Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin keys and passwords are kept secret hid away from everyone else. If you forget the keys you can no longer access your wallet. We have learnt this and take the precautions to ensure it does not happen. But what happens to the Bitcoin if the owner of the wallet dies. Is there a way to transfer bitcoins to next of kin and how will the potential heir know?

It's same. Bitcoin network does not have a separate rules for dead people, in fact how would the network will know someone died :-D
So, unless you have the private key or seed, the coins are lost.

It's probably a bit like putting money in your mattress. If you tell someone where it is/how to get it, or leave a hunt when you die then they'll find it - otherwise the funds will die with you...

There are alternatives to telling someone explicitly while you're alive as to where your funds are, eg you could leave a note to them in your will or somewhere findable on your computer (eg an unencrypted bitcoin core wallet on a drive and a sticky note of how to access it or a puzzle or something you know the person will be able to solve).

My kids (all adults now) know I have some bitcoin, and I've taught them enough that they'll figure out how to access mine once I've moved on to greener pastures.  I keep all of my seed phrases secure in my gun safes, to which they'll have access.  To retrieve my bitcoin they'll also need the extensions which are hidden off site, but I've set up a little treasure hunt for them to find those.  

I reckon they'll be a little miffed once they get started on the treasure hunt.  None of it will be difficult for them, but I'll be laughing my ass off from heaven watching them scramble to find the right ones.  I've been tormenting my children from the get-go, so once I'm gone they might actually enjoy my last "Dad Joke" I get to play on them.

Well, mine they know bought my PC and mobile password most of my wallet backup save on my PC and for daily basis wallets and exchanges in my mobile phone.
My children already memorized all my passwords so if I'm gone they know how to access both my PC and mobile.

Why not, make a printable backup of private keys and put them where they can easily find them. You can include it on one of your photos on the wall like this one

https://i.imgur.com/4lHYXeZ.png

And tell them someday that they can use that thing in the future. I'm sure Crypto will be widely used so they will learn easily how to redeem them.

Encrypt your files, private keys and passwords with instructions using the veracrypt program.
Give the encrypted files to your relatives, and send the password through a service that allows you to send letters in the future or pass it through lawyers or notaries.

Honestly, there are different ways. One of them is the timelocked transaction method (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5285003.msg55471258#msg55471258).

However, the ability of the recipient needs to be taken into account when it comes to operating the computer (at least how to access the bitcoin wallet). And it is highly recommended not to use a wallet that relies on third-party authentication apps. I learned from this case (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5348633.msg57429812#msg57429812), even though the potential heir knows the inheritance of assets from his uncle he has not been able to access them. Only use wallet platforms where you have complete control.

There is a way of course. You have all the information to get access to your Bitcoin. It is up to you whether you want somebody to know of it or not. I bet many of us are not yet really keen on writing down the information and the steps on how to access our funds when we die. To those who are already old, it is understandable that they should keep instructions somewhere safe. Otherwise, your Bitcoin dies with you.

As for me, I'd rather keep it simple on a piece of paper, perhaps 2 copies, and a couple of USBs containing the same information and instructions.

Unless it's accidental death they would surely let their heir know before they are gone, plus here in India, exchanges provide nominee facility.

Yes there is. Normally someone has to teaches one of his family member about his asset just in any case there is something bad happened. But for some reason that no one knew it and suddenly the owner dies then thats it. No one can access that unless someone knew his private key to access the wallet.

But if the bitcoin is on exchange, Im sure the company can let it ransfer to family member as long they can provide proof of it.

There were discussed plenty of ways. Normally "the potential heir" is the rest of the family and one should have instructed them during his life time.
Then there's the transaction method.
Then there's the choice of bank's safe deposit, which is normally passed automatically to the heirs if the owner passes away. In the safe deposit can be a seed, be the clues for the seed or can be a part of the seed. And same can be in a will, obviously.


Probably, but I expect that we will outlive most of the current exchanges and... not your keys, not your coins...

