Bitcoin Forum

I guess not many people want to talk of death but we need to understand that it is inevitable to a living being including you. The word death is two edged sword, that is, it can touches the speaker and listener or reader. So desist from panicking at the instance of hearing death  ;D Just do what you need to do


The word death on the thread topic may have sent shivers down some people's spine but don't allow your coins add up to the lost coins. You sure know that some wallets today have lots of bitcoin that are regarded as lost because of no activity or transactions on them for longtime, maybe due to lost passwords or death. You want that to happen to your hard earned coins ?

So if we don't want that kind of experience that when you are no more on the earth, the people behind and your loved ones can go on enjoying your labour dying testate is making a will lol.

I have simply been saying the need to make our will on beneficiary(ies) of our coins. Cryptocurrency isn't just a push over because it has come to stay like other commodities. The volumes and marketcap keep rising, showing adoption, acceptability.

Remember bitcoin didn't just become $62k today but grew from very small satoshi , and just that way many altcoins will become very big in our life time and after we are gone. Therefore, secure your coins, inform your next of kin about it. You can write a will and die testate with your coins  ;D ;D

You are right, we need to have all ways possible to secure our coins in ways our hire can inherit it, some coins have been lost even before someone even pass away, all this needs to be addressed. We should make sure we secure our bitcoin into complete safety, teach or children all about bitcoin so that they will know ways to to recover the coins when someone is gone.

If not bothered for hire to know the value of bitcoin stored, multisig wallet is better, creating M of N wallet.

But some people may not like their hire to know about it, sharmir secret sharing will be better.

Also is a time locked ways of protecting the coin until the moment owner is unable to do usual things that will let the coins to remain in his wallet like per year, if such not done, then the coin will be release into a particular address.

But I prefer multisig or sharmir secret sharing. If the hires know what they are doing, they will be able to recover all the bitcoin back easily.

It's not just as easy as that, there are various risk concerns involved in Bitcoin, it's different from other forms of physical assets were you can just draw up a will and after your demise, with the help of a lawyer, your beneficiaries can claim what you left them, in the case of Bitcoin, for that to be possible, you must give up your seed phrase, which is pretty difficult to do, as just with a misuse or a careless act with that 12 or 24 seed phrase, your funds could be imported by another and lost for good.

Thus having said that, it's pretty difficult for people to disclose the 'key' to their wallets/crypto funds, except to one or two very trusted persons; ignorance is another reason why you don't get many people having beneficiaries to their funds, the one whom you can trust with your seed phrase may actually not be knowledgeable on the network, thus you run the risk of even losing your funds before you lose your life if they have access to your stash, that's why it's also pertinent to teach whoever you plan on making your crypto beneficiary one or two things about security on the network, so they don't lose the funds before or after you're even gone.

If someone wants to read though people’s testimonials on what would happen in case of an abrupt fate, there are these two threads full of them:

 What happens to my bitcoin if I die today? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284708.msg55461529#msg55461529)
 Halloween inspired poll –would your Bitcoins get passed on if you suddenly died?  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284824.msg55464956#msg55464956)

Many of us think that it’s all under control through one means or another, but the key exercise is to perform a simulated drill every now and then, emulating the scenario of turning dust to dust abruptly, and seeing if the intended plan is effectively drawn, understood and bears the confidence sign of it being carried out by the inheritors.

If you are keen to have a lawyer or your will involved, then there are safe ways to do this. You can encrypt your seed phrase, give the encrypted seed phrase to your heir, and give the long and random decryption key to your lawyer to be revealed in your will when you die (or vice versa). You could set up a 2-of-2 multisig with one key in your will and the other key stored by a family member.

However, there are trustless ways to pass bitcoin in to your heirs, such as a timelocked transaction. I set it for a year in the future and give it to my heir. If I'm still alive in 11 months, I invalidate it by moving one of the inputs and then replace it with a new timelocked transaction.

I feel this option is better than informing and giving the supposed heir the encrypted seed phrase when the bequeather is still alive. It's a safer option.
It's disappointing because sometimes people we trust can be greedy even when we least expect it. Money can trigger a lot of things in people.

