What happens to my bitcoin if I die today?

[hridoyb]

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency coin and it stored a wallet . Anyone cannot access a bitcoin wallet without a private key so if you give a private key someone then access your wallet. Bitcoin is a crypto coin, not a bank that your nominee can withdraw money when you die.If you want more information read this article hope it will help https://medium.com/shiftcrypto/prepare-your-bitcoins-for-your-heirs-dfc537811df2

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[Debonaire217]

It's simple, the bitcoins are gone, but it doesn't mean that no one will benefit from this if the love ones didn't benefit, it will benefit the entirety of the holders of bitcoin as it will serve as a burned cryptocurrency that will lower the circulating supply. In basic economics, low supply with high demand will result to a huge market price.

But I don't really advise this to happen to every one of us here on crypto space, perhaps, we should keep our backup phrases with instruction or passwords so incase, they could reach our friends who know crypto to help them out to retrieve some of our funds.

[LogitechMouse]

You have 2 choices. Either:
1. Just keep your Bitcoins until you die.
2. Make it like a life insurance that you will give it to your children or anybody in your family that will benefit the most with it.

I know that the 2nd choice is the better choice. That will apply to those Bitcoin holders who is suffering an illness. They still have time to share the private keys or at least share anything that will give access to them. This will only apply if there is somebody in your family that at least know the basics of it like gaining access to it, selling, transferring etc.

Not all the time the 2nd one is the case though. There are some Bitcoin holders who will keep their Bitcoins forever because they've died of accidents and unfortunately, they didn't tell to anybody that they are holding Bitcoins. If you die today, it depends on the 2 situations that I said above. You shared access to your family before you die then Bitcoins will still be there and will be able to sell but if you didn't tell to anybody or you died because of an accident then Bitcoins will be gone although I believe that people will create a way to regain that Bitcoins in the future (I hope so).

[ttcsalam]

I think the computer should have a file.And there needs to be everything saved and I think you should share everything with your close people Since there are no nominees like Bank here, I think it can be done. So that they can cash in later.

[mich]

This is a scary question but still one we all must consider if we are in possession of valuable coins.   

In my opinion you should provide someone who you trust with your keys to all your crypto wallets.

If this is not a option for you then maybe a safety deposit box cause when you die dont let the coins go to waste.

This is different ehn if it was fiat which can be traced but hopefully your coins are stored away and safe for when you pass.

[btc78]

make sure that there is someone that you let know of all your account details that holds your crypto asset because this will al gone if you don't make a secure accounts.
There are some topics talks about this and it is always being advice to At least let your love ones have idea in how crypto works and how would they claim all the asset in case there is a unexpected things happens in you in future.

I think the computer should have a file.And there needs to be everything saved and I think you should share everything with your close people Since there are no nominees like Bank here, I think it can be done. So that they can cash in later.

not in computer because there are so many issues of hacking by people around them when they are putting crypto coins in their computer.
i think better list in paper and hide in place only people you trust more knows.

[shamimal93]

Yes it is true that your bitcoin will be lost forever if you die.  But I have a solution.  That is, you can write down the private key of your Bitcoin wallet on a piece of paper and leave it in a secure place.  And you can inform your close relatives about that place.  So that if you have anything, your wife's children can easily get bitcoin with your private key.

[GDragon]

If you do nothing at all, your funds will never move after you die. In reality, you're actually taking those unspent outputs out of circulation forever, so you'll be responsible for a tiny increase in bitcoin price... Less supply + equal demand should increase the price

In my case: I have one daughter. She knows where to find my hardware wallets, she knows the pincode and i've taught her the basics. After I die, she'll be able to spend everything I held my whole life. I tried to make things as simple as possible for her: no hidden messages, no extra encryption, no ssss, just a hardware wallet and the proper gui... Making her jump over hurdles will only decrease the odds she'll actually be able to spend my funds, and i'd rather have her rob me wile i'm still alive than increase the odds she won't be able to spend my holdings after i die.

Same thing if you forgot your password too, there are a lot of coins lost somewhere that will never be retrieve.

