have a backup paraphrase written down on a paper and simple guides on how to unlock it and convert it into fiat. The only thing is if someone tends to steal that backup, I'm pretty sure that my wallet would be drained given that I gave them the tutorial on how to make it cash, Some special questions or security would be good right? I have a pretty hard time figuring out what should I do since I have multiple wallets and some of it are altcoins. The process of making a backup and tutorials would be a lot of work.

If you die, all your bitcoins will be in exactly the same condition you left them, unless you give someone a private key. I taught my family where to store my private key and how to use it, and created a video tutorial. Hopefully they can use them if they try.

For now i cant really just trust them up to share everything to have access.Im little bit selfish when it comes to my crypto savings and if you do tell them this early
then they might access it on early time and in result those would be spent in no time.So it will be better if i do show them with half-assesed one and time will come
where i do decide to tell them everything but not for now.We dont know on what will happen to us yet no human can tell if they would die in next second,minute,day,weeks
or years but if you do decide to tell them all then its your choice.

Some said for time lock and some do prefer on giving out hardware wallet or paper wallets.There are various ways that can be possibly applied.

Quite funny because I was a Newbie as well when I opened my first thread "What happens when we die?" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2053833.msg20477639#msg20477639) a very long time ago...

If you don't pass your keys on to someone else, indeed, your BTC is lost forever.

However, a more important question seems to me: what effect would this have on the value of BTC and the concept as a whole?

Sadly, the discussion is always reduced to the question of what to do with your keys, so 3,5 years after posting my thread, there's still no answer to my question (and unless I'm mistaken, there won't be any in this thread either).

Ill think your bitcoin will still remain in your wallet if you die today.
And on one can open your wallet because you are the knows the key or a password that needed to unlock.
But if you have some person or a part of your family knows about your wallet a password maybe if you die today they can use it for buying some coffin for you and using it for buying anything they want.

That is why bitcoin is so different from fiat money which any body can walk into your house and pick and start using it. If you die today and you fail to disclose your bitcoin personal address details to your children know way they can have access to your coins in your wallet. If you die without disclose them to your children die also because know body can have access to your private address.
It is advisable to always put some of your private code down for where your love ones can find them after you have departed from this Earth so that they can continue from where you stop in bitcoin business

I guess we're on the way to make this into another mega thread :D

The best thing about Bitcoin is it gives you complete control. Each coin you buy can be taken out of the system if you choose to.

One of the easiest options is to have a hwardware wallet with a hidden code. The code can be even put in a safety deposit box with the wallet remaining hidden at home. When you die your family will be able to get access to the deposit box and use the code to unlock your wallet.

You can also give parts of the wallet phrase to members of your family. Only when combining it together they'll be able to unlock the wallet.

As we  are storing bitcoin for our children, we should learn them how to operate it. Otherwise, our bitcoin will remain in our wallet. Personally, I will teach my children how to access in my wallet and functions of it.

This is what I am thinking about. When I die, what happens to my bitcoin earned in trading and signature campaigns. Well, in order for me to solve this. I printed already my private keys and stored them where my mother knew. I told her the place where my keys to be found. But the problem is, she is not techy savvy because old people has gaps when it comes to technology (aside from jet cash). Well, it does not matter because I said to her that my money is stored in my keys.

the importance of maintaining the relationship between your family, tell them what you do, what you keep, how it works, give that knowledge to your child or wife, if you are married, because we all don't know when disaster will overtake us

Wow, the idea is good. If I missed giving any reference or phrase to someone else then none can access my wallet. Nobody can know when his or her death will come. So still there has not a proper solution yet. The simple way is to maintain a friendly relationship with the family and then it can be said to them. Children and wife or husband is the most known and important for us who care to me and you. So it can be stored in a place that you can say to them to discover after your death.

It is really important atleast one of your family members knows bitcoin and also know all your details in bitcoin world even the password or the key of your wallet to make sure your hardwork will be useless if you die today and no one can access your wallet. Or maybe you can give them a letter that all information is there and tell them once you die that the time they open it.

That's true, it is better if there is someone you love who knows about your seed so if ever something bad happens to you, they can still access to your funds. Imagine if you die and you have a huge amount of money on your wallet, if ever no one knows how to access your wallet then all this money will just be wasted, it will stay on your wallet forever and no one knows how to access it, even your love ones and family. You should always think about any possible things and secure the future of your family.

It's gone. That is actually one of the reasons why you should tell at least one member of your family which you trust the most about your wallets and investments. So that your money will not go to waste when you die, we hope not but we are all going to. It's completely gone when you die and no one really knows your wallet password and everything that has money on it. Maybe you should save it into a private folder in your computer or mobile device so that when you pass away there's one member who can open that file or folder containing important account and wallet password.

Yeah, that same goes for me I would rather to rob by someone whom I can entrust my Bitcoin stash to than it to go into waste for nothing. I mean, all of my years of earning and procuring Bitcoin would be just in vain if I coudn't even use it so better if someone on my family would have it and make them use of it. Though I haven't share my seed yet but once they got accessed on my password storage it wouldn't be that difficult because everything they should know was in there.

This isn't the first time that this question crossed my mind. That's why I made sure that my younger siblings know how to access my wallet just in case. I already told them about it and even my account here in bitcointalk is known to them.

My parents know about it as well but just a bit of information about btc. They're not technologically inclined so the technical infos are laid down to my brothers. The only problem is that, they tend to forget things I told them from a long time ago so I remind them occasionally and I'll also print the key to my wallet.

I'm not hoping to die today but we never know. It's still better that someone close to us knows about our bitcoin so that our efforts won't go to waste.

The amount of bitcoins in this situation is probably not small today, many people unexpectedly of sudden and they can't share information with their family and relatives. Those who hold a lot of bitcoins, they should share with one of their closest family members, this helps their loved one and this amount of bitcoins isn't lost unfortunately.

You have said it well, it can even happen in a way you can give them access codes, so when something happens, only what to do is to input the code and have the private key to a wallet, the private key can be used on another new wallet, and the whole fund will appear and be able to spend, this is one of the best way to make sure bitcoin is passed to hire. Letting your family know about bitcoin in general will help, if they know about it, they will be able to access the coin easy if anything happens, they will even be the one giving you better advice which you can find interesting.

It's locked up there forever. That's the beauty of bitcoin wallets, only you can have access to it as long as you don't tell anyone the information of your wallet. It would be a waste but if it's not a big percentage of the total supply then it doesn't matter if it will be there forever. If you are a whale, you should write it on a paper, keep it and entrust someone before you pass away.

If someone dies and owns a large amount of Bitcoin, without leaving any clues, of course the Bitcoin that is owned will be stored in
the wallet forever. If that is the case it will be very unfortunate, the Bitcoin that we have should be inherited. From now on we should
have prepared if this happened to us, I suggest making a testament that our family can easily find from now on. Or it should be open
from now on to the people closest to us about the Bitcoin we have.

in my opinion you should try using Tomorrow's Inheritance app, it will allow you to enter your cryptocurrency as an investment asset, similar to a more traditional investment account. This means that your coins will be transferred into your revocable living trust upon the execution of your Will.

That is the reason bitcoin is so not quite the same as fiat cash that anyone can stroll into your home and pick and begin utilizing it. On the off chance that you pass on today and you neglect to unveil your bitcoin postage information subtleties to your kids know the manner in which they can approach your coins in your wallet. On the off chance that you kick the bucket without uncover them to your youngsters pass on likewise in light of the fact that no one can approach your private location.

Yeah, if you're the only one who knows it. After you die, it will be stuck there forever. It's like you burned the token since no one will benefit from it.

Wouldnt that benefit bitcoin, if a whale dies? since it will decrease the circulating supply. You know, the law of supply and demand? if there's a low supply there would be more demand and it will result in a price increase.

The best thing we should do is to create a encrypted message together with our relatives (if we have a lot of bitcoins store in our wallet). This encrypted message contains the information kept such as private keys. We can email it to their addresses in a specific period of time in future. Now, if they are interested to know the message, they must use decrypting tools to decrypt the data stored in the email.

I guess this is not the first time that this topic has been discussed, and there are lots of suggestions and ideas were given.

Bitcoins for me is the same as with the other treasure that a person can have and securing it is really necessary and if someone who owns bitcoin and suddenly died and he didn't provide the key to others then the bitcoin will remain secret forever and no one will benefit from it that is why we still need to look for someone whom we really trust and think is the right to inherit our bitcoins and give them the key like our own kids anyway everything we have aside from bitcoin still they are the legal inheritor of everything we own.

It's only our responsibility to teach our kids how to value the things they will inherit from us including bitcoins because even law couldn't break the key to our bitcoin wallet so IMO better to give it as early as possible beside if they will not give value on it then it will be their loss and not us anymore.

Well if you have a closest friend or relatives must better to tell them of you have in crypto if you really think you are going to die today. Because you cannot bring your bitcoin in heaven or hell or whatever you goes. And it was better idea that we need to share if the time come for us or maybe to teach them in how to earn crypto actually it was not to late for us to share of what we experience in crypto currency.

I recently read an article about the use of quantum computers soon. The power of such a computer will be enough to guess the wallet password in the shortest possible time. I think in the future it will be possible to use this kind of service to regain control over your cryptocurrency assets.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency coin and it stored a wallet . Anyone cannot access a bitcoin wallet without a private key so if you give a private key someone then access your wallet. Bitcoin is a crypto coin, not a bank that your nominee can withdraw money when you die.If you want more information read this article hope it will help https://medium.com/shiftcrypto/prepare-your-bitcoins-for-your-heirs-dfc537811df2

It's simple, the bitcoins are gone, but it doesn't mean that no one will benefit from this if the love ones didn't benefit, it will benefit the entirety of the holders of bitcoin as it will serve as a burned cryptocurrency that will lower the circulating supply. In basic economics, low supply with high demand will result to a huge market price.

But I don't really advise this to happen to every one of us here on crypto space, perhaps, we should keep our backup phrases with instruction or passwords so incase, they could reach our friends who know crypto to help them out to retrieve some of our funds.

You have 2 choices. Either:
1. Just keep your Bitcoins until you die.
2. Make it like a life insurance that you will give it to your children or anybody in your family that will benefit the most with it.

I know that the 2nd choice is the better choice. That will apply to those Bitcoin holders who is suffering an illness. They still have time to share the private keys or at least share anything that will give access to them. This will only apply if there is somebody in your family that at least know the basics of it like gaining access to it, selling, transferring etc.

Not all the time the 2nd one is the case though. There are some Bitcoin holders who will keep their Bitcoins forever because they've died of accidents and unfortunately, they didn't tell to anybody that they are holding Bitcoins. If you die today, it depends on the 2 situations that I said above. You shared access to your family before you die then Bitcoins will still be there and will be able to sell but if you didn't tell to anybody or you died because of an accident then Bitcoins will be gone although I believe that people will create a way to regain that Bitcoins in the future (I hope so).

I think the computer should have a file.And there needs to be everything saved and I think you should share everything with your close people Since there are no nominees like Bank here, I think it can be done. So that they can cash in later.

This is a scary question but still one we all must consider if we are in possession of valuable coins.   

In my opinion you should provide someone who you trust with your keys to all your crypto wallets.

If this is not a option for you then maybe a safety deposit box cause when you die dont let the coins go to waste.

This is different ehn if it was fiat which can be traced but hopefully your coins are stored away and safe for when you pass.

make sure that there is someone that you let know of all your account details that holds your crypto asset because this will al gone if you don't make a secure accounts.
There are some topics talks about this and it is always being advice to At least let your love ones have idea in how crypto works and how would they claim all the asset in case there is a unexpected things happens in you in future.
not in computer because there are so many issues of hacking by people around them when they are putting crypto coins in their computer.
i think better list in paper and hide in place only people you trust more knows.

Yes it is true that your bitcoin will be lost forever if you die.  But I have a solution.  That is, you can write down the private key of your Bitcoin wallet on a piece of paper and leave it in a secure place.  And you can inform your close relatives about that place.  So that if you have anything, your wife's children can easily get bitcoin with your private key.

Same thing if you forgot your password too, there are a lot of coins lost somewhere that will never be retrieve.

I get you, it's easier, my girlfriend knows I always use this password in any important things cause I'm careless and always forgot something important, I told her the basics of bitcoin and even though I haven't have a lot of btc in my wallet, it still has value. I gave her one time password without any hard codes and such. But I do have paper wallets too for my other family members. They knew I'm into bitcoin and my brother knew how it works even though he doesn't own btc.

In the event of your death, your bitcoins will remain in your wallet. If you did not give your private key to anyone, then your bitcoins will be forever lost, which means they will serve only one good purpose - to increase the bitcoin deficit. This means, probably, this will lead to an increase in the price of bitcoin due to a decrease in their total number.

The general dogma would be that the money is gone. However, there are ways around it which might lead to unlocking the money. The options available depends on how closely related the deceased person was to the person trying to access as it might be that the person had a safe and possible the recovery key might be there. Another way is to get a hacker to see if it can unlock and crack the key.

I like how you sighted examples of people who lost their btc and how much of it they lost.
The wise thing to do is trust someone with your details so your Bitcoin doesn't go to waste when you are dead. If not, it would be stuck in that wallet for life.

It is a pity, but there is a great risk, that your Bitcoins will die also, in case you will not present or give your keys to the wallet may be somehow via making a will. But even in such case you should think over where your keys should be kept till that sad moment. In order to exclude the risk of  information leak. And of course your children should be ready and instructed how to use the wallet and Bitcoins on it.

I've always thought or this and, the reality is that the Bitcoin may not be reacheable. The only idea I have is leaving clues for them to be able to discover it. If it's a mnemonic phrase, you can teach them about cryptocurrency, maybe tell them 6 out of the 12 words and the other 6 words can be hidden. Maybe it should be given to them in case you pass away.

Correct, Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone. SN.

Then where you do store the other 6 phrase? to a lawyer? its possible but be sure that your loved ones do know on how to access a wallet or simply teach them about even on the basics
so that even you do pass away,you'll sure that those coins will be recovered.

Ive been thinking on doing such stuff because we dont know on what would happen to us even where sleeping where we can possibly die.

If we dont matter much of this possibility then it would really be such a waste on losing all of your coins and cant really be benefited out by your loved ones.

It’s all good as everyone is saying one thing with one voice. I really appreciate the contributions from these community and know I know better as regards to bitcoin and it’s wallet security. I’m a hard working man and it’s won’t be fair if my family or loved once don’t benefit from all my efforts when I’m no more so with these new knowledge I intend putting my brother through bitcoin and trying to make him have interest in bitcoin. Educating him about blockchain so he can can find the technology user friendly. I trust him so telling him my wallet details won’t be a big deal after all. Thank you everyone once more for all your positive contributions

This is an interesting read and I will be glad to see a solution in the future that will act as a Will. For example, If I have 10BTC to be divided by 3 children incase of my demise, I could have loved a solution that will permit me to assign keypharse. If any of my children enter the keyphrase associated with my BTC address, they will unlock a certain portion of my entire holding based on my settings. This keypharse will only work if I do not access my BTC wallet for a certain period of time, let say for a year, which means they have to wait for that period to get their inheritance. Whatever makes me stay that long not accessing my capital means I am no longer a living soul.

all of course do not expect to experience events that match your story. of course if you have siblings, at least provide information. at least it provides an understanding of crypto, if something happens it can be run and not disappear without a trace. because obviously this is a fairly unique investment, you have to know how because if you don't understand it, you can be sure it will happen as you say. there are many ways that can be done because now technology has also advanced.

So I thought about the other 6 words and, if a lawyer will be involved, then it's kinda better if your kids know 10 words out of 12(in order) and you can leave the other two to the lawyer(so he'll see the 2 words as a basic thing), instructing him/her to tell your kids the two words only when you're gone. Like I said earlier, you kids should know well about crypto but then, do not tell them what the 10 words are for. Just teach them. If you trained them smart enough, when the lawyer tells them the two remaining words, they'll know what to do with it.

If you die without telling anyone your password to your wallet or giving a will and how to recover your bitcoin, your bitcoin will die with you once you are dead. A lot of people have died this way and have left bitcoin in their wallets that can not be claimed. It is good to find ways of making sure someone dear or next of kin finds the secret phrase or Private key. Otherwise the coin will end up lost forever. Death makes no announcements before it happens but it must definitely come for everyone as time progress.

If the details regarding the wallet and the holdings weren't shared to any of your loved ones, then your funds go unused. How come this can be overcome? Share the details about the wallet and holdings to your loved ones or secure the procedure to access your wallet and keep it safe in a vault. However after death the vaults will be checked. By the time one can easily make use of the fund.

