Bitcoin Forum

i have heard several persons who say they are nervous about how the go about their private key, while this set of folks use single-key addresses to get their own self-custody to store family coin or personal coin in a form of UXTOs, they intend investing for their future generations and keep their coins out of centralizations . Most times the biggest fear that comes with this single signature solution is the inability to retrieve your funds if the  private key got misplaced or in situation of death when no one else know about your private key.

With multi-sig (https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-a-multisig-wallet) wallets created a year after multi signature was introduced in bitcoin in 2012. A powerful tool such as multi-signature brought extra security for bitcoin investors with more than one signature which could be two or more signature attached to an address, which will require funds to be spent only if multiple signatures are provided a very good tool for long term investment and access to funds in cases where on dies because since more than one signature exist it will be more easy to relay detail of the other signature to a trusted family member.

With multi-sig address comes different private-keys to help safe-guard funds so that even if one of the keys get stolen it will be difficult to withdraw or move the coin since it takes 2 of the 3 signatures in a 2 of 3multi sig address to move the coin and only one is available. Multi sig is also good for businesses as well as co-operations, unions and organizations to ensure security and good decision making where by a number of persons hold each a single key making mismanagement of funds even more difficult.

Although with this comes some difficult and complex set-up especially if a third-party provider is needed but in general it is a cool and secure wallet because there is no legal custodian of funds deposited into a shared wallet with multiple keyholders.


example of multi-sig wallet:

• Blue wallet (https://bluewallet.io/)
• sparrow (https://www.sparrowwallet.com/)

how to set-up the wallets loading.........

My wife knows how to access my bitcoin & I will teach my son when he is old enough. I know what I’m doing & will not trust anybody else to custody anything for me. I do not like multisig myself.

I’ve put my recovery seed of my trezor and instructions with other valuables

Should do the trick  :)

Already there were more threads discussing about the same thing. Maybe going through those threads will get you better information regarding the same. Everything has been filed and it is with my girl. She doesn't know I have kept the recovery seeds secure on her space. Someday when it is required she'll come to know about it. She already knew how to use wallets as well as recover funds.

What happens to the coins after your death ? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5346148.0)
What happens with my crypto when I die? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3080695.0)
What Happens to One's Bitcoin if Death Occurs? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5390409.0)

Multisig has many good uses, but imho using multisig for when I am dead means that I don't trust my family enough.
So while I do care what happens with my coins after I am gone, I consider that the fact my family knows where I keep one of the seed backups is just fine. Why would I make it more complicated?!

How about cases of funds mismanagement or situation where a member of my family wants me dead just to have full custody of the coin. We live in an evil world where different things happen as we keep advancing. In as much as i trust my family member i think securing both my future and theirs should also be considered

Multiple thread different information....
I saw them before i made this

My wife uses my cards too, since she does most of the shopping while I'm working.
So if she wants to "mismanage" funds, she already can :)

There's indeed an evil world, but ... maybe it's not as bad as in the news after all. I mean if one doesn't trust his wife, why would they stay under the same roof at all? As I said, keep it simple ;D

I don't know, maybe Bitcoin price would have to grow much much more to make me get paranoid also about my family. For now it's not the case.

If a family member is willing to murder you to steal your coins, then they are definitely also willing to murder you plus one other person to steal your multi-sig coins. Or simply hit you with a wrench until you crack and reveal the location of your other back ups, or phone up your other family members and have them hand over their shares, or unlock the multiple devices/wallets you have to spend your multi-sig coins, etc.

Multi-sig or no multi-sig, either you hand over your coins or you die. The only protection against physical attacks on your person is plausible deniability.

By creating a multi-sig wallet and handing out shares, you are advertising the very existence of that wallet. If you are this concerned about physical attacks, then you need a hidden wallet that nobody knows about, probably created by utilizing a passphrase on top of an existing wallet's seed phrase.

I am not married yet though so i don't know much about married life. I wish to get as lucky as you  when the time is ripe. But how about cases where a family business accepts Bitcoin will we kick against this multi-sig as well. I know trust is most important in marriage and any relationship but will it be extended in business as well?


Are we then saying the security multi-sig wallets offer aren't worth any stress?. How about organizations, businesses or joint investment will we still recommend single key addresses?

Business relationship is good as long as both parts have material benefits. Marriage is not business. Or it should not be ;D
Multisig in business? Yes, it can be! There's for example a use case where the funds can be spent only if all (n-of-n) or most (m-of-n [1]) business partners agree on that.

[1] Here I mean m = 1 + floor(n/2), so m signatures consist a majority.

@o_e_l_e_o was basically saying that multi sig does not help much in cases of fund transfer in case of an untoward situation. And if you fear someone harming you cause you own bitcoins, actually announcing you do, by giving out a signature while holding onto one, would expose you to that very risk.

