Ripple enthusiast with $1 billion in XRP dies - nobody has keys/passwords !

[JollyGood]

Matthew Mellon was a man with a reported $1 billion of Ripple (XRP). Sadly he died but nobody from his attorney to his friends to his family are in possession of his keys or passwords to access his crypto:
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/62046/ripple-enthusiast-1-billion-xrp-dies-unexpectedly/index.html

What do you think is the best way to ensure you can leave your crypto-assets behind for your family in the event of your death BUT not let anybody have access to those crypto-assets while you are alive?

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[Guvn0r]

I have seen senior members giving many tips about this, most of them emphasized on storing the private keys in paper and keeping them very safe somewhere with very restricted access, so that we can make sure only someone trusted gets them.

It is sad to read this news, but I don't think a man who have 1 billion USD worth XRP is stupid enough not to make sure it does not go waste.

[JollyGood]

I have seen senior members giving many tips about this, most of them emphasized on storing the private keys in paper and keeping them very safe somewhere with very restricted access, so that we can make sure only someone trusted gets them.

It is sad to read this news, but I don't think a man who have 1 billion USD worth XRP is stupid enough not to make sure it does not go waste.

Firstly very sad news a family man (with wife and children died). There seem to be some issues surrounding alleged drug abuse and so on but he was a father, husband and son. I feel for his family and friends.

The idea floated around was that because he was spending money on drugs and was not in the country at the time and was not exactly an old man, that he did not make an up to date will and last testament. It also seems he never gave his crypto keys or their location to anybody.

[Pump N Dead]

Matthew Mellon was a man with a reported $1 billion of Ripple (XRP). Sadly he died but nobody from his attorney to his friends to his family are in possession of his keys or passwords to access his crypto:
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/62046/ripple-enthusiast-1-billion-xrp-dies-unexpectedly/index.html

What do you think is the best way to ensure you can leave your crypto-assets behind for your family in the event of your death BUT not let anybody have access to those crypto-assets while you are alive?

The only way you can do is to save your private key in a paper or put it in a USB drive then lock it in a volt where you first family knows the location. So in case of death they can destroy the volt and get the private key. You also need to put a note or instructions because some of them doesn't even know the use of the file inside the USB.

[sourish]

This is an issue everyone in crypto needs to address, for family members are basically in the dark due to lack of interest or knowledge, and sometimes because you dont reveal your investments to them. There has to be detailed information on the coins and their keys, locked away on a drive known only to you. You also need to arrange for someone to coach your family so that they can understand how to operate.

[Supercrypt]

There is a topic in the serious discussion forum about this exact thing.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4290183.0

I think it is something that needs to be addressed in some kind of formal manner. I'm surprised there is no service or product designed to specifically tackle this problem yet.

Yeah, it really should be addressed seriously or people should start taking such things serious. That is a lot of money to let go to waste just like that. Now, I am sure even his family will not forgive him for making such a grievance mistake and they would wish he comes back from the dead to make amends.

I would actually beat him back to life if I am his son. Jokes apart though, there are ways to store assets, and private keys can be stored in those ways, which I believe a lot of people should start taking into consideration.

[Emilyearl]

The best part of all of this is that we have a close and trusted family whom we share our crypto adventures with. We can't live forever and we can't also live in secret all through our lives. We should have a detailed analysis of our assets and entrust it to someone should incase anything happens to us. No one is praying for sudden demise but caution is good.

[caisa88]

This is such a sad news to here, he was a young guy. I think that the best way to prevent this from happening is to store your crypto assets on an offline device( Like Trezor, or Ledger) and keep the paper with the seed in a location where your family will know about(you can inform your lawyer about it) in case such an unfortunate event happens to you.

[JollyGood]

There is a topic in the serious discussion forum about this exact thing.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4290183.0

I think it is something that needs to be addressed in some kind of formal manner. I'm surprised there is no service or product designed to specifically tackle this problem yet.

What do you think is the best way forward allowing people who die to leave their crypto securely and safely to their families and loved ones and at the same time not allowing anyone to access the crypto while still alive?

[wuvdoll]

I have seen senior members giving many tips about this, most of them emphasized on storing the private keys in paper and keeping them very safe somewhere with very restricted access, so that we can make sure only someone trusted gets them.

It is sad to read this news, but I don't think a man who have 1 billion USD worth XRP is stupid enough not to make sure it does not go waste.

Yeah, at least with the way things are, and even for the fact that even if you are not going to be trusting your attorney or anyone around you to hold your private key, one can generate a paper wallet or get a cold storage to put the funds in a bank to store just the way people store gold in banks. In that way, anyone can make it accessible to their next of kin in the case where they are deceased or simply write a will to let them know there is something left for them as inheritance somehow. What a waste right now! $1 billion ?

