HOW DO WE TRANSFER BITCOIN WEALTH TO HEIRS AND THE NEXT GENERATION

[Ayers]

snip

I read that mate and don't get me wrong because I've also done that option before but when there are some conditions that I said in my writing before this I prefer to avoid that because at the end of the day it's just going to be your backup about the seed that you wrote in the notes right?
I'd rather go for the traditional option of backing up my notes than storing them on a flashdrive but what you're saying isn't wrong either because you're doing a good thing by looking for multiple options with your backups.
At the end of the day it's just about going back to your own choices.

Thank you for your suggestions, I will re-evaluate my storage method carefully. I like everyone here, am trying to find the best solution to ensure the safety of my bitcoins. Therefore, I am willing to listen to everyone's opinions to find the best method.
USB storage is my new go-to in recent years, and with the traditional option for backing up my notes, I did that before learning about bitcoin, and it actually still works pretty well, as you said. It cannot be denied that this is still the method being used by many people.

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[Samlucky O]

I keep my coins on Ownr wallet and my partner knows all. And I have speciall things for passwords and so on

Someone asked, "What's the point of getting married to her if you don't trust her? Let's put trust aside. What we are talking about here is finance, and not just any kind of money; this is digital, where there is no name attached to a receiver's wallet unless the person makes it otherwise. So I would not advise you to share your entire wallet access with your wife (that's your decision, by the way, and I respect it), especially when you are still accumulating.

Instead, you can send a few of the coins or half of them to the wallet, where she can have control over them in an emergency. This is to avoid some kind of complications coming afterward in the family in cases of missing funds. If anything happens to the wallet out of the carelessness of either of you, you being the husband, who will you suspect first of moving the funds in the wallet? If we are to be realistic here, anyone who has access to our wallet that we are aware of becomes our number one suspect in cases of missing funds, no matter what relationships or connections we have with the person, unless the case is proven otherwise and the person in question is cleared of any guilt. So I will advise you to add a little security to the sharing of wallet access with your wife, as there are other better ways of doing it.

You present quite a bit of a dilemma Nwada001 because there can be a lot of variance in regards to the extent that couples might agree to having separate funds. or maybe the separate funds are known.. so there could be separate funds and joint funds, but then again, secrets can always be kept in regards to funds, so it could be a matter of degree how much secret is allowed (or even ends up happening) within any relationships.. whether spoken agreement or unspoken agreement... or if they are just lazy in respect to private matters of the other.

One possible way of dealing with a situation in which the partner wants to keep secrets, but also to share might be to have several different secret phrases on a Trezor, and the spouse may already be used to using the trezor and the secret phrases and also know the seed words for the back up, but that she might not realize that the secretive spouse has another wallet that can be accessed through the Trezor and then the secret spouse would pass that down upon his/her death by somehow making sure that the secret password is communicated after death, and that could even be in a sealed envelop in a lawyers office, but he lawyer would not be able to access the wallet without the seed or even known other aspects of the wallet.. so the information in the envelop might even say that this is ONLY intended for my wife after my death and the lawyer would not even be permitted to open it... but another aspect would be if the wife died simultaneously or before the instructions were corrected, then there should be a back up plan of some other heirs or otherwise maybe no one ends up being able to get access to those funds.

👉This very topic is serious and I will suggest that, there should be diversification so that bitcoins will not be the only way out in case this leads to family conflict or lost of bitcoins.

If we are talking about ways to pass down our bitcoin, that does not even come close to any kind of presumption that bitcoin is the ONLY assets that anyone has that is worthy of passing down.

We could be talking about $100 worth of bitcoin $1million or some other amount, but the fact that we are focusing our discussion on bitcoin does not even come close to implying that bitcoin is the ONLY thing that we have - even if there might be some discussions/mentions regarding how bitcoin (as an asset class) differs from more traditional asset classes that likely have more of a physical component.. but even bitcoin might not be the ONLY kind of digital asset that someone holds that are of value, and not even necessarily referring to shitcoins
able or recoverable in terms of their likely moving it to new keys if they are able to breach the earlier keys.