Keeping your wallet private in that case, is your best option. Does not mean multi sig does not have its uses.

Yes I want it to go to certain people.

I actually have a somewhat convoluted 'dead man switch' on my cold wallet.
Its a 3 of 5 multisig but not everyone knows each other or even how to get to the other parts.

Kind of a matter of perspective, my IRA / 401k is worth more but I still want certain people to have access to my BTC.
BUT they would need the help of other people to get to it who I trust or really don't know what data they are holding.

-Dave

i know you might he hypothesising.. but if YOU right now have a family member that wants you dead. then simply kick them out the house and dont tell them anything about your bitcoin security.

tell only the good people in your life.

multisig does allow you to have 1 key put into a will family cant have access to until death. whilst also meaning the lawyer cant just randomly sneak a peak at your will and steal from you either because it requires all keys to come together at same time to work. it also presents itself with more complications of having to learn more about bitcoin to be able to join the keys together to spend it, compared to just telling them your 12 word seed where 6 are stored in will and 6 are told to family. thus another way of splitting the data to give preservation of data when both are not provided at same time(only provided at death)

No bother at all since I have already written down the directive records of everything or prceedures to follow in order for my Next of kins or family to easily gain access to my Bitcoin holdings in case of any misfortune in life or when I'm no longer alive.
Due to this I have to save my money in two different wallets and state who has full access to my funds when I'm no more.

We are trying to work, trying to earn money every day for our family, for our loved ones, not just for ourselves. Life will be meaningless if you don't trust anyone, including your loved ones. My kids are very young and I can't teach them about bitcoin or wealth, but with my wife, everything I do, she knows and we share it all.

It can be said that she is my everything, the person I trust the most. If I lose my family, having a lot of bitcoins means nothing to me.
My wife knows how many bitcoins I hold and she holds my private keys so I won't need Multisig or any other method.

The idea of multi signature wallets is good, but it is only good to some extent, and on the other hand, if the setup has anything to do with a third party, I will honestly let the idea slide past me, I think I am quite satisfied with my single signature wallet, I will make sure My family, who is no other person than my wife and kids (though my kids are still very little) know all that there is to know about the wallet where I store my crypto funds and give show her where all my private keys and seed phrases are stored, i think this is enough and goes a long way to show that i trust her as my wife and not the other way round.

I think anybody who has actually thought it through has a back-up plan for demise. In my case, there is 1-2 close family members who know locations of stored assets.

I had a conversation with them which indicated 2 points.

1. Don't trust anyone to convert to cash. Figure it out yourself.
2. Don't forget rule #1.

This topic has been discussed many times and people have different ways in which their coins will be utilised after them by them whom they trust.

For me my family members know that I am into this bitcoin stuff and have some coins on wallet and seeds for it are stored at somewhere safe and they can use it in my absence but trust is the building block which needs to be maintained in family for this and no more coins are wasted if you have not shared it with anyone and you die without withdrawing the coins.

This was informative topic Myself never thought about it but was essentially useful to have got to read about it. Thank You for sharing. Also while being alive it is necessary to also understand the best wallets to use to store it safely.

Would you not be concerned about the security of your laptop from both malfunction
to being hacked? storing your digital info like that wouldnt be recommended.


I have the same approach but I'm lucky because nearly all of my immediate family have Bitcoin.
But I understand trust in family can be questioned for a lot of people but in the end of the day
I wouldnt be worried what happens to it if I'm dead.

I am not worried about my Bitcoins or other cryptocurrency assets. When the time comes, I will give all the access keys, show and teach how things works. Also, I dont have a paranoia that something must happen to me and I should write a testament. If I think more about dying, the sooner I will die imo. I am just staying positive. Third, I am prepared to a situation, that in case of a sudden death all my cryptocurrency assets will be lost forever. So far I try to live such life, that in case of a sudden death my bank accounts savings should help my family, but crypto will be a nice bonus.

I think everyone will think about it and what's going to happen to your bitcoins after death is something everyone will think about it. People will find solutions for this according to their situations and the number of bitcoins they hold. Some people will write the 12 words recover seeds on a paper and let their family find the latter after death so they can get access to the coins. Using a multisign wallet can be another option for people. But regardless of all that, some people don't want other people and even their own families to get access to their coins after death, like these coins will be unaccessible ever, which is more interesting to me.

I am not worried for now considering I am using my assets as and when required in similar ways I am using my hard earned salary from real job. Whatever I am investing in here is just savings which I believe shall become highly profitable as the time passes and bitcoin or other coins value start to increase.

Anyways, I have my funds divided on mobile wallet, Ledger Nano X, and have back up stored on HDD's. I dont think there is any fear if I am gone one day because I will tell my wife or kids about it before I go away and if bitcoin still exists by that time. Not hardship I see.