Till date lot of bitcoins have gone inaccessible due to the loss of wallet private keys. It is our responsibility to take initiative to make our earnings benefitted after our death.

Bitcoin is decentralized, no one controls other than yourself,
if you die and you haven't shared control in your bitcoin wallet, then your Bitcoin will be locked forever,
so make sure if you have assets in crypto currency, share it with all family members regarding wallet keys or passwords even exchange.

If indeed you die suddenly and there is absolutely no sign, then maybe your Bitcoin will be in your wallet forever. However, if you keep your data neat, and easy to understand on your personal computer. Then there is still a possibility that your Bitcoin will be used by the owner of the computer next.

It isn't easy to recover bitcoin even if all keys are on the PC if the family number does not know about bitcoin and does not have any idea about it. This is why it is also a good practice to share knowledge about bitcoin to the members of the family so that it can't put to waste whenever you wanted to dispose or passed it on to the next generation or to any of your love ones. In that way teaching them how bitcoin works will enable them to learn and can enjoy the btc left by you!

Make sure to entrust your assets to anyone that you really love.

Someone that you trust which you will give access to your investment, there's no way to withdraw your coins if no one knows about
your private keys, that's how the beauty of this system, decentralizations keeps your assets safe as long as no one can penetrate to
your wallet and you are keeping your keys in a safe place so better to address your trust concern and choose the person that you'll
allow access to your wallet. Whatever happened to you your money will be enjoyed by someone you love.

There was already another topic that would relate to this subject but that topic was asking if what are the chances on what would happen if Bitcoin is left at a certain point in life and how would it be recovered by a family member. It would certainly be a waste of Bitcoin if its not recovered in the future. The only thing that we can do is secure it within a folder that can only be accessed by someone that we truly know even after we die.

Anyway, what is the point in giving someone else your Bitcoin if you are dead? On the other hand, from my experience I would say that there is not a single person in this world, whom we can trust 100%. If you trust someone so much, then you can provide the private keys and password. But there is always a chance that the relationship or friendship may turn sour, and you will end up losing your coins. Anyway, it is up to you, to decide which of these two options you want to select.

Reason why it is important to at least allow one member of the family to know about your involvement with crypto and also be aware of your asset and how to access it should such situation arise, in another way, the person can easily include the btc asset as part of their will and state how the distribution will be among the family members, it is all about make plans for that.

I think I need to teach my kidz about bitcoin and how to use it so that they will know how to access my bitcoin wallet if ever I will die. Because if you die now and nobody knows about your bitcoin and no body knows about your bitcoin wallet and private key then your loveones will not benefit from your digital money because it will just remain and keep silent inside your digital wallet forever.

If you have family and you still have completed family from father until your wife better to give them with your assets and how much bitcoin or altcoin do you save in your wallet, you must tell them which one market do you hold your assets and you should teach of your family about how to buy, sell and withdraw your coin if some thing bad happen to you like your die or you get an accident. I think bitcoin is hidden assets because not one know except your self, its not like bank when you save your money because your family could get back on the bank but bitcoin will stay there forever if you not tell to your family about how much bitcoin do you have and how to withdraw your bitcoin assets.

No body can access your wallet if ever you will die if you didn't share it to your family and friend before. Although we need to take full responsibility with our bitcoin wallet and private key but we should also consider that we will die someday, that's why we also need to teach even one member of our family about bitcoin so that if ever something unexpected happened our family can still access our digital funds in our wallet in the future.

If you don't give your private key to someone.  Then you will completely lose the assets of your wallet.  Because it is impossible to open your wallet without a private key.  If the assets in your wallet cannot be taken out, it is a waste.  Since there is no nominee system in this digital wallet system like a bank, no one will be able to take your assets when you die.  In that case, my advice would be to keep the private key of your wallet with your loved one.  So that if something happens to you, that is, when you die, your loved one can recover your wealth from the wallet.

You're saying up something which is totally off topic on here mate yet you do only mention about bitcoin decentralization? How does it connect on OP's concern about inheritance of btc incase he dies?
Be sure to read up on next time on whats the discussion so that you wont really be making yourself like a fool on where responding into something which is totally out of the track.
On topic on what would happen to your coins if you die today? Those coins would be lost forever if your loved ones wouldnt able to recover or open the wallet this is why if you are
really concern with that then you should need to teach them on how to access it if do accidents do happen.It would be better for them to access so that they would benefit
out rather than on letting those coins would come to waste.

Don't teach other people about on- and off-topic, if you can't stay on-topic yourself.

OP didn't ask about your loved ones. OP asked:


So, tell us, milewilda, since you're so eager to stay on-topic: what are the economic consequences if Bitcoins are lost forever?

Yes appropriately that deserve some or even one of your family member know about your private wallets, your bitcoin and what important things you think should be disclosed to him/her but you should also keep in mind that the one you choose to share with your pin and private things about crypto were supposed to be your trusted person. I think teaching kids at a young age would have advantages and disadvantages since everyone knows the probable effects of having or dealing with bitcoin. It should be taught to a child that has a capability to manage itself wisely while dealing in bitcoin once a non expected things happened to you cause you're not here around to guide him/her.

Never keep Bitcoin for yourself, if you die then your Bitcoin will remain in your wallet forever. You must tell the people closest
to you about the Bitcoin you have, and the location where you store the private key. That way if something happens to you,
the Bitcoin you have can be useful for your heirs. Because one of our goals in life is to give the best for our family. And leaving
Bitcoin is one of our efforts to provide happiness for our families.

The problem you mentioned I find very practical, so in my opinion Bitcoin is very developed and not too unfamiliar to the world, so you should consider and have plans to prevent bad situations. . Your family and children can then continue with your work. Bitcoin is very precious, but don't let it be meaningless when we are gone and no one knows about it.

Bitcoin is just as much about yourself. if you don't reveal the details of a person's personality to others, everything about him will be lost when he dies. Bitcoin only has 1 key. if you keep it without telling relatives. then there's no use after you die. actually some time ago there was a crypto project that almost solved this problem. but the project stalled. The project has a blockchain-based storage system, and will send the key that we store to the account of someone we trust after our account is inactive for 30 days or more (according to our settings)
it is https://inftech.io/ you can read it here.

stalled or stop ? why whats the matter why they stop or delayed it , we need a project like this because this is verry useful than compare to those projects that we dont really need to

but it was sad that they are the ones that exist longer or maybe the project was stalled because they havent got more demand due to there are already simillar projects on the past earlier than them . devs will think of this right at the start because of how useful it was . i wonder what is the name of that one .

Since bitcoins only exist in virtual form and are encrypted by their very nature, they are extremely secure. ... If you pass away without leaving anyone the private key, your bitcoins effectively become inaccessible to anyone.
One of the solutions to making sure your Bitcoin isn’t lost forever is to outline the details of what you’ve got stored on the blockchain in your will and, at the very least, letting your family know you’ve got crypto stashed away.

If this happens, you can leave a note to your loved ones about where the private keys are, so they can help them access your keystore.  :)

Well that is a useful Crypto Project but the time that it allocated is only a small amount of time because its for only one month. Some users take hiatuses and that is normal. If that Crypto Project lets you decide on where to pass the remaining Cryptocurrency on that wallet once its gone inactive, that would be a helpful feature. Those kind of projects needs attention since some projects are getting attention but not giving out the performance that they promised to do.

Considering the scary environment around due to pandemic and life in general as well is unpredictable, so have already informed my family members about bitcoin and given them all the required information and written down for them and stored it at certain place. Also, have done demo and thought them so they can easily access whenever required in my absence.

It will be a donation to everyone on the Bitcoin network because if am gone my belonging will be out of reach. Though this is not the right move or the right approach for a safety, but, my wallets private keys are known to my wife an not any other. The issue of trust is what take me more skeptical when talk about such sensitive documents, the keys are the ones that give right to owners and when they fall into the wrong hands they won't be spare, so, i don't want BP with the wrong person.

I guarantee that it would become a waste if the bitcoin that was in your hands went nothing because of a tragic incident. I recommend to anyone to have a secret box in your closet where all your secrets are in there. Most of the time, your family will be the one who will look at your stuff when you die so once they see it they would know that you have something that should be taken care of and could help them too. It's already 2020 but the acceptance and transition of cryptocurrency in the world is still slow, maybe a second plan on restoring your money and keeping it alive would be a better option than to keep it to yourself all along.

I have been following the inftech.io project since 2018. and the project stalled in March 2020. there was a leak in their token program. for which each account can earn more than 50k tokens. and it can be withdrawn and sold. finally the team decided to investigate the case and close all withdrawals. until an unspecified time. I'm basically interested in it. because it can recover our key. until now I have not found another project like this.

If you fail to write all your bitcoin details for somewhere,where your children can find them after your death, show your bitcoin is gone forever because you refuse to show anyone in your family your bitcoin details. Without no body know any of your bitcoin address and you die show that all your money for your wallet is gone forever. It is better to write all your bitcoin details in a place where your wife or children can see them in case you are no longer alive again so that they can have way to your wallet.
All my children know all my bitcoin details which they will not find it difficult to have access to my bitcoin in future.

Bitcoin is never die any moment and they ask If I die today, what will happen in future. So we can store our investment in hardware wallet or software wallet. It is never hack anyone without our permission so if we hold the Bitcoin in our wallet, we must share the details of most trusted person. I hope it is easy to maintain at any place.

it is a risk to keep something decentralized, because all that regulates is ourselves,
this is a good topic because it reminds us of the importance of private keys,
dnd how good it is that our private keys are kept on paper or tell our family.

Just in case you actually would die today hold a hint as only your loved ones know so when you are found your bitcoin will not be lost

The topic is already discussed in the forum, If you die your bitcoin is probably lost if you're the only one who knows the private key of the wallet.

So you probably need to write it out at some point for your family especially if you're holding a big amount of investment in your wallet so that your family could recover it. There is some wallet where it might allow your family to recover your bitcoin, but most of the wallets still not have this feature because anonymity is a thing in crypto.

On the other hand, it's a good thing for investors since it will lower the supply of bitcoin the would make the market price of bitcoin pump.

yeah, you are right. it would be better if we pass on our crypto assets to certain people so that they can be used again. but this is a very good in progress for a project that carries a system like this. even if only the private key will be sent to trusted people. by adjusting the time that has been set just before we die. hopefully there will be more such projects and grow well.

Actually, some people should have prepared about this kind of situation, probability, and also chance. Well, we know that we don't know when we will die someday. That is why we need to make it as good as plan for our digital asset. Sometimes, choosing someone who is very trusted may be difficult. But, in fact, at least we have one who is trusted to believe and share the information of our digital asset.

However, if there is none knowing about the asset, it may be only two conditions:
- The asset will last forever in the wallet because no one knows the private key or data to access the wallet.
- The assets may be hacked by somebody and lost
- Somebody may find out the data in your device and then take the asset.

Actually, it may be the same question about what will happen if we forget our private key of a wallet where there is certain asset in the wallet. So, the coins will be there forever,

That is very much possible -- your bitcoins will be put to waste if you don't disclose it to even a single friend or family member when you die. It would just remain in your wallet. Thinking about it, I can sense regret if that happens. I mean, all your hard work earning btc for whatever reason it is is just wasted.

That's why I think it is also important to tell someone about our btcs. Sometimes, we just tend to keep it a secret because there are cases that they might just accuse it as a scam or whatsoever. So it's essential to have someone who understands what you do and has also an interest in bitcoin or crypto in general; and someone whom you can trust with your wallet. Writing it down would also be useful. Your loved ones will surely go over your things when you die. But make sure also to tell them where you placed it. Tell them how they can use it so that your efforts won't be wasted.

Always find time to pick the right person to trust, it's possible that accident will happen and without any idea you'll die.
Being advance gives you comfort that you'll be able to leave your assets and not be wasted for nothing.

It's you that needs to secure your funds, and like what the post above said, that's how it works  either you secure it and let your assets
be enjoyed by someone who you trust or let hackers to break your security and enjoy your money.

If you aren't satisfied with both the plans, then the choice is to go for a donation or support to the charity. You can submit a request along with the letter of wish to the court or an legal team to surrender your holdings to the charity on your death. Prior to that, you must also inform this to the charity to receive from that particular legal team,if not there is chance of fraudulent acquiring by the team itself.

We will all go through this point, we need to have a better plan to be able to inherit our bitcoin to our family so that they can get our bitcoin and it will not disappear with our demise. We do not control our lives, sometimes there are people who just sleep and then do not wake up again. It is better to be prepared because everything could happen unexpectedly. Much better if you have a secret place where children cannot reach it, the place where you know that your family will find it after you die, you can write down all your private keys, emails and passwords even instructions and notes to them, so that they can enjoy it or spend it and not end up in nothing.

if you don't make anything that someone may access your account and about your activities here?for sure all your investments and efforts will be spare because no one can open your wallets but you alone.

---

This thread may Serve as warning and announcement to those not giving this a time because they are healthy and young,remember death cannot be denied and cannot be monitored,so better Late than never.

Try to create safer list or form for your crypto assets,and entrust to closes to you then in case happens the assets are safe and will be on right and deserving hands.

Should make list detail one by one which one exchange market we have assets, and give all email confirmation and could give authy 2fa, I think the best thing how to give way with our family can withdraw and sell bitcoin or altcoin assets we have. Maybe giving to trusted friend know with bitcoin is better but will easy way if give to family because they are very trusted.

For those users who are extremely concerned about this scenario, I have a very simple solution available. In Gmail, there is a feature to either delete the account, or to transfer the account to someone else, if the account is inactive for a specified period (let's say 3 months or 12 months). So you can simply store all the details in your Google Drive and then set the transfer period to 12 months of inactivity. After 12 months, the account will be transferred to your nominee and he will be able to use the coin holdings.

you must trust your nearest relative or wife's child. They are the people most entitled to your assets as well. It is worth remembering that some people also believe bitcoin as a means of investment. Perhaps you can also withdraw all your assets so that they can be passed on to what you want before death occurs

No. In today's world, you can't trust anyone. People have become more selfish and devoid of human emotions. I am also holding a large amount of coins, and till now I haven't shared my private keys or passwords with anyone. If something happens to me, then all those coins will be gone. But that is a risk I am willing to take. It is simply a question of which risk you would prefer - getting your coins stolen, or your coins becoming inaccessible after your death.

The idea is quite selfish but I understand because in this world you won't believe others but yourself. But imagine the scenario where your near relatives like your wife, children or parents might be the one who sadly need some funds because of something serious and by that funds it may change some serious or bad situation. Would you still risk not to tell to atleast one people about your funds? For me, I will always believe on my sister and I will tell my funds and private keys to her so that she may used it for emergency and for their needs if I am about to leave.

yes why  need to entrust to friends when there are your family and more than any one,the family deserves our hard earned money inside crypto.Maybe let them Learn what market is this and how you earn your assets so from that the Interest will grow to their mind and curiosity on how to deal with this ,May be sooner you will use crypto marketing as bonding time.

I backed up all my private keys and passwords for all wallets, exchangers and e-mails then I printed them out and I gave some notes
that's what I did, I even told my wife that if I die, find my friend who understands cryptocurrency to take all my digital assets
this is just in anticipation if I die today

Do you remember the story of the treasures of Abbot Faria (Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo)?

Pope Alexander VI poisoned Cardinal Cesare Spada at a dinner party.  Cesare Spada was very rich.  His treasures were buried on the island of Monte Cristo.  

Suspecting that Alexander VI will poison him, he encrypted the key to the treasure.  However, his heirs, lacking a sharp mind, could not decipher the key.  Therefore, the family treasures went to Abbot Faria, and then to Edmond Dantes.  This story teaches us not to complicate things.  If Cesare Spada directly told his heirs about the treasures, instead of forcing them to solve puzzles, then the wealth would remain in the family.

It's the same with bitcoins.

I make sure that my Bitcoin can be inherited in case I “died” because of health, accident, etc., by writing them on a notebook and put it somewhere in my room. I would leave a letter letting them know that here are my “keys to the kingdom” that are composed of usernames, passwords, emails, public and private keys, mnemonic phrases and other confidential stuff as inheritance.               

Here we are talking about two risks:

Risk #1: my coins may become inaccessible, if something happens to me
Risk #2: my coins may get stolen, if I reveal the private keys to someone

For me, Risk #2 has a much greater probability of happening. I am a healthy human being in my 30s and the chances that something really bad would happen to me is very minute.

Anyway, it depends on the individual. If you think that for you Risk #1 has a greater probability of happening, then you can make arrangements accordingly.

