Bitcoin Passphrase Recovery

[DenisGorbachev]

What if you generate an uber-secure passphrase for a wallet, then die? Or what if you simply forget the passphrase? Your Bitcoins will be lost forever.

I’ve imagined a simple solution:

• Encode the passphrase
• Split the resulting text into pieces
• Send the pieces to 4+ trusted relatives / best friends

When you die or forget the password, your trustees will cooperate to assemble the original passphrase, decode it, recover your Bitcoins.

What are the problems with this solution?

... + don't forget to answer the poll! (right above this post)

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FAQ based on comments:

Q: What if the trustees conspire to steal your funds?
A: If some trustees turn against you, the others will still protect your funds. For example, an encoded passphrase can be split between mom, dad, wife, best friend. Even if dad, wife and best friend conspire against you, mom will still hold defense (by not giving them her part of the passphrase)

Q: What if a trustee loses its piece of the passphrase?
A: You can send copies of the same piece to multiple trustees using a "split" technique:

• Split the passphrase in 2 pieces
• Send the 1st piece to mom and wife
• Send the 2nd piece to dad and best friend

Even if best friend loses his piece, dad will still have his own copy.

[Amph]

if the trusted friend have a full acces to it, then he can steal your fund, in the case your friend will be not your friend anymore, and money are knwon to have this power over friends and family...

well soem are immune to greed but they are the minority

[1Referee]

Friends/relatives are your worst enemy. Money makes friends, family and other relatives turn into thieves when they have the feeling that it potentially can be theirs if they so wish. It's better to let the coins stay unused in their wallets for ever.

[Raimonn]

Nice, but one of the trusted friends could loose its piece, and bitcoins will be lost forever. If you loose one of your friends, you will need to give its piece to another one. Its a good idea, but has some problems.

[RustyNomad]

Money, friends and family never go together, at least not with problems.

The solution you propose seems reasonable but it does come with risks. You will never be able to count on everyone 100% to store their piece of the puzzle in a safe location. If anyone of them lose their piece the puzzle cannot be completed. Best is to trust nobody. Make sure you have one or more copies of your passphrase and store these in different secure locations.

If you cannot manage this then you should maybe not have the kind of wallet where you manage everything. Best then to store your bitcoin with somebody like Coinbase or similar where your family, through your lawyers, can get hold of the funds after your passing. Not sure how Coinbase etc.. are setup but I'm sure they will be able to get to your bitcoins and get it paid to your family if everything is legally above board after your passing.

[DenisGorbachev]

Amph, 1Referee — If some trustees turn against you, the others will still protect your funds. For example, an encoded passphrase can be split between mom, dad, wife, best friend. Even if dad, wife and best friend conspire against you, mom will still hold defense (by not giving them her part of the passphrase) // I've added this to FAQ section in initial post

Raimonn, RustyNomad — You can send copies of the same piece to multiple trustees using a "split" technique:

• Split the passphrase in 2 pieces
• Send the 1st piece to mom and wife
• Send the 2nd piece to dad and best friend

Even if best friend loses his piece, dad will still have his own copy. // Added this to FAQ also

Everybody — useful suggestions, thanks! What are the other problems you can think of?

[franky1]

if the trusted fiend have a full acces to it, then he can steal your fund, in the case your friend will be not your friend anymore, and money are knwon to have this power over friends and family...

well soem are immune to greed but they are the minority

thats why OP said split it..

EG
lets say you know the social security numbers of your spouse and 3 kids
wife 077-99-0099
kidA 087-96-3021
kidB 097-59-1239
kidC 107-98-5868
now without telling them... you make a passphrase using those 4 SS numbers
077990099087963021097591239107985868
you then add on a secret word
077990099087963021097591239107985868hullabaloo

now this is what you write in your will
"dear wife. my savings are locked into bitcoin using you, and our 3 kids SS numbers followed by the safe word we agreed on when having rough sex"

that way even the lawyers wont know it

[dothebeats]

Seems like a neat idea actually. Just be careful on choosing whom to give a piece of the passphrase as it will be valuable in times of need. If in case one part of the passphrase is lost, creating the whole passphrase and safekeeping it would save you and your family in case one part was lost.