I was thinking of adding it in a will. But this is better than giving my keys to a trustee believing they will do the right thing. My family is not interested in crypto, it is my fault they do not see any reason to be interested anyway. I don't talk much about Bitcoin
Thanks noormanO, I have never heard of time locked transaction method before. This (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5348633.msg57429812#msg57429812) is my worry, the heir is not able to access his inheritance. No one plans to die but I want to family to be well to do long after I am gone.

The topic of the possibility of handing down Bitcoins to loved ones and family on the event of (sudden) death has been discussed many times already, I think that's cause it's very important to know the safest and most reliable methodology to make sure your loved ones enjoy the funds you're accumulating today, should one die all of a sudden; it would actually be sad to look down at them from heaven if they have nothing at the time, knowing your stash is locked somewhere forever, with nobody able to ever unlock it.

See this thread  Halloween inspired poll - Would your Bitcoins get passed on if you suddenly died? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284824.msg55464956#msg55464956) started by DdmrDdmr, I think it's one of the most comprehensive discussions on this subject, and through the responses/replies of other users in it, you can prolly prepare for the unknown using the safest method possible.

We can write our keys in a notebook, and we can tell our lover or children how to use cryptocurrency, because when we are old enough, our memory is not very good, and it is easy to forget something It is also a good way to tell family members or children, otherwise when we forget the key, we will lose the encrypted currency and cannot find it back.

If it is a custodial wallet, you still have a shot I believe. Not sure how strict some custodial wallet customer support when it comes to people needing access to a deceased person's account, but I think you need to comply to their confirmation that you're relative of that deceased person. (Please correct me on this if there's a mistake.)

If it is a non-custodial wallet and you lost the private key, then just like what Royse777 mentioned, it is a lost coin.

There is nothing bad to let you heir know how it is going, let him know about bitcoin very well, including the keys and how to recover bitcoin using seed phrase and private key. If your heir knows about this, he will be able to know how to get access to the coins after the owner's died. You can even time lock the bitcoin and let your heir knows about it and how to get access to the time locked coin.

The network will also don't know whether the person is alive or not but surely it will termed as dormant address if you have not moved any coin out of that wallet for long period of time.So the only possible case is to know your loved ones or nominees before hand about your bitcoin holdings and for the private keys and seed phrase you can use many ways to tell them like write it somewhere safe in cold storage and give them access to that safe or set timelock period as mentioned above so that in case they are gone the coins don't go along with them and used by your family.But if you are asking about any notification from the network after you are dead then it's not possible.

Using different services or emails has been proposed several times but it's a dangerous way to do go about it. No one can give you guarantees that a service that works today and might work tomorrow will also be available in 20 or 30 years when you pass away. Any secrets you share with them could be lost or even worse, stolen. Time locked transactions are often suggested as a better option.

In short, the obvious answer is you have to tell them in one way or another. There are some services to do this too, but you'll need to trust a third party to manage the seed indirectly for you, even if they don't have full control over your wallet. If you're asking for an on-chain solution, as others have mentioned many times, there are none (unless you count timelocked tx). I don't think we need it either since it's really easy to prepare your legacy.

The conundrum here is; if you put it into your will, you are effectively trusting a third party to manage your funds after death, which is completely destroying the point of managing your money in the first place. The other side is, if you don't trust a third party to handle this for you, you either need to come up with a process yourself, which is risky in itself since if you can't guarantee they'll be able to follow the instructions, i.e being too cryptic in case someone else stumbles upon it you can't guarantee they'll be able to decipher it, and gain access to the coins.

I can only imagine how much fun it must have been coming up with the treasure hunt. Hopefully, they don't tear their hair out for years on end, because Dad hid their house money ;)

I've actually spent some time thinking about this, and one solution I came up with was a set of 3 seed-cards, stored in three different safety deposit boxes, at three different banks.  The keys to the safety deposit boxes could be included in one's will.  As is typical for safety deposit boxes, only the next-of-kin possessing a valid death certificate can access them.  A fourth safety deposit box can be set up for the extensions, if needed.

That way, even if the relatives don't know about your bitcoin, they'll learn about it at the reading of the will, and only those relatives who inherit the safety deposit box keys will be able to access it.
 