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Yes that's quite interesting and you've said it all. Bitcoin must not necessarily be the only digital asset that should be passed down. Examples of other digital asset that could be passed down are:
1) digital books
2) videos
3) music
4) photos
5) Email account

There are many of Dem but let us discuss on this few.
Digital Book: some digital books might be the type which passes information to the younger generation. Educative books to enlighten the younger generation the impending danger ahead and how to scale through.
Videos: videos might also be another digital assets. It might be a video that will contains the total asset that one needs to know about e.g lands, houses, business all over there world. online accounts that he/she has been using to Earn money. Or a video futage of death case. Or a memorial of the past.
Music[: could also be an inherited music that was passed on as a heridity. This music could be a spiritual music or a historical music that has a very big potential to change ones mindset.
Photos: photo is the fastest medium of understanding or conveying message. Photos could be family pictures, childhood picture, marriage pictures etc. documents containing useful information as well.  
Email Account: email account is also important because it contains alot of information concerning you and can also be passed on.

[Frankolala]

I will personally teach my kids about bitcoin,if I really want them to inherit my bitcoin. Teach them about wallets and seedphrase,which are the two important things to know so that they can have access to your bitcoin when you have passed on.

If you two kids,get two wallets for them and teach them how to import keys to their own wallet,after that you can create two extra wallets,where you will be storing bitcoin into their various wallet. Just like it is advisable not to store all your bitcoin in one wallet so that if your wallet is compromise,you won't loss all your funds. Since they have their own wallets which they have access to and can practice with it. You can draw a tattoo on their chest that contains the the seedphrase of each of their wallets,where no one can see it,only if they pull off their clothes and nobody will understand what it means. Then tell them that when you pass on the words on their tattoo should be imported on their wallets because you have a big surprise for them and tell them where bitcoin should be private,so that they can keep it a secret. Just my own crazy idea.

[goldkingcoiner]

Are you merely bitter because you already spent all of your "profits" from that?

Inquiring minds want to know.


Pray tell!!!!!  

That completely depends on how you choose to define the word "spent" in the first place. When is a thing truly spent? Is it when you have traded it in for something of equal or greater value? Perhaps it is spent regardless of the return value of the thing you traded it in for? How about if you gambled most of it away with bad trading practices? Is that considered spent?

[Macoach]

Yes that's quite interesting and you've said it all. Bitcoin must not necessarily be the only digital asset that should be passed down. Examples of other digital asset that could be passed down are,

I beieve our main focus here is bitcoin, lets priotize our focus on how bitcoin can be passed on to the next generation through inheritancee and how can we preserve the inheritance without conflict between multiple hiers. I believe we all know that there are various assets that can be inherited but we are talking on bitcoin so lets stay on track.

If your next generation doesn't know about Bitcoin then they won't understand the true value of Bitcoin so first you need to make the next generation much more experienced about Bitcoin.

I'm pleased with your response, friend. I read a post about a Bitcoin enthusiast who was feeling very sad. He had accumulated Bitcoin for 8 years, but he was worried because he had cancer and might not live much longer. He had made sure his Bitcoin would be passed on, but his biggest concern was that his son didn't know about Bitcoin, and he might accidentally ruin what he had worked for all those years. I don't want to go through a similar experience. I'm definitely going to share my Bitcoin knowledge with my future heirs, so they can become even bigger holders than me. Who knows, maybe he could become the next generation's Satoshi.

[panganib999]

Once that's settled, keep your trezor wallet/hardware wallet along with the seedphrase/passcode in a single vault. That ensures safety and security, as well as the convenience of knowing what the authentication is. After which, include these assets in your will and testament, along with the shares that your kids will receive in full explicit detail, so no one mistakes/confuses which or who's got the share of who.

Pretty good the same as what i thought. Although hardware wallets have expiry i mean they wont work after such a long time say 10 years of not/using it, its battery/screen will simply wont work anymore, same as my ledger problems. So including it on your vault will give a hint to anyone who will get it later and the seed phrases.
Or simply let your family lawyer do the work later on..

