The emergency death plan

[Joohansson]

The following is very obvious, no break through here, but I still want to address it just because it almost too obvious. The normal event when/if you die is that your closest relative or husband/wife inherits all your financial belongings (if nothing else specified). That also includes bank money (I guess).

A bitcoin wallet is a bit different because of it's decentralized nature. It will be very much inaccessible without the password if encrypted and the coins forever lost. If you have a noticeable amount of bitcoins I highly recommend you share the password to at least one more person you trust or maybe if your country has some kind of death-program you can put your secret data in. Do not store it at your home in case of robbery or fire. You never know when a stone fall from the sky!

[Holliday]

Use a M of N paper wallet. There are many places you can keep pieces for your family to access if you die. Will. Safety deposit box. Et cetera.

Anyone with access to only one piece won't be able to do anything with it. Make sure your family can get the pieces to access your coins in the event of your death.

[cr1776]

I read this thread because I thought it was going to be another Gox thread with the "emergency death plan", but no.  Anyway, Holliday is right.  You can give the pieces to your attorney, friend etc.

[crazy_rabbit]

I'm working on a cool product that will solve exactly this problem! Details to follow, but in a couple months. Working on some new prototypes. :-)

[shaobao88]

What do you exactly mean when you say that a bitcoin wallet has a decentralized nature?

[Raya]

I'm working on a cool product that will solve exactly this problem! Details to follow, but in a couple months. Working on some new prototypes. :-)

What project will this be? sounds cool to me.

[seriouscoin]

I'm working on a cool product that will solve exactly this problem! Details to follow, but in a couple months. Working on some new prototypes. :-)

What project will this be? sounds cool to me.

send btc to him and he will hold for you?

[lemfuture]

I'm working on a cool product that will solve exactly this problem! Details to follow, but in a couple months. Working on some new prototypes. :-)

*click watching

[BittBurger]

Holliday -

I have been thinking about this pertaining to other issues with wills, etc.  Can you explain the process of leaving pieces a little more?  You'd give pieces to Lawyer, Friends, etc .... but who is the true intended recipient in that scenario?   Lets say I wanted to make sure my wife got everything, but I wasn't 100% sure those I entrusted, would give her everything.  Why am I giving everyone a piece, and what piece does the wife get?  Some special piece?  Sorry, this is probably obvious but I just wanted to be sure.

-B-

[Joohansson]

What do you exactly mean when you say that a bitcoin wallet has a decentralized nature?

Not controlled by your country, but yourself.

[domob]

Use a M of N paper wallet. There are many places you can keep pieces for your family to access if you die. Will. Safety deposit box. Et cetera.

Anyone with access to only one piece won't be able to do anything with it. Make sure your family can get the pieces to access your coins in the event of your death.

This.  I've also planned to set up something like this for some time now, just need to come around to do it.  My plan is to write a document containing all my encryption keys (not solely but also to my Bitcoin wallets) and encrypt it to a strong, randomly generated passphrase.  The encrypted document will then be shared with some close relatives and also placed, for instance, in my safety deposit box.

For the passphrase, I'll use something like 3-of-5 splitting and also place one piece in my safety deposit box (which is presumably accessible to my wife in case I die) plus hand them to close relatives.  Of course, I must trust them enough to actually hand the Bitcoins to my wife (or whoever I intend them to go to), but I do that in my case.

[Holliday]

Holliday -

I have been thinking about this pertaining to other issues with wills, etc.  Can you explain the process of leaving pieces a little more?  You'd give pieces to Lawyer, Friends, etc .... but who is the true intended recipient in that scenario?   Lets say I wanted to make sure my wife got everything, but I wasn't 100% sure those I entrusted, would give her everything.  Why am I giving everyone a piece, and what piece does the wife get?  Some special piece?  Sorry, this is probably obvious but I just wanted to be sure.

-B-

If you trust your wife, just give her full access to your cold storage method.

If you don't trust your wife, but want her to have your bitcoins when you die, create an M of N wallet. Put a piece in your will, put a piece in your safe deposit box (she should be able to access it when you die), and give her the final piece(s) necessary to construct the wallet.

She won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Anyone with access to your will won't be able to touch your bitcoins. The establishment which controls the safe deposit box won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Yet, when you die, she will be able to obtain all the pieces necessary to construct the complete wallet.

If there is a piece of the puzzle which you do not trust (say you don't think the bank will allow access to the safe deposit box), adjust your scheme accordingly. Add redundancy. Make it so she only needs 1 piece from either the will or the safe deposit box.

[RodeoX]

I have written instructions in my will. It is stored in a safe deposit box at the bank to be opened in the event of my death. You can't take it with you! (Both heaven and hell have very shitty dial-up internet)

[dddbtc]

make a self extracting 7z file containing your wallet.dat and all accounts, secure it with a password using AES-256 encryption and encrypted file names.

place the file on this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crypteks/crypteks-usbtm-encrypted-and-lockable-usb-solution

Place the drive in your safety deposit box at your banking institution.

Release both passwords to your beneficiary via your will upon your death.

[buzybit]

I read this thread because I thought it was going to be another Gox thread with the "emergency death plan", but no.  Anyway, Holliday is right.  You can give the pieces to your attorney, friend etc.

lolz!