Lol, I wish I had that much bitcoin.  Unfortunately most of my wealth IS my house.  It'll be pretty easy for them to figure out where the extensions are hidden, and they'll have access to them regardless.  They just won't know where to look at first, is all.  It's more to provide them a game of sorts than anything else.

This is actually one of the problems with one's private keys if you kept it in total privacy. Your heirs will not be able to claim your remaining BTCs if you do not share it with them.

If you plan on saving your BTCs for the next generation of the family, I highly suggest that you put your private keys in a special document, tightly sealed and secured so that your family members would be able to claim it in the future. Of course, I also understand that this puts you in potential risks of leaking your private key but this is actually the only way in order to prevent your BTCs from losing forever.

If this is going to happen be sure to left it to someone that you can trust to tell it to your family or someone you love. I myself will love to make a treasure hunting map if this is going to happen to me but I think it's just too early for that. So, I handle it to closest and trusted friend if in any case there's something bad going to happen to me they will be the one to let it explains to my family.

Hiding a private key in a piece of paper is easy but you have to make sure it is fully secured that you are the only one who can have access to it or someone that you trusted.

There are two situations, first is if that person entrusted you the keys for his/her bitcoin probably you know there is, second is if he /she dies without telling anyone probably no one will ever get it since the keys were hidden, and maybe he put extra security in it, so no, there is no way you will be able to get that, let's say a person is an heir but without the keys its useless, even if they try to crack that they will need a couple of super computers to crack that for decades who knows how long.

You are getting me confused in this community...most of all this you know it, a new user that is not up to three months, i don't think this user have is new here, with all your comments and topics created here and intonations that shows that you have a basic knowledge of everything concerning cryptocurrency or you been existing here for so long, because question of newbie don't really goes like question of yours, this should be alternative.

Makes sense. It's a rigid system but it's the best one they could think of. If anything could have been done regarding this, then a person would have to wait for the reading of the will (or opening of the will) and then produce legit paperwork to appropriate sources that will then have to reverify this...I mean, it could be done, but it would take a long time and be such a bureaucratic nightmare.

This issue has been canvassed a number of times now - search out topics such as leaving bitcoins in your will (or even as your own topic suggests bitcoin after you have died)...

If your loved ones don't know you have crypto, then they are probably not going to go look for it - especially if you have used methods such as brain wallets or the like.

A Ballet Crypto wallet, a  paper wallet, or even time-locked wallets are the way you can leave crypto behind (especially if you have time-locked crypto sent to a paper/ballet wallet at a predetermined (or better yet - random) time)

you have a basic knowledge of everything concerning cryptocurrency or you been existing here for so long, because question of newbie don't really goes like question of yours, this should be an alternative.
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I don't know much about cryptocurrencies. That's the reason why I signed up. My questions are a reflection of my thoughts. When one writes down one's thoughts they become public and they will be scrutinised, criticized. My questions are rational, there is nothing behind them other than the desire for knowledge. That is the truth, and I don't bother about it because truth needs no crutches if it is true then it is true.

If you do not know what the password or keyphrase is, you can not transfer the bitcoins or access the wallet and the bitcoin will remain on that wallet without anyone can access it.
You can not do anything unless the owner gives you all information before he died so you can use that wallet and send the bitcoin to other wallets.
I wonder do you want to give your bitcoin as a legacy to your kids or family?

Where an ultimate security system could turn out to be a flaw for the once that took no step in ensuring that there is a treasure box somewhere for the left behind.

Apparently, there is no way of knowing if you've been left bitcoin by a supposed disease person should you not to have been pre-informed, it wasn't put in a will or a clue to it was left behind to figure it out.

Fortunately, this isn't a flaw of the system as one can not tell when one dies neither can your wallet be accessed without the private key or seed phrase to avoid issues of theft. Hence, your level of security as a bitcoin owner is entirely upto you and as a left behind, your ignorance on access keys simply defines your relationship with the individual with regards to trust and what you ought to know & not.
Though, with death coming unannounced, it becomes extremely difficult for one to tell the best time to compromise on his or her security levels with their concerns.

