When Bitcoin Must Be Inherited

[pooya87]

I think this is a very good idea, and I hope that someday there will be a crypto exchange and a crypto wallet that provides inherited features, so users will be safe and comfortable.

bitcoin was created so that everyone stores and handles their own money without needing anybody else, least of which a crypto exchange that is considered the shadiest and riskiest services around these parts. that means the individual is in full control and has to think about passing on their secrets themselves just like they should think about their own security.
i don't see the need for centralized service here, specially when inheritance is just as easy as writing your keys down in your will.

[NeuroticFish]

Something like a... bank?

Indeed, some need a centralized something to keep their coins, promise they'll refund in case of troubles, handle inheritance and so on.
From the beginning of civilization there always were many people that need to believe in something so they can sleep better.

But the banks are good option. But not to hold the coins, no. One can rent a deposit box in a bank and store the seed and instructions for the family. Afaik safe deposit box can be opened either by the owner, either by the family, but in the second case the family has to provide death certificate. So yes, banks (their deposit boxes) can be a valid option.

You can just write your seed phrase in your testament, why not?

Because we don't want to give presents to the lawyers which may be handling the testament.

[Daniterse]

Bitcoin is asset and it is must be inherite like many other assets. But the matter is because Bitcoin is not regulated in many countries people do not inform that they have Bitcoin and relatives do not know about this. These bitcoins are lost.

[maydna]

I don't get it why they have to worry about their asset while they can delegate to someone they trust to access their private wallet. If they still worry, perhaps, they need to learn more about how to delegate or teach someone that they trust, so there will be no problem in the future. We don't have that app because we can tell other people that we have bitcoin, and if something bad happens to us, they can still continue from what we did, and they can use that bitcoin for their life. If you have an investment, you will have a plan for what you want to do with your investment, and if you use your investment for your family, you must tell them about the investment. You need to explain how they can use the investment, so what you did now is not useless.

[Nhor1011]

Why need to worry about your crypto asset or bitcoin to be inherited? If their is one or more people in your family who also know about crypto,i think it's not the problem to recover your crypto wealth if ever your gone. Bitcoin is a decentralize digital currency and i think it's not good idea to have a third party to save your password and private key.

[palle11]

Also, take note that even highly secured platforms are getting hacked. You don't want all your credentials and even all your crypto assets to be kept in a platform susceptible to hacking.

The point there is nobody can say the exchange that can be hacked or not. The best thing to do is to keep your coin in your private wallet that the phrase are secured with you. Further on it to be sure that if you are no more, someone can carry on with your coin assets is to disclose to a third party. Third party is risky but we can not avoid it. A close relative that is trusted can or trusted child.

[Darker45]

Something like a... bank?

Indeed, some need a centralized something to keep their coins, promise they'll refund in case of troubles, handle inheritance and so on.
From the beginning of civilization there always were many people that need to believe in something so they can sleep better.

But the banks are good option. But not to hold the coins, no. One can rent a deposit box in a bank and store the seed and instructions for the family. Afaik safe deposit box can be opened either by the owner, either by the family, but in the second case the family has to provide death certificate. So yes, banks (their deposit boxes) can be a valid option.

A bank deposit box is, quite frankly, a good idea although it sounds a little bit awkward considering that Bitcoin is trying to empower every single individual to be his/her own bank. But why not? Admittedly, humans are poor safe-keepers. Until and unless they learn to grow responsible over their private keys, seeds, PINs, or even their funds themselves, a bank sounds a nice option.

[20kevin20]

While I initially had just paper wallets and a seed in one of my notebooks, the more I tried to follow better and stronger security, the less the chances are that my relatives would ever be able to recover my coins for I die.

This is probably one of the biggest flaws yet most amazing things Bitcoin has: you can literally have all your money inside your brain. If I had to make some very well hidden and encrypted wallets and store all my funds there, what are the chances my relatives would find my wallets and know where to get my passwords from?

The idea of making some "inheritance" feature is not going to work though. Not with Bitcoin - what's yours shall stay yours.

A bank deposit box is, quite frankly, a good idea although it sounds a little bit awkward considering that Bitcoin is trying to empower every single individual to be his/her own bank. But why not? Admittedly, humans are poor safe-keepers. Until and unless they learn to grow responsible over their private keys, seeds, PINs, or even their funds themselves, a bank sounds a nice option.

I find it silly that people pay other entities to store their values. Poor safe-keeping comes mostly from laziness as most people do not research properly.

Storing your Bitcoins in a bank safe makes no sense imo. You have a coin that is decentralized and are adding a third party into the game. Why live with the constant stress of having your money stolen/seized when you could simply store it properly somewhere?

Do you trust the bank more than you trust yourself? Because I'd be constantly terrorized by the thoughts that some authority may find my seed out and consider the fact that I own Bitcoin a suspicious thing, or the idea that the people working at the safe may not be the best willing ones.

[Negotiation]

In the case of Bitcoin inheritance it will depend on the person in whose absence he will teach everything the only person who will inherit Bitcoin This will make it much easier to save his cryptocurrency. Most people teach their family everything. Banks are good at saving money but investing in crypto is the safest way to keep Bitcoin safe.

[Shasha80]

I think it's a bad idea to provide inherited features in exchanges or wallets, it will add a new problem. And also surely we feel uncomfortable,
because other parties come to know our private key. Regarding the inheritance of Bitcoin, we don't need help from other parties, we just
need to make guidance for the closest person. How to do it in accordance with the way each person, which is considered effective.