Yeah, death is inevitable... Sad, but true. I remember there was some similar topics in past already. I thought about it several times. Well, If I would die tomorrow, it's most likely that my Bitcoins would be lost forever. I'm still young and I'm not planning to die soon. But what if...? You know, everything can happen, car accident, plane crash, hearth attack and etc. So, I think it's worth to consider what will happen if such case. I don't want that my Bitcoins would be lost forever. It's significant amount of money which would help to my family member seriously.
Probably I'm not going to make things complicated. I keep most of my crypto in hardware wallet. So, I need to make instruction how to take coins from it and where they can find PIN code of it. But what if this information will appear in bad hands?

You are not the only who's unprepared. I guess many of us are really unprepared. If I, too, would die tomorrow, most of my crypto funds might be lost forever. It is ironic to think that in our effort to protect our funds for the sake of our future, needs, family, and so on, we end up depriving them of it. We've got layers and layers of security to the point that, at times, even ourselves are deprived access to our various accounts.

I guess I'd just write down all my passwords, PINs, seeds, and the like on a piece of paper, make a few copies, and keep them somewhere hoping that if I leave them at the most unexpected time, they'd find it and make use of it.

I feel sorry for those people who can talk about their loved ones in such a way that suddenly relatives and friends can become greedy and so on. I know that I myself will never do this, so why would I think badly about people who are dear to me? Mistrust is probably our problem. Honestly, I don't want to inherit from someone who once doubted me. . I read previous threads about what will happen to our coins in case of death. My opinion is that if there is that close person next to you, he should know where and how he can get your funds. Well, if there are no such people if there is no one to whom you can trust, why bother about it at all?

I agree, death is inevitable and all of us will face the day. But it doesn’t mean your hard works when you were living will come to waste. You surely cannot bring your stuff when you die, but you can leave it to your next generation's genes and that’s already rewarding enough.

A firm with a very good reputation that can provide insurance using Bitcoin would be a very good idea. Not just that, if they can also provide services like being the security for your Bitcoins, that’s a bonus.

If you want someone you love will get the fortune in bitcoin when you pass by, please make your preparation with information about private keys, mnemonic seeds for them. And links as well as basic guides to use bitcoin wallets, make transactions and basic trainings for that person.

The person is the one who won't steal your bitcoin when you are living. Your training is to help that person won't be scammed by the others after your dealth.

I'm just stating the possibility of it happening. In every hundred percent of families, about one percent of loved ones tend to have the possibility of this happening.

Most people Will their loved ones and family members their fortune not because they fully trust them, but because they won't feel completely fulfilled _{(even after death)} if they have funds locked away while their loved one suffers. And it is okay, since death is irrevocable, let the living make use of the money.

Well, it depends. I still have to have some way of passing on my time-locked transaction to my heir. I can simply give it to them, knowing that they won't be able to use it unless I die or are incapacitated and therefore are unable to invalidate it, but they can still look at the transaction and see how much bitcoin I am holding and on what addresses. Or I have to update my will every year with a new timelocked transactions which is time consuming and would cost a fee. There is the problem of me forgetting to invalidate it or not being able to access my wallets in time (in prison, in hospital, wallet lost/damaged/destroyed and I can't get to my back ups in time). You need to be entirely confident that the recipient of the timelocked transaction is not going to lose access to the address it is sending to. There is also the problem that I cannot spend any of the coins in that timelocked transaction without invalidating it, so my daily spending bitcoin is not included in the process. An encrypted seed phrase gives away nothing about your holdings, does not need your ongoing action to keep it safe, can be sent to any address once recovered, and can cover all the coins you hold including ones you are actively spending.

There are pros and cons to both approaches.

It is true that death is a sure thing in life and we don't know when it will happen. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves well, including the issue of wealth.

I know that there are quite a few people who are busy keeping their fortune in bitcoin untouched by the people they care about. On the one hand, we are completely paranoid about self-security, security of wealth from bad people even by those who are actually our family, wive and children. Instead of keeping it untouched, I would be happier spending some of the wealth to be spend as long as I am alive and keep the rest as an inheritance after we die.

I don't want the wealth that I have had so far make me have to reduce my trust in my dear family. It's really unfair to me, and they should know how much money I have even though they can only get it after I die.