That is truly the simplest way and the easiest. However, you need to be sure that you can trust your lawyer, and it is very understandable for people to not go that way and answer. First, again, there is the issue of trust especially if it is something that has to do with hard-earned money and long-term investment. Another thing is the insurance that only your chosen heir will get that bitcoin wealth, sometimes the law can be overturned by some technicality and it can be messy to deal with.

That's the only chink in the armor of this mechanism. The fact that it banks on the trust and the integrity of the lawyer that you will be working with. But I guess if you have such stupendous amounts of bitcoin that you're worried about passing them down to your kids, you could pretty much afford a lawyer that is either loyal to you from the get-go, or someone whose loyalty can be paid. With that in mind the only thing you'll ever be worrying is wear and tear, and you're supposed to be good to go.

[Ryu_Ar1]

Yes that's quite interesting and you've said it all. Bitcoin must not necessarily be the only digital asset that should be passed down.

I understand what you mean because there are indeed a lot of things that are inherited and I understand where you are going but when looking at the initial context of the discussion we are centred on how to pass bitcoin to the next generation so as not to widen into other discussions the focus must remain there.
We all understand that there is a lot that we need to pass on to the next generation after we are gone but currently the discussion is still referring to bitcoin as the main focus so I think it will be out of line if discussing others to be discussed in this thread because the discussion becomes irrelevant to the original topic (off topic).

[pawel7777]

This thought have been bothering me for a while and I feel we can discuss it here. Many people that are building their Bitcoin portfolio are doing it to also save for the coming generation. However, how this wealth will be transferred to the heirs and the next generation and how this wealth will be preserved without being lost or causing problems still remain unclear.

The problem is real and I'm sure there are significant amounts of btc lost forever due to death. Most people don't think about it, thinking they have plenty of time, but then they die suddenly and their stash could be lost for good. Although every holder has their private keys/pass phrases stored somewhere, so technically speaking, they should still be recoverable if you know what to look for.

But if we're talking about building intergenerational wealth, this implies you already have heirs that you trust, so the simplest solution would be just to share private keys with them, or just store them in a safe deposit box like Hal Finney did.

(...)
That's my story. I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.

[jeraldskie11]

I understand for other tangible assets, a WILL can be written to be revealed when the time is right. But for Bitcoin, I don't know how this can be done as it may require revealing the secrete codes of the wallets or storage device. Is there any other way this can be done?

This is what makes Bitcoin different: the private key and passphrase. Of course, no one can open it if we don't reveal the keys before your death. It's not a good idea to transfer only Bitcoin money if you die because the majority of them, they will sell all Bitcoins located in the wallet. So, if you think you are old, I believe now is the greatest moment to teach them about Bitcoin. They may not believe you at first, but as time passes and you continue to teach them, they will develop an interest in Bitcoin. If you find someone who is suitable for Bitcoin wealth, you can transfer it to him before your death and advise him on what to do with it.

[JayJuanGee]

Are you merely bitter because you already spent all of your "profits" from that?

Inquiring minds want to know.


Pray tell!!!!!  

That completely depends on how you choose to define the word "spent" in the first place. When is a thing truly spent? Is it when you have traded it in for something of equal or greater value? Perhaps it is spent regardless of the return value of the thing you traded it in for? How about if you gambled most of it away with bad trading practices? Is that considered spent?

Yes.  Consumables are spent, but there are some kinds of products that are more durable, but they may well not hold their value very well.. so yeah some durables hold their value better than others. 

Surely, just like the lottery player can say that all the value that s/he had put into playing the lottery has some kind of value because it could have had paid off, but then there is nothing to show for it.

It is not necessarily a bad thing to spend your coins and your profits and even especially if you might have had gotten some kind of a windfall.  I am largely using my own windfall from my June 20 stroke of good luck to buy back coins, but I also have a decently higher reserve of fiat that is just available to me.. and probably I have spent some of that..

It is not always easy to identify exactly where source funds are coming from when they are put into a count or just kept in the background in case they might be needed at a later date or maybe they are just available and end up allowing for the non-spending of some other funds that would have had gotten spent if the windfall funds had not been available.

Likely, only you are in a position to really know how well you might have utilized those funds and/or would have it had been necessary to anything with them other than to consume them.. but then if you consume too much of them because you think that "trading is investing," then surely that could cause some levels of excessive bitterness.. I cannot be sure if that might be part of your situation.