I get you, it's easier, my girlfriend knows I always use this password in any important things cause I'm careless and always forgot something important, I told her the basics of bitcoin and even though I haven't have a lot of btc in my wallet, it still has value. I gave her one time password without any hard codes and such. But I do have paper wallets too for my other family members. They knew I'm into bitcoin and my brother knew how it works even though he doesn't own btc.

[desticy]

Yes, your bitcoins will be forever left in your wallet if you die today. Maybe you will give your child a private key to pass your bitcoins on to your child. So, if you are dead, your child will inherit your bitcoin and will not be buried in your wallet forever.

In the event of your death, your bitcoins will remain in your wallet. If you did not give your private key to anyone, then your bitcoins will be forever lost, which means they will serve only one good purpose - to increase the bitcoin deficit. This means, probably, this will lead to an increase in the price of bitcoin due to a decrease in their total number.

[DarkDays]

Here is my question what happens to the bitcoin of someone who died and didn’t disclose his/her wallet details to anyone? please I need response . Would the bitcoin be abandoned in the wallet forever?? Would it be a waste of bitcoin?

The general dogma would be that the money is gone. However, there are ways around it which might lead to unlocking the money. The options available depends on how closely related the deceased person was to the person trying to access as it might be that the person had a safe and possible the recovery key might be there. Another way is to get a hacker to see if it can unlock and crack the key.

[Baskeyairdrop]

This is fun question and many people do ask it when they first time get struck with it!

Well lots of research has already been done on this and according one of the article there are around 4 million bitcoins which are already lost in the time. Nobody knows if they will ever become available for use. They are in the circulation but not used since they are locked out somewhere on the hard-disk, or the biggest holder like Mr. Satoshi has most of it and it's still ambiguous if we will get it or not.

Actual Lost Bitcoins in the Time.

Lost Bitcoin
1.1 million BTC owned by Satoshi.
7.500 BTC lost by a thrown away harddisk.
1.000 BTC lost by the death of the QuadrigaCX CEO.
533 BTC lost by a Reddit user.
2.100+ BTC are sent to this burn address.

This is ridiculously huge amount of money that's stuck.

Surely your will be locked out into this pool as well. 

I like how you sighted examples of people who lost their btc and how much of it they lost.
The wise thing to do is trust someone with your details so your Bitcoin doesn't go to waste when you are dead. If not, it would be stuck in that wallet for life.

[milani]

Bitcoin as a Decentralized Cryptocurrency has no physical structure just like the bank. It’s basically stored in a digital wallet/account being operated from a mobile device and its security embedded there also. In creating Defi wallet or block chain account no available section for next of kin or third party details Its always advised to keep Recovery Phrase details secret  in save location, these will help in recovering the wallet.

Literally bitcoin details remain secret and personal to me. If I continue to keep my details secret of what use would it be to me when I’m no more and my love ones can’t benefit from my bitcoin? Here is my question what happens to the bitcoin of someone who died and didn’t disclose his/her wallet details to anyone? please I need response . Would the bitcoin be abandoned in the wallet forever?? Would it be a waste of bitcoin?

It is a pity, but there is a great risk, that your Bitcoins will die also, in case you will not present or give your keys to the wallet may be somehow via making a will. But even in such case you should think over where your keys should be kept till that sad moment. In order to exclude the risk of  information leak. And of course your children should be ready and instructed how to use the wallet and Bitcoins on it.

[oktana]

I've always thought or this and, the reality is that the Bitcoin may not be reacheable. The only idea I have is leaving clues for them to be able to discover it. If it's a mnemonic phrase, you can teach them about cryptocurrency, maybe tell them 6 out of the 12 words and the other 6 words can be hidden. Maybe it should be given to them in case you pass away.

[chrisvl]

If you do nothing at all, your funds will never move after you die. In reality, you're actually taking those unspent outputs out of circulation forever, so you'll be responsible for a tiny increase in bitcoin price... Less supply + equal demand should increase the price

In my case: I have one daughter. She knows where to find my hardware wallets, she knows the pincode and i've taught her the basics. After I die, she'll be able to spend everything I held my whole life. I tried to make things as simple as possible for her: no hidden messages, no extra encryption, no ssss, just a hardware wallet and the proper gui... Making her jump over hurdles will only decrease the odds she'll actually be able to spend my funds, and i'd rather have her rob me wile i'm still alive than increase the odds she won't be able to spend my holdings after i die.