The more people who have Bitcoin will die without telling anyone their private keys, the better for cryptocurrencies! ;D Since these coins will disappear from circulation forever, the supply will decrease and the value will increase!
Kill yourself for an expensive bitcoin! ;D

Bitcoin provides a unique challenge upon death. Since bitcoins only exist ineffective form and are encrypted by their very creation, they are exceedingly secure. Each bitcoin owner has a personal password, or key, that allows secure access to the bitcoins kept in their digital wallet. Unluckily, there is no method of recovering this private key for a possibility there is no central authority that tracks the private keys.

If you pass away without leaving anyone the private key, your bitcoins effectively become unreachable to anyone. Likewise, if you leave your private key behind without a clear clarification of what it is and how to use it, your bitcoins are probable to stay lost. It's the same as a key to a welfare deposit box without any measure of where the box is located -- except that a bank will ultimately clear out a safety deposit box to recover the space.

death is unpredictable and nobody can guess it. Giving trust to one person in the family is a very right decision, because control of your account or wallet is not only held by one person but your trusted person will also have control. Creating a form or list of accounts and passwords and private keys is needed, it will become a cryptocurrency will. If we don't do this and our wallets cannot be accessed by anyone, accounts and wallets containing bitcoin or other altcoin assets will be buried along with death.

Your bitcoin will siply lost forever in your wallet and no one have the ability to use it and spend it
If you dont want this to happen you must keep your private key to your children as a kind of heritage

I suppose that after death you will not care what happens to your bitcoins. For your own safety, you shouldn't give anyone access to your wallets during your lifetime. Even to the closest people, because life is too unpredictable. If you want, leave instructions on how to access your wallets in a stash, but make sure that they don't find her before.

Your bitcoin will be safe in heaven with you my friend, unless you tell someone before your death.
I am literally laughing reading the tittle. not because it sounds ridiculous, but it’s relates to me. Believe me or not, I always think about it, almost everytime I saw my portfolio significantly up. Lol
I have conservative parents, they dont even know how to facebook (oh, but they know how to youtube).
I have already told the, about bitcoin, at least it sounds familiar when they heard a word “bitcoin”.
I am about to write a guidance to locate and use my bitcoin after this.

Glad that I am not the only one  ;D

I'm glad I have a sister who is okay with technologies but my parents are another story  ;D The title got me thinking tho, I've never thought about this till now... I don't have a significant amount of BTC to my name but still you never know what might happen in the future and it'd be really selfish to die with your Bitcoins as funny as it sounds  :D I wonder what would be the best way to let your family know about your BTC in case something happens to you  ??? ???

After going through earlier comments on the post I can say that you must have gotten the needed answer to your question. But let me just add a few more words. Living your crypto lifestyle in secrecy with no member of your family being aware of where your crypto asset is kept, how it is accessed, and how much you've stored in your wallet, is almost like living your life without a will or testament for your family. If you fail to prepare and do the needful by carrying your family along on your crypto wealth journey then be ready to lose everything to your wallet after you're gone to the great beyond.

The process of digital currency is a decentralized process.  In that process no one but you will know the news of your money.  Not having your private key means you can't use your money.  So it goes without saying that when you die, your money will go to the grave with you.  Since you didn't pass on your private key to anyone.  This will be best for you, if you use all your money for your family.  You can even make a home for your child.

I agree, before the person dies in normal death he/she have time to say the last testimonial of his holdings and secret keys to his live ones. There is still chance to make the holdings beneficial for the family needs. The unfortunate is when the person dies in accident instantly and nobody knows that he has holdings. His tokens will buried forever not unless there is somebody who discover the keys in the secret place.

Indeed, this really needs to be understood, because investing in bitcoin is not like insurance. It is better if there are some parties who know the key so that when it is abandoned, whether it is dead or an accident, the family can still use the investment because they already have the key. But who wants such tragic conditions, the number is always I don't put it in just one place, of course this makes me much better.

The trends in bitcoin investing are very difficult to understand If no one knows its password and key then it cannot be recovered even if it has bitcoin after death This is different in the case of bank insurance because it is under the control of the government and after death the banks and insurance companies refund their full amount if the information is unknown but in the case of Bitcoin it is never possible. That's why it's good to give information to someone close to you about investing in bitcoin so that they can be found easily after death.

This is why my wife knows where to find my wallet passwords.

Knowing where to find your wallet password (private keys) is not enough. Your wife should also know how to properly use that private key (she should know that she can't give it to someone else if someone ask it to her). Also your wife should know that Bitcoin should be only sent to a Bitcoin address and it would be great if you're teaching your wife how to make profits on cryptocurrency you have in your wallet.

Again, your wife should know on what exchanger he would sell your Bitcoin, like those exchanger that has a P2P feature like binance, and so many more things to consider to make sure that your Bitcoin savings wouldn't go in vain in case you die.

You have to take your precautions before you die you can store your wallets informations on a hardware drive and hide it in a known position for one of your family members
so they can have access to your wallets.

Because as a dead person you do not need it anymore and it is good to make available what you do not need to others who need them. It is also called providence. This is the same reason parents leave properties for their children in their Will or you do not believe in people writing a Will before they die?

Yeah true there are no sections like this when creating a wallet, I think this it's because wallets are private stuff and no one else should have access to it, so that your funds will remain safe and intact.
Yeah, if you continue keeping your seeds/phrase in the secret no one will be left to profit from your bitcoin, because none of loved ones will be able to access to the wallet, this is the reason why we shouldn't be too secretive, atleast we should look for someone who we can trust with our secrets, cause if something like this ever happens there's no way our loved ones inherit our crypto, thus the bitcoin in that wallet will be locked forever with no one to claim it,that will also reduce the amount of bitcoin in circulation,so it can be considered as a waste of bitcoin.

It is really true. Why would you keep it as a secret and let it be unknown forever? I would definitely leave my Bitcoin as a legacy to my family or to someone I really love. Because I see it as I have a bank account, I have some money in it and I leave it as a legacy to my loved ones.

Death is a very mystical thing and the only thing no living being can elude, it can and will come to anyone at it's own time except for those who commit suicide or you belong to a frat that defines your life spam and more of things like that and as such, you never can tell if you need a next of kin or third party to have the details of your wallet. Even on a death bed, you might not remember to give off this details.

So, the death of a bitcoin owner on what ever wallet is equivalent to a wallet with a missing private key or seed phrase. It just stays there, frozen permanently. Should you need a third party, it's at your cost but, it's always a difficult task to trust someone with your crypto details or fiat as well. You never know what scheme the third party has in mind!

Your loved ones won't be able to benefit from the bitcoin you have in your wallet, unless you have disclosed your private details to them, else they won't be able to make use of the bitcoin in that wallet, so if anyone dies without telling their loved ones how or where the private details to his/her wallets are, the bitcoin in that wallet is locked forever cause there's no one that will be able to claim it since they don't have the private key or seeds to that wallet, thus it is considered as a waste and it will reduce the amount of bitcoin in circulation.

This is worrying Question if a person die what will be with his Bitcoin. Most of us hide our accounts with our nearest peoples and do not tell about account status account accessibility methods, we should write all these details in our personal diaries that after one death his family can approach to accounts.

This question has nothing to go in my opinion, because you'll never know when you're going to die, so you never give to anyone your private keys and how to earn profits in cryptocurrency. Death could be either instant or a suffering one, so even if they bother asking your private keys when your in a hospital bed, if you can't speak up then your Bitcoin will remain forever in your wallet.

That's the harsh reality in this world. We cannot bring anything that our hard-work bears in heaven.

Of course, bitcoin will always lag behind in the wallet, until someone takes it out of there. In your case, you must hide your private key somewhere and tell your relatives that in the event of your death, you need to go through a certain procedure. And it already describes the entire process of withdrawing bitcoin to the card, since not everyone can know how to cash out bitcoin. This is actually not such a simple procedure for the average user

It's a good question actually because everyone will have a doubt on this like if we save our earnings in banks if the account holder dies the balance amount will be paid to the account holder survivor, Similarly many expect the same here as well but this is purely a safe and secure site unless you say your details to your loved ones nothing can be done.

LOL.. you made that choice and I need to respect that. I first purchased BTC in 2012, when I spent $150 to purchase 15 coins. I kept it to myself, and never informed about this investment to anyone (including my wife). My marriage went through a lot of trouble in 2017, and finally I got divorced in 2018. Fortunately for me, my ex-wife was unaware of my Bitcoin investment and therefore I kept all the coins for myself. If you want to trust your spouse, then it is your choice. But think about the risks.

If you die without telling anybody your private key your bitcoin will be there forever and it will be wasted so make sure you tell your family members about your funds so that when anything happens it won't waste.

I think this question has been raised for several times already, but this has become more relevant because of the pandemic that we're experiencing. Until there's no certain cure, all of us are in danger of the enemy that we cannot see.

With that, I think that it's also good if we tell someone especially our loved ones about our bitcoins. So that whatever happens with us, at least there's someone that can access our earnings. Because, if it just stays in our wallet, it's not just a waste of bitcoin but a waste of efforts as well.

When you die nothing happen with your bitcoin without know by any one else and your bitcoin will hold on wallet forever, but before bad thing happen to you and we don't when accident happen to us keep it by give data to trusted of our family, maybe we can trust with our mother or our father how to use bitcoin and how to sell bitcoin, without talk to them your bitcoin keep intact for long time and nothing can take your fund, I think you need who most trusted depend with you, maybe your friend and you can give data or bitcoin wallet when happen bad to you and bitcoin could withdraw.

If someone owns bitcoin and doesn't give his wallet to anyone I think Bitcoin will stay in that wallet forever. because only that person knows the password from the wallet so that it can't be used by other people

The best way for your anxiety with regards to you bitcoin being wasted if you somewhat die today is to at least inform any one on you family you trusted with the details on your bitcoin profile and access. This is for the reason of avoiding the efforts you had made and it will help your family a lot financially.

There is an option in Gmail, to transfer ownership in case of the account gets inactive. You can set a time period (such as 12 months or 18 months) and then specify the email ID of the recipient. If something happens to you and the Gmail account remains idle for 12 months, then after that period it will be transferred to the person whom you have mentioned. In this way, you can share the private key of your Bitcoin Wallet with your loved ones securely.

make sure you have shared all the passwords and private key for your Bitcoin wallet with the family members you love the most, trust someone who can make your assets useful to others when you die.

It's very unpleasant if you don't have a trusted person who can handle all your secrets, including your true identity, because we live in this world not alone.

if you die and you don't give your private key to anyone, your Bitcoin will become trash that will last forever in your wallet.

No one knows what will happen tomorrow, if you can teach part of your family
to learned how Bitcoin or crypto works then it will give you some breathing if in case
something happened to you along the way, your money still safe with someone you
entrust your wallets.

If you are around 25 years old, what is the probability that you may die in a given year? Looking at the life tables for various countries, I would say that the probability is around 0.02%. On the other hand, what is the probability that your Bitcoin wallet may get hacked in a given year? IMO, it may be around 2%. So the latter scenario is having a much higher probability and we should be more worried about it.

Upon death, they have a legal right to the underlying cryptocurrency. However, the exchange or account in which the owner used to access the cryptocurrency could be controlled by the will, POA, trust, or TOSA depending on planning. If the private key is lost, the underlying asset might not be able to be retrieved.

If don't have any other supporter or friend or family member which you have passed the secrets then all the Bitcoins will be lost/expired/dumped in sense, no one can be able to use it.

I dont want to think about it yet. Anyway, i shared my seed phrase from my ownr wallet with loving ones, i hope that they will find good use of my coins

Such is life,because if someone dies nothing can retrieve his assets except that it has a successor who knows the rudiments of everything that belongs to him, so relating it with cryptocurrency, is very clear that if someone dies and left some bitcoin and the person to write out the private keys in any document it's very easy to use it's bitcoin but a process whereby no private keys automatically the coins has been loss, so it's advisable since we know that the only source to get our coins when we are in sick bed or no longer in existence is to write our private keys out as I said initially from my statement.

It deponds on whether others can get your password...

at the same time we need to make sure that the private key won't be stolen

Your Bitcoin will die, unless you tell someone else the key before you die

I think your Bitcoin is only related to your fingerprint, mobile phone number and email address

The private key is a pass to open the wallet, but it is not always provided by some of the more popular online wallets. If a Bitcoin holder dies without passing the private key, his heirs may find his personal wallet. Without the private key, they will never be able to obtain the assets in the wallet. :-*

You need to tell your family who you really trust and provide them with your account or wallet information in case you have bitcoins, just in case someone opens your wallet and sells bitcoins on the day of your death, because this can better allow Family members keep your money in the wallet forever.

I think cryptocurrency should also establish a complete inheritance mechanism

That's correct. We don't really know when will be our last day here on earth. I mean, we could die any minute, any hour, or any day. It's just unpredictable. So, like you, I think it would be a better idea if some of your relatives or closest friends know about what you are doing. And if you trust them enough, then let them know your wallet keys or write them down then put it in a place not so public but not so private either so that when such emergency occurs, they will know what to do. At least, you can be sure that your efforts in earning your bitcoins will not be put to waste.

Hi there Crptomagma, How old are you? The best way to do is backup your keys, so that your heirs could inherit those bitcoins. But if you do nothing about it, they will definitely go to the long list of bitcoins that are untapped and forever been locked.  If I were you, create a secret list of those keys or password and state those in your last will. Anyway, long live bitcoin holders!

Unless no one knows your private key, they will be lost in the network forever.

Yes, your bitcoins will be abandoned in the wallet forever. I would have gone through the pains to explain to you why this is so but then you've said it all yourself.
Your question(s) have already been answered by several before me. The only window of escape for you is to share your seed phrase or backup keys (although this is a threat to the security of your coins) with your loved ones that you know are loyal, else you run the risk of getting robbed. If they are loyal, then I think you're good to go

For some people, this is one of the most attractive features of Bitcoin, but it also means that bringing a large amount of digital currency to the grave is too easy.
If you didn't tell anyone that you have bitcoin, maybe they will be lost forever

Your bitcoin will be lost, think the last number i heard was that some 10-20% already is lost. Eventually, given enough time, all bitcoin will be lost.

If you buy stocks or gold, or even just deposit the money you get if you sell your bitcoin, in a bank, at least those funds will be in your name and will benefit your children, and/or someone you care for.

Even if you do share your wallet and your private key with a loved one, they might lose it or forget where they hid it, or it might accidentally be tossed away at the dump or something to that nature.

When there is no official link between your name and your funds, the likelihood of it getting lost is very high if something should happen to you. You dont even have to die for that to happen, it would be enough for you to get brain damage or in some other way be unable to get access to the wallet.

If you will die unexpectedly then your assets or your bitcoin holding will surely to be lost especially if no one besides you knows your private keys or your login credentials if you are using an exchange as your means of storage.

The bitcoin will not be lost as it will not be burned even if it will not be used for many years so basically your bitcoin will remain stagnant in that wallet if you will die not unless there are hackers or an intervention to the wallet owners like they will confiscate your assets as they notice that you are not using it for a very long time already but this case is very rare to happen.

Using an exchange to make it as a primary or main storage of your coins is a quite dumb thing to be done on someone unless if you are an active trader which do make trades
and then you suddenly passed away then that would really be a problem if you havent tell them about your possesion.

When it comes to this situation then its always been ideal if you do at least tell, one member of your family which is most likely your wife about your holdings.
Nothing is assured on this life when it comes for us to die unexpectedly.If you do mind on passing up those coins as inheritance then its a must
thing to share up those keys but there are men who cant just afford to share up their keys to their wives while they are still alive.  ;D

If you die today your bitcoin will be in your wallet safely and if you share your Pvt key with your close one he'she can use it but if you die without sharing Pvt key to close one than your all asset will be lost forever.

Your Bitcoin will remain in your wallet till the end of the world. Nothing is going to happen to it. It all depends on the kind of family and lived ones that surrounds you. If you Have a trust worthy fellows, you could let them know where you keep some of your secret keys to your wallets this doesn't mean maybe they will access it behind you as this is the fair of majority. But if you don't trust your siblings and loved ones, you can share the phrase among them and add an hint to join the phrase and use it.

I can relate to this on which it isnt really time for me to tell my private keys when it comes to my bitcoin holdings because chances that it would really be converted or cashed out will be high when my wife does really need some money and if she knows that if i do save up something in crypto then no doubt it would really be used for those kind of purposes thats why i havent told her about my holdings or savings but i made out some
instructions and guidelines on where my coins had been stored and steps that should do for them to able to get those coins and wont really be locked forever.
Its true that we wont know on what would happen tomorror, neither we do passed away and its much better to pass those coins rather than on losing it on void forever.