Which would make it much harder for people to get your Bitcoin when you are alive,,, but even harder for loved ones to get it when you are dead.

Imagine asking them to just get access to your phone is hard enough, what more to tell them about different devices, different wallets,,, etc?

The number of people who die suddenly and their family is clueless about their inheritance is pretty high :)

With backups on HDD you may have issues with hackers or lost data, no with your family....


I'd advise you consider making sure your wife or somebody can actually understand how to access those funds... just in case some medical emergency is very expensive. Better safe than sorry...

People have various opinions on this matter .
Multisig is actually useful and will always comes in handy in these types of situations.
But I have often heard from people that they don’t do multisig as it’s very hard to implement.
Nevermind, we can’t force people, but yes we can suggest the best methods to them.
Giving family members the private keys and teaching them how to cash out is really great alternative if there is sudden demise of yourself.

Cool, never thought of this ever. I think it’s just simple to share the keys with loved ones and stay safe with it. I mean I’m always synching up the bank account with my family. For example, everyone in the house pretty much knows my PIN to my ATM so they can have cash at anytime. Obviously there is whole lot of understanding and finance management / advice goes into this when it comes to your kids.

Now that’s not any different than having bitcoin on your wallet locked up with private keys or PINS. I think everyone’s getting trained for this. I would probably keep a copy for them too so if I ever die I can be sure in the hell that my family is safe.

I am pretty sure they understand the bitcoin wallets and how to access it. My phone is always accessible to everyone in my house (password protected). In addition to this they know how to use hardware wallet and they have their own wallets too. Geekies here :)

Moreover, if I accidently die, they know how to access it, if all of us accidently die then there is no question about it, consider them lost with us. Lolz.


Arghhh, I am pretty sure no one is going to hack my external HDD just like that when its disconnected.
I am pretty much aware of the risks. I am the guy who had my Ledger wallet lost and found! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5395547.msg59927246#msg59927246)

https://i.ibb.co/P6V4KJ2/IMG-20220719-181237.jpg

But thanks for the advices guys. Let's keep our data, wallets, hard drives safe!

I cannot see how  multi-sig wallets will solve this problem, because you will not be around to worry about it. Yes, you can make sure that no single person will be able to "claim" your coins.. but if they know about this before you die.. it might be tempting to get rid of you... before your actual time. (so it increases the risk)  ::)

You might give your lawyer and your spouse the "key" to signing the wallet.... but they might collude to get to your coins... while you are still alive. (This will not be the first time that it happens)  ::)

Not at all. Multi-sig has many uses, and I use several multi-sig wallets myself for various purposes. But hiding the very existence of coins to protect against physical attacks is not one of their uses.

But what about when it is connected? Or what about the files you presumably had on your main HDD before you transferred them across to your external drive? Did you create and transfer these back ups using an airgapped computer?

Literally, if bitcoin wallet is created one can easily share his keys with his family if afraid of death or similar occurrence. I have thought my relatives how to operate bitcoin wallet or moved out currencies and private is printed on a paper and kept in the bookcase were my most of documents are being stored and saved.
Now talking of multi sig wallet which requires 2 to 3 persons and I asked what if one number person is not available is there a way to two persons to move a fund?
This could be the disadvantage of multi sig bitcoin address.

Yes for sure, my bitcoin is not for gambling, It is  my lifetime investments. I will ensure to pass on my password to my future generations. Maybe I will passs it on a paper or keep it in a banklocker passed on to them. or maybe I will make a sumerean tablet to pass on my passwords

I am as bothered by what happens to my Bitcoin when I die as I am about what will happen when the sun engulfs the earth, or when our solar system starts colliding with others.  All I know is that it will likely be spectacular, full of wild events that nobody predicted, and leave a lot of heartache behind.  As Keanu Reeves once so eloquently put into words about what happens after we die, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us."

So my hope is more that I am missed than my coins are well spent.  Hopefully I've helped someone out there in some way to achieve this goal.

"Just enjoy your wealth and your life while you are still alive" so the time has come (surprise) that you are not able to do things anymore, but you don't have any regrets. This is what I did.

 We can't just get crazy about money, about Bitcoin, in fact, we can share them with our families who we left. That is why we don't need to keep it alone, make sure that there is someone who knows about our Bitcoin address and access so they can still make use of it if there is something happen to us.

I am not.
My wife knows what I am doing here and he also knows a few things about cryptocurrency, so that if someday I am passed away, she knows what to do. We have some children so hopefully, this can really help my wife to rise up them with the asset. I trust her so much as what she has been doing for me so far.
And even if I am passed away when my children have been teen enough, I think that letting them know about the crypto world will be okay ad helpful. That is why I will not feel worried about this.

