Bitcoin Forum

We’re all here in the forum as bitcoin enthusiasts and many of us are now going to some institutions to learn more about Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrency. Many of us are also investing heavily into bitcoin with lots of bitcoin wallets. I posted some time ago  and titled the post “What happens to my bitcoin if I die today?” here is the link= https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284708.msg55461529#msg55461529
It bothers me as to what will happen to our bitcoin wallet if die without disclosing our wallet to details to anyone. Let’s also include our children and love ones into the plan, into that bright bitcoin future we wish for ourselves. As a bitcoin enthusiasts we can Will some of our bitcoin wallet to our children and love ones as Inheritance from us.

Inheritance determine who has the legal right of claim to your property after you are gone.it has to be legal right to claim your bitcoin wallet after you die. The Arrangements you've made in your Will while you are still alive to legally leave your property to whomever you like.

Inheriting bitcoin and other cryptos in the future is going to be far more common now that we have grown in popularity and more people are interested and have chosen to invest in it.

When back in the day it was more normal to inherit stocks or bonds or something like this from the banking system, now there will be many millennials leaving their cryotp inheritances to their children.

If anything this is more of a sign of the times we are living in and  sign of he future times to come. with more things being digital.

One of the security and privacy measures of cryptocurrency holder is never disclosed to people ones is a Bitcoin holder or the amount of Bitcoin ones holding due to some criminal attacks and murder of some crypto owner but in the situation of giving one holding as an inheritance to the kids reading the private information of the wallets that contain the Bitcoin in paper and have it save in a safety deposit box will do the job cause the legal practitioner shouldn't be trusted in this kind of situation.

If I were to inherit my Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies one day, I would be leaving all of my private keys, mnemonic phrases, passwords and other login details in my “sacred notebook” and to keep it in a safe box for my future wife and kids. I will be writing a note “Don’t open this until I die” along with the password of the safe box.

And speaking of the safe box, I am thinking of buying one lol. 

This one a good one, but be careful not raising a greedy kid or a sly one, they might steal the wallet from you while you are still alive. You also have to create a will and testament if you want to go all out so as not to create a schism between your kids if you are planning to have multiple children. And keep it away from your wife, it is enough that she knows that you are dealing with bitcoin and cryptocurrency, no need to pry into your wallet. If you want a safe, I recommend you one that can be put into furniture like a study table or if you are grandiose, a secret safe behind a painting or under a rug.

In my case, I am not really good in terms with legal matters but if we are going to do a will that will turn over our crypto assets to someone that we choose. My concern is, is it safe to turn over our private keys to a lawyer so it can be inherited by our children if in case we will die?

Because bitcoin can be transferred easily as long as you have the keys and other details to get a full access to the wallet. Compare to the will that is being handled by fiat as most of the money are being stored in bank and it cannot be transferred easily by the lawyer.

I don't think we should get when its about Bitcoin as an inheritance, I can't own a piano and will it to my next of kin when I no they person is not excited about music or the musical instruments, the person is likely to sell it of at the closest time, so willing Bitcoin, or Bitcoin as an inheritance make no head to some one who is not excited about Bitcoin, its equivalent to willing the price of Bitcoin as at the time in dollars to the person, I think first you know the interest of family or friends about crypto-currency before talking about Bitcoin inheritance. Before it get lost, or spent ill-wise

Even if you didn't have a Will of statement it will automatically inherit your property to your family, if you're a single or childless person, it will go on to your parents and if you have, it will automatically be a part of your children, in equal share.

But the problem is Bitcoin to be inherited will surely have a problem in the future if you will be lost the key, which is the only one how to access your Bitcoin.
Regarding this matter, the solution is to have always a safe metal vault to store your important credentials documents where you and your family only know.  You keep it there the private key of your Bitcoin wallet address and write it down into a piece of paper to explain how to access your wallet.

Or, hire a trusted lawyer about this matter.

I wonder if anyone has found a way to do this without the use of third-party service.
Smart contract will likely play a big role in this in the future.  You could also create an inheritance device that works offline and is controlled by coin owner. Once the owner passes away or does not respond to the device for certain period of time, it sounds an alarm & automatically releases the coin keys to a specific family member who will need to answer couple of questions that unlocks the device and enables access to the coin private keys or something.

I have thought of insuring my children's future a lot of times and since life is unsure these days, I have just started teaching my daughter about the value and importance of Bitcoin. I made sure that she knows how to handle my private keys and to access my wallets safely. It's important that we'll have an assurance that our family will inherit our crypto earnings. We don't know what will tomorrow bring so I believe that sharing them about it as early as possible would be a big help.

While legally, the answer is yes, if your passwords, passphrases, and key locations die with you that probably won't happen. Without those things your crypto-assets will be inaccessible. 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.

Yes, why not.

Bitcoin inheritance is very common just like gold and other states of investment. You can write it down anywhere and tell that you have an asset in cryptocurrencies that can be accessed using the wallet where you store it. The problem is that when the one who claims that asset didn't know how to access your wallet or non-techy person.