[Sheldor333]

Why not just make a paper wallet write everything on it and there, done. Put it in a safe place or bank and in case you die your family will have it with the rest. Think this is the best solution. When I have at least something I'm thinking of doing this.

[cbeast]

Holliday -

I have been thinking about this pertaining to other issues with wills, etc.  Can you explain the process of leaving pieces a little more?  You'd give pieces to Lawyer, Friends, etc .... but who is the true intended recipient in that scenario?   Lets say I wanted to make sure my wife got everything, but I wasn't 100% sure those I entrusted, would give her everything.  Why am I giving everyone a piece, and what piece does the wife get?  Some special piece?  Sorry, this is probably obvious but I just wanted to be sure.

-B-

If you trust your wife, just give her full access to your cold storage method.

If you don't trust your wife, but want her to have your bitcoins when you die, create an M of N wallet. Put a piece in your will, put a piece in your safe deposit box (she should be able to access it when you die), and give her the final piece(s) necessary to construct the wallet.

She won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Anyone with access to your will won't be able to touch your bitcoins. The establishment which controls the safe deposit box won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Yet, when you die, she will be able to obtain all the pieces necessary to construct the complete wallet.

If there is a piece of the puzzle which you do not trust (say you don't think the bank will allow access to the safe deposit box), adjust your scheme accordingly. Add redundancy. Make it so she only needs 1 piece from either the will or the safe deposit box.

I like this except you won't be able to draw off that m-of-n. I might instead put passphrases to BIP38 keys in the will in a safe deposit box. The passphrases could be disguised as last wishes so a judge won't blackmail her. Tell her ahead of time about them. I would give her half the pw to an encrypted email copy of the BIP38 keys and the other half in a safe along with copies of the wallets and the other half of the pw as the last sentence of the will final wishes. She will have to understand that not giving her access to it is for her protection.

In the event that she dies with you, I would also create Shamir's Secret Sharing of keys that unlock a file stored in the safe with the instructions of what you and her know. Give those keys as a m of m-1 or so to people you also name in your will for one dollar and the file stored on a disk or thumb drive stored in the safe. She would otherwise have accessed the safe before the will is read through a locksmith service and will see instructions on the file storage for her to destroy it immediately. I haven't thought this part through yet.
I don't know any other way to do this without trusting a third party.

[Holliday]

Holliday -

I have been thinking about this pertaining to other issues with wills, etc.  Can you explain the process of leaving pieces a little more?  You'd give pieces to Lawyer, Friends, etc .... but who is the true intended recipient in that scenario?   Lets say I wanted to make sure my wife got everything, but I wasn't 100% sure those I entrusted, would give her everything.  Why am I giving everyone a piece, and what piece does the wife get?  Some special piece?  Sorry, this is probably obvious but I just wanted to be sure.

-B-

If you trust your wife, just give her full access to your cold storage method.

If you don't trust your wife, but want her to have your bitcoins when you die, create an M of N wallet. Put a piece in your will, put a piece in your safe deposit box (she should be able to access it when you die), and give her the final piece(s) necessary to construct the wallet.

She won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Anyone with access to your will won't be able to touch your bitcoins. The establishment which controls the safe deposit box won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Yet, when you die, she will be able to obtain all the pieces necessary to construct the complete wallet.

If there is a piece of the puzzle which you do not trust (say you don't think the bank will allow access to the safe deposit box), adjust your scheme accordingly. Add redundancy. Make it so she only needs 1 piece from either the will or the safe deposit box.

I like this except you won't be able to draw off that m-of-n.

Of course you will, if the M of N is an Armory backup.

[cbeast]

Holliday -

I have been thinking about this pertaining to other issues with wills, etc.  Can you explain the process of leaving pieces a little more?  You'd give pieces to Lawyer, Friends, etc .... but who is the true intended recipient in that scenario?   Lets say I wanted to make sure my wife got everything, but I wasn't 100% sure those I entrusted, would give her everything.  Why am I giving everyone a piece, and what piece does the wife get?  Some special piece?  Sorry, this is probably obvious but I just wanted to be sure.

-B-

If you trust your wife, just give her full access to your cold storage method.

If you don't trust your wife, but want her to have your bitcoins when you die, create an M of N wallet. Put a piece in your will, put a piece in your safe deposit box (she should be able to access it when you die), and give her the final piece(s) necessary to construct the wallet.

She won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Anyone with access to your will won't be able to touch your bitcoins. The establishment which controls the safe deposit box won't be able to touch your bitcoins. Yet, when you die, she will be able to obtain all the pieces necessary to construct the complete wallet.

If there is a piece of the puzzle which you do not trust (say you don't think the bank will allow access to the safe deposit box), adjust your scheme accordingly. Add redundancy. Make it so she only needs 1 piece from either the will or the safe deposit box.

I like this except you won't be able to draw off that m-of-n.

Of course you will, if the M of N is an Armory backup.

The other thing is that she will not necessarily get a copy of the will unless she has a key and is a signer and gets it without telling about your death. If you just leave obvious keys in a will, she may be blackmailed by officers of the court or bank. Trust no one.

edit: in the event of death, the bank will not release anything except a will and titles except through probate. You can't store pieces of paper with keys in an envelope.

[minerpart]

What if both you and your wife are killed in a car accident? Your kids or other family will never get your coins? Plan for every scenario.