I don't think it relies on them at all, but they're going to be used together for the considerable future.
The thieves simply threw a rock through his (the author’s father’s) back sliding glass window, rummaged around in the house until they found the safe and dom hemingway’d it right off of the foundation it was bolted onto. Inside of his safe was an uncommonly large number of bitcoins (he is an early adopter) on a non password protected paper wallet.
Umm, why were they not password protected and why did he not have backups? Had he kept a back up on a password protected wallet under his bed then he'd be fine.