How would you give someone access to your wallets when you are dead?

[currentvalue]

Let's just say that you have got your bitcoins on a ledger wallet or stored somewhere else. What are the best possibilities to let other people have access to them when something unfortunate happens?

I am looking for an idea but I don't just want to give easy access, they have to work for it like a puzzle. How would you do that?

[ClownSpider]

NICE QUESTION!!!

I don't want to reveal how I am personally doing that, or someone will kill me lol

However you should put your wallet.dat file and an instruction video in a common video format like .mp4 on a Micro SD card.
Also PNG images of your public and Private keys.

Make about 50 pairs, so that you have new wallets for future use before you die, but that are still pre-recored onto your Micro SD card will.


Then hide that SD card someplace it will be found by someone you want to find it if you die.

Leave clues, passwords with questions that only your chosen person will know the answer to.
Such as personal memories you and they share.

Allow clear instructions for capitalization and punctuation if necessary.  As in none.

[-ck]

Create a paper wallet, put it in a bank safety deposit box... yes banks are good for something. The irony should be obvious.

[digaran]

Let's just say that you have got your bitcoins on a ledger wallet or stored somewhere else. What are the best possibilities to let other people have access to them when something unfortunate happens?

I am looking for an idea but I don't just want to give easy access, they have to work for it like a puzzle. How would you do that?

If you want to receive curse in afterlife better not make it a puzzle lol, simply either write in your will and give it to a lawyer or just keep it in a safe that your family could access when you're gone and if you are afraid they take your coins before you're dead then you should start thinking about your place in such a family.

[SyGambler]

personally I told my family where I keep my paper wallets , of course they can steal it whenever they want 
not sure how to let them access your wallets after your death , maybe thro a lawyer where you can keep your wish after your death or something like that

[Celsiuss]

wow, I've never thought about this. As people above have mentioned, hiding paper wallets seems to be the way to go. I'd probably give steps on where to find it in my testament.
If bitcoin becomes mainstream we need a good solution for this.

[TryNinja]

I would give my mother a paper with my wallet seed, since I trust her. She would know what to do next.

personally I told my family where I keep my paper wallets , of course they can steal it whenever they want  
not sure how to let them access your wallets after your death , maybe thro a lawyer where you can keep your wish after your death or something like that

Obligatory "hey its me ur brother". ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[alani123]

Create a paper wallet, put it in a bank safety deposit box... yes banks are good for something. The irony should be obvious.

Ironically, banks are perhaps the only institution that have proven to be able to achieve things similar to this through the ages. This might be ironical but a Bitcoin equivalent for such a service would sound more funny.

[LTU_btc]

Interesting question, I never thought about it because I don't expect to die soon, lol.
Maybe I would create letter with my bitcoin wallet private keys and instruction how to use it. They would be able to read that letter only after my death. There I also would leave my login details of PayPal account and other cash systems.

I would give my mother a paper with my wallet seed, since I trust her. She would know what to do next.

Do you think that your mother will live longer than you?

[playerbtc]

This is an important question. I only have access to my wallet that i never shared with anyone. I think we should choose our nominee who may have all the access of our saving accounts. Otherwise, nobody will know how many btc or eth we left before we die.

[btcjoin14]

Interesting, all these people claiming that they will give someone Bitcoin access when they are dead is just funny to me because from what I know Bitcoin would be the very least thing dead people will be thinking about if they roam the earth.

Some kind of ghost flying around talking about Bitcoin would be kind of sad to see.

Ghost Guy: "Hey, you want some Bitcoins?"
Alive Person: "Nah"
Ghost Guy: "Oh"

What if nobody cares what Bitcoin is when that Ghost died? There just is no real point to even think about it after death.

Having it in a will is a different story though.

[TryNinja]

Interesting question, I never thought about it because I don't expect to die soon, lol.
Maybe I would create letter with my bitcoin wallet private keys and instruction how to use it. They would be able to read that letter only after my death. There I also would leave my login details of PayPal account and other cash systems.

