Could inheriting Bitcoin from love ones be that difficult?

[o_e_l_e_o]

I think it's better to create a program or find a program online that will send an email to your love ones regarding about the seed phrase or private key for them to access your bitcoin wallet once something happened to you, like being deceased because of an accident. It's more safe doing that way rather than giving them your private key while you're alive, it's hassle to make a program like that so there's another way.

That's not safe at all.

First of all, you are depending entirely on whichever service you use to do this still functioning well in 10, 20, 50 years' time. If the service disappears in the meantime (which has a high chance of happening), then your email is never sent and your family can never access your coins. You are also depending on the recipient still using the same email address, not having their account locked, the email provider not shutting down, and so on. There are an awful lot of things that can go wrong to mean your email is never delivered.

But even more importantly than that is the security aspect. Using some third party service like this means that they can access whatever information you put in that email. You have no idea how many random strangers might be able to read your instructions about where your seed phrase is hidden, and then use that information to steal your coins. The recipient's email address when combined with the huge amounts of data collected on the average internet user is more than enough to track down an individual and their friends and family.

This methods risks both your coins being stolen and your coins being lost forever. It is not a good method to choose.

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[Welsh]

The other family members don't even need to know. If you mix all your coins before you put them in to cold storage, then no one in your family will know how much you have. You could set up a small wallet to be distributed out between various people to keep them happy, and then have the bulk of your funds locked behind a timelocked transaction which only one person knows about. When the time comes, that person can claim the bulk of your stash without anyone else being any the wiser.

What I mean by that, is certain countries depending on where you live have certain laws to do with inheritance, which would still come under play with Bitcoin. Usually, a will or if a will hasn't been written up, next to kin which is usually the partner gets to decide how to distribute everything. I imagine, even if you did it this way, you'd still need a little legal help to make sure no one challenges it. That's my thoughts, although I have to admit I haven't gone through an inheritance, I just know it can become a sticky situation from friends that have gone through the process.

I don't think inheritance in Bitcoin avoids those legal issues.

[noormcs5]

The other family members don't even need to know. If you mix all your coins before you put them in to cold storage, then no one in your family will know how much you have. You could set up a small wallet to be distributed out between various people to keep them happy, and then have the bulk of your funds locked behind a timelocked transaction which only one person knows about. When the time comes, that person can claim the bulk of your stash without anyone else being any the wiser.

What I mean by that, is certain countries depending on where you live have certain laws to do with inheritance, which would still come under play with Bitcoin. Usually, a will or if a will hasn't been written up, next to kin which is usually the partner gets to decide how to distribute everything. I imagine, even if you did it this way, you'd still need a little legal help to make sure no one challenges it. That's my thoughts, although I have to admit I haven't gone through an inheritance, I just know it can become a sticky situation from friends that have gone through the process.

I don't think inheritance in Bitcoin avoids those legal issues.

There are two things that need to be taken care of before the inheritance of bitcoin may be properly implemented.

1- Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies need to be legal in the country. If the crypto is not legal in your country, how can anyone write a will and get it signed by the authorities containing illegal items.

2- The person who is dead needs to disclose his private key to someone while he is alive. It maybe his wife or anyone very near. Also, if he discloses the private key, there are chances of being misuse of his funds.

[decodx]

Most mobile wallets now a days are providing an alternative, which generally helps you to decide who you want to give your wallet to when you die? It might be your family members or your friends does not matter and you have to fill their information correctly and after that just let them know about the wallet company they need to approach in these circumstances.

I don't even know which mobile wallets you're talking about, let alone, as you say, most of them. In any case, what you are describing are not even crypto wallets in the true sense of the word, but some kind of custodial services, like banks. In my opinion, the only way something like this could be possible with a crypto wallet is with a multisig wallet.

Other than that I do think it is important to understand that you can also use legal help in this matter, these things would be able to help you legally transfer your paper wallet or your USB after your death and you don't have to tell any of the body involved about it, which is honestly good but then again you cannot expect people to know how to use it and how it would function, for example: if I die, I would rather put someone I trust incharge so that they can encash the smallest amount I might have there and send it to my family since no one actually knows how to use it and therefore for them it would be a futile attempt.

In this case, it would be best to prepare detailed instructions that you will store with your paper wallet that will be inherited by someone from your family in case of your death.

