Who Controls your Crypto Funds after Death?

[ChiBitCTy]

I wrote about this a few months ago and provided information on how to protect yourself - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5134350.msg50703294#msg50703294

[dengpei]

Funny, strange but yet so real, right?

So if one dies, all the money will get stacked on blockchain and exchanges?

I have about 90% of my funds in crypto and was just wondering over the above?

If you tell your wife, she might kill you and enjoy it with the boyfriend lol &
Hahaha yh and you can't trust even your family....

If they don't kill you probably because they are good siblings...once they know you have much, demand will go high lol

Many will say why not write a will, why not tell a friend etc.. 

But one needs to do this,  I know we all might have our opinions,  let's share and see if we can come to a uniform and decentralized solution....

I have written a medium post published by The Startup on this topic before here https://medium.com/swlh/who-gets-control-of-your-crypto-assets-after-you-die-766b84da361d

You could make a list of your total current holdings, where they’re held (wallets, exchanges, etc) and the current value and yes do this privately.
As for keeping coins on exchange, its not advisable to store funds on exchange for long intervals. The undiluted truth is that if you don’t own the private keys then you do not have control. Funds on exchange should just be for transactions.
It is important to plan around what kinds of storage you’re currently using. What do you like about it? What’s not working for you? How could it be better? Could your heirs access your storage devices and/or passwords if needed?.By using a hardware wallet or a paper wallet, or some other safer means to store your private keys, you can ensure that family has access to it.
Decide who gets what? Do you want one person to inherit all of your crypto? If you want more than one person or organization to get a share, use percentages instead of hard values (10% not 10 Bitcoin).
Also consider the following questions in your planning; Do your heirs understand this technology? Can they create and provide their own addresses for transfer? Or will the assets be liquidated to fiat currency that will be distributed to your heirs?Who will help your heirs through the process?
It might be helpful if you could take your take time to enlighten your relatives on what bitcoin/blockchain technology is all about, how to access crypto wallets and how to move the funds.This would help them when you’re gone because they wont have to over-rely on third parties to access their inheritance as there is a risk of being cheated in the process.
Then lastly, store backups. Store your backups in geographically-diverse, secure, access-controlled locations. I would use facilities such as bank vaults (most banks offer safer custody facilities for such matters), safes at home, and/or attorneys or accountants.

[sweetbet]

Someone should definitely be able to access them after I die, but at the moment, I don't trust anyone.

[cryptobaro]

Well I have left my private keys etc to my family, they actually do not know how to access but someone will show them I am sure. I got some friends working with this stuff who would not betray me..

However, I hope we don't die that fast 

[carter34]

Well I have left my private keys etc to my family, they actually do not know how to access but someone will show them I am sure. I got some friends working with this stuff who would not betray me..
However, I hope we don't die that fast 

No one is planning to die early. I want to say since you have taken the step to show them that means you don't have trust issue with them, then you can still go ahead to educate the more knowledgeable one among your family at least.

You can't be too sure of the people you are leaving to teach them after you die. Keeping things like that in trust with some people not your family members can also be risky.

[CherylltheBombshell]

It’s a tough question tho since i have a lot of trustees lol but its gonna be a challenge of course by the time of my death I’ve got more than billions already so the luckiest who will control my crypto fund will be one of my relatives who knew the best of me.

I’ll be staring to note down my journey, how did i  started and to the point on how to get my account in a scribbled way. I’m getting excited whil imagining this omg.

This would be some sort of journey and will make sure that the one who will control my funds is gonna be challenged first before getting my funds coz that’s how it started and should be ended by me.

[ice18]

Im sure the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto still thinking a brilliant idea how he can pass his bitcoins into his relatives without revealing his identity as the creator of Bitcoin and for me of course my wife and my son/daughter will be the one who will control my crypto funds I dont care if how they will handle it but I just want them to remember me and my hard earned crypto if ever. 

[Daniel91]

Very good question.
Right now only I have all the information.
I should teach my wife how to use my btc wallet but she don't likes cypto and she is also very skeptical about it.
I hope, I will be able to change her mind otherwise all my crypto funds will be lost when I die. 

[darkangel11]

Me and only me. Yes, I'm so selfish

I have a steel safe with some passwords inside. If someone steals them they won't know what they're for but my family should be able to figure it out especially after spending some time with my computer. If they throw it all away after my death they'll get nothing but if they treat my belongings with respect the belongings will treat them back haha 

[ILScoin]

I will try as much as possible to give it to my immediate brother, I guess you that it's a good decision,  giving it to my wife is cool but when a lady see such huge amount like that they might try to do the unthinkable to the husband

[d3nz]

This is very hard to answer since the one you can trust is your family. I might save it on my email address acount or create a file and save it on a cloud storage.  We don't have no choice but we need to tell them our funds and tell them about the cryptocurrency so they will know what it is.

We can also just give a hint and provide instruction to prevent deleting the file full of private keys.

[TIDOVEE]

It is somehow risky to tell people your password for your wallet and account but that is where a confident needs to appear, because if one dies without willing out your account to anyone then, your account will later diffuse. It becomes a waste of time , energy and resources.