There are two thing you can do in order to make it possible for your Bitcoin to be used or owned by someone after you are dead and gone. The first thing is to write a will and that will must have the private key to your wallet and also declaring the person who is to inherit Bitcoin. The other thing is to share any relevant information regarding the details of your bitcoin wallet with the person whom you will like to have your bitcoins once you are no more.  These are the only way possible i think your bitcoins will not be lost when you are no more.

Every bitcoin user has the same thinking, but there are exemptions in which the user has lost funds sharing the private key to people close to them. It can be family members or someone else. So we need to make plans in such a way our funds can be used only after our life comes to an end.

Even if you pass away, your bitcoins will continue to stay in your wallet. You can tell your children the wallet private key so they can continue to use it.

Not to mention that when your bitcoin gets lost in the void forever, you are contributing to the increase in prices of bitcoin in the market. It sort of a noble purpose but I don't think that it is a worth thing to pursue especially if you plan to have a family, then do what the quote above says, make it part of your inheritance.

A lot of the Bitcoins way back 2013 were lost and forever cannot be access by the owner whether they are alive or not. Most of the bitcoin lost was due to bitcoin existence being forgotten by the owner, software corruption, hardware destruction and many more. And just as you've said this will help contribute to increase the price of bitcoin due to the limited amount of bitcoin that can be mined. The only way to save your digital assets such as Bitcoin and other crypto is to include it on your inheritance or have it save on physical way such as paper or anything that can help access the next users that will use it.

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As for the question of the OP, if you die and have not told anyone about your bitcoin and cryptos then it will be forever lost.

The lease thing to do is to let your very close people to know your private keys or passwords in order when you die they can manage your bitcoins. Just like giving it to your partner, family members or closest friend, just pick so that when you die there are someone who will be able to open and manage your accounts in order for them to use it for your burial perhaps. There's a lot of ways in which you can able to give your account and someone will used it. If you didn't give your account before you die then your bitcoin and wallet will be forever there and no one will be able to access it.

If you die somewhere without telling your private key to anyone, your coins will forever be in your wallet.
It is improbable to break the secret key, nor the client service can help. So it's better to mindful of somebody about your access.
Nobody knows when will you die, and that's why I always let my wife know what I am doing and the private key. There always should be a backup.

A lot of people already answer what would happen to that bitcoin, lost or dead bitcoin could actually be a good thing because that just means it is being held or will not be sold to anyone. The more people hold bitcoin the more the market price of bitcoin will increase. For now, I don't have a backup plan or something that would make my family inherent my bitcoin when I die maybe because I don't think about it so much and I don't really hold that much of a bitcoin in the first place but I've told my family about bitcoin and slowly teaching them what is bitcoin. So that they would know what to do in the future when im gone.

Yeah right, the very close person is your wife. Allowing her to know your secret keys is the right thing to do in case something
happen to you, then your family will enjoy your savings.

Without someone who knows your passkey there's no way to open your wallet, it will be forever be forgotten,  think further and
always be realistic that life is not in your hands.

Well, it is not really a scary thought, if you know how to handle your finances and you are willing enough to make money out of it while you are still alive. It is simply a matter of trust when you give it to your kin. For me I would not wait for me to die but rather I am going to buy properties and put the names of my kids as owners of the said property. If I die then the properties are properly named. I would have a notebook with passwords of my accounts put on a safe. The safe password will be hidden someplace else or shared to my eldest child.

He's not dead yet, transfer to my wallet, and I will always remember you, or at least I will promise that I will remember)

Probably inform them where to get your personal belongings incase you are no more without mentioning the Bitcoin. Chances are that they won't bother going through your stuff while you are still alive unless they know you have something very valuable in there.
 I'll arrange things in a way that the coins  certainly get to them by surprise if I pass on before them.

If you put the key in a bank safety deposit box...then maybe as long as the Executor of the Will isn't crooked or doesn't also have access to the wallet..... :o

Lol then the executor will took all your coin  ;D ,why not use some apps now that has this feature ?

I believe that Infinitus token/ apps can help you manage your coin to be in time deposit and will be allotted to your successor in right time.

https://inftech.io/


their Motto ..

I am not affiliated to this company i have just read their site some time and got my interest .

I think that it is good to give it or to keep it to a relative that you will definitely know like your parents, siblings or childrens. Bitcoin is a big thing today. We might not know what will gonna happen to it in the next few months or years but I think bitcoin will gonna be a big deal. If you die today and you don't tell anyone about your savings and private keys, it will be forever lost and will not gonna be retrieved eventhough your family filed something becuase it is risky to keep it and you need to have a secure wallet. So for me it ia good to have some of your family know about your bitcoin savings and private keys.

it all depends on how you prepare the steps for the future,we ourselves will not know when it will die before it all ends, prepare a second person who for us is very close and very trustworthy, but that all must be given a way to operate our secret key.

Cryptocurrencies and digital currencies represent the world we live in: a period of mass digitalization in which conventional assets (such as storefronts and photo albums) are being replaced by digital assets.

When the owners die or become incapacitated, what happens to all of this wealth? Although digital currencies and assets make business and transactions simpler, they have certainly made estate planning more difficult. Writing a will and then making the executor locate all of the properties isn't going to work in the future.

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) establishes a framework for fiduciary access to digital assets.establishes the laws and regulations governing the possession of digital accounts. To ensure that your fiduciaries have access to your digital properties, familiarise yourself with the RUFADAA and update your wills, trusts, and POAs accordingly.

yes every time i think it.if i die today never back into crypto so who will  owner of my bitcoin and what happened with my bitcoin.but look at bank system if you die your child or relative can withdraw your money.so it,s good idea please your bitcoin wallet key another copy and talk them about your bitcoin.

Take this one seriously, entrust your private keys and all those important information to someone really close to you.
No one knows when he will die, if you prepare everything correctly your Bitcoin will be enjoyed by someone who close to you even you die,
as they have those keys to takeover and withdraw your assets.


Very important as mentioned, make sure to have someone to assist you and keep all your private information, someone who you can
trust, whatever happens the person have the access to keep your Bitcoin.

Bequeath your private keys to your closest relatives, to your mother, father or child, say it. At least you should make a will for your family,
so that your bitcoin asset can be useful and can be used by the family well. So do that before you die. It would also be  better  if you teach
one of your family members about bitcoin, so that they understand.

Yes, your Bitcoin will be on the wallet forever. To prevent this situation, you must do something to secure your Bitcoin. Ensure that you back up the data to access your Bitcoin on the wallets. The data can be saved to anywhere that you think is a very safe place for it. Also, you need to let someone knows it, you can choose someone that you most trust in your life. Then, you can tell him what you want to do for your Bitcoin after you die. The message can be saved or left in a secure place as well.

This situation is a simple problem but if ignore this thing, it can makes your money nothing because if your family have not enough information about your crypto currency transactions your money is nothing, because they can't use it to survive to continue their life without you, so the solution of this is reveal to them your source of income which is crypto currency, teach them how to use it wisely.

For me, its good if some of your crypto currency was converted in to cash so they cam use it where they want to use it, to start they life in a new beginning.

If any man/woman die without anyone knowing their private key or passphrase, their Bitcoin or altcoins are lost forever. It is advisable to have a person you TRUST in your house that should about your wallet info.
Like me, some of private keys and passphrases have been printed and someone within me have idea where I kept it.
Reveal your information to your spouse or child because nobody knows tomorrow. If you can Will your physical assets and Fiat to them what stops you from letting him/her from knowing it?

If not your personal information and wallet key not share any one. It not easy get you wallet coins and token. It not esay to exchange any coin or token. But if any your information any one. Then easy to get your wallet coins and token. So if need to share the information. You will share the information trusted people only.

When a person dies and does not take care that his secret keys from wallets are available to someone, then his cryptocurrency will forever remain with him. True, we do not yet know whether he will be able to use it in that other world after his physical death. Therefore, each of us has the opportunity to dispose of our cryptocurrency in advance for this unforeseen tragic event.
It is also quite possible that someday it will be possible to restore access to lost bitcoins, because they still remain on the blockchain. It is possible that quantum computers will soon be able to do this.

One time, I was thinking on how can I inherit my Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies to my loved ones in case if my time here on Earth is up. Yes the Bitcoins would remain forever in my wallet without giving them my “keys to the kingdom”. If I had a family of my own, of course I don’t want my precious Bitcoins to be put to waste. Like if there’s a worst case scenario, my Bitcoins would be their last resort.

I dunno maybe I would buy a safe box with the message “Do not open until I die” and let them figure out on how to use them. 

It's a good topic, if no one knows your private key or no one other than you can access your wallet your Bitcoins will belong to the lost Bitcoins.


Other language is not allowed here.

Just like your cash in a deposit bank, one person aside from you needs to know your pin to access the cash in your absence, else the cash will remain there, bankers may even use it.

You need to confide in someone you can trust with the pass to your wallet, perhaps your relative or son, else when you die, your Bitcoin remains there.

As a distributed network, Bitcoin has no central authority to control user funds, so no one but the owners themselves can control their assets. Consequently, millions of dollars in crypto is being lost each year through the deaths of its owners but

The attention and money flowing into digital currencies have never been higher. Bitcoin has seen a resurgence in valuation in 2019 and Facebook continues to explore its own digital currency offering, Libra.

Cryptocurrencies and digital currencies are a reflection of the world we live in: a time of mass digitalization where traditional assets (e.g., store fronts and photo albums) are moving entirely online.

Business is done all around the world, at all hours, and of course online where the two parties never meet. Electronic and digital currencies are a necessity as they make doing business easier. And more than that, they’re a booming business. As of June 2019, over $335 billion is in cryptocurrencies.

But at what cost? What happens to all this wealth when the owners die or become incapacitated? Digital currencies and assets might make business and transactions easier, but it has certainly complicated the estate planning process. Traditional methods of writing a will and letting the executor find all the assets won’t work moving forward.

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Asset Act (RUFADAA) establishes the rules and regulations surrounding digital account ownership. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the RUFADAA and update your wills, trusts, and POAs in accordance so your fiduciaries have access to your digital assets.

Account Control Under RUFADAA
While cryptocurrencies usually have words like “currency,” “gold,” or “coin” in their names, it doesn’t make it so in the United States. The IRS holds the position that cryptocurrencies aren’t currencies. Rather, they’re more like goods and therefore taxed and treated likewise.

At the same time, digital currencies are, well, digital in nature and fall under a number of federal and state laws regulating digital assets.

At the state level, RUFADAA has been passed into law in most states since 2017. RUFADAA spells out the digital access rights for fiduciaries in the event of the death or incapacity of a digital asset owner.

Under RUFADAA, online management systems are atop the hierarchy over any other form of instruction about an account. So, if you set up a beneficiary designation on your online account, it would take precedence over account instructions listed in your will, trust or power of attorney documents.

The legal documents just mentioned can provide access to your assets in the event of your death or incapacity. Terms of service agreements (TOSAs) also dictate account control past the original owner. A TOSA is the agreement you quickly scroll through to click “I Agree”, in order to set up or update your online account.

With cryptocurrencies or cryptocurrency exchanges, you likely agreed to a TOSA. This would control account access in the event of death or incapacity if no other actions were taken. In states that’ve passed RUFADAA, advanced planning can at least provide your heirs access to the accounts.

But account access doesn’t equate to account ownership. RUFADAA specifically states it doesn’t grant any new rights to the account. So, if your TOSA is for a lifetime lease to the underlying asset – say with iTunes or Kindle – that’s all you have. You can’t pass along the underlying song or book to your heirs, regardless of how you set up your wills, trusts or other legal documents.

Perhaps even more frustrating is that the service provider or custodian of the online account or digital asset doesn’t need to grant the fiduciary account access. Instead, they have three rights under RUFADAA.

First, they can give full access to the online account if legally allowed. Second, they can give partial access. Lastly, they can do a data dump. With many service providers, a data dump of specifically requested information might be the safest option. This would ensure restricted communications or other rights aren’t infringed upon.

The Cryptic World of Cryptocurrencies
With a digital currency, the owner has a right to it as he or she would with any other physical good or asset. Upon death, they have a legal right to the underlying cryptocurrency. However, the exchange or account in which the owner used to access the cryptocurrency could be controlled by the will, POA, trust, or TOSA depending on planning.

With cryptocurrencies, the risk of losing assets or misplacing them is higher than with traditional assets. Because cryptocurrencies are stored mostly on blockchain technology, a lost password or asset might be almost impossible to recover.

The exchanges and online accounts might not be able to retrieve the cryptocurrency depending on how the end user held the asset. Most cryptocurrencies that use blockchain technology create a private key. If the private key is lost, the underlying asset might not be able to be retrieved.

This risk is also one of the strengths of blockchain. It’s almost impossible, at least today, for someone to hack your personal key. The personal key is so personal no one else can recover it for you – not even the exchange.

So without the keys, you have nothing. Any court order or other legal document won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on if you don’t have the personal key.

Digital Estate Planning
Digital currencies have value and legally need to be reported as part of the valuation of an estate. This means you need to track tax-basis. For large estates, digital currencies could even be subject to federal estate taxes.

While a lot of challenges accompany digital assets when being passed to an heir, positives exist. In many situations you can receive a step-up in basis with digital assets that pass through the estate process. If you have a cryptocurrency with a tremendous amount of gain over your original basis, it could be a good asset to leave to heirs as they can receive a step-up in basis to fair market value at date of death.

If you bought a coin for $1,000 and it’s worth $10,000 at date of death, your heirs could receive a basis in the coin of $10,000, wiping out taxes on $9,000 of gain. However, if you sold the asset while alive, you would’ve created a taxable event. (For more information on the taxation of digital currencies read this Forbes article.)

As you can see, digital assets and cryptocurrencies make estate planning complex. You need to track where assets exist online and how to access them. If you fail to do proper planning, your digital footprint and assets will likely be stuck in the cloud forever. Here are a few planning tips to practice when it comes to managing your digital assets and currencies.

Track personal keys.
Access information for underlying digital currency

Monitor online exchanges.
Track login, passwords and two-step authentication for online service provider exchanges where cryptocurrencies are bought, sold and exchanged.

Consider moving cryptocurrencies to hard wallet versus an exchange.
You can purchase encrypted flash drives and external hardware to store digital currencies yourself. Be cautious: If the hard wallet device is destroyed, the asset could be lost.

Update legal documents.
Because RUFADAA provides the rules for giving fiduciaries access to accounts, make sure you update your legal documents in accordance with these new laws and in accordance with your desired wishes.

Track all digital assets, passwords and locations.
While cryptocurrencies are the focus of the article, this planning is important for all digital assets, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, websites, etc.

Track valuation of assets.
Certain digital assets, like your Facebook page, might not have much monetary value. However, cryptocurrencies will have a basis and valuation that need to be tracked. These assets can impact your estate taxes and the value you pass to heirs.

The popularity of digital assets isn’t going away anytime soon. For fiduciaries, taking the proper precautions and understanding the nuances of these assets in estate planning is vital.

I'll just jump in here without reading the previous 14 pages.

I've two adult sons with whom I have little contact.  I want to leave them each 1 bitcoin but probably more.  Right now I'm thinking of 3 Trezor One wallets.  I've never used a wallet outside of Bitcoin-QT and use Coinbase.  If I have my btc in those 3 wallets, 2 of which would be marked clearly with the sons' names and left with an attorney (if the attorney would agree to  hold them), what information would I need send the sons so that after I die and the Trezors are sent to them, they can open and do with the btc as they please?  I have a problem with executors as experience has shown me family can't be trusted.

Would this approach be a mistake?  I know nothing of US estate law.  I think one could give family $10k/year tax free to them, understanding I would need pay tax on those $10k btc.  Not expecting to die today, perhaps transferring $10k worth of btc per year over time to the wallets designated for them could be done?  What would they need do to acknowledge receipt to the IRS without they're having the wallets?

Thanks.

If you die today then your bitcoin will keep in your wallet. If your relative get your wallet access then they will sell Bitcoin. If they can't get access then your bitcoin will kept in your wallet. No one will get that.

Yes if you don't share your oriv keys with anyone and you die, your btc will remain there forever.
That is why it is best to write it down and tell about it woth at least one of your close family member.
You can also get a locker in bank and keep your secret phrase there.
After your death, your legal hier can claim that locker possessions and that way they will have the key to your wallet.