[mv1986]

I think it's better to create a program or find a program online that will send an email to your love ones regarding about the seed phrase or private key for them to access your bitcoin wallet once something happened to you, like being deceased because of an accident. It's more safe doing that way rather than giving them your private key while you're alive, it's hassle to make a program like that so there's another way.

That's not safe at all.

First of all, you are depending entirely on whichever service you use to do this still functioning well in 10, 20, 50 years' time. If the service disappears in the meantime (which has a high chance of happening), then your email is never sent and your family can never access your coins. You are also depending on the recipient still using the same email address, not having their account locked, the email provider not shutting down, and so on. There are an awful lot of things that can go wrong to mean your email is never delivered.

But even more importantly than that is the security aspect. Using some third party service like this means that they can access whatever information you put in that email. You have no idea how many random strangers might be able to read your instructions about where your seed phrase is hidden, and then use that information to steal your coins. The recipient's email address when combined with the huge amounts of data collected on the average internet user is more than enough to track down an individual and their friends and family.

This methods risks both your coins being stolen and your coins being lost forever. It is not a good method to choose.

There has been a blockchain startup called Digipulse years ago. They failed (of course, as 99% failed) due to bad cash management and they couldn't ultimately pull off the proposed technological development. What they proposed though was a blockchain based solution that frequently pulls information from various sources in regards to a user's activity level. Example: you set a time interval, say every three months, and if your Facebook account has been dead for that long, the vault opens up and triggers a message in whatever form to someone. I get the general idea behind that, but I wonder how the oracle problem can be solved for various methods (Facebook, Email, Telegram, Mobile, etc.) and how many attack vectors there still might remain.
I guess the problem can't be fully solved. Maybe in the distant future. There are so many variables. What if you choose your wife to be the receiving party and she dies along with you in a car crash?

So all these requirements in regards to predefined parameters to be ending up in a bullet-proof solution just seem to be incredibly complicated.

There is also the problem that the right of inheritance goes far beyond than just the closest loved ones in certain cases. Maybe you don't even want the cousin of a cousin to know you own 10,000 BTC at this point Making sure that that party would reliably receive the keys is probably impossible to be solved without the involved of centralized parties?

It is certainly a hard nut to crack. So I guess it will have to do with the CLTV function in some way, which is also not bad as a potential security backup besides cases of death.

And as you pointed out, time is a huge factor here, although I think that a good solution should also allow for frequent and easy updates to the selected release parameters. If I am not mistaken, the oracle function will always remain of the real issues that need to be resolved.

[Mauser]

In my opinion there are three ways to setup our inheritance for our family. The first one is to do nothing, then the law says who in our family will get our money and other belongings. It's on them to check our documents and hopefully find the keys to our crypto wallets. In such a case it would be advisable to atleast talk with them before and let them know. If our wealth I considerable then we should definitely engage a lawyer to take care of our affairs. In the second scenario a lawyer would make sure the right people get our crypto money and have all the necessary keys. The third option is much cheaper and still has security, we could rent a bank deposit box and collect all the important information in one place. Like that our family will find all the documents and nothing is lost.

[mv1986]

In my opinion there are three ways to setup our inheritance for our family. The first one is to do nothing, then the law says who in our family will get our money and other belongings. It's on them to check our documents and hopefully find the keys to our crypto wallets. In such a case it would be advisable to atleast talk with them before and let them know. If our wealth I considerable then we should definitely engage a lawyer to take care of our affairs. In the second scenario a lawyer would make sure the right people get our crypto money and have all the necessary keys. The third option is much cheaper and still has security, we could rent a bank deposit box and collect all the important information in one place. Like that our family will find all the documents and nothing is lost.

I would probably not trust a single lawyer to take care of any considerable crypto wealth in the form of handing him or her out the private key. I'd say you should almost always go for a sort of multi-sig solution, whatever that may look like. You need to have at least one backup that exercises some kind of oversight or control function.

Don't know, maybe cut the private key in half and put it into a locker at well-established banks. The lockers can only be accessed by yourself or by someone who is entitled to by law, either because you died or because you authorized someone. As I said before, every solution comes with some pitfalls that are difficult to be accounedt for.