.....
But if we're talking about building intergenerational wealth, this implies you already have heirs that you trust, so the simplest solution would be just to share private keys with them, or just store them in a safe deposit box like Hal Finney did.

(...)
That's my story. I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.

Even though Hal is a smart guy.  Many of us already realize that there are problems with safety boxes, and surely we do not know the details of exactly how Hal saved his keys in safety deposit boxes, but that could be one point of failure if that might have had been the ONLY place that he had his keys and/or other instructional information related to his bitcoin.

If you are going to blindly follow someone like Hal and say, well if it was good enough for Hal, then it is good enough for me, then you may or may not get lucky with that approach to your bitcoin based on a safety deposit box being potentially one point of failure.

[Litzki1990]

I understand for other tangible assets, a WILL can be written to be revealed when the time is right. But for Bitcoin, I don't know how this can be done as it may require revealing the secrete codes of the wallets or storage device. Is there any other way this can be done?

This is what makes Bitcoin different: the private key and passphrase. Of course, no one can open it if we don't reveal the keys before your death. It's not a good idea to transfer only Bitcoin money if you die because the majority of them, they will sell all Bitcoins located in the wallet. So, if you think you are old, I believe now is the greatest moment to teach them about Bitcoin. They may not believe you at first, but as time passes and you continue to teach them, they will develop an interest in Bitcoin. If you find someone who is suitable for Bitcoin wealth, you can transfer it to him before your death and advise him on what to do with it.

Why would you leave bitcoins with people who you think won't trust you? When leaving bitcoins, choose someone who will honor your trust. You may have held Bitcoin for a long time but your next generation may not have held Bitcoin for as long as you have held Bitcoin for a long time. If money is needed and your next generation doesn't have money then of course they will sell bitcoins. It is not uncommon to do so in cases of necessity. If your family is in financial trouble or in danger, of course if you are alive you would have taken that responsibility because in your absence your family has been in financial trouble so if someone in your family can save themselves from that financial trouble by selling your bitcoins then it is never bad. And no matter how much wealth we earn, that wealth is wealth but we cannot take it with us after death, so there is no point in thinking about what will happen after death, what you have done before death is the main thing. You just need to make sure that your bitcoins reach your next generation after your death.

[Dimitri94]

I understand for other tangible assets, a WILL can be written to be revealed when the time is right. But for Bitcoin, I don't know how this can be done as it may require revealing the secrete codes of the wallets or storage device. Is there any other way this can be done?

This is what makes Bitcoin different: the private key and passphrase. Of course, no one can open it if we don't reveal the keys before your death. It's not a good idea to transfer only Bitcoin money if you die because the majority of them, they will sell all Bitcoins located in the wallet. So, if you think you are old, I believe now is the greatest moment to teach them about Bitcoin. They may not believe you at first, but as time passes and you continue to teach them, they will develop an interest in Bitcoin. If you find someone who is suitable for Bitcoin wealth, you can transfer it to him before your death and advise him on what to do with it.

Yes, it seems to me that if only the passphrase or keys are given to the inheritors they will not get the bitcoins. There may even be people who don't know about Bitcoin before you die. He does not know how to protect those bitcoins or how to use them for his personal needs. Then that bitcoin might be worthless as well. Because he might make a mistake there for which he might lose that money. They must be well educated about Bitcoin before giving them a private key or passphrase.

[adzino]

The only way to do this is by sharing your private key with someone very trusted or just storing it somewhere secure and keeping it locked until the time comes. The way to retrieve your valuables from the lock/vault can be specified on your will. Maybe be use a bank value to store your private keys on the paper wallet. Two parts on two different banks? That way there is lower chance of your keys getting compromised. And I am sure there are other people that have found out better ways to giveaway your wealth to your heirs. Maybe a quick google might help.

