Showing your seed phrase or wallet password to your next of kin while your alive

[Finestream]

Not totally giving out your seed phrase but just telling him a bit that you are currently investing into bitcoin will make him aware that he has to recover your bitcoin investment once the owner is no longer alive, or else the investment you have been worked for long will only be wasted, having no someone to benefit it.

But if you are actually a responsible and knowledgeable one, why not save it in a timelock instead? Just let your own family knows about it before you'll be gone in this world.

[Felicity_Tide]

1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

Imo, I don't think that would be necessary. All that matters is that he/she is aware that you do hold a few sats.
My reason for saying this doesn't have anything to do with trust. Its just a way of treating the whole thing as a regular inheritance and not something you unveil before hand. If you as a parent holds the seed phrase, at least, it should be somewhere around the house_{(probably where you keep your stuffs)}, or the location should be specified on a will instead.

So, I'm of the opinion that there is no point of sharing such a sensitive information. Them being aware that you hold a few Bitcoin, should be more than enough.

[Natalim]

This is the core dilemma of inheritance planning, if you give full access, you're trusting them completely some use time-locked transactions or instructions with a lawyer, you have to weigh the risk of betrayal against the risk of your coins being lost forever

While its quite a positive idea for some, but majority would not prefer doing it because betrayal can always happen anytime, especially that it involves a highly valuable asset.

My preferred choice, use the time-locked instead as it avoid the possibility of stealing your bitcoin. However, your family should still be aware that you're into bitcoin accumulation, so that they will be aware if you have left bitcoin asset for them or not when you're no longer around.

[Alphakilo]

I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

Not all next of kin have bad intentions and that means they could defraud you when they come into financial need with the hopes to pay back and actually don't or they could not, if they have money, or don't have such intentions at the least.
It isn't a safe practice though because they are next of kin for a reason and the reason being that they are to take the parents place Incase of death or for claims of something more valuable at the time.

[Stepstowealth]

While its quite a positive idea for some, but majority would not prefer doing it because betrayal can always happen anytime, especially that it involves a highly valuable asset.

Things could always just change even between people related by blood, your next of kin can suddenly become your enemy even before you realize that they are an enemy to you. Planning for your death should not involve giving out seed phrase to your next of kin, that could be the action that can even lead to your death. You can have resources set out that when you die, important documents and details of yourself like your seed phrase is passed on to your next of kin then. Not good to rush showing important details to your next of kin, that title can change at any point.

[Antona]

I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

Not all next of kin have bad intentions and that means they could defraud you when they come into financial need with the hopes to pay back and actually don't or they could not, if they have money, or don't have such intentions at the least.
It isn't a safe practice though because they are next of kin for a reason and the reason being that they are to take the parents place Incase of death or for claims of something more valuable at the time.

That's the real conflict even with good intentions, desperate times can lead to bad decisions, they might "borrow" from the wallet, fully intending to replace it, but never can that risk is there even if they're not malicious

[Woodie]

Truth be told no one wants to do this step because they all think they are bringing themselves closer to death or selling out on their finances, it's like talking of a will people get so @#&£ scared of this as it's like a death wish 

But some inspiration I saw from this forum , was out fallen brother C* the loan person, he got the wife involved in his business which suggests he could have initiated her in the know how of crypto and maybe seed phrases and all that, and this is a leaf 🌿 we all should be taking because not everyone gets to prepare for their passing ..

[freedomgo]

That's very risky mate. Even your own spouse cannot be trusted with it if she's not actually a crypto lover.

I would settle having time-locked instead, this will prevent me from worrying too much. But if your wife is also active in crypto, or she knows actually the real value of bitcoin and how to grow it in the near future, then you must trust him with that. If she's a good wife to you, then she can be trusted with bitcoin then.

[Rgram]

While you might feel it’s a sensible or reasonable thing to do so, you don’t get to loose your Bitcoins to the many burnt coins out there, you would as well come to the reality that, you’ve given off a means to having your Bitcoins lost to just anyone.
Your next of kin might not knowing do away with your Bitcoin but, people don’t approach the security of an asset that isn’t theirs in the same way they would do their own. Once the keys is off you, it’s not longer private and Gould very easily become public knowledge.

[nakamura12]

That's very risky to show your seed phrase to your next of kin but having your next of kin know you have crypto then you can left it to your next of kin when that time comes. Think of it as an inheritance to your next of kin before passing which means your next of kin will only know the seed phrase once the person is gone. As we know that there are different ways to store seed phrase amd you can also consider time lock as others have suggested.