Correct, Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone. SN.

[Oilacris]

I've always thought or this and, the reality is that the Bitcoin may not be reacheable. The only idea I have is leaving clues for them to be able to discover it. If it's a mnemonic phrase, you can teach them about cryptocurrency, maybe tell them 6 out of the 12 words and the other 6 words can be hidden. Maybe it should be given to them in case you pass away.

Then where you do store the other 6 phrase? to a lawyer? its possible but be sure that your loved ones do know on how to access a wallet or simply teach them about even on the basics
so that even you do pass away,you'll sure that those coins will be recovered.

Ive been thinking on doing such stuff because we dont know on what would happen to us even where sleeping where we can possibly die.

If we dont matter much of this possibility then it would really be such a waste on losing all of your coins and cant really be benefited out by your loved ones.

[Crptomagma]

It’s all good as everyone is saying one thing with one voice. I really appreciate the contributions from these community and know I know better as regards to bitcoin and it’s wallet security. I’m a hard working man and it’s won’t be fair if my family or loved once don’t benefit from all my efforts when I’m no more so with these new knowledge I intend putting my brother through bitcoin and trying to make him have interest in bitcoin. Educating him about blockchain so he can can find the technology user friendly. I trust him so telling him my wallet details won’t be a big deal after all. Thank you everyone once more for all your positive contributions

[gbrendeh]

This is an interesting read and I will be glad to see a solution in the future that will act as a Will. For example, If I have 10BTC to be divided by 3 children incase of my demise, I could have loved a solution that will permit me to assign keypharse. If any of my children enter the keyphrase associated with my BTC address, they will unlock a certain portion of my entire holding based on my settings. This keypharse will only work if I do not access my BTC wallet for a certain period of time, let say for a year, which means they have to wait for that period to get their inheritance. Whatever makes me stay that long not accessing my capital means I am no longer a living soul.

[yohananaomi]

Yes it is true that your bitcoin will be lost forever if you die.  But I have a solution.  That is, you can write down the private key of your Bitcoin wallet on a piece of paper and leave it in a secure place.  And you can inform your close relatives about that place.  So that if you have anything, your wife's children can easily get bitcoin with your private key.

all of course do not expect to experience events that match your story. of course if you have siblings, at least provide information. at least it provides an understanding of crypto, if something happens it can be run and not disappear without a trace. because obviously this is a fairly unique investment, you have to know how because if you don't understand it, you can be sure it will happen as you say. there are many ways that can be done because now technology has also advanced.

[oktana]

I've always thought or this and, the reality is that the Bitcoin may not be reacheable. The only idea I have is leaving clues for them to be able to discover it. If it's a mnemonic phrase, you can teach them about cryptocurrency, maybe tell them 6 out of the 12 words and the other 6 words can be hidden. Maybe it should be given to them in case you pass away.

Then where you do store the other 6 phrase? to a lawyer? its possible but be sure that your loved ones do know on how to access a wallet or simply teach them about even on the basics
so that even you do pass away,you'll sure that those coins will be recovered.

Ive been thinking on doing such stuff because we dont know on what would happen to us even where sleeping where we can possibly die.

If we dont matter much of this possibility then it would really be such a waste on losing all of your coins and cant really be benefited out by your loved ones.

So I thought about the other 6 words and, if a lawyer will be involved, then it's kinda better if your kids know 10 words out of 12(in order) and you can leave the other two to the lawyer(so he'll see the 2 words as a basic thing), instructing him/her to tell your kids the two words only when you're gone. Like I said earlier, you kids should know well about crypto but then, do not tell them what the 10 words are for. Just teach them. If you trained them smart enough, when the lawyer tells them the two remaining words, they'll know what to do with it.

[Maestro75]

If you die without telling anyone your password to your wallet or giving a will and how to recover your bitcoin, your bitcoin will die with you once you are dead. A lot of people have died this way and have left bitcoin in their wallets that can not be claimed. It is good to find ways of making sure someone dear or next of kin finds the secret phrase or Private key. Otherwise the coin will end up lost forever. Death makes no announcements before it happens but it must definitely come for everyone as time progress.