What will happen to your Bitcoins when you die?

[Blazr]

No.  They are keysplits.  The thing in the deposit box and the thing in my wife's files need to be combined in a very particular way in order to yield a key that would open my bitcoin wallet.  It is a procedure she knows how to do.

Ah ok, I assume something like a OTP or Shamir's Secret Sharing, which is a lot better than just literally chopping the private key in two (something I have found out that people are doing!). Securely splitting the key is essentially the same as encrypting it with a password or asymmetric key that the recipient has, you still need both the password and encrypted wallet to open it, encrypting it has the added advantage that you can use your bitcoin clients built-in encryption features to do it, which is better than learning off procedures and relying on third party tools that may not be around in the future, you can also preserve your address labels too which could help with potential tax/legal issues.

[bigasic]

I thought about doing multi sig. but i think that would make it too complicated for them(my family members) i I feel safe with one copy in the banks vault and another copy with a trusted family member thats in their huge gun safe. I guess coinbase has a cool vault system, but then you have to trust that coinbase will always be around and honest... I know my way isnt the absolute best way, but Im comfortable with it. If a bank manager looked at the paper, they probably wouldnt know what to do.. And I trust the family member with the other copy with my life and is probably the most honest person I know. So, Im good..well, my family is good.. now lets hope bitcoin goes to the moon one of these days, lol...

[dznuts85]

the moment i saw this thread i just realized that no person could use my bitcoins when i die, so i will give access to my brother to my bitcoin wallet later.. btw, my brother dont have any interest in bitcoin yet as because he is still studying

[fox19891989]

If I was dead for an accident, like car accident, earthquake, I am afraid my btc will be lost forever. So does everyone, right?

If I got a serious disease, I would tell my parents to sell my btc to fiat money. At least they can get the fiat money to spend on my disease, or give money to them.

[Blazr]

Here is what I am thinking:

Whenever you send Bitcoins from your wallet, your wallet creates another transaction that sends all of the remainder of your bitcoin to the recipients Bitcoin address. This transaction isn't broadcasted, it is just signed and saved to a file locally, and the transaction has an nLockTime that prevents it from being spent for X years.

If you do not send any Bitcoins from your wallet for X years, the recipient can simply grab the signed transaction and spend it. IMO this is the best way to do it, I have been thinking about working on it, but I've not played around with transaction scripts or nlocktime before so I have some learning to do first. I am still curious to know what others are doing and if anyone has implemented something similar to this or something better or if anyone's got any suggestions.

The main disadvantage of this is if the recipient were to steal the transaction file they could wait X years and steal any coins you did not move even if you are alive, so you need to move all of your bitcoins at least once every X years, which isn't a big deal IMO and I reckon most people will probably do that naturally.

[jjacob]

I have a safe deposit box.  It contains (part of) my key.  If I die, the bank will give my wife a key to it.  While I am not dead, they won't.  My wife has the other part of the key in her files.

I have followed an identical strategy. The only difference being the entire seed is there in the safe deposit box.
My wife isn't that tech savvy, so I keep reminding her once in a while of the key in the safe deposit box. 

[Q7]

Well it hasn't been much of a problem for fiat because in banks you can just open a joint account and if anything happens to me, my other half can still access the fund. This way, there must be a mutual trust because in this scenario, both parties have the right to access and spend it. For bitcoin, I guess, it's asimilar thing. The private key is also held by my partner, so if something happens to me, she can still have it. Again, it's a question of trust over here.

[ed_teech]

I was surprised to see a lot of people have thought of a way for this.

[Jamie_Boulder]

Very interesting topic, I've never thought of it this way.

If I'm honest I don't have a contingency plan based on this, perhaps I should investigate!

[emrebey]

there was a thread about a guy losing his son, trying to access his son's bitcoins. it's sad :/

never thought about this before, but I am not holding much either. If I hold a good chunk of bitcoins, probably I would give my privkey to my brother.

[saddampbuh]

old runescape minion has the private key for when it happens, he knows what to do them

[Amph]

only my family can have access to them, but they don't know how to use bitcoin

if you have a very trustworthy friend/parent you can just give him your key, and hoping he does not lose it or something like that

[majeis]

I have a how-to document setup for them with some of their passwords I already know.

[bornil267645]

The amount of bitcoin I own is not worth of having a contingency plan. So right now I am not worried about what happens when I die. If I get a certain point, then I will think of something.

[jertsy]

If you print out your keys for your relatives after your death then make sure you use pigment based ink, not water based ink. The pigment based ink lasts 100 years, but the water based ink can fade over the course of a few years.

[FeedbackLoop]

Got two different systems in place. They are not 100% foolproof but I'm also reducing the probability that these will be needed in a medium time scale by donating Bitcoin here :

http://www.sens.org/

(Bitcoin in their frontpage but they are getting very little)

[Bralex]

What will happen to your Bitcoins when you die, will they be lost forever?

I feel that this is something that is overlooked by most Bitcoin users.

Do any of you have a system in place to allow loved-ones to access your funds when you pass on? What is the best way to do this? please share your wisdom in this thread.

I will be honest a little while ago i got very ill and had this concern so i taught my partner how to use bitcoin and open the wallet transfer to localbitcoin and make a deal, luckily i trust her with everything of me so i don't need to worry about her ripping me off and also i am still here so alls well that ends well.

I think multisignature wallets could be good to set up so out of 3 you/partner/child 2 will work to release the funds. This should be worked on but BitHalo is s very good start for this scenario.

[YuKiang]

What will happen with your money when you die?

btw, I plan to take my encrypted wallet in the grave, so no one can assess my bits. That way I'll be doing a big favor to bitcoin ecosystem and reducing total available supply.

[Pierre11]

I think Bitcoins are completely irrelevant to death. If you're about to die....who rlly cares about your BTC

[redsn0w]

What will happen to your Bitcoins when you die, will they be lost forever?

I feel that this is something that is overlooked by most Bitcoin users.

Do any of you have a system in place to allow loved-ones to access your funds when you pass on? What is the best way to do this? please share your wisdom in this thread.

I voted: no

I don't have any system to allow my parents, brothers or sisters to access my bitcoin funds. Maybe I should start to think about this eventuality, also for my future son (as heredity or something like that, maybe for their study).