Bitcoin will still be bitcoin and if you die today or anytime of the day without letting your loved ones or your family knows about it chances are it will of no value at all, but if you have someone closes to you whom you can trusted he or she can help you like family member whom you teach all about bitcoin more likely they will benefit it even if you're no longer around

I saw a news may be two years ago. I person die and he go to grave 100k usd. I writte my all private key that if i die my family members easily withdraw it.

That is if that loved one that you trust enough has the credentials to access your bitcoin address to continue your legacy. I mean if you die, I think that your bitcoin is the least thing that you have to worry about.

If someone dies and doesn't share the private information of his/her wallet(s) with anyone, there is no way to get access to your coins forever. Because you can't recover it like recovering your password for an email of you. The only way you have for getting access to your coins is keeping the private info of the wallet(s) in a safe place and not forgetting about it.

To answer this question, let me quote one of the most influential people who contributed greatly to the development of bitcoin in the market, to wit:


As what Hal Finney mentioned a few months before he passed on, he left his bitcoins and stored it inside a deposit box with the private keys (assuming) being shared to his family. If you are thinking of storing your bitcoins for long-term, better leave like a note or something inside your deposit box so your immediate family can take advantage of this.

Nothing will happen on your bitcoin, it will just stay on your wallet forever unless there is someone who will know your private seed and will try to open it. If you die now and you were not able to inform your family or any relatives about your bitcoin wallet information then that is frustrating because the time you have spent to earn that bitcoin would be wasted in a way that no one in your family can use all the money of yours, the best thing to do about it is you should inform one of your family about your crypto wallet, there is no need to tell the exact private seed of your wallet but a clue for them to find out where to find your private key once you have gone.
That is a good thing that he let his family know about his money, we don't know what could happen to us in everyday life so we should always aware that things like this might happen

It will be a waste to such person that fail to disclose his or her wallet details to his or her children in the family. Without your bitcoin wallet details, no one can have access to your coins accept you only.
Yes, the bitcoin will abandoned in your wallet forever until the person discovered  all the details concerning the bitcoin wallet before he or she can have access to that wallet again.

So how are people handling this?  Got to assume the people they want to give their btc to... are not tech savy.  I mean are there services where you go to them, they help you claim your crypto and they get a fee?  Obviously you go to them with the seed and see them do everything as oppose to just giving them the seed.

Thats why you need to give your private key to the person you can trust (familly or maybe your best friend). If your not doing that, your wallet will following you into the grave.

Much of a weird question, but got me thinking. Our world is a world of physical sensations and after our death no one knows for sure what is happening, no one has ever returned from there. Bitcoin is a complex mathematical model, the ownership of which also needs to be confirmed - the confirmation is the private key, and if you do not leave any hints on any media on how to extract your bitcoins from the World Wide Web, they will join those coins, the keys to which are always lost, and therefore will be lost to our world, just like you will disappear. But no need to talk about the bad, I hope all the keys to wallets will be stored in a safe place and our children will eventually retrieve them. In the meantime, we still have time to increase the amount of digital gold. Good luck everyone.

I think it will be lost forever. No one can use it anymore. If you can share your account details, Private key then it will be used your family members. So first you need to share your personal account information to your family members.

Your bitcoin will remain unspent in your account and no one can access to your account without private key. You can share your private key with your love one so that he/she will be able to access your your account. You can use hardware wallet for more better safety.

If you didn't share your bitcoins private key to your loveones then your bitcoin will be lost forever or just safe in your wallet unless there are hackers that can hack your account. I was thinking that it's better to teach other member of the family about bitcoin so that they are enable to inherit our bitcoins if ever  we leave in this world. It's a waste if our family members can't benefit from our bitcoins and other currencies.

maybe it will make the bitcoin seem lost somewhere and no one can access it, therefore having a friend who is truly trusted is a valuable one if things happen that we don't want we can leave something to him to give to our family

Going to waste, no one will never be able to get them back for you.
Unless they are in an online wallet and your family knew about them. Even if it was the case, it is still going to be hard for your family to get them back from the wallet or the exchange.

The only problem with inheritance is that there isn't a fundamental way to do that and most of the available ones are heavily flawed or got abandoned, not to mention that we are entering an unknown territory because we don't know shat happens to bitcoin and cryptocurrency in the next 10 years or 20 years and so on, we just have to hope that it is a good future for bitcoin.

Generally speaking, if you die with your Bitcoins, nothing will happen. If someone close to you does not have access to your wallets, they will remain frozen forever.

It will remain on your wallet for the rest of the time. In my situation, I have a lot of info in my wallet, which my family might access if they find the note indicating how to do so.

Let's prepare for a situation like this because people can die at any moment, and you obviously want your family to benefit from those BTCs, so you can plan on how they can get them quickly. I don't want my earnings to go to waste simply because I died, particularly now that the price of Bitcoin is skyrocketing.

We should really be mindful while still early because we dont know on what would happen tomorrow because our live isnt an assurance on day to day basis which we can really die.
For me, i had already secured out some USB which does have some instructions on how they would able to access my wallet.Yes,this might be risky if founded up by someone but
i had already secured it out and told up my family that in case i would die then they should check out that usb drive.Im aint telling them about fortune
but rather some notes so that they wont be eager on opening it out while im still  alive.  8)

That will be the most desperate thing.  Bitcoins are not inherited to prove ownership of bitcoins in your wallet.  That is the characteristics of the peer.  Although, you can share your wallet's pri so that your children or your wife can access.  But this case is very difficult.  So, share your wallet usage and access to bitcoins from your wallet with your loved ones to limit unwanted problems.

In my opinion, if you die today, whereas you have bitcoin assets then those assets will be stored in your wallet forever. Unless you entrust someone with your wallet keys, it's possible that your assets will be managed when you die. But my question is, will it affect the total supply of bitcoin? The rarer the less the total food supply, the higher the price, is that right?

If you die, your bitcoin will change its owner, whether it is owned by your child, your wife or a prospective new husband and wife.  And the win that you crave will definitely not be able to enjoy it anymore, if when you live the bitcoin swallow key no one can access it, it means that your treasure will fly in vain, because there is nothing to enjoy, therefore look for friends who can share with each other.  Surely you will not fall into a loss.

If you die one day, you can give your wallet and private keys to your wife or children before then and teach them how to use them. Cryptocurrency will never disappear. You can rest assured that as long as you don't lose your wallet and private keys, you can get them back. Your future generations will still be able to use the bitcoin or other crypto assets in your wallet.

It is not a question of IF, we are all going to die one day and the question is what you should do before that time comes because if you don't before it happens, then it might be that your family, loved ones do not have access to your wallet because you never shared with them and your Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will be lost forever as in stock in the wallet without access.
It is highly recommended that you share a copy of your saved access details, PW, PKs and so on with someone trusted in case of eventualities, I know I do.

I believe this has been an ongoing issue for sometime because I have see people talking about how they cannot share their cryptocurrency login informations with anyone because they don't trust such and such persons, and you are around them but don't trust them enough to give them that kind of info.
You must have at least one trusted family/friend you can share with because at the end of the day, would we want our crypto assets to be lost forever without our loved ones benefiting from them because we didn't share our info at the time of death?  I for one don't want that.

the more people who die without giving access to their private keys to others, of course, it will greatly affect the decrease in the available supply of Bitcoin, if most people die in that way it is clear that their Bitcoins will be wasted, but it can have a big effect on market value because the supply of Bitcoin will be increasingly scarce

This has been a long-standing problem because many people have lost a lot of bitcoin in recent years because they didn't expect the value of bitcoin to skyrocket as it has. I'm not sure why people aren't sharing it with others because most of us have family, and I believe we can trust them because they are our parents or brothers and sisters. We can give it to them if the time comes when we won't be able to use it because we're dead. Crypto will undoubtedly become a valuable asset in a matter of years, therefore it's best to be prepared in this event and ensure that someone you care about will benefit if another bull run occurs, making you a large profit.

One can regularly keep updated in email service preprepared info with password zipped file with info about bitcoins wallet. One need always (say once a year) stop actual planned email to be send later and to edit a new sending time in a year from actual moment.
Even free email services offer such action to send email on a particular day in the future.
One can plan it even in a longer period just warn possible email receivers to keep their emails active. Can be more receivers.

This has also been discussed in this forum before. That's why it's very important that we bitcoin holders who may have quite a lot of value must have a will or at least a family that you can trust, for example, your wife must know your account key. This is important when something unexpected happens, because if we don't share this key it will be useless in the future. You are tired of working for years but your children and grandchildren can't enjoy it if you don't want to share keys.

Yah its either one of our family members or whom we trust on, should be made aware of our private keys and other credentials to use our accounts and wallets. Let at least someone get benefits out of it after our death. I have shared my credentials with my wife and have taught her how to get into it and use it as well. Its an asset. As like gold, diamonds and other fiat currencies, Bitcoin is an asset. Hence we are responsible to keep it with either who is live and keeping it in the circulation or sell them off and utilize the money for any other goods instead of just leaving not accessed.

After you have discussed this, of course all of us here will be more anticipating what to do in response to this. It's better if one very close/trusted person can hold the private keys, passwords, etc.

Very interesting question, of course if you are hoarding a large amount of Bitcoin in your private wallet then keep it in a safe place and write it back to your most important person.

I make sure that my Bitcoin can be inherited in case I “died” because of health, accident, etc., by writing them on a notebook and put it somewhere in my room. I would leave a letter letting them know that here are my “keys to the kingdom” that are composed of usernames, passwords, emails, public and private keys, mnemonic phrases and other confidential stuff as inheritance.               

yes not forever we can take advantage of bitcoin, it will end when we die. that's why I personally entrust it to the closest people who are really qualified to learn crypto so that if I'm gone someone can continue it. we can't just let it go, so it would be better if it was put to good use by a trusted person. but before that we must also be able to take advantage of this bitcoin well so that we can benefit from it. that's why we have to focus on investing bitcoin or other so that it can be useful in the future.

Bitcoin is similar to other assets, if we don't give information to anyone then the asset can be lost, the same as bitcoin which has a private key that is impossible for anyone to remember so if we die and don't provide information to families then we can be sure the bitcoin will forever be in wallet without anyone being able to touch it.

like a puzzle, right? unfortunately it will be difficult to happen if our family does not know what crypto is, so there needs to be education first.
however, as far as I know, when someone dies, and doesn't leave a private key for their loved ones, it gets trapped in their wallet. because this system is not made to send assets automatically when we die. however, what is yours will remain as it is until someone manages to find your private keys, and remove your assets.

Well if you didn't share the key to anyone then it will just sit in your wallet forever with no one to use it even the value/price goes up. Like inheritance, its better to save it in your safe case(the wallet password/key) so that when someone checks your safe the btc stored can be use.

if you don't want to inherit your bitcoins to your own children, it can be said that bitcoins will be buried with you in the ground, no one can dig your bitcoins, so from now on you should give your wallet keys to your children, or you keep your bitcoin code, and you tell them where you store it, so after you die, your child can take care of the bitcoin you live with, and your child can enjoy the results of your work, that's our responsibility as the head of the family, which is to make our family happy. .

if you are a good family head, who loves your family, and you want to see your children and family live happily and happily, I am sure you will definitely give your bitcoin wallet code to your child, if you don't give it now at least you tell them of course, and you keep it on your laptop, and you make a pact with your child, if you die, tell me where you keep your bitvoin wallet code, if you don't want to tell your child, it is certain that the bitcoins you have will buried with you

I'd spoken about this with my family, I mean we consider the possibility so yeah, I'd prepare something in advance on this one and only it will be then released once I'm dead. So to cut it short, I made a pre-planned last will so that in case something happen *knock on wood* my family would somehow have access to my assets, well I don't have any issues with my insurances since they are my beneficiaries. For those assets such as stocks both crypto and live market, I make sure that they'll have access to it.

I think we should share about our valuable assets to our most trusted relative. We don't know when we will die and there is no guarantee about it. Many people have a huge amount of digital currency. This assets are not only for a person. If a person collects it for his or her family then it is necessary to share about his or her wallet.

If you don't tell or give hints about your Bitcoin to any of your family members/relatives and you die, your BTC will be lost forever as no one will have access to your wallet. What i have suggested all of my friends to solve this problem is using a pendrive to write down all the keys of their wallet and how much assets they're holding. This will help his family members to get back all other assets after his death.

the problem is the trust between the people in the family. if someone tells a wife or husband that they have a million dollars in bitcoin on a pen drive, you never know if the wife or husband won't kill you for the money or you never know if the wife or husband won't steal the pen drive containing all bitcoins and disappear. so this has been a big headache. maybe if in the future there is a bank that has the function of acting as an intermediary, for example: the bank would keep the flash drive containing the bitcoins and the owner of the flash drive would make a will indicating the beneficiary in case of his death and if he if he died the bank would notify the beneficiaries to take the pen drive

Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency with no fiat-like structure. It's basically stored in a digital wallet/account operated by the blockchain and its security depends on that as well. During the creation of a Defi wallet or blockchain account, there is no section to enter details about relatives or third parties. BTC wallets always advise users to keep their wallet and recovery credentials secret.
You need to tell your loved one or someone you really trust and give them information about your account or wallet. I think it's best that you make a video tutorial about bitcoin and how to withdraw from your bitcoin, your job is to send a message to your loved ones: "If I die suddenly, watch this video". If you die someone will still open your wallet and sell your bitcoins.

Not your keys - Not your coins.
BTC is just like gun, the owner is the one holding it. Its because of this feature that I have shared necessary details of my BTC holdings with few of my family members who I trust the most. I read that there are many BTC's abandoned because owners lost the keys or owners are no more in the world.

If you die and your family doesn't know that you own a digital asset, Be it Bitcoin or Altcoin, then it will be like a hidden treasure without anyone knowing. It won't be able to move and use forever, unless your family or friend accidentally finds your document containing the private key or recovery phrase and he knows how to use it. Then it will be your very valuable inheritance.

at least informing the closest relatives about the private key that holds our assets is a wiser choice. especially if we are married, of course the money can later be used for the survival of our abandoned family. Of course we don't want our family to be in trouble in terms of the economy, while in fact we still have assets for their lives

This is worrying Question if a person die what will be with his Bitcoin. Most of us hide our accounts with our nearest peoples and do not tell about account status account accessibility methods, we should write all these details in our personal diaries that after one death his family can approach to accounts.

If the bitcoin assets you currently hold do not tell anyone including your family, then your bitcoin assets will be left behind forever if you are dead, but if you want to inherit your assets then all the private keys you have for now tell your wife or your child so that they can enjoy the assets you left behind, for now there are many bitcoins that have been locked and can not be used again maybe it is due to the loss of keys. Personal or other problems.

This is a problem that we have to solve because bitcoin assets are only private and we cannot use third parties, so in this case if we have a bitcoin asset so large then there is no harm in us telling one of our can trust to tell the private key to unlock our assets if later we leave this world, and for now many bitcoins are left unbeknown to their owners and this will be wasted for good.

Bitcoin with a private key consisting of 52 characters is very difficult to remember, I wrote a private key in the agenda book which contains a lot of information about accounts payable so that if I die someone will find my bitcoin, bitcoin is a digital asset that we must provide various information to family members we trust.

Charles-Tim, presented you with two fair enough options to endure your kids will access your funds if you die. However, the fact is that almost every "Bitcoiner" is not prepared and has no clue on how to proceed. If you die today and you haven't told your kids how they can retrieve your coins, the outcome will be most likely that your coins will be tightly locked onto your wallet forever. IMO, I think we should be prepared. We should always share some important passwords with our kids and let them know about cryptos and how everything works. As a safeguard you could stash all the important documents in a suitcase. Over there you can leave clues on how to access your funds.

This is really an interested topic to discuss upon, but yes the trust is that no one wants to face this scenario.
But as you know, if you don’t have the access to private key, then cannot have access to wallet, same happens here.
If a user dies, then along with him, the coin and wallet too buries with him.
Yes we need to wait for some future time when some new sort of agreement should be made along with the wallet.
If the owner dies, then someone he will be knowing should be able to access the keys.
Soon in future many things are possible.

Still a bitcoin, without its owner. If you didnt give your passcode or write it if this kind of events happen then your btc will be stored in void. No one can touch it unless you gave it to someone who is close or your relatives to be exact. Better for them to use the asset rather than being nothing at all.

Without the private key, the bitcoin are not yours. In fact, a lot of people forget the private key of their bitcoin wallet because maybe bitcoin wasn't as valuable as it is now. They don't back up anything and that make them lose access to the wallet so the bitcoin will be frozen on the blockchain irreversibly. From the experiences of others, we can learn that for whatever type of asset you currently have, you should think about having a trusted heir in case you die. Not only bitcoin but we should already have a private key backup of any asset in crypto whether it has been inherited or secured somewhere. But it's down to each individual user whether they are willing to own an heir to the asset they have in crypto right now as I'm sure not all of us will.