That's Truth, but i think you can recover it if you really work on it, and again everyone is desperate to keep the phrase code of a wallet intact for security purposes, because mistakenly the keys is been exposed to another it's very obvious that the coin in the wallet are liable to go out anytime and any hour from unknown user that happens to view the phrase.

That's the major reason i said it's acknowledgeable, encourageable to have a documents of a cryptocurrencie transactions record and more especially bitcoin related investment record book that will be in secret, because our lives don't have a duplicate, and it's open to that death is inevitable, so therefore wallet phrase have to be written down because of our departure can occur any time without any awareness so that our lovely onces can access our wallets through the help the document that contains our secret codes.

If a owner of a wallet dies if he does not disclose his private key to anyone nobody will have access to his wallet.
It's assumed that dead people wallet lost there private keys.

Unfortunately, when you die, your Bitcoin dies with you; bitcoin was not designed to survive death, and the most wonderful aspect of bitcoin is that when one loses their wallets, the value of others' increases. Bitcoin equals scarcity, which equals value. Remember what I stated earlier? Because death is unavoidable, always ensure that your next of kin has access to the private key or keep it in a very sensitive location.

There are some people who left a clue to their family which when they solved it then they will get the keys, passwords and mnemonic phrase to access the wallet and get the funds or use the wallet. It's been discussed on what to do to let a family get the bitcoin when someone who have bitcoon die.

Bitcoin is not centralized and there's no company that manages your Bitcoin in your noncustodial wallet, except if Bitcoin is left in an exchange or a custodial wallet, then the admin of that exchange or custodial wallet can manage your coin.

If the owner of Bitcoin left his coin in a custodial wallet the relatives can communicate to the exchange or operator of the custodial wallet if they have it in their TOS that they can transfer those Bitcoin to their relatives.

If those Bitcoin are held in a custodial wallet where you need a private key to access the coin, then Bitcoin is lost forever.

The only way the potential heir knows about it is if the benefactor told them about it. Otherwise there's no way they get to know and If the next of kin doesn't know about the Bitcoin it may be as good as gone. This is why I strongly believe that a lot of Bitcoin will be lost forever because this privacy and secrecy thing around it has pushed many hodlers to the mentality of not even trusting those close to them with information leading to their stash while alive.

What if... What if all that fall into the hand of someone other than the person it's meant for after you've supposedly left this world?

I think if any one has a plan to leave an inheritance of Bitcoin to their heir they would always have another plan to get them the inheritance after they are dead. I have heard of weird things being left for someone's next if kin, somethings that normally where hard to pass down when they where alive, I think if the owner of the Bitcoin has a trusted legal lawyers most likely someone very close to them and their families then they should make a document concerning the Bitcoin and wallets information and hand in a copy to them to be passed to their heir when they ascend to glory.

That's my prefer way. Since you don't just gave them the very seed phrase of your wallet. They won't be able to touch any of it without having the clue that you'll give them, unless they are very knowledgeable and can think of some way to unlock wallets.
Or, if you're ready, you can just give your seed phrases to them so they won't have a hard time solving clues.

It would have been very possible and easy to access the wallet if Bitcoin was centralized, but it's decentralized nature has made it almost impossible for someone else to access a Bitcoin wallet if not given the keys..

This is the reason why it's necessary to teach your loved once on how to trade and hodl Bitcoin, that way you can feel save letting them know secret keys.

Talking about private keys, People probably are just too scared to share them with other people because it's safer if only the holder that knowing it. Normally, when people died and they don't hand on the bitcoin wallet's private key, then other people won't be able to access the wallet. It means those bitcoins are stuck just like that there. But along with time, now there are some projects who are offering bitcoin inheritance services. You can check some projects like Criptoro, Keys.Casa, etc.

I don't recommend to use that service since it's expensive, take a look with Keys.Casa the inheritance services only available for Casa Diamond clients [1] which they charge $5000 per year. What I see they only manage and teach someone to use Bitcoin, while they only use multisig for the inheritance. Creating multisig wouldn't cost you anything, you can read some guide to create it.

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[1] https://keys.casa/bitcoin-inheritance-plan