When I'm gone, if my bitcoins are in my account, I will leave them to my children in my family.I never worry about my bitcoins. I have definitely introduced many people in my family to this forum and to Bitcoin and they have started working too.One day I will awaken the use of coins among my sons and daughters and leave them among them.A time will come when every person will have a bitcoin at their doorstep.

No I’m not personally worried at all nor should anyone else be as everyone should have a plan in place for when you pass who your coins are going to be passed to. This not only goes for bitcoin but for all assets in general. Everyone should make sure they have a proper will established and in some cases a proper trust.

It is true that using a multi-signature wallet is more secure than a wallet with a Single-key, but it is not without risks, for example if you use a multi-signature wallet of type 2-2 and one of the keys is lost, no one will be able to access the wallet forever, this is just like a wallet with a Single-key  and the key is lost you will not be able to access the wallet, so the best solution is type 3-2 where if one of the keys is lost you can still access the wallet with the other two keys. But even in this case if you create a 3-2 wallet and keep one of the keys and give the second to your wife and the third to your son for example they will be able to access your wallet without your key if they decide to band together against you and take your money!! ;D

That's because there is something wrong with the way you are the leader of the family, first put away the thought that family life is like a "happy ending" drama series. Actually wealth is not the best form of inheritance, but education.
If you slowly tell and teach them well how you can collect bitcoins legally (not by stealing from family members) from the start, surely they will not interfere with your bitcoins and think your way is better than someone having to die.

This thread is the umpteenth time and I will answer the same thing, I have thought before to teach my wife to be able to use bitcoin how to transact and so on like I usually do.
and my wife and I are always transparent and trusting about anything so she can use it when I can't use it for some reason including if I die. And I think this is the best way and also can teach my wife a whole about bitcoin or crypto.

Recently I started introducing my wife to Bitcoin. My children are young and it might not be advisable to teach them much about Bitcoin because of privacy and cyber-security reason. I have taught my wife about both centralized and decentralized wallet and she knows where I saved both the password and the keys. My wife is the only person I can give such information to because she is the mother of my children and might not mismanage the funds I might leave behind if I walk through the path of eternity. My only fear when I die is my children's well-being, that is why I am giving the keys to there mum. Multi signature wallet would make the whole stuff complicated for my Bitcoin uninformed wife, hence a single signature wallet is perfect for now.     

Since I don't have a lot of bitcoins so don't really think about it. Some of my family members know that I store this important data because store it on my laptop and back it up in another storage that they also know where I store it, about how to access a bitcoin wallet it is easy to learn on google, so they will be very likely to be able to retrieve it if I die.

I couldn't have agreed with you more. We are just alike there, my wife uses my card the most if we need anything for the house or whatever and she also knows everything about my Crypto life and knows where all the PKs and such kinds of info are stored. I believe I have stated this in one of the similar topics posted up there  by romaro121, I like to keep it simple as well and besides, I don't have that much to think someone will be after me, and even if I did, I have to announce it for anyone to know which I won't  :)

Then you are a rare case indeed,,, family of geekies who know the password and access to your wallets and HDD is weird on 2 things. All being geekies,,, which is not so strange, but all having access to the private funds and data of each other? That does not add up. Geeks especially would be quite serious about that. And would use more complex methods like time lock.

I know they are your family, but the only way my family will ever know my password is if I die and they get a message in their will.

I mean why go this weird when you could literally store it on your binance account? If I ever die, or I am in a coma or whatever reason I can't reach my coins, my family could use my phone to just end up with account access just like I do. It doesn't require to be "me", it requires someone to know my email, my password, and have my phone for 2FA, all of which my wife has.

This is why I do not think that it would ever be a problem, why would it be? I personally believe that we should simply ignore all of these anxiety, and look for the better life ahead of us, it's too early to think about death for majority of us, sure get ready for it, but just a piece of paper explaining how to do it would be enough.

Oh dear. Let's ignore all the reasons (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5387401.0) (and there are a lot of them (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5403254.0)) you shouldn't store coins on a centralized exchange even when you are alive, from censorship and lack of privacy to hacks, thefts, scams, and bankruptcy. From the Binance Terms of Use:

If Binance ever find out that your wife is accessing your account, then she can wave goodbye to all of your coins, since your account will be immediately suspended. In classic Binance fashion, probably the only thing which would allow her to unfreeze your account is for you to complete "enhaned KYC" or some other such nonsense, which of course will be impossible after your death.

No one is seeing beyond the family. How about business, co-operations, institutes, organizations and religious sectors they too can benefit from this multi-sig wallets for their transactions that are always open between clients. It can serve as an open court for both parties in off-chain transactions

No, I am not bothered about my bitcoins. I have told everything to my sister. I will be happy if she has them after me. Moreover,  she is also interested in bitcoins and I am teaching her how bitcoins work every weekend.