[yazher]

Everything has been trusted to my friend, when I'm gone I told him to give everything to my children because they are too young to learn about the blockchain technology. I said to her sell every coins that I have and buy bitcoin with it and when they old enough give it to them in full. this is how strong between us and she made an oath that she will fulfill those promises. my friend is no other than my wife who learn about the existence of the bitcoin technology not too long ago.

[Dabs]

There might be some services out there that take care of this. As an example, one could ask a third party (like an escrow) to help forward any unclaimed coins from certain addresses after your death.

On your part, you don't want anyone to just get it, so you set up an encrypted email and activate a dead man's switch that sends that email, if you haven't logged in to that service for 3 months for example. Or maybe even 6 months. (What if you go to jail? Get stranded on some island? You are still alive but can not reset the switch; you may want a lawyer to get some money for future services not yet rendered; to help you.)

The third party would not have the private keys, or they still need some password to get it. The email that gets sent is encrypted.

Now, why would they do this? Because maybe perhaps other family members don't really know how to spend the coins, so you assign it to someone else and they take a percentage; they help exchange the coins to fiat and give that to your family.

It's the same with getting some kind of life insurance policy. You pay premiums, you trust the company will pay a death benefit to your beneficiaries if something should happen to you that is covered by the policy.

I mean, for about $30 per month, you could get coverage between $500k to $1m, depending on your current health and age. If you die, the spouse and children get $500k to $1m.

If your coins are worth the same amount (between $500k to $1m) at the current time, then wouldn't it make sense to find a way to get that value passed on to your family or offspring and pay that service $30 a month too (and they'll probably take a little more). If you had, say 100 BTC kept in cold storage, but you die much later, like another 5 to 10 years, it doesn't matter what the value is by then, it's not much to pay 1 BTC to that third party to make sure your family gets 99 BTC (less conversion and transaction fees and other bank fees.)

The alternative is you trust your own family to figure out how to get and spend the coins, or they never figure it out and your coins are lost forever. (or until someone finds the private key.)


No one wants to die, but one must plan for these kinds of things.


I've gotten a couple of people interested, but we haven't worked out the details.

[btctaipei]

Funny, strange but yet so real, right?
Many will say why not write a will, why not tell a friend etc..  
But one needs to do this,  I know we all might have our opinions,  let's share and see if we can come to a uniform and decentralized solution....

This comes down to estate planning, but your approach can be something as simple as:

dump private key BTC to cryptosteel physical wallet. spouse and childrens were given with pile of those stainless steel cold wallet and know where they were kept hidden in more than a dozen of locations to prevent search and seizure.

1)  Show them how to load that into a appliance (full node) and bitcoin core android wallet to swipe those coins with a QR code generator, and
2)  take your spouse and teenager is to food and other entertainment establishment and travel all over the world regularly
3)  bring no money or credit card with you to where you travel.
4)  Show them and make your spouse and kids to get 2 way BTC ATM to get cash in local currency, and
5)  Repeat steps 2-4 to let your spouse and kids to gain proficiency on getting cash discretely at countries all over the world.

obviously step (4) can be omitted if you have partners that you can trust and regularly referral to in foreign countries.  You also get better rate that way (instead of selling with -7.. -10%, you get to sell BTC at spot and get cash for it)

[pecson134]

Funny, strange but yet so real, right?

So if one dies, all the money will get stacked on blockchain and exchanges?

I have about 90% of my funds in crypto and was just wondering over the above?

If you tell your wife, she might kill you and enjoy it with the boyfriend lol &
Hahaha yh and you can't trust even your family....

If they don't kill you probably because they are good siblings...once they know you have much, demand will go high lol

Many will say why not write a will, why not tell a friend etc.. 

But one needs to do this,  I know we all might have our opinions,  let's share and see if we can come to a uniform and decentralized solution....

Until someone knows the key, no one can control your funds. I do think that you should disclose those information to the person who you surely trusted with so all your hard earned money would not go to waste otherwise it would be wandering for eternity.

[lesor]

Nobody.I want all my crypto funds to be donated for charity purposes after I die.
I will have to talk with a lawyer about this.

Are you pained?  You leave your family with no money instead you give to charity?  Why mate

[lesor]

Everything has been trusted to my friend, when I'm gone I told him to give everything to my children because they are too young to learn about the blockchain technology. I said to her sell every coins that I have and buy bitcoin with it and when they old enough give it to them in full. this is how strong between us and she made an oath that she will fulfill those promises. my friend is no other than my wife who learn about the existence of the bitcoin technology not too long ago.

Sorry how do you trust a friend more than your own wife?  Any reason?

[Dabs]

You're not reading it correctly. The friend is the wife. Why he wrote it that way though, can easily be mistaken or misunderstood by anyone else.

[lesor]

You're not reading it correctly. The friend is the wife. Why he wrote it that way though, can easily be mistaken or misunderstood by anyone else.

Yes agreed, he needs to be more enlightened for people like us with much wisdom to understand