This is going to be a huge issue. Now, with banks, most everything is recorded and can be easily located and processed in probate. There are going to be lots of people with Bitcoin that die and that coin will never be recovered. Especially younger people without estate plans who die prematurely.

This is actually true, if you don't share nor pass across your details to your children or loved ones, nobody will and can ever make use or access your wallet. This is made so for you to be in charge of your own security, and no one to be held responsible for any mismanagement of your key/mnemonics or phrase. But it is also a nature amongst people all around the world, that something they know is very important and of a great use/information, it's being kept or passed on like a treasure, untill you figure out what it stands for, you can't make use of it, but the child having known from small that you have being in such a business, then a trace for the treasure will start, and they always gets the treasure when the time comes, so long as it it kept.

therefore we need to back up all wallet data and exchange accounts that we use for trading.
I mean, giving access to people closest to us, such as wives or children, who we can tell about the system and how to manage the assets we store. procedurally, when you still have email access and security, you can still recover it.
but if what happens is when the wallet that we use to store BTC no one knows about it, of course, it will be very difficult. no one will certainly be able to access our BTC.

It all depend on you. your Bitcoin can be manage by your closest people like brother, sister or your trusted friend who you share your secret with,can also have your private key and other information about your wallets by writing it on diary so they can use it for whatever you want them to use it for after you die or your Bitcoin remain in your wallet forever because nobody will have access to it, If you did not share information about your wallet  with anybody. Many people could have die with their Bitcoin because they refuse to write down the details about their wallet, especially youth of nowadays.

Cant really deny that sharing up valuable informations like keys or seeds into someone even just with your loved ones then you cant totally be sure on the safety on to those assets inside.
thats why majority of crypto enthusiast or being involved is not really making such step or move to secure out first their holdings speaking with death possible situations.
Some people do talk about time-lock and some people do talk about setting up some will.Well, those things could really be done but of course you should know the risk.

I think if you don't tell your family or your wife about the amount of BTC you are holding and the same code of the wallet, I am sure that the BTC will forever disappear and no one can find it. that's why i always tell my family about the BTC i own and keep the seed code in usb.I told my family about this so that when I die my family will find my BTC holdings

Im gradually letting my wife and my kids to know about crypto even with just the basics so that at least they do able to pull the funds insider whenever i die because it would really be
such a waste of coins if those would be lost forever just because you hadnt tell them or totally had forgotten.We dont own our lives and anytime we could possibly die thats why
its just right that you should share up things.Dont let that selfishness inside you would overcome because i do really understand on why some people doesnt
really like to share up their keys on their wives. hehehe

If you die today, your bitcoin will remain in your account. And that bitcoin you pass on to someone in your family so they can use it later.I left all my bitcoin and account information to my brother. If an accident happens to me, you can use it for my family later.

The truth is, it will be lost forever and yes, your loved ones wouldn't benefit from it if you don't give them the privilege to....

This is why it is of great necessity to make future plans, let a loved one know of the details of your BTC that way, your coin doesn't remain in your wallet forever..
No time is too late to let them know about it cause we know not what the next mins holds.

Bitcoin is different from other assets, if no one knows we have bitcoin then bitcoin will be safely stored in the wallet but can't be used, but if other assets if we die there will be a party notifying the heirs that we are the owner of the asset. writing the private key in the book the family used to read is important before we die.

If you die today, your bitcoin will remain in your wallet. Yes, it will be forever left in your wallet if you die especially if you didn't give your child a private key to pass your bitcoin. But if you will give your child the responsibility to access your account then your child will inherit bitcoin and not be burried on your wallet forever. Your child may earn through this to help your family.

I don't think it's a good idea to just hand over the key. The better, in my opinion, is similar to a will and testament. It's as if you'll put it in a box with a lock and hide it or put it somewhere out of the way and tell your family or children about it, but only say that they'll open it when you die, with no further explanations, and make a note that it's really, really important. But this is just my opinion if I have a bitcoin, and we all know that we will die at some point, so we should be prepared.

Of course it is very wise to continue to provide information to people we trust because the longer the asset will be expensive and of course it will be useful for the family. if no one knows it can be ascertained that it will just disappear. even though we know that crypto assets will certainly increase and may be helpful for family life later.

yes, we can be sure that in the form of assets other than crypto, of course, there are many mechanisms that we can do by storing in the bank in a deposit or through a lawyer who we submit as heirs. but if it's crypto, if you don't provide any information about the existence of the crypto asset, it can be said that it will be lost for nothing. other than that you have stored it on the hardware or copied it in a book about the wallet and the key so that what we deposit later can automatically open.

I make sure that my Bitcoin can be inherited in case I “died” because of health, accident, etc., by writing them on a notebook and put it somewhere in my room. I would leave a letter letting them know that here are my “keys to the kingdom” that are composed of usernames, passwords, emails, public and private keys, mnemonic phrases and other confidential stuff as inheritance.               

When it gets to money, humans tend to change even with little amount of money.
I'd firstly educate them on what cryptocurrency and carry them along. Then I'd know the one that serious with crypto and if it's all of them, then I distribute the secret key among them so they can put it together when it's needed

Have also been thinking about thesame question which you asked, which o noticed that after your death your bitcoin is a total waste, if nobody knows your private key and when you are still l alive your private key should be hidden, nobody should have access to your private key because your private key is your fund, and after your death, you won't want your bitcon to be a total waste because without your private key nobody  can have access to your bitcoin. so after thinking about the possible solution which nobody will have access to my private key now but after my death atleast it will be useful to my family, so I wrote my private key in my diary which I believe nobody will touch it now but after my death my family will definitely check it and they can make use of the private key.

It will be a donation to everyone on the Bitcoin network because if am gone my belonging will be out of reach. Though this is not the right move or the right approach for a safety, but, my wallets private keys are known to my wife an not any other. The issue of trust is what take me more skeptical when talk about such sensitive documents, the keys are the ones that give right to owners and when they fall into the wrong hands they won't be spare, so, i don't want BP with the wrong person

It will be good for you to let your next of King know where you will keep your password should in case anything happen to you despite the fact that we don't normally pray for bad thing to have it will definitely come to us one day. Remember, for one to shows someone as the next of King simply means you so much like and trust the person and that is why you must equally trust him or her of where your password are in case of eventuality.

Just tell them at least with the basics or you had put up some instructions on  that will on how they would able to access it even though its a bit technical but make it at least simple as possible for them to understand.

If you dont like for them to be totally illiterate then it isnt bad to consider on telling them on earlier but of course its all about crypto
and how do wallets work and how to make it as a fiat.

Aside from Will suggestions there are still one which is that timelock thing which is mentioned on earlier page which i do see
this method to be somewhat ideal.

Crypto assets (Bitcoin) do not have a physical form, but can be deposited like any other conventional investment instrument. Every crypto asset investor will have a public and private key to access the blockchain ledger using the internet. Investing in crypto assets is just like any other instrument such as property, land and gold. Crypto asset can also be owned, given, and passed on to others.

Currently, there is no regulation that regulates the legality of crypto asset in inheritance. But we can manage it ourselves, we can enter the information containing the digital wallet private key into the inheritance letter. So that we crypto asset investment will not be lost.

in my place in case that im gone i bring bitcoin forever,,,, but before anything else ok before i started bitcoin im not alone im with my son too so he's know everything about bitcoin and i think i leaf him all my assets soo that he can continue trade about bitcoin life  for me bitcoin is my forever i never change at all,, bitcoin can help us to change our life as i know. and  also  we can do proper security about bitcoin crypto so i i think fromnow on i can do proper prepared about next generation,

the issue of private keys is a very sensitive matter in my opinion. especially when it comes to money. if we are married, it is quite easy to explain to our partner how to login and so on to secure the assets that we have later. it's just that some people refuse to tell them because they procrastinate or think about other things, so sometimes it's too late. Anticipating something like this is really needed because when no one knows about your PK and password, your assets will be there forever. So, start looking for someone you really trust for this business.

this is appropriate at least you are leaving your assets to someone who will benefit when you are gone. some are not lucky to find someone.

to someone who only have kids, bypassing the mother is more important to fathers i think that even if they dont get the custody of their kids they stil want the kids to inherit something from them.

its best to just kids to day about bitcoin and how to secure their PK.

I think that's a problem for all Bitcoin holders, the secrecy of Bitcoin makes us think what will happen if we die and the question is what happens to the Bitcoins we leave behind? I think the Bitcoins that we leave in the wallet, will be lost if we don't tell anyone about the wallet key and no one can use it, unless we tell some of our family about the wallet key.
I advise everyone to tell your child or wife about the private key, for the sake of security and our Bitcoin assets in the future.

Will stay still, Then it will be divided equally among all the holders of the tokens according to the ratio of holders of the tokens.

I have 2 possibilities that will happen,
First, your wallet will stay like that until it goes bankrupt.
secondly, there is a possibility that it will disappear from the wallet due to the actions of hackers or "certain" people.

But this is just my opinion.

This will eliminate all the assets you have. We only have one access key that must be maintained safely and only privately know, Maybe you could pass it on to your child or wife if you believe in them. But it seems like it's better than just disappearing.

Indeed, nothing unless a good hacker will able to crack your passphrase then those coins inside your
wallet will be sucked and be enjoyed by those illegal doers, other than that, if you didn't manage to
provide information with your relatives or friends, then your coin will be lost forever and no one will be able to use it.

Good advice, give the information to someone very close to you. On that point, your bitcoin will continue to cycle and someone will enjoy the benefits.

Yeap, the security of the blockchain is one thing we must not under-estimate. No key = no funds.
The only likely way to be getting your Bitcoin back without a key is to try your chances with a hacker, with super powerful hardware but then even that would highly likely take decades to solve.

From the point of dying, I can see how this can become a real issue, especially for people not having anyone to trust with their private keys while they're alive. To me this scenario which some will run into eventually requires a solution but that in itself isn't easy when the whole idea of Bitcoin and crypto in general is to dissolve middlemen.

To me this is a very intriguing topic, and if any of you have suggestions on how we might deal with this pls share. Thanks

secrecy would be one of the best things but indeed on the other hand we also have to think about unexpected conditions and events like this death.
maybe it would be better when you tell your partner or indeed what you trust with but with this note can be accessed when you are dead.
I think it will be better like that because if it is not like this then your assets will be lost,
or maybe you can make a will and keep it by a notary in the hope that when you are gone this can be conveyed to someone you trust.

As far as I know, our coins are completely gone when we die on the condition that we didn't share the information of our wallet with someone else. Because there is no other way to recover our coins if we lose the sensitive information to access the wallet. There have been many people who forgot this information and couldn't get access as of then.

Some call it a limitation of BTC, that it's not transferred to your next of kin like your fiat bank account. Nonetheless, it's an issue with BTC and we all must accept it and do remedial measures i.e. share passwords, secret keys with the person of our trust in case we die. Whether one likes it or not that's the only solution.

we have to realize that we can't live forever so we really have to think about this. Personally, I trust my family more if one day I die, namely my child. so as much as possible when my child grows up, make sure I give him an understanding of the crypto world so that if this happens I can leave my assets for my child to continue. whether it can be continued well or not but at least I will give them the knowledge and training so that they can do it well someday.

If you pass away right now without leaving anyone the private key, your bitcoins effectively become inaccessible to anyone. It's like, if you leave your private key behind without a clear explanation of what it is and how to use it, your bitcoins are likely to stay lost. So it's better you access bitcoin while you’re alive.

if you keep it a secret forever and have no intention to giving the password to your closest or loved ones then bitcoin will continue to exist in your wallet forever and no one can use it anymore. in reality we need someone else to replace us when we die so that bitcoin can still be put to good use later. whether it's the closest person or who can be trusted to be able to access it later. we believe that bitcoin will develop in the future so use it well so that in the future the people closest to us can also use it well.

If you have a fear of losing your Bitcoin when you die, it’s better to share the details of your wallet with your close ones. So that you don’t lose it and they can at least take advantage of it.

That's a very difficult question. Like you said yourself with cryptos it is all about privacy and security. There are so many scammers and hackers out there that storing our information openly so our loved ones can find it is not an option, the security risk is just too high. There are two issues here, first we need to store the actual password and seed to access the wallet and secondly we probably need to give a manual for our loved ones how to actual access the coins. Giving access while we are still alive might not be the best idea because they could just take some coins if they need money.
The two savest ways would be to store all the information in a bank private box or with a lawyer if we make our will. If we have other important things to store than a private box at a bank would be the best approach. In the case of our death our loved ones would be contacted and they can access the box. It won't be a free service but depending on the size of our portfolio it's an important thing to do.

most of decentralized just like Bitcoins are a virtual form of money protected by unbreakable cryptography. This attribute makes it a secure way to store wealth but also creates a big risk that if  Bitcoin owners die, their digital fortune will be out of reach foreve.

This has been the issue bothering me for quite some time now. I find it hard to disclose my private keys to a close family member cos humans are unpredictable when they have access to your assets. Nobody to be trusted giving out my private keys to cos those close to me have thought me an unforgettable lesson that I can't forget so easily. That's why I do trade my Bitcoin or altcoin immediately whenever I see good profits

A will is the right choice to bequeath our assets so that they can be accessed by those closest to us, so that even though we are gone, we can still provide a good life for our family. you can imagine if our family can't access it, then the assets we have seem closed forever and can't be used, because no one knows our private key

Actually, your bitcoins will be left in your wallet and nobody will have an access to them. You should write your seed phrase on a paper and tell your loved how to connect to your wallet and how to sell bitcoin if necessary, so make your family aware of crypto currency so that they will be able to benefit from your bitcoin and so as to increase their financial literacy.

If you die and still keep the wallet key containing Bitcoin secret from your closest family without inheriting it, you can be sure that your family will never be able to access your Bitcoin wallet forever.
If Bitcoin is never transferred from one wallet to another, it will continue to settle in the original wallet. Therefore, it is recommended to back up your Bitcoin wallet info and tell the family you trust in case you die, so that your Bitcoin wallet can be used by your family.

Forever your bitcoins will always be in your wallet and you have to tell your secret phrase to your family if you want to die :p , give all your data information to people you trust. seriously you make this question topic like you want to die dude,

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Bitcoin is like any other asset, if no one knows then bitcoin can't be useful for our family, from now on we have to introduce bitcoin to people we trust, death can come anytime and if we can give big things to the family of course they will be grateful thanks to those of us who have served.

Sometimes if we explain to parents, but they seem to refuse even though by understanding crypto, they will know and be able to carry out supervision of the assets we have.  To be honest, until now, I have never taken the assets in my wallet so that if I die, it will be transferred to my family. But before transfer to the other school. Please control their action.

The bitcoin is gone since nobody can claim it,but if they can fine.
But in actual sense no one can claim your bitcoin since they don't have access to your private keys.
It will remain in your wallet for a long period of time,until a person lucky enough gets the keys to the wallet.

Of course it will be forever in your wallet if no one else you gave access before. it's the same as the case out there, there are many people who are still alive and have it but forget their own private key and cannot access it. I think it's important to give a duplicate of our private key to the closest person we trust the most to avoid wasting bitcoins

This is what I am thinking about. When I die, what happens to my bitcoin earned in trading and signature campaigns. Well, in order for me to solve this. I printed already my private keys and stored them where my mother knew. I told her the place where my keys to be found. But the problem is, she is not techy savvy because old people has gaps when it comes to technology (aside from jet cash). Well, it does not matter because I said to her that my money is stored in my keys.

human death is inevitable, when this realization came to my mind i decided to share all of my wallet private key with someone in my family,

so that still now my key's are compromised with my sisters (although in the beginning his knowledge was zero in crypto). i would prefer we should take like this decision that you can ensure the security of your money even after your death.

It will be a donation to everyone on the Bitcoin network because if am gone my belonging will be out of reach. Though this is not the right move or the right approach for a safety, but, my wallets private keys are known to my wife an not any other. The issue of trust is what take me more skeptical when talk about such sensitive documents, the keys are the ones that give right to owners and when they fall into the wrong hands they won't be spare, so, i don't want BP with the wrong person.

People are mortal. It is an eternal truth that on earth he must actually taste death. I keep all my secrets in cryptocurrency in my diary. If I die, I give my wife all the accounts and passwords. So that they are Rick after my death Can recover.