I don't blame anyone for the way they secure themselve, bitcoin and other asset while they are alive. But at least I just think that being too paranoid about self-security when we have a lot of wealth is not a happy thing. The family we care about should be a place for us to share and take refuge.

Being your own bank is a privilege but it comes with some responsibilities. Aside from securing your wallets, you should also think of a way to transfer your crypto wealth to your heirs after your death.
I believe many of us still remember the QuadricaCX case where customers lost their funds because of the sudden death of the said exchange's CEO.

This also makes me wonder what's the policy of centralized exchanges regarding this matter?

Think about a wallet similar to Electrum, but after a certain amount of time the decryption password of which would morph into a new password that is initially set when the wallet is created. You create a wallet and set two passwords, one actual pass and the second one is the one that your actual pass would morph into after a certain amount of inactivity time. You could set let's say, 5 years and confidently share (knowing that they won't work at the moment anyway) the second pass with your loved ones.  :P :P

Not your keys, not your coins. If you are storing your coins on a centralized exchange, then you have absolutely no guarantee that any of your friends or family members will be able to access them after you die. They could very well just sit on your account until the exchange closes it through inactivity and takes the coins for themselves.

Some exchanges do have protocols for what happens in the event of a user's death. Coinbase, for example, request your heir to submit your death certificate, your will, and complete KYC themselves to prove they are the person named in the will. They have a page about it here: https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/managing-my-account/other/how-do-i-gain-access-to-a-deceased-family-members-coinbase-account. Binance seem to have a similar process based on this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/binance/comments/ikle2d/what_happens_when_account_owner_die/g3ll58w/. Many smaller exchanges will have no system in place, so whether or not your heir(s) can access your account is anyone's guess.

Few years back when I joined this forum there was a same topic whic explained the necessity of informing your near or dear ones about your cryptocurrency assets and how can they use them in case of your uncertain departure. I tried searching that topic but I couldn't.

It is important that everyone of us should also educate our dearest one on how to access and use those assets in time of emergency when we are not present in this world.

Thanks for again creating this topic as the pandemic is not yet over and we do need to remember life is uncertain. So always prepare yourself for the future.

Here in India, exchanges allow you to set nominee so if it were to do with me, I would send from whatever wallet to the exchange and let the next to me deal with it however they like. Requires less technical knowledge too.

• If you have a wife/ husband, you should leave details of your accounts on exchanges, private keys/ mnemonic seeds of your wallets to your loved ones.
• At least, you should write it down, and store it in a place that you believe your loved ones will find it when you unfortunately pass away.
• I have experience with it. I came to crypto in 2017 and I invited my friend to the market. About one month before his death, he asked me "What will happen if I pass away? Will my wife can get access to it (on exchange)?" I told him to write it down and let his wife know that he has important thing in that notebook. This help his wife to get access to his account on Poloniex, of course with my help because she did not know anything about cryptocurrency.
• Not your keys, not your coins [1]. It is best to use non-custodial wallets than exchange wallets
• Using Locktime for inheritance planning, backups or gifts (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5180850.0)

[1] https://notyourkeys.org/

Also requires complete trust in a third party. You must store your coins on the exchange the entire time you are alive, trusting that they will protect them, keep them secure, not scam you, not become insolvent, not close down, not lock your account, etc., and you must also trust the exchange to continue to do all those things after your death as well as honoring the promise they made to you. That's an awful lot of trust and an awful lot of ways something could go wrong.

Any such centralized platform will necessarily require some amount of trust and introduce some amount of risk, either of private keys being leaked, the wrong person claiming the coins, or something similar. There have been multiple trustless and private ways discussed already in this thread and others about the best way to plan for your death. You would be better off following one of those.

It's really not that hard to make such arrangements while you are still healthy.
If your life partner doesn't understand or wants to learn about Bitcoin and crypto while you are still here, they will become interested if you tell them: these words you see written down on this piece of paper are the keys to a $500.000 fortune (change the figure to whatever you want).

Don't let anyone see them and never take pictures of it or store it online. When I am gone, visit https://bitcointalk.org/, register an account and ask for help. Use your best judgement and common sense. You will get the help you need in public and for free.

Write the following:

Hi,

I am "name here".
My spouse passed away and left a note telling me to register on this forum. I have a set of 24 different words, How and what am I supposed to do with them? He told me this is the best place to get help with Bitcoin.