[1Referee]

Amph, 1Referee — If some trustees turn against you, the others will still protect your funds. For example, an encoded passphrase can be split between mom, dad, wife, best friend. Even if dad, wife and best friend conspire against you, mom will still hold defense (by not giving them her part of the passphrase) // I've added this to FAQ section in initial post

Raimonn, RustyNomad — You can send copies of the same piece to multiple trustees using a "split" technique:

• Split the passphrase in 2 pieces
• Send the 1st piece to mom and wife
• Send the 2nd piece to dad and best friend

Even if best friend loses his piece, dad will still have his own copy. // Added this to FAQ also

Everybody — useful suggestions, thanks! What are the other problems you can think of?

That explains it all. Then again, doomthinkers will say; what if the last person gets forced by the others to turn in its part of the passphrase? It's not unlikely for something like that to happen. Especially when the price of Bitcoin is going through the roof at some point.

[franky1]

Seems like a neat idea actually. Just be careful on choosing whom to give a piece of the passphrase as it will be valuable in times of need. If in case one part of the passphrase is lost, creating the whole passphrase and safekeeping it would save you and your family in case one part was lost.

thats why you use static data, like a social security number or date of birth. so its readily available.. but without having to actually write down the data itself.

you then do not explain what category of data you are using of the individuals, you keep that safe and locked up in a will. you can even have a safe deposit box
which contains the order in which the splits should be positioned and keep that in another location for extra safety.

but the main bit is.... if you cannot trust 4 people in your life. then maybe they do not deserve to be your beneficiaries, and you should choose a charity or just a couple people to receive the inheritance

[dothebeats]

Seems like a neat idea actually. Just be careful on choosing whom to give a piece of the passphrase as it will be valuable in times of need. If in case one part of the passphrase is lost, creating the whole passphrase and safekeeping it would save you and your family in case one part was lost.

thats why you use static data, like a social security number or date of birth. so its readily available.. but without having to actually write down the data itself.
-snip-

But what if, say for example, all of the wielders of the passphrase were caught in an accident and you have no copy of the whole phrase, that means you already lose the funds if ever, so keeping one 'just in case..' would always come in handy, at least on how I view it.

[franky1]

Seems like a neat idea actually. Just be careful on choosing whom to give a piece of the passphrase as it will be valuable in times of need. If in case one part of the passphrase is lost, creating the whole passphrase and safekeeping it would save you and your family in case one part was lost.

thats why you use static data, like a social security number or date of birth. so its readily available.. but without having to actually write down the data itself.
-snip-

But what if, say for example, all of the wielders of the passphrase were caught in an accident and you have no copy of the whole phrase, that means you already lose the funds if ever, so keeping one 'just in case..' would always come in handy, at least on how I view it.

as i said.. you dont hand out the splits of the passphrase to the person on post-it notes....
you use a piece of data that is significant to that person. and only mention that persons name in your will.... that is it

that way the lawyer wont even know the passphrase when drawing up the will as its not wrote anywhere. only hints are provided. that will only be pieced together when all 4 family members are at the reading of the will. and are people that collectively know each other to piece it together (should one die) and then under the supervision of the lawyer reading the will he will ensure it is administered correctly.


for instance until the will is read the 4 relatives have no clue if its their social security number, date of birth, or middle name which is the split.. they wont find out the hint until your death. and then only while infront of the lawyer will that hint be revealed. and if there are only 3 out of the 4 people alive. they under supervision of the lawyer will know the missing person to fill in that hinted info. to then split the funds as deemed moral

[DenisGorbachev]

if you cannot trust 4 people in your life. then maybe they do not deserve to be your beneficiaries

Exactly.

The ultimate goal is to give access. Any system designed to give access can be breached/hacked/abused. So the real question to ask is "Does the system provide a good enough usability-to-security ratio?". For example, writing the password on a sticky note is very "usable" but not very "secure". Still, people do it (for non-critical passwords, hopefully).