But you should be careful on not to expose that diary off on other peoples awareness or from natural calamity or disasters because paper is something that can be easily be tear off or be wet which simply means
that you should be that mindful on keeping it as much as you can or on your entire life and some questions i would tend to ask, would you tell them on early that you had kept all of your passwords on your diary?
Im not really that confident that my wife would able to know all of my assets that i had secretely saving up. lol but well its our decisions to make though.

I'm also quite worried keeping our secrets regarding crypto in a diary isn't such a great idea, because paper is a very perishable material.
Now it is sophisticated where technology is developing rapidly, I prefer to keep my secrets in notepad which I store on my external hard drive.
Indeed external hard drives can also be damaged and can be stolen by someone, therefore notepad containing private keys or passwords I will
save in winrar format and I use the password to be able to open it. So with this double protection, I feel safe if my external hard drive is stolen
someone will not easily open it. But like you said maybe the people closest to us don't realize there are important things that we hide if we don't
tell from the start, so I did say from the start that all the secrets about crypto are on the external hard drive, so if something happens to me,
people closest to me can find it.

If sharing your details with your loved ones can save you from losing your Bitcoin if you die, then I believe this is the best move to take. Instead of losing everything, it's better to give it to your loved ones.

you must act early before it happens .because if not then all that you treasured here will go in vain.

best to find someone that will take your funds in case of emergency like family or vey close friend , but make sure that you will take precautionary measures because this might be a way for your own life.

Indeed. Be sure to teach your partner or kids or parents how to use your private keys if something happened to you.  If sharing your details to your loved ones can save you from losing your bitcoin, then why not. I believe this is the best move to take if there is something bad happened to each one of us. Instead of losing everything, it's better to give your private keys to your family because it will be a big help for them.

I suppose your bitcoin will be good as lost forever and out of circulation if we were going to die today, as you said it's so private and embedded with security details and password or recovery phrase that only us know and ofcourse we don't share it even with our own family and we can't know for sure when is the day we're going to die.
There's also no security details that stated if you're going to die, your next of kin or someone will going to have it. So, to prevent your bitcoin going to waste, you're going to tell them and let them know your passwords and recovery phrases in your wallet incase there's an emergency or urgent needs, also let them know how to use it because chances are they don't know how to convert or withdraw it in-exchange to fiat or even transfer it to other wallet. But the challenge is, if you did managed to tell them before you pass out.

Bitcoin is gone after dealth, if anyone (friend or family member) have access to your private keys they can claim Bitcoin after dealth. If no one can provide the private keys nothing can be done to get Bitcoin. it's good to have a close and trusted Person who can stand as next of kin to recover a documented information is good not to loose somethings to the atmosphere in case anything happens.

It's gone. That is actually one of the reasons why you should tell at least one member of your family which you trust the most about your wallets and investments. So that your money will not go to waste when you die, we hope not but we are all going to. It's completely gone when you die and no one really knows your wallet password and everything that has money on it. Maybe you should save it into a private folder in your computer or mobile device so that when you pass away there's one member who can open that file or folder containing important account and wallet password.

Considering the scary environment around due to pandemic and life in general as well is unpredictable, so have already informed my family members about bitcoin and given them all the required information and written down for them and stored it at certain place. Also, have done demo and thought them so they can easily access whenever required in my absence.

If your private key remains private to you alone then definitely your coin will remain in your wallet forever and no one will access it forever and will become a waste of Bitcoin. It's good to write down your wallet seed phrase some where only you can access but a place others will have access to Incase death occur in the future so the whole investment struggle don't become a waste

This is a funny question, i also sometimes think the same with questions like this by preventing my bitcoins from being passive without any benefit to my family after i die. Store your bitcoins in a credible local wallet or exchange and give your email and password or google authenticator information to someone you trust. do this as early as possible before you die

In general, it's yes that if you only save your private key without anyone who knows about it

your assets will be forever in the system without any way of making usable, unless hackers able

to penetrate and luckily hacked your wallet. It's very important for everyone to save this important

information and allow other close relatives or friend to know about it, in case unexpected problem

like death happened, your coin will still be enjoyed by those people who you really want to inherit

your investment.

I hear what you are saying but we are talking about death here and my Mum (RIP) wouldn't have been the person for me to entrust that to also even though Death doesn't come by age. However, my wife is not technically knowledgeable about the workings but she understands everything and knows where I save all my vital crypto information and can share it with a close family too that will be able to make good use of them should death happen and I believe this is a good step all should take with regards to this issue. 

Be sure to teach your partner or kids or parents how to use your private keys if something happened to you. For all we know our coins can be worth millions after we die and would be a giant waste not to educate someone and pass it on.
I myself made sure that my partner knows how to use what i have or at least knows where to look.

Yes of course it will be forever in the wallet and it will be useless there also, because nobody will use it for anything reasonable again, so i think it's right to have secret documents of wallet private key in case of demised of someone that have huge amount of bitcoin in the wallet. Given our private key the closest person is not really ideal because if the notice when you are already alive and healthy the person can come against you in order to terminate your life.

If I have wrote the key of wallet or account to my diary and if I have told it to my heir. Then he will get my sympathy. But unfortunately I die before save key or account, It will lost to anyone. And Bitcoin is not able to withdraw or exchange.

You have done the right move by telling your heirs about necessary details on how to access btc in case you are no more. That practice must be done by all Bitcoin holders. Its the dark side of btc that it can't be recovered once you forget the key or lost your coins due to different reason. So take extra care while handling btc.

If you don't tell your family that you have bitcoin, no one will know about that, and they will not be able to use your bitcoin for anything. Your bitcoin will be store in the wallet without anyone who can access the wallet. I hope you can tell your family about bitcoin and how they can access your bitcoin wallet to use it for their own good.

We need to keep wallet key and process in safe place like email address and tell your family to about it and after died they can access your email address and withdraw your digital asset.

Bitcoins do not have any physical existence like currencies. It is a virtual cryptocurrency. It is a standard practice to store your Bitcoin in a secured De-Fi wallet or a blockchain account. Those details must be saved with utmost privacy. Hence, in the case of the death of a person, there are chances, this privacy gets buried forever. That means the recovery of those coins will never be possible again. However, the person can decide whether to rely on offspring or siblings to share the data, in case it is required after a death.

If no one has any information or access to your bitcoin, it will be lost forever. In such a case, you can let your loved ones know about it and share the key with them so that they can make use of it after you die. It’s completely your choice if you wish to donate it for the betterment of society.

The wise decision to make when you involve yourself in this business, allowing someone to know your private keys, gives

them the right to use your saved Bitcoin after you die. Your hard work will not turn to nothing. Either your partner or parent

even your kids can be the successor of your savings. If you trust them enough, you'll not be worried about whatever happens to you

all this money will be used and not be stuck inside the system.

im not sure, but in my country they wont tell any information about bitcoin, they just keep it till die.
i introduce, telling more about bitcoin but never tell something details to them, its to complicated.
the best is tell them what you have, everything. so, someday, if you have a thing, they know what to do.

Any person that dies and did forget to show the lover once the password of in wallet the coin will remain there till kingdom come, because no way the coin can bring out from it hole, bitcoin is good to be invest and show people concern to you the secret of Access to the wallet.

This might work, although lending a copy of the private key to someone else would introduce a certain level of risk. You're better off making a time-locked transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain just to be safe. The funds can only be spent on or after the date set by yourself. Another workaround would be creating a multi-sig (multi-signature) wallet where two or more family members hold the keys to unlock access to the funds.

By taking these steps, you can rest assured your Bitcoin will still be accessible even after your death. The responsibility lies in yourself, due to the decentralized nature of the cryptocurrency. Most people don't know that much about crypto, so funds are lost after death. It's all a matter of educating the masses in order to help preserve Bitcoin holdings for generations. ;)

If you don't trust the person enough, by doing this you are really protecting your assets.

Everything that you've said will add additional layers to your wallet, your money is safe

while you are still alive. No worries that someone will withdraw your funds without your knowledge.

Better enough to make sure that your investment is fully safe.

This is worrying Question if a person die what will be with his Bitcoin. Most of us hide our accounts with our nearest peoples and do not tell about account status account accessibility methods, we should write all these details in our personal diaries that after one death his family can approach to accounts.

Writing down my passphrase or private key where only me can access while I'm are still alive and also somewhere where  only my closet relative can access after your demise is just the safest way to ensure my coin doesn't get stucked in the wallet after my demise. Of what use is the whole struggle if no one can access them when I'm completely gone

If you die today your bitcoin shots will be in your wallet forever. No one can get your bitcoin except you.Keep a personal key for your bitcoin with your child or someone close to you. Then he can use your bitcoin if he wants. If you die, your child will inherit your bitcoin and your wallet will be his

Yes, this is a very difficult consideration. because of this private keys problem, you need to find 1 person you really trust. maybe your wife, children or siblings, or maybe a friend you trust the most. however, in the matter of money, it is very sensitive.
So far, I haven't told anyone about the wallet I use and how to access it. however, I'm also starting to think about this. It is very easy to share this information with the family we have, but very difficult to find people we really trust. Well, maybe I will choose between these 4 options in the future.

After your death the bitcoins will be there on the wallet in which you've been holding it. For security reasons it is good to have a safety box within which one can save the private key and secure the box on a bank vault functioning on a joint account. Apart from this adding the beneficiary to the will and adding details about the private key or the information to find the private keys will make the funds being used by the children.

These days coinbase and Gemini exchanges used to provide the funds to the beneficiary on providing death certificate and power of attorney. Further these exchanges are working on adding a feature for beneficiary. This will make the funds to go to the particular person when the respective person dies.

I recently read an article about the use of quantum computers soon. The power of such a computer will be enough to guess the wallet password in the shortest possible time. I think in the future it will be possible to use this kind of service to regain control over your cryptocurrency assets.

Simple as it sounds but that wont really be that easy because you cant just hang on your keys that easily in the possession of your child or he do knows about it specially if you are still alive and had accumulated coins

solely on that wallet which would really be in danger on spending it or would be hacked or something like that.If you do know on how to make your child aware on things about on how crypto works and those wallets

then you would really be that confident on letting other members of the family would know about it but well its not really a very easy decision to be made.

Well if you die because of sickness then I am sure every would either give it access to their loved ones in time or even sell those bitcoins. But if it is an unexpected death then bitcoin may be lost in that bitcoin address forever.
No one can access it if anyone does not have private key.
Yes if you have stores it some where then family member may be find that and get access

from what I read in previous threads that when someone loses his wallet's private key, that person's bitcoin assets will remain there without being transferred until the owner gets his/her private key back

however we must keep our private keys and passwords very safe, confidential and easy for us to reach. if necessary make a will about your bitcoin for your beloved family

If someone dies and doesn't share the private information of his/her wallet(s) with anyone, there is no way to get access to your coins forever. Because you can't recover it like recovering your password for an email of you. The only way you have for getting access to your coins is keeping the private info of the wallet(s) in a safe place and not forgetting about it.

Indeed. The only problem with this is that you'll be trusting a third-party to keep your Bitcoins safe. That completely defeats the whole purpose of crypto/Blockchain tech. What'll happen if these exchanges cease to exist in the future? Or what if they become hacked? Will the Bitcoins be fully recoverable? Or will everything be lost? Those are the questions you'll need to ask yourself when trusting a centralized exchange with your Bitcoin.

You're better off making a copy of the wallet's seed into a piece of paper and hand it over to someone you can trust (especially a family member). You can also make a multi-sig wallet where other people can unlock the funds if you're no longer available. There's also the option of making a "time-locked" transaction where Bitcoins cannot be redeemed before the specified date by the owner. As long as you take the necessary steps to secure your Bitcoin, you'll have nothing to worry about. Just my thoughts ;D

If you will die without telling about your wallet private key or any access to  your loves like your wife , your son your sister your brother xyz so  there is no any other way to reach your wallet,and I think its not a big project because everyone in this field shares information to his /her loves  because its a Money no Matter its online but it is like a currency.and if I will die I know my love will access to my bitcoin.

Thats if everybody would really be that honest or trust up their wife that much and we know that not all would really be willing on telling their wife earlier on how much they do earn in crypto and im one

of those husbands on having that kind of behavior. :D .I cant just trust up her for now specially im saving up for our family and tell them one day about my savings.Yes, its a big risk because you dont know  on when you would gonna die and telling something important like keys of your wallet is really that needed.

Some do though about time lock or something like that which could really be that ideal but its actually on your choice on how you gonna deal with it.

If this happens first thing is you will stop worrying about it.
If your loved ones know about your holding's they can recover it else it is impossible to recover it without private keys.
In past thousands of bitcoins get wasted/lost and no one recover it your case will not be different because of bitcoin decentralisation. 

yes, there is no alternative that can be done to open a coin deposit (wallet) by providing information to those we can possibly trust. if you don't provide that information then forever no one will be able to open it and it will be lost for nothing. So far, no more practical way will be found other than providing all the information to be able to open the wallet.

Unless you will create a written details of your wallet and will be put in a time deposit boxes , in which accessible for your trusted person in case of your death.
by then your funds can be claimed by your trusted person.
but other than this then your funds will die with you and no one can recover that.
sad that all your effort in gaining the amount will vanish because of your own greediness .

you are right. it's a shame if the assets we have are not owned by our successors. The best way I currently think of is to find a partner who can be invited to cooperate on this. however, it must come from the family. however, discussing money matters is a sensitive issue. at the very least, finding a truly trusted person is the best in this matter.
If someone dies without telling anyone their private key, well, it's pretty obvious that the assets are gone. however, even I don't have a partner in this matter either. maybe after I got married, my wife was the first to know about this.  :D

By the way, that's a very good question! if I understand correctly, now there is no process that would regulate this.

You better let your keys known to someone trustworthy else if you die today,I doubt if anyone will have access to your bitcoin.
Bitcoin wallet details remain tied down to just one single user,this are one of the major features of bitcoin.

If your keys is not review to anybody if you die your bitcoin will remain, at your wife have to be taught about bitcoin since you know is what you in a living, your wife or first daughter and son have to know your private key but where by you don't have wife neither children write your private Key's out on paper and hide it for future children and siblings to use incase something happen

if the key is notified to the family, especially the child or wife, then your bitcoins change hands to them but if only you know the key then bitcoin cannot be owned by others, meaning bitcoin also dies.

It is true that you must not share your private key and password with anyone for the maximum security of your wallet. But the question key, if you die, no one else will know what your private key, but your cryptocurrency will not be able to be used by your future generations. My opinion is that you can educate your future generations in higher education and give them your private keys and passwords so that they can use them in the future after you.

right, the advantage of bitcoin is like this, no one will be able to open it and find out if the one who has bitcoin does not provide any information about the key to the bitcoin held to anyone. so that bitcoin is not lost and has no owner properly as a key holder must provide information to those who are trusted so that later it can be used, if no information is provided, it is clear, as the colleague above said, that bitcoin will die and be lost and have no master.

There is a much more effective method. Buy a metal plate and engrave your private key/seed on it (they are already available for $30 on Amazon). Bury it in a safe place, preferably on your own property. Leave a note in your will with the info on where to put it. Your descendants, no matter if they know Bitcoin and crypto in common, will figure out how to get the Bitcoin with the private seed, there are easy to understand instructions on the internet.

If you keep Secret your wallet key then your bitcoin will not be use anyone after you Die . Your bitcoins will remain the same for ages. Since Bitcoin is decentralized and there is no nominee system like bank here.  So it is better if you keep written the recovery phase in a secret place. And keep it that way so that one of your next generation can get it as a hidden treasure

If you do this then you run the risk of absolutely no one having access to your funds when you're gone, I'm saying that cause you cannot be sure that any member of your family will be able to locate your seed phrase when you're gone and thus it could be gone forever, I'd say if you have a trusted person, it's much better to educate that person about the network and then find a way give such person access to your funds. In order not to risk losing your funds to the persons folly, you need to carefully teach the person about Bitcoin and do your research on the safest way to hand over your funds when you're gone, other than this very thread, this subject has been discussed quite a lot of times already, so use the search button to do your research about how best one can inherit your funds and then implement the one that suits you most.

Well this is the major issue of trust these days thats why we dont tell about these things to anyone. Lets say even if i trust some one that he can not cheat me on purpose but may be by mistake he can save it some where, where some one else can get. I mean in these kind of things we dont tend to tell someone and keep it private that how much bitcoin we are holding

Your Bitcoin wallet will remain untouched and the same if you don’t share the keys before you die. While you’re trying to secure your wealth, also remember that when you die, it will not benefit your family if you didn’t share the necessary keys with them.