I would give my mother a paper with my wallet seed, since I trust her. She would know what to do next.

Do you think that your mother will live longer than you?

Who knows? The only person I would give my wallet after my death is my mother because I can really trust her. So it doesn't matter anyway.

[linyhan]

Let's just say that you have got your bitcoins on a ledger wallet or stored somewhere else. What are the best possibilities to let other people have access to them when something unfortunate happens?

I am looking for an idea but I don't just want to give easy access, they have to work for it like a puzzle. How would you do that?

Make a text file on your destop ,Save all the details and  name it passwords of my bitcoin wallets. Maybe someone on your family knows bitcoin ,and when a bad thing happens to you ,they can still access your account.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

All my bitcoin is stored on my phone.  Hopefully I won't die in an explosion or something, because then all will be lost.  If that doesn't happen, whoever retrieves my phone first is the beneficiary.  One of these days I'm going to put together a will and leave everything to the drug rehab I work at.  That'll include cash and the no doubt enormous amount of bitcoin (lol) I hold when I finally kick the bucket.  I'll save that list of words that acts as an account-recovery thing.  I'll put that damn thing in my will.

[Mike Mayor]

Interesting, all these people claiming that they will give someone Bitcoin access when they are dead is just funny to me because from what I know Bitcoin would be the very least thing dead people will be thinking about if they roam the earth.

Some kind of ghost flying around talking about Bitcoin would be kind of sad to see.

Ghost Guy: "Hey, you want some Bitcoins?"
Alive Person: "Nah"
Ghost Guy: "Oh"

What if nobody cares what Bitcoin is when that Ghost died? There just is no real point to even think about it after death.

Having it in a will is a different story though.

Obviously the OP ment​ in a will.  You just keep s paper wallet and instructions in your safe as you should be doing so anyway because you need to backup things physically as well as digitally and s paper wallet is ideal and will survive. Laminate that thing and you will have it for life easily.

[BCTBF]

This is an important question. I only have access to my wallet that i never shared with anyone. I think we should choose our nominee who may have all the access of our saving accounts. Otherwise, nobody will know how many btc or eth we left before we die.

Well, we only need to find candidates according to the criteria we want. With that, we can inherit all the btc we have before we die.

[27QVUTZj8rgZP1]

A good idea would be to implement some kind of mechanism that would automatically transfer all the coins to a specified account after a time threshold.

Example:
Person dies... This person configured a mechanism which will be triggered after 1 year.
1 year passed.
All coins are automatically transferred to configured account.

While the person is alive, the person is responsible to update the timer in some way to prove person is still alive. It will not be updated in case that person dies, and as result the function is executed.

That could be implemented in the Bitcoin protocol itself. Not sure if this would be possible, but maybe there are other ways.

[pooya87]

A good idea would be to implement some kind of mechanism that would automatically transfer all the coins to a specified account after a time threshold.

Example:
Person dies... This person configured a mechanism which will be triggered after 1 year.
1 year passed.
All coins are automatically transferred to configured account.

While the person is alive, the person is responsible to update the timer in some way to prove person is still alive. It will not be updated in case that person dies, and as result the function is executed.

That could be implemented in the Bitcoin protocol itself. Not sure if this would be possible, but maybe there are other ways.

it is possible and it is called locktime, you create a transaction and set the locktime of the transaction to a specific time or block height that you like and then sign it. you can give it to anyone, put it up in a server that broadcasts it at a specific time or just post it in public, that transaction can not be mined until the locktime is reached.

and if you were alive by the deadline you should spend the funds to a new address before the tx becomes valid.

[Ayiranorea]

I have planned of explaining it to the family members as well teach them access my wallet in the absence of me. It is very simple same as using a social networking site. Also have made a backup on a paper wallet documented to the list of essential files.

[mmo4me.2016]

A great idea but never thought of until I read this article! But everything will be lost when too many people know. You should be prepared for the worst situation, but you may have to use a paper wallet with some characters reminiscent of it