[anthonycamp]

i got my wallet passphrase into my folder D: of windows in txt file but very diff to acces my computer so its safe

[franky1]

i got my wallet passphrase into my folder D: of windows in txt file but very diff to acces my computer so its safe

the passphrase is just a password to access the wallet. its not the contents of the wallet, and its best to not rely on the password/passphrase as your only means of safety. backup the actual private keys holding your funds and regularly back up the private keys as bitcoin sends funds to different addresses when it gives you your change back.

put the private keys onto a separate storage device away from your computer.

afterall if someone broke into your house to steal your computer.. your screwed.
the wallet is gone..
and the passphrase is useless because its just a password to access a wallet that is now in someone else hand

but if you have your private keys backed up elsewhere. you can import the private keys into a new wallet

[Amph]

if the trusted fiend have a full acces to it, then he can steal your fund, in the case your friend will be not your friend anymore, and money are knwon to have this power over friends and family...

well soem are immune to greed but they are the minority

thats why OP said split it..

EG
lets say you know the social security numbers of your spouse and 3 kids
wife 077-99-0099
kidA 087-96-3021
kidB 097-59-1239
kidC 107-98-5868
now without telling them... you make a passphrase using those 4 SS numbers
077990099087963021097591239107985868
you then add on a secret word
077990099087963021097591239107985868hullabaloo

now this is what you write in your will
"dear wife. my savings are locked into bitcoin using you, and our 3 kids SS numbers followed by the safe word we agreed on when having rough sex"

that way even the lawyers wont know it

the point still stand, if your "friends" work together to still your funds while you're still alive

assuming that you cannot trust anyone in your life, not even your family, there is no truly way of doing it without removing completely the possibility for them to have access to it early

[Mickeyb]

There is already another thread where we were discussing this. I wouldn't complicate thing this much. What I did, I have written a short 2 page explanation of what to do in a God forbid event and left it to my wife. She would be able to react and would have access to the coins if something was to happen to me.

Everyone should do something like this and leave it someone of trust. I doesn't have to be your wife of course if you don't trust her!

[Small]

Isn't this what a multisig can do without the use of backup? You can simply generate 4 of 4 multisig and send it to those 4 people and they would not be able to unlock unless 3/4 people agrees. It would be safer as there is a risk of them not being able to find the backup.

[franky1]

the point still stand, if your "friends" work together to still your funds while you're still alive

assuming that you cannot trust anyone in your life, not even your family, there is no truly way of doing it without removing completely the possibility for them to have access to it early

you dont tell your friends..

you just have it in your will
"i decare that my 4 friends use their date of births, together in a certain combination. the order of the combination and the final code to end it can be found in safe deposit box 26 at bank of america, branch..."

your friends wont have access to the will or the safe deposit box until you die. and its the lawyer that would have to supervise the 4 friends as they put the puzzle together to ensure its split evenly

they never hear or know if it was their D.O.B, or SS number or any other info until the day of the reading of the will

[Amph]

the point still stand, if your "friends" work together to still your funds while you're still alive

assuming that you cannot trust anyone in your life, not even your family, there is no truly way of doing it without removing completely the possibility for them to have access to it early

you dont tell your friends..

you just have it in your will
"i decare that my 4 friends use their date of births, together in a certain combination. the order of the combination and the final code to end it can be found in safe deposit box 26 at bank of america, branch..."

your friends wont have access to the will or the safe deposit box until you die. and its the lawyer that would have to supervise the 4 friends as they put the puzzle together to ensure its split evenly

they never hear or know if it was their D.O.B, or SS number or any other info until the day of the reading of the will

there are still the chances that the money will not be delivered to who you want

for example 1 of those 4 friends may be in cahoots with the lawyer, to steal the funds from the other 3 friends, and divide the treasure between two and not for people, to have more...

or even worse if the lawyer take everything  because he is corrupted or something

if i really want to deliver my money after i'm not here anymore, it's better to be one person only

[designerusa]

Looks like great suggestions overall. But I still prefer to hold password in passworded personal lock.
And you can tell its pass to only 2-3 people.

[CoinSkipper]

What's keeping your relatives from taking all your life savings?

That share of the encrypted code is a share of money. Some people will choose money over family sometimes...

You don't give your bitcointalk password do your friend, do you? Why the hell would you give them money?

[dothebeats]

Looks like great suggestions overall. But I still prefer to hold password in passworded personal lock.
And you can tell its pass to only 2-3 people.

The downside is once a person whom you gave the password to gets eaten by greed and decided to run away with the money, you can't do much about it. A split passphrase or a multisignature address is better in this case, as it would require multiple codes before you can move the funds.