I always have a drawer box that has my all documents and other important papers, if I will pass, my family knows where I stored it and recover all my assets.

Bitcoin is very valued now and with each day, it keeps getting better. I clearly understand your point and it is a good one, but people needs to be careful with this, because you might plan well for your loved ones and only for greed to take over them and they plan your death owing to Bitcoin value, or they share with their friends about your plans who might in return plan on to rob you. However, if one can find a perfect way to Will the bitcoin wallet to his loved ones, in such a way it will work perfectly, then he can go ahead and do so, as it doesn't make sense having bitcoin and then no one to take over, thus all forms of humans mischievousness should be taken into account while doing this, to ensure it works accordingly.

The only way for your descendant to inherit your bitcoin if you don't disclose the private key is to entrust it into some reliable centralized institution which is very risky.
or maybe if there's any software that set up some sort of timer to disclose the private key to your descendant if you don't access your wallet for few months, it can be a good solution too.
There's many trustless solution to it but one thing for sure is you need a timer or anything else to make decision when is the right time to disclose your crypto information or even sending your crypto to other wallet as proposed by aleksej996

As you know, this topic has already been widely discussed, but there are still no definite and viable solutions to the inheritance issue. You can lock your coins until a certain block of Bitcoin is mined (since the timing can be calculated, it allows choosing when someone will be able to open the wallet), which is LoyceV's idea if I remember it correctly. If you're in China, there's some legal way to give your coins to a company (with signing contracts and everything), and the company will give them to your relatives in the even of your death (at least I remember reading about it last year). Finally, if you trust your loved ones, you can give them access to your funds right now (that's the case with my coins).

I would love to copy this method of inheritance, I do not have a kid yet but this one is pretty good one. Why not just teach them the in and outs yourself and along the way let them learn how to be a member of this community. No safe deposit box or a written will and testament or any third-party services to spend your money to insure that they will be able to inherit it.

Bitcoin as an heritance to your beloved ones when you are gone is fine but on the other side are risky because if you gave it to the children he or she cannot use it because nof lacking of knowledge about cryptocurrency. I think the best heritance is the knowledge about the cryptocurrency.

I am also familiar with these methods that you have mentioned as I have read them myself when this topic was first talked about here. I think that with the concept of inheriting bitcoin, it important that the people who will receive it is knowledgeable how it works and of course its essence of having that. Because if not, they might get overwhelmed and splurge, then your hard work might be ending up with nothing.

Inheritance or what we can say ensuring is one of the best way to saves up money. We all know how bitcoin today is a big thing for every person because of the possibility of having a good earnings or making profit. The idea of saving for future prefences like for our children or even grandchildren is a very good idea and wise I guess because it may help them a lot in the future for starting like in college or businesses. But ofcourse, as we all know bitcoin doesn't that stable today, we must sure to save our private keu and our password for us to sure our savings and its future use for the one who will inherit it.

I came to my senses after reading this topic and your ideas.  So far, I do not know what to do in the future.  I am the only one who knows about cyptocurrency in our family.  If I ever need or want to bequeath my coins, maybe I should think more to pass on to them the knowledge of my passion for what interest I have now.  Because they can even compensate for my knowledge of their future wisdom.  And it would be amazing if they could do even more than I did.  I also think that I can no longer force them to do what I want and if they do not want to, and if they do not like this.  I would rather have them voluntarily ask me questions or point them out.  I know I still need a lot of time for this issue because I have not seen that I can trust it.

This is a great topic, here is a thought provoking "What if"  Uncle John Doe, has a terrible accident, without a will the state marches in and takes the house, cars, all property and auctions it off for "whatever they can get"  What happens to his bitcoin?  probably ends up on ebay in the form of someone that bought the old laptop that is mostly useful for parts.   So that 20.00 hard drive with bitcoin on it, ends up in the eager hands of a kid who formats the drive in the hopes he can mine some bitcoin...  Ironic. LOL,  But in reality You need a Will and a lawyer, (if you can find a good one)  A lawyer that is.  ::)

It's really not a problem if you have normal relations with your family.

My closest family knows that I own bitcoins and how to access my wallets in case I got sick or died. I don't have to hide it from them because I trust them and they never stole from me. Why would they steal if they can simlply ask.

Many people will never need to inherit bitcoins because they are unregistered. When I die they can take my wallet and spend at will without getting a lawyer and telling the government that now my bitcoins belong to them. 

I'm wondering how inheritance would work. I mean if you share your private keys with your children before you die, they can move them to another wallet before you die and you would never know if it was them who did it.

The only solution I can think of is a sophisticated smart contract that gets activated only with a code on a testament or something like that.

That is the importance of communication to build family harmony.
Even though I currently don't have many assets, I have shared everything related to ownership of these assets with my wife. I teach my wife about cryptocurrency, so we work together to make a profit from this ecosystem. She knows what to do if any time I leave the world first, I have also prepared some important notes for access to all my wallets.
It is very important to have a partner you can count on to help you.