[rachael9385]

The saying we grew up with as kids is that it's harder to protect freedom than it is to gain it, the same applies to Bitcoin. You have money so you can easily buy bitcoins but later on it will be a tough challenge for you to protect bitcoins. At the moment you are buying bitcoins you may be someone's child but after few years you will be a father so from then you will be thinking about how to leave my bitcoins to my next generation or loved ones. If your next generation doesn't know about Bitcoin then they won't understand the true value of Bitcoin so first you need to make the next generation much more experienced about Bitcoin. If the next generation or loved one can be made more experienced with Bitcoin and later share your account information with them then surely Bitcoin will reach your next generation or your loved one in your absence.

Yes you are absolutely right, you know some people thinks that its hard to share Bitcoin to the next generation, yes it can be hard but if the next generations have any little knowledge about Bitcoin then it can easily be transfered to them but if the next generation don't know about Bitcoin it might be hard for them to use Bitcoin and other crypto currency.
So in that case if anyone wants he's or her next generation to inherits their Bitcoin asset while they are getting older they should try and educate them about Bitcoin in an easy way they can understand little untll they have good knowledge about Bitcoin before they should be given the keys to the wallet so they upcoming will not get scammed or lose the coin to an unknown address.

[Ayers]

The only way to do this is by sharing your private key with someone very trusted or just storing it somewhere secure and keeping it locked until the time comes. The way to retrieve your valuables from the lock/vault can be specified on your will. Maybe be use a bank value to store your private keys on the paper wallet. Two parts on two different banks? That way there is lower chance of your keys getting compromised. And I am sure there are other people that have found out better ways to giveaway your wealth to your heirs. Maybe a quick google might help.

I also met some people who suggested this method but I also wondered a lot about this method. Because the purpose of using bitcoin is because we do not want to depend on banks or any third parties. Meanwhile, if we split the seed phase and put it in 2 or more banks, it's like we are giving our assets to them to hold on our behalf once again. In this case, I would rather trust my loved ones like my parents or wife than trust the bank or the government again.

[wallet4bitcoin]

Private keys, JSON files, Passphrases have become the new way to go in transferring inheritance and/or wealth to heirs. These however should not be clustered in one place as it is not advisable.

If they are clustered together and one person gets a hold of it then it is gone. This can be scattered across safe houses or banks or institutions for safety and their direct heirs should be the ones to assemble it for usage. This is the only approach towards its safety but it still remains a new way to go in terms of wealth transfer to a heir.

[pawel7777]

Even though Hal is a smart guy.  Many of us already realize that there are problems with safety boxes, and surely we do not know the details of exactly how Hal saved his keys in safety deposit boxes, but that could be one point of failure if that might have had been the ONLY place that he had his keys and/or other instructional information related to his bitcoin.

Good point, but the sad truth is you have to store your private keys somewhere. If it's a physical location (be it for paper wallets or electronic devices) it'll always bear a risk of someone unauthorised getting their hands on it.
That could be mitigated by splitting it in 2 or more parts and store each separately. In Hal's case - he referred to one box, but at the time he passed away (2014) nobody really knew where BTC will go, so, I reckon, at that time it was probably not the most valuable asset of the inheritance. And we all tend to apply level of security proportional to the value of what we try to secure.

[JayJuanGee]

Even though Hal is a smart guy.  Many of us already realize that there are problems with safety boxes, and surely we do not know the details of exactly how Hal saved his keys in safety deposit boxes, but that could be one point of failure if that might have had been the ONLY place that he had his keys and/or other instructional information related to his bitcoin.

Good point, but the sad truth is you have to store your private keys somewhere. If it's a physical location (be it for paper wallets or electronic devices) it'll always bear a risk of someone unauthorised getting their hands on it.
That could be mitigated by splitting it in 2 or more parts and store each separately. In Hal's case - he referred to one box, but at the time he passed away (2014) nobody really knew where BTC will go, so, I reckon, at that time it was probably not the most valuable asset of the inheritance. And we all tend to apply level of security proportional to the value of what we try to secure.

In the end, it is likely a good thing to recognize and appreciate the splitting of keys and/or the splitting of information.

And, sure sometimes these days private keys might be recognized and then figured out how they might be applied to some kind of a wallet (without even having instructions).