[JeffZwolle]

thats why OP said split it..

EG
lets say you know the social security numbers of your spouse and 3 kids
wife 077-99-0099
kidA 087-96-3021
kidB 097-59-1239
kidC 107-98-5868
now without telling them... you make a passphrase using those 4 SS numbers
077990099087963021097591239107985868
you then add on a secret word
077990099087963021097591239107985868hullabaloo

now this is what you write in your will
"dear wife. my savings are locked into bitcoin using you, and our 3 kids SS numbers followed by the safe word we agreed on when having rough sex"

that way even the lawyers wont know it

Unless they bug your bedroom or wherever you would use the safe word for rough sex
 

[DenisGorbachev]

There is already another thread where we were discussing this.

Just what was that thread? I honestly tried to find it, but couldn't.

[bryant.coleman]

I don't think that there is any need for all these trouble. Split your pass-phrase in to four or five parts, and store each of them in an USB drive. Store them in different locations (different bank lockers or residential safes). Mention in your will that you have kept the backups, with the details (in case anything happens to you).

[BitMaxz]

Looks like its interested. But how if i die how to send the bitcoin to my love ones or relatives or father mother sister or brother?
If i have phassphrase recovery how can i say to my family that files is very important and you can get my heirs.
I think is the best way is to upload the file to a automated send with set time and date in what year . That's what i think

[DenisGorbachev]

BitMaxz, you'll need to tell your relatives that the passphrase is like a "key to the chest" (chest = Bitcoin wallet). Once they have assembled the "key", they can open the "chest" and access the Bitcoins.

If you want the passphrase to be accessible strictly upon your death, you can put one of the pieces in your last will.

[Mickeyb]

There is already another thread where we were discussing this.

Just what was that thread? I honestly tried to find it, but couldn't.

Here are two threads:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=736618.200

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1134527.0;all

[teukon]

As Small link mentioned, for split keys multisig is the way to go.  This general idea was discussed years ago and is very well established albeit rarely used.

Q: What if a trustee loses its piece of the passphrase?
A: You can send copies of the same piece to multiple trustees using a "split" technique:

• Split the passphrase in 2 pieces
• Send the 1st piece to mom and wife
• Send the 2nd piece to dad and best friend

This is fine but notice that a more efficient arrangement is possible with 2-of-3 multisig.  2-of-3 multisig means that you have 3 pieces, any 2 pieces can unlock, and any number of pieces less than 2 cannot unlock.

For myself, I'd prefer a locktime-based dead man's switch.

[BitMaxz]

BitMaxz, you'll need to tell your relatives that the passphrase is like a "key to the chest" (chest = Bitcoin wallet). Once they have assembled the "key", they can open the "chest" and access the Bitcoins.

If you want the passphrase to be accessible strictly upon your death, you can put one of the pieces in your last will.

But how ?,  do you think he can understand the puzzle of my wallet. How about if my brother or my mother has not literary computer illitirate? They can reciece my bitcoin?

[7788bitcoin]

This is really not an easy way to manage your bitcoin. Not everyone around you think bitcoin is something serious and most likely they will forget where they keep the part entrusted to them...

[Kprawn]

if the trusted fiend have a full acces to it, then he can steal your fund, in the case your friend will be not your friend anymore, and money are knwon to have this power over friends and family...

well soem are immune to greed but they are the minority

thats why OP said split it..

EG
lets say you know the social security numbers of your spouse and 3 kids
wife 077-99-0099
kidA 087-96-3021
kidB 097-59-1239
kidC 107-98-5868
now without telling them... you make a passphrase using those 4 SS numbers
077990099087963021097591239107985868
you then add on a secret word
077990099087963021097591239107985868hullabaloo

now this is what you write in your will
"dear wife. my savings are locked into bitcoin using you, and our 3 kids SS numbers followed by the safe word we agreed on when having rough sex"

that way even the lawyers wont know it

It would just get awkward for your parents, if your wife died with you in a car accident and they have to figure out your safe word for rough sex. 

Why not just keep this word with the institution that keeps your safe deposit box or your Will and testament? Once your will is read, the last word will be handed to the

beneficiaries or the key to your safe deposit box?  Or have 4 questions with answers all 4 of them have, and if something happens to any of them, the remaining people

could still figure it out together.