[xIIImaL]

This is such a sad news to here, he was a young guy. I think that the best way to prevent this from happening is to store your crypto assets on an offline device( Like Trezor, or Ledger) and keep the paper with the seed in a location where your family will know about(you can inform your lawyer about it) in case such an unfortunate event happens to you.

I do not know, this news cause like RIP or promote ripple by confirming there will be demand always for ripple for long days. I am not sure how to take this news mate. There is section on this forum to write news article on the forum called press.
Better you could move your thread to thread. Whatever happened centralized coins will not help the other fellow crypto earners.

[ManaMan]

I am not sure if ripple is available to do Lock Time transactions? I find this to be the easiest way as you make transaction to other party you trust with your coins in it lets say you put it for next year. When date is coming close you simply pick your stash of coins and move it to another address before lock time transaction triggers itself so you go and make another one. I found this to be the effective way to ensure your money is not lost. It is sad to see that people haven't though about this because as we know everybody can die tomorrow unexpectedly.

[JollyGood]

The only way you can do is to save your private key in a paper or put it in a USB drive then lock it in a volt where you first family knows the location. So in case of death they can destroy the volt and get the private key. You also need to put a note or instructions because some of them doesn't even know the use of the file inside the USB.

It is not the most secure way because you are giving the location of the keys to people during your lifetime. Nothing stopping people getting access to it once they know where they are and what they are worth.

[Boloton]

Matthew Mellon was a man with a reported $1 billion of Ripple (XRP). Sadly he died but nobody from his attorney to his friends to his family are in possession of his keys or passwords to access his crypto:
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/62046/ripple-enthusiast-1-billion-xrp-dies-unexpectedly/index.html

What do you think is the best way to ensure you can leave your crypto-assets behind for your family in the event of your death BUT not let anybody have access to those crypto-assets while you are alive?

I think it's a great idea. I'd also do charades, the answer to which would be my key. But they were lucky that the lawyers were honest, they could saw through his wallet and no one would have anything and would never have known.

[drogas]

This is such a sad news to here, he was a young guy. I think that the best way to prevent this from happening is to store your crypto assets on an offline device( Like Trezor, or Ledger) and keep the paper with the seed in a location where your family will know about(you can inform your lawyer about it) in case such an unfortunate event happens to you.

I do not know, this news cause like RIP or promote ripple by confirming there will be demand always for ripple for long days. I am not sure how to take this news mate. There is section on this forum to write news article on the forum called press.
Better you could move your thread to thread. Whatever happened centralized coins will not help the other fellow crypto earners.

Yeah it's definitely sad but also very interesting in the sense how it might affect XRP or the crypto market.

Will be carefully watching, this is still very interesting regardless of everything else.

[cryptodalton]

First of all sympathy for his family members. He must be cleaver enough to store his key in somewhere. A people who invested $1 billion must have stored his key in safe and secret place.

[qazgroup]

We have to see both sides of they story, there can be two scenarios here, one is that he just ignored or we can say forgot to share hos passwords and key with his family or the second scenario could be that he intentionally never shared the key, may be he does not want to give his asset to anyone, who knows.

[radokan]

Matthew Mellon was a man with a reported $1 billion of Ripple (XRP). Sadly he died but nobody from his attorney to his friends to his family are in possession of his keys or passwords to access his crypto:
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/62046/ripple-enthusiast-1-billion-xrp-dies-unexpectedly/index.html

What do you think is the best way to ensure you can leave your crypto-assets behind for your family in the event of your death BUT not let anybody have access to those crypto-assets while you are alive?

Give them your private keys.
Do you see any other solution? There isn't any.
Either you will give them your private keys or not. Maybe to store them in safe but still they will have to know safe password.

[KryptoKai]

It's possible that he bought them a long time ago when it was peanuts and never thought it would be worth anything. Hence he didn't bother to tell his family because they wouldn't understand how it worked and it wasn't worth much at the time (relative to his wealth).

[JollyGood]

This is an issue everyone in crypto needs to address, for family members are basically in the dark due to lack of interest or knowledge, and sometimes because you dont reveal your investments to them. There has to be detailed information on the coins and their keys, locked away on a drive known only to you. You also need to arrange for someone to coach your family so that they can understand how to operate.

Securing the keys in a drive and that drive being put somewhere safe cannot be 100% fail safe and secure because a person or people will know its location. Anyone with access to the drive will have access to the keys.