Two things will definitely happen to your bitcoin if you die today:
1- family will take over: If you write down all your bitcoin wallet details and impact your wife or children how to use them in the community it be favourable to your family. If you teach your children how to use bitcoin to buy goods and services online and if you die your family can continue using your bitcoin.
2- your bitcoin is gone forever: If you fail to show your family your personal bitcoin details before you die no one can have access to it and it is gone forever.

When anything happened like your wallet would remain their forever and your funds will be safe and after some decades you would see a high level of income or your parents if they got yo know about your wallet....

Therefore, we should prepare for this if there are things that are not wanted, our assets will not come with us but can be used by those closest to us.
I personally have now started teaching about crypto to my wife in the hope that if something happens to me in the future my assets can at least be useful for my family.
on the other hand but for now I still keep bitcoin access only for myself and have not fully granted access to my next of kin.
Because I think right now I can still use it myself and my wife doesn't need to know about the assets and access I have.

My answer is almost same as mainly answers above, and indeed systemically, your Bitcoin will remain in that abandoned wallet forever.
But i wonder what if in the future there will be a policy or blockchain development that will allow miners to take "garbage" from the "dead wallet" ?
Is that possible?  ???

Of course no any other answer to the question because the bitcoin will remain there till kingdom come and i have similar answer too that i answered right now, and i think this educational instinct is making people to be civilize in and also be active to write out their private Key's for death purpose.

The secrecy of the phrase bitcoin is indeed recommended for all of us who already have bitcoins in our wallets. However, how to interpret the secret? Of course in this life there are people we can trust and there are people we can't trust. For example, if you have children or a wife, they will inherit all the wealth we have. All we have to do is save all these phrases and we trust to retrieve them if one day we die. Of course our bitcoins can be used by them.

That is what have always been reasoning, there are people we can trust in our family where we come from who will can trust to let them know the private  keys incase anything happens. If know one have information of the wallet the bitcoin will remain in the wallet forever.

If someone hold their Bitcoin and no body know that has a bitcoin his wallet then nothing to do after his dead and your bitcoin will dead with your dead. So you can share your crypto fund with your family member.

Yeah right , that has been told hundred of times above you lol.

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I have shared 70% of my crypto asset to my Wife and Son , they are now having the keys with me so whatever happen they will share all the funds i have left them.

the other 30% stays in mine for my trading activities .

Maybe sooner i will also share those to them.

Well, trading continues with it if the password to the wallet, private key or the seed phrase is known by any of the family or the children. I4 won't just be dormant doing nothing in a wallet for life even though the worth would be increasing and decreasing on bitcoin price

Keep copy of hardware wallet keys/seed/pin in safebox. Descendants get access to this upon death. Include cryptocurrency and other e-assets in your will. People are starting to think about this already.

I really want to live on if I can. Lol. My family, wife have understood what I am doing today including in the crypto world. Although he wasn't interested in meddling. Several times I told myself that I had online storage in the form of a digital wallet. I have also told you that I made a note to my wife regarding my wallet. Although he didn't understand at least he understood that there was digital money stored and it was mine and could be his if I died. No one may know when to die, but telling a trusted person early on is one of the best ways.

Yes your bitcoins will be wasted forever if your loved ones had no access to it. If I were at your place, I would share my private keys with my children. I don’t want them to struggle for what can be really easy for them.

This is by far the best way to preserve your Bitcoin for generations. Metal wallets seem to last a lifetime as they're waterproof, fireproof, and even shockproof. There's a crypto backup solution called the "CryptoSteel Capsule" which is made out of high-quality stainless steel. Several tests were performed in order to verify the company's durability claims, and all of them succeeded. It's a great way to protect your Bitcoin seed/mnemonic for when you're dead. The only thing is that this metal wallet has a high price tag. There are other affordable options (like the metal plate previously mentioned), but they might not be as durable as the CryptoSteel Capsule. At least, something's better than nothing. You'll never know when you'll die, so it's better to act quickly before it's too late. ;)

If indeed you die suddenly and there is absolutely no sign, then maybe your Bitcoin will be in your wallet forever. However, if you keep your data neat, and easy to understand on your personal computer. Then there is still a possibility that your Bitcoin will be used by the owner of the computer next.

Bitcoins are a virtual crypto currency with no physical existence. A person can store Bitcoin in a secured De-Fi wallet or a blockchain account. Those details must be saved with utmost privacy. Hence, in the case of the death of a person, there are chances, those details get buried forever. That means it will be impossible to recover those coins again. However, the person can decide whether to rely on offspring or siblings to share the details, in case it is required after a death.

Which is your own family but accessing it would be useless if family members arent really that techy when it comes on accessing things thats why its really important for you on at least showing off some
preparedness on teaching them about even just with the basics because no one really know on when they would die thats why it would be sensible on leaving those coins to be worthy and be used
by your loved ones rather than on letting them totally lost in void or totally cant be used by everybody. You should be mindful even with the simplest stuff
because you dont know on what would happen next.

The right thing to do, educating those people around you to make sure that in case a sudden death happened, they know what to do.

It's no good just to let them know that you are investing in this industry and nothing else, but the good thing is to also
guide them. Even interest is not there from them.

Knowledge is better than losing your hard earned investment when an accident happened or whatever kind of incident that
caused to lose your life.

Since bitcoins only exist in virtual form and are encrypted by their very nature, they are extremely secure. ... If you pass away without leaving anyone the private key, your bitcoins effectively become inaccessible to anyone.
One of the solutions to making sure your Bitcoin isn’t lost forever is to outline the details of what you’ve got stored on the blockchain in your will and, at the very least, letting your family know you’ve got crypto stashed away.

The bitcoin if you will die will go to your heirs according to the rules and regulations. But it is important that you tell your family about your passwords and pins in your life. If they are in your trusty. But if they are not trustable in any way then you can put your will in some locker or safe that can be read after your death. You can tell about Bitcoin to your lawyer confidentially.

Well, in the end we do need a trusted person to teach about these assets. Well, however, it's hard to find trusted people, especially when it comes to money. so, things like this it's best to teach our families and provide education about what we have. it will be better when they can use it when we are dead.
after all, it's all about education, and trust. maybe like telling the password from the ATM that we have to a trusted person who can use the money as we want.

^ Lawyer.
This is the right person that you can trust if you have heirs to your family, this will organize everything that you have left when you have passed away.
But if your BTC does not have a private key, none of your family will recover, and even if your lawyer cannot recover too.
Entrusting someone is very important but I think your wife/husband was closed to you will probably worth it to trust. Once private keys were lost all your BTC were stacked on the wallet forever and if your private key will put, on the other hand, it will always belong to them not yours because BTC does not have a mark that you can identify it is yours once it is transferred into another wallet that you dont have control, it will be no longer be yours.

Bitcoin does not die if, for some reason, access to it becomes impossible. It remains on the blockchain and will wait until access to it is resumed. In the future, quantum computers may be able to do this, the capabilities of which have been growing quite rapidly lately, but this will most likely happen in at least a decade.
Due to the death of bitcoin holders and for other reasons, the number of lost bitcoins will constantly increase and there is nothing we can do about it. After all, we ourselves are banks for our cryptocurrency and are fully responsible for its safety.

Sounds pretty basic eh? but the question is on how you would arranged up on things on letting others knows your keys when you are still living? Of course you would really be hesitant on doing so because you dont

like for them to access out your keys while you are still living and majority of us is a little bit secretive even into our loved ones which you wouldnt tend to tell on what you are dealing with.

So this means that you would really be making some will incase you die, but hope that those information wont be leaked our opened out before you die.

Valid question,  ;) it's a normal human behavior not to trust that much if it's about our investment.

We tend to say that we need to have someone who we really trust to take care of our assets in case we died unexpectedly, but like your statement said, how you will execute and how will you choose the right person to entrust everything?

Really, a matter of hard decision making, but the fact that we needed to do this in order to secure our money if something

happen and everything that we invest in will be enjoyed by our love ones..

You are right and that has happened to many people, in fact, for those who have lost their BTC at the time of death, it is because they never left their private keys to family or friends, and this causes a positive effect on the market, because the economy it becomes more and more deflationary, and since the BTC limit is limited, it will never have any inflation, there will always be a way for this economy to survive any eventuality, what needs to be improved is the case that one day we run out of electricity and/or or no internet.

Lol most of us don't wanna share our Keys to anyone as we are confident to be keeping the Hold for long time , but the problem if there is a unexpected things happened, if we die in accident or something related to that matter.
this is the reason why we must be need to trust someone that will keep hand our coins if there is the same situation happened.
this is the sad thing about crypto investing because since this is super secured then even our love ones cannot access without our authorization .

First and foremost, the likelihood of bitcoin dying today is extremely low, but it is still a possibility. If this occurs, we will have nothing to do because it has already died; we will simply have to learn to move on and will lose all of the money we have invested in it. Because the price is currently too high and there are a large number of holders, this is an extremely unlikely scenario at this time. Alternatively, the coin's owner will run the money or all of its holders will sell it so that no buy order will be filled will bring it to an end.

You're right and this has happened to a lot of people, in fact, who lost their BTC when they left, because they didn't pass on their private keys to anyone, and no one knew they would be able to use it, and that would have a positive effect on the market. , Because the economy becomes more and more inflationary, and since the BTC limit is limited, it will never have any inflation. These issues are hurting our economy a lot.


Of course, this is a simple human behavior note that makes us believe in investing. It strengthens our confidence and morale. Keeping an eye on this believe gives us the courage to invest.

If anyone have bitcoins in online wallets then it is a possibility that there wallet can hacked after their death. And someone get benefit. But if stores their bitcoin in hardware wallet and no one knows about their secret key then bitcoins will stores in it. And no one have benefit with these bitcoins after his death. I think this is the drawback of this market. If we stores money in bank then after death the amount will be transfer to their family. But in crypto currency this is opposite. If anyone knows their secret key then he access their wallet.

It is indeed risky if we don't tell our wallet's private key to the closest people, because the assets we have will be frozen and cannot be used by our family. indeed it is better to give instructions to close family about the files that we have saved, so that our assets can still be useful for our descendants or family, to support the family economy

If you pass away without leaving anyone the private key,your bitcoin will stay in your digital wallet or likely lost forever.Thats why it is important that your heirs are aware of your bitcoin account.Educate them and make them understand on how to use/access it if something happens to you. Make sure that they have a copy of the private keys and backup phrases for your wallets. Let them know the location of where your bitcoin is stored.Made a plan on how to secure your wealth for your family .

If nobody knows about these coins after ones passing on and no will is left behind then these coins will remain lost but not forgotten as any one with your public address could be able to see how much is in this wallet....which is why its a good idea somebody knows something about your trrasure. Had it being fiat, when one passes on the next of keen is entitled to this treasure box which is something crypto cant not have.

This is serious,if someone is dead without telling anyone his bitcoin account password the money is gone for life,it is advisable to tell someone you trust  your wallet details in case anything happen,its not compulsory your child,because some children are not trustworthy, have you not heard of a son that drugged his father in order to transfer huge amount of bitcoin from the fathers wallet,some dubious children can even kill their parents because they have access to the wallet.

 Nothing will happen to your bitcoin, if your wife or children know the password to your bitcoin wallet. That is why decentralized currency is different from centralized currency because nobody will tell your wife or children not to have access to their father bitcoin wallet, like the way bank used to block some people account because the own of the account is died. The family must bring death certificate from the Court before the banker can allow he children or wife to have access to the money.

Decentralized is very easy for the family to have access to their late husband bitcoin wallet without going to court to collect death certificate before they can have access to their father bitcoin wallet.

Because the owner is the only one in charge of the wallet with his or her private key, the bitcoin in his or her wallet will be useless if that person is no longer alive. But does it make sense to keep certain of your secrets hidden from your children or trustworthy family members? , I believe that in the event of a tragedy such as death, we should share our secrets with our loved ones, such as a child or a sibling whom you truly trust, in order to avoid losing everything you have after death, so that your family can prosper.

This is very interesting question, but the secret of bitcoin still remain, as the person dies as well the asset is gone forever, business is trust no one Game.

 :D it seems very funny to me,
Yes, I agreed, It reminded me of how corrupt society we are.
When the main breadwinner of the family dies, if he does a DPS for the family, only the aggrieved family can understand how much suffering it takes to withdraw it.
Bitcoin can relieve us of all these problems. No Death Certificate will be required to withdraw the funds if someone handover the wallet files to his family before the death.

Plain and simple, and it indeed needed these days, the virus or whatever possible threat to our life is just there.

If you want your bitcoin being enjoyed after you passed from this life, better to make sure that you do educate your inheritance,
People that you trust the most while you are still alive. Just like the what the post above said in his statement, if you die without
giving this information to anyone, your bitcoin will be stuck forever.


ANd everything you did will be buried with you if you forget to leave your private key to anyone, better to entrust those information

else, it will be gone with you forever..

But the only problem you would really be having is to teach them on how to access those coins on the time you pass away which would really require out some basic
teaching about those needed information but the question is, how many people would tend to do so? Explaining or telling them about your wallet keys when you are still
alive? For sure you would really be hesitated on doing so thats why some people do end up on locked funds because they didnt to do so earlier.

Well that is a good idea but not all will can completely understand bitcoin.
I am thinking this -- if you die today, your bitcoin will be left in your wallet and will perish along with you. If you have not given your private key to someone you wanted to give it to, it will no longer be accessible. You will leave your bitcoin unspent and will be accountable for the small increase in bitcoin price. So, if you have that worry and don't want your bitcoin to be lost forever, give it to your child or to someone you can trust while you are alive.

That's even if we have time to give instructions or pass our private key to the heirs. We can't know when we die, maybe a few minutes after we think about passing on what we have? or sometime before we inherit our private key? And our family doesn't know that at all.
But if as you said by making a will in advance, it is the right solution to tell what we have to our heirs (wife or kids).
If we die without being able to make a letter of inheritance, the private key and bitcoin will continue to be in our wallet without anyone knowing it, maybe the lucky ones even someone else who buys our laptop or computer if our family sells it .
could it be?

I went through most of the replies here. It’s really thread of all the cool and dumb ideas altogether. It’s good to see this question but it’s very common that we usually just record our properties and assets with the WILL so that it can be passed on.

I don’t find it very hard to understand what happens if I die. More or less no one cares about us but will surely care about the assets we had as they can be utilised later in their lives.

Just make sure to give your keys to someone. Otherwise it Will contribute to low supply and high demand of bitcoin.  ;D ;D

this is the disadvantage of cryptocurrencies, being able to create a system that allows the person to die and those who are alive to benefit is something extremely difficult in the crypto world, I would not be surprised if in the future there are banks that play this role of holding cryptocurrencies and freeing up the beneficiaries in someone's death case

A bit contradictory because that crypto owner wouldnt tend to make use of these services if ever it would really be available because they would really be having that access to your crypto or neither they would have access on your wallet or totally they would require you do deposit into their bank address on crypto which is totally bullshit to consider out.

If you do die today then be sure that you had prepared out something that your loved ones could able to benefit out once you do die.No one really knows on when it would happen
but its better to be prepared than on wasting those coins that you do have.

If theres no one knows about your bitcoin account, your bitcoin will be buried on your bitcoin wallet,or may be lost forever.And its going to be useless because you are already dead. Thats why you need to educate someone you trust, or some members of your family of how they can access your bitcoin wallet in case you die.

You are right, and as much as I know that in this life all you can buy is money, plus nothing and if that is the case there is no point in being selfish with the people who have always been around us, as long as you can help others it is something that will be rewarded, whether in this world or the next, everything helps, if a person dies and does not leave their private keys it will only contribute to making the economy even more deflationary, it is not bad, but the idea is that at the time of die your loved ones have something to hold on to, if money was not enjoyed in life, there is no reason to be selfish, that's what I think.

I am also thinking about whether to tell my family the key for the [Suspicious link removed]angement, but I still don't think it is very safe. Not just cryptocurrencies, I've also thought about all my assets, albeit for my children, but it's too early to declare. However, you can write your own keys and assets in advance in your will.

In the end, we do need to tell someone about this, and most likely our family. however, they also need to know about this technology, so the first step that needs to be done is, provide them with education, after that choose someone who is really trusted who can use these assets for your family when we are no longer in this world. Yes, although it is difficult, but it must be done. personally, until recently, I also haven't even found the right person for it.

If you die today, your bitcoin will die along with you if you don't tell anyone about your bitcoin.  And don't give anyone access to your Bitcoin. So you should tell your wife or your son or daughter or someone close to you about your bitcoins and tell them how to access your bitcoins or you can write everything down in a note so that they can be used by your descendants after your death.