We cannot exactly know the size of Hal's stash, but it is thought to have had been pretty large, even in 2014 terms. ..and yeah, may not have been completely disclosing the details of how his keys were being secured and that might be part of the reason that I suggested that it might not have had been a good idea to be quoting that message from Hal in regards to how it appeared that he may have been holding his keys for his family members.

For sure, your point about the level of security attempting to somewhat match the present or future value of the stash or maybe making changes to the way that the coins are secured if the stash value size changes are surely valid. 

Many of us who have been into bitcoin for a while have likely experienced some level of changed concerns, and for example if someone had bought $10k worth of BTC for $300 each (which would have been around 33 BTC) in 2014 or 2015, may well have ended up surprised as soon as 2017 regarding how fast those values were going up perhaps 50x or more... so the price rise of 2017 may well have incentivized additional security measures or changes to then practices...and even a 5x or 10x change in value may well end up with similar kinds of concerns to change security practices. 

[darkangel11]

I've actually thought about this subject before now but your approach is really nice. The only problem with this method is the person you would leave the information of the seed phrase to, as he/she might claim the funds. What about generating and giving the different private keys to the children, so that they can come together and access the funds when the owner is no more? The problem with my suggestion is if the children does not have the fear of God they can even spend the funds while the owner is still alive.  

Not a bad idea, although there's two things to consider in your option:
1. One of the children loses their part of the phrase and they're both in trouble.
2. One of them convinces the other to access the money early, or steals it from the other one, knowing they have it. I would like to think my children are above such things, but it's always something to have in mind.

It seems that you mostly understood what I was saying, yet the way that you summarize what I said likely needs some clarification.  So, it seems that I was describing a context in which the heirs might lack some technical expertise in terms of figuring out where the coins might be held and/or the various ways to access the bitcoin - especially if there might have had been some technical issues or even problems figuring out what the deceased bitcoin holder was attempting to communicate to his/her heirs.

So there could be a variety of ways in which a deceased bitcoin holder might attempt to set things up prior to his/her death that might involve instructions and also it might involve a list of technical experts (or even businesses) who the deceased person trusts will charge a fair price in order to help the heirs without being a dishonest actor (and sure these things cannot be 100% known, but it is possible that the deceased person may know some people who he believes would be helpful and may even get paid to help.. and such persons do not need to be hackers, but surely having some decently high level technical skills might not hurt when it comes to figuring out something like putting together all the keys or maybe even getting into the deceased persons personal computer and other devices in which some contemporary files and communications and even accounts might be better found out.  We could have several kinds of accounts and there could be traces of those accounts in our e-mails or in our webpage histories, and sometimes family members might not have enough understanding to even realize that the deceased person had 10-20 different accounts and various kinds of wallets that had bitcoins and maybe shitcoins and some other digital assets on them... that could add up to hundreds of thousands or even millions that the dumb heirs might not have had known or been able to figure out on their own and without the help of the bitcoin (or crypto) technical expert (who you referred to as a hacker).

After reading this a thought came to my mind that I'll share with you. Imagine you set it up now, being in your, say 50s. You make the list of experts for your kids and forget about it and the bitcoins stored on some hardware wallet hidden in a safe. 30 years later, you die and  kids start going through your things. They find the wallet and the list, but those people are either senile, or already dead. Bitcoin on the other hand is worth 5 million dollars a piece and kids are scared if they tell anyone about the wealth you've gathered they'll get robbed and killed, not necessarily in this order.

[peter0425]

The only way to do this is by sharing your private key with someone very trusted or just storing it somewhere secure and keeping it locked until the time comes. The way to retrieve your valuables from the lock/vault can be specified on your will. Maybe be use a bank value to store your private keys on the paper wallet. Two parts on two different banks? That way there is lower chance of your keys getting compromised. And I am sure there are other people that have found out better ways to giveaway your wealth to your heirs. Maybe a quick google might help.

or if you have 2 heirs then best to have them both half of the key? so if ever that you died in accident or even in natural death , then they can just share each other and then boom , take the funds out?
though My wife and my children have idea what is crypto and yes i have split the keys to them 3 , (but of course I have my own funds inside my pocket)  so if ever this happens then they can take it out without any issue.