[Lucius]

A bank deposit box is, quite frankly, a good idea although it sounds a little bit awkward considering that Bitcoin is trying to empower every single individual to be his/her own bank.

First of all, the bank deposit box is not something free (at least not as far as I know), and it is subject to theft at any time, and like you said it seems a bit strange to keep BTC in the bank, personally I would not choose such an option. There are a lot of options to make sure that after death the funds get into the right hands, and it all depends on how much we trust someone.

Many divide their seed into several parts and divide it into family members, but there is one weak point - any family member can lose this information at any time, or can die at the same or about the same time as the owner which makes the rest of the seed almost worthless. The question remains how to balance between the security of a will, and a safe way for someone not to abuse it during our lifetime.

Maybe this idea will help someone -> Using Locktime for inheritance planning, backups or gifts

[Twentyonepaylots]

It came to my mind after I imagine myself getting a lot of bitcoin, just even 1.0 BTC I had planned it where I would place it when I'm old but I never actually thought that I would inherit it to my heirs.

I don't think getting it done with 3rd party services is good, I don't feel like I'm using it if ever 

What's best that I can think of is written instruction personally made by me so my heirs would really understand, I'll keep it in a safe, I'll make the easier password combination as possible for them to know and that's it.

There's no way my kids will not know bitcoin or crypto, coz I'm their dad.

[kawetsriyanto]

Isn't that supposed to be the choice of every Bitcoin holder?
We really don't know when we will die. However, if we want to inherit our Bitcoin, we certainly don't just inherit it. But you also have to prepare them so that the BTC that you inherit will not be easily discharged and can also be utilized better. Will this relate to the education of BTC and cryptocurrency early? Maybe yes.

[kryptqnick]

Over the past decade, the number of Bitcoin investors and other types of crypto assets has grown tremendously. Based on data by Coinmetrics, there are currently around 12 million Bitcoin millionaires in the world. However, there are those who die every year, without heirs who can access Bitcoin. The amount reaches 4 million Bitcoin (around US $ 40 billion), according to Coincover.
Meanwhile, based on the results of a survey by the Cremation Institute, of 1,150 respondents, 89 percent of them are very worried about losing their crypt assets. However, only 23 percent have a specific plan to pass it on to the closest person, for example to their husband, wife or children.
I think this is a very good idea, and I hope that someday there will be a crypto exchange and a crypto wallet that provides inherited features, so users will be safe and comfortable.

Similar topics have been discussed before. The pandemic made thinking about sudden death quite realistic, so people have been wondering about BTC inheritance lately. I think there are at least a few different approaches one can take to the inheritance issue:
1. Use code to ensure that some cryptos can only be accessed in the future (something LoyceV created a discussion about).
2. Use a third party that will have access to your cryptos and supposedly pass them on to your heirs when the time comes. This comes with certain risks and centralization, but this is what's been suggested in China if I understood it right: https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-citizens-are-now-able-to-inherit-cryptocurrency.
3. Make your own arrangements. You know your loved once very well, so you can probably figure out a way to give them access to your coins that would be most appropriate given the nature of the relationship and their character. For example, my spouse and I know all passwords and other such info of each other, including private key, and all our money is common money to us. But I get it that many people have different financial arrangements.

[ReiMomo]

I don't know how this will work if the third party exchange seems not to be trusted.

I think there's no need a service like OP said, I guess, there's a possible bad consequence may happen something hacking or leaking to your private key which possible becomes wipeout your all crypto asset.

Just manually store in your home, a vault box or something places that safe and put a guide to someone who will inherit that easy for them to understand and how to use. It's very crucial if there is a third party involved, we don't know if they are the ones who will hack you.

[Alobo Realer]

Bitcoin and other crypto currencies have become an asset to the holders, a project possession where you chose what to be done with it. In as much as it is a property one can tell his/her next of kin how to get access to the properties on their demise. But making an app as to able the transfer of these coins is already a step into involving a third party, hence, centralized. More risk is said to have set in.
In my opinion these app ain't really needed, if you want to make sure your coins are inherited after your demise you can go ahead and tell your secret keys to those you'd wish have them when you are gone.

[ChiBitCTy]

This is something that comes up from time to time around here.  What you need to do, and not just for crypotcurrency but for all of your assets combined, is to establish a proper Will.  There is quite a bit of helpful info in this thread I created a while back- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5133913.msg50682170#msg50682170

[Kayj55]

This has also been bothering me, I will really like to know how bitcoin can be passed to a next of kin. Maybe the owners should always write down their wallet seeds and phrases and acquaint their next of kins with it.

[pixie85]

This isn't a popular option with wallet and their users because every feature that would allow members of your family to access your money could also potentially compromise the safety of your wallet.

It's all easy and clear when only you have access and there's only 1 person with private keys. Adding someone lese to the mix that would have to prove that you're dead to access the money would allow hackers to forge death certificates or social engineer their way into the wallet. Leaving your keys for your family to access could also make a burglar get his hands on them.

[Axelseseclevz]

Crypto exchange will fix the inheritance for their customers? that's not a good idea imo.

You can set this on your own and just like what you have said on that report, there are people who have already planned it well. It's a matter of talk and discussion to your closest relative how you can give bitcoin to them as your last will.

I agree with you. A person can make his own way on how to bequeath his/her bitcoin without any thirf party involve because it is not a goof idea that you can share your private key and password to others or let's say having a crypto bank and give them all the necessary details about your acount or wallet. It will lead for your fund to lose because someone can access your wallet anytime. Not a good idea.