[o_e_l_e_o]

What they proposed though was a blockchain based solution that frequently pulls information from various sources in regards to a user's activity level. Example: you set a time interval, say every three months, and if your Facebook account has been dead for that long, the vault opens up and triggers a message in whatever form to someone.

This doesn't sound any better than the idea I was replying to above. Rather than just linking an email address, I now have to link my real life identity and my various social media accounts to my bitcoin holdings, opening me up for targeted hacks and $5 wrench attacks. It's a total nightmare for my privacy, and if Facebook decide to lock my account or something then the whole system falls apart and puts my coins at risk.

Maybe you don't even want the cousin of a cousin to know you own 10,000 BTC at this point Making sure that that party would reliably receive the keys is probably impossible to be solved without the involved of centralized parties?

Create a timelocked transaction, lock it in a safe in your house, and they can access the safe after you die. Trustless and reveals nothing about how many coins you own until after your death.

[Hamphser]

The other family members don't even need to know. If you mix all your coins before you put them in to cold storage, then no one in your family will know how much you have. You could set up a small wallet to be distributed out between various people to keep them happy, and then have the bulk of your funds locked behind a timelocked transaction which only one person knows about. When the time comes, that person can claim the bulk of your stash without anyone else being any the wiser.

What I mean by that, is certain countries depending on where you live have certain laws to do with inheritance, which would still come under play with Bitcoin. Usually, a will or if a will hasn't been written up, next to kin which is usually the partner gets to decide how to distribute everything. I imagine, even if you did it this way, you'd still need a little legal help to make sure no one challenges it. That's my thoughts, although I have to admit I haven't gone through an inheritance, I just know it can become a sticky situation from friends that have gone through the process.

I don't think inheritance in Bitcoin avoids those legal issues.

There are two things that need to be taken care of before the inheritance of bitcoin may be properly implemented.

1- Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies need to be legal in the country. If the crypto is not legal in your country, how can anyone write a will and get it signed by the authorities containing illegal items.

2- The person who is dead needs to disclose his private key to someone while he is alive. It maybe his wife or anyone very near. Also, if he discloses the private key, there are chances of being misuse of his funds.

1. This is the hard part but if you are living on a country which does have neutral views about cryptocurrencies then you could really still made out such decision but of course you cant be
sure on having 100% security your funds while its enclosed those pk's are.

2. This is also the big hindrance whenever you do tend to share up your keys on your loved ones which they could really be having the access anytime once that they had
get a hold of it which it would really put you into hesitation because it could really be used in no time.

[sklopan]

To be honest, you can expect a lot from bitcoin now. So, I would not hope for a simple solution to the issue.

[Ale88]

I agree with you, the only way is to completely trust someone, either your wife/husband or kid/s. It's something that must be done little by little, at the end it's not that difficult to access a wallet and move funds but explaining the whole process to someone completely new, well, it's a lot of information, especially because it takes you just one small mistake and you can lose everything.

Wives and children are people we should be able to trust about money. They are the inheritors of all the treasures we will leave behind so it would be fine for me to tell or teach them a bit more about using wallets and making transactions. It makes absolutely no sense to me not to trust them now and in the future about the money or wealth I have even though I haven't fully told them how to actually access the wallet.

I am very positive about my wife and children, they are people I love and care about and whatever we have now is for their sake. So, it is very natural to believe it about any money or assets we have today.

Of course I'm not implying not to trust our family members, I'm just saying that whoever has a certain amount of bitcoins should be 100% sure to trust his family. Maybe it's a little sad to say, but there are so many cases where someone got screwed from his own family because of money, so if maybe you've been married for 6 months it's better to wait a little to see if everything works out well. I have friends who divorced after less than 1 year, so...

[Reatim]

To be honest, you can expect a lot from bitcoin now. So, I would not hope for a simple solution to the issue.

Well the question stands about the difficulties of inheriting bitcoin things that i believe is not as long as the user knows the basic and understand the behavior of one he is inheriting ,because with those combination then surely he can leave the funds in rightful person and he can pass everytime it may given without any regrets from his investments .

[amihada]

Bitcoin can be an inheritance for your children and wife as long as you keep it in a secure wallet and key and tell the key to your wife and children, then bitcoin can be enjoyed by your child and wife.