And then get spammed by wannabe scammers who will try to get you to reveal your seed phrase, or download some malicious wallet, or sign up to a malicious website, or so on.

If you can leave instructions regarding signing up to this forum and asking for help, then you can leave instructions on where to download a reputable wallet or to buy a hardware wallet. At the very least, if your partner knows literally nothing about bitcoin, then you could leave them a list of names of a few users whom you trust and advise that they listen to their advice only.

Yes, but that reputable wallet from today might not be around 10 years from now or it might not be as reputable as it once was. An open-source software can turn closed source and a non-custodial service might want to be custodial.

Nothing wrong with that suggestion either in present times. 10 years from now, you might no longer be around (if you are on my list ;)), and that could be true for the other 2 or 3 names I put there as well.

I would assume that you would be periodically updating your instructions, say every 6 months or so, so they are not being used 10 years after you wrote them. Even if Electrum (for example) stopped being developed today, in 6 months' time there would almost certainly still be Electrum servers running and easily sourced copies of the latest version to download. Even if I stopped using the forum today, it would be unlikely for 3 other senior members who have all been around for many years to all stop using the forum within the next 6 months too.

Maybe some advice along the lines of "Only listen to people with positive trust and 1000+ merit" might be better? Not foolproof for receiving good advice, but better than listening to any old user if you know absolutely nothing about bitcoin.

This is something worth doing now. Unexpectedly or tomorrow, I don’t know which one will come first. I am not married yet. My parents are the most trustworthy people. I can tell them my wallet password now.

There is one more thing that needs to be prepared, tell them how to withdraw and use these funds and trade them.

This is all correct. Quantum computers, if and when they reach such a stage, will be able to exponentially speed up solving the discrete logarithm problem, which means they can calculate a private key from a public key. They will only be able to linearly speed up the process of reversing a hash function, meaning that it will still be impossible to calculate a public key from an address.

If you store coins on a brand new address, which only you know the private and public key for, then they will remain safe against quantum computers, since quantum computers cannot reverse the hash processes used to create the address. If, however, you store coins on a reused address, then they will no longer be safe against quantum computers, since the public key of the address is revealed in the blockchain whenever that address makes a transaction, and quantum computers can use that publicly revealed public key to calculate the private key.

It is also better to rely on seed phrases or private keys as opposed to individual wallet files, since that guarantees compatibility in the future.

It's interesting that you mentioned "password", not seed or private keys. In addition to that, the sentence immediately after is about "withdrawing" and "trading" coins. Seems to me that you are storing your funds on an exchange or some other type of custodial service that provides you with login details and passwords instead of recovery phrases and/or private keys. You might want to consider more safer storage options and something were you are in control of your finances.   

It has been an issue that has been talked about for a long time already. We cannot deny the fact that this needs attention because death is indeed something we can never predict from happening. After long years of earning from investing or trading in bitcoin, we would not like it to go to waste without having no one to benefit from it specially the reason why you worked hard for. I hope one day, there would be a system that allows us to transfer our earnings to someone we choose if ever a sudden death takes place together with a legal proofs that the owner of the bitcoin is legitimately dead.

I told my family and children the password, because then as we get older and older, our memory will not be as good as before. In the future, our money will definitely be reserved for children. If you can, it's better to tell now.
You really need to pay attention to account security. If I write the password on paper, it is easy to lose it. I am used to putting it in a safe place in case I forget where to put it in the future.
Friends in the crypto market should write their passwords in their notebooks or tell their family members, because no one can think of what will happen tomorrow, after all, this is part of wealth.

We never know which one will come first, tomorrow or death, so we have to be prepared, sometimes death is inevitable.
I have now told my family of my password, because I am afraid that I will forget some things when I get older, so it is a good thing to have family members to help memorize it.
If I don’t tell my family my password, my family may lose a protection if something happens to me, and a scary thing happened a few days ago when the elevator suddenly had an accident and dropped sharply. , I was very scared at the time, I didn't know what to do anymore, and I didn't have any thoughts about any actions at that time. The brain is blank. Fortunately, the elevator stopped soon, and we all got out of the elevator safely.
After this incident, I told my family and children that we still have to love life. We never know what is waiting for us.