[Nothingtodo]

.I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

If someone shares the seed phrase of a Bitcoin wallet with someone while they are alive and they cheat while they are alive, there is nothing they can do because no one can tell who will cheat and when. Sometimes one's own wife and children can cheat, one's close blood relatives can cheat. However, even if you know that your death is inevitable, you should still pass on your seed phrase to your children or grandchildren, otherwise the Bitcoins you left behind will be lost for life after your death. If you pass on your Bitcoin wallet seed phrase to them during your lifetime, they will be able to use your Bitcoins after your death.

[Pi-network314159]

I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

Well giving our seed or wallet password to our next of kin depends on you and your trust with your next of kin. If you trust your next of kin not to defraud you, then you can expose it to them, but if you don't trust them with it, then you can just tell them about it but can't give them access to it. Like having a seed kept in a safe place in your room asn telling them about it but telling them to access it when you are in a critical condition that you cant go there or they can access it when you are nooee in existence. Just a two way option. But if you don't trust your next of kin for no reason, you can just invest into physical asset and write your will and submit to your lawyer Incase if you are no more, there wouldn't be much need to be afraid of losing your asset without anyone knowing. And also there wouldn't be need to tell your secret to your untrustworthy next of kin.

[tabas]

First of all I use this medium to acknowledge the organisers and programmers of this forum/site, indeed they have done immensely great job by uniting individuals of various countries in the globe to share their respective ideas.

I have been reading a lot of post and replies where people debates on the safest way to store up Bitcoin seed phrase, some folks said writing it on paper and storing the paper in a secret places is the safest means there by preventing Cyber attacks while other folks said storing the seed phrase in a special hard ware device is the best way.

I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

1. There is a chance that they will steal it when you have given them your seed phrase. Teach them the basics of wallet and let them make their own wallet first before deciding to give it all away. Maybe send them some amount first and let them keep it for as long as they can. That is to make them familiarize why it is important not to hand out your seed phrases. I would never do that but if my generous self makes me want to, I will just send them a couple of hundred and will wait and see how they will manage it.

[2Pizza410000BTC]

First of all I use this medium to acknowledge the organisers and programmers of this forum/site, indeed they have done immensely great job by uniting individuals of various countries in the globe to share their respective ideas.

I have been reading a lot of post and replies where people debates on the safest way to store up Bitcoin seed phrase, some folks said writing it on paper and storing the paper in a secret places is the safest means there by preventing Cyber attacks while other folks said storing the seed phrase in a special hard ware device is the best way.

I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

Who do you mean by close relatives? Do you mean anyone other than parents, siblings, spouses, children? I only want to keep my wallet password and wallet seed phrase between my wife and children, and I don't want to give my wallet password, wallet seed phrase to anyone else, especially I don't want to show my wallet password and wallet seed phrase to anyone outside my family. I don't want to give my hard-earned money to anyone else, except my wife's children and even my parents.

[X-ray]

1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

1.Yes, your family should know, and what I mean by that is the trusted one.

2. It's hard when even your kin could betray you like that but you should use multisig wallet and control majority of the vote, settle it the democratic way.

After all, to release the fund, it will need agreement from party involved to sign the multisig address. Exchange does this to eliminate single point of failure where someone might steal the money.

[Smack That Ace]

1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

1. I think this depends on the individual, the circumstances, as well as the relationship and level of trust between family members. Every family is different, so there is no universal answer or fixed formula that applies to everyone.

As for me, I have great trust in my family members. Therefore, I didn't hesitate to share my seedphrase with them, just in case something unexpected happened to me.

2.You need to understand that there is no perfect solution and that every option comes with its own risks. Choose the poison you are willing to live with.

[Oshio-man]

Is not good to show your seed phrases and password to your next of kin no matter how you love that child, there are some children the moment they enter higher institution their character will change completely and they will like to live a good life like other wealthy children, and it can lead a child to steal some coins from his father wallet because he know the seed phrases and the password of his father, I believe you see many reasons people gave in this thread never to allow your next of kin to see your seed phrases and password because is not advisable in this new generation base on the way children change negatively through the influence of other children they don't know the source of income of their parents.

[LogitechMouse]

---
I was thinking about all those ideas and I came up with a thought that leads to questions.
1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

1. Nope. We know that death is inevitable, but we can sense if we will be dying. Yes, there might be accidents that might happen, and that might be one of the reason why there should be somebody in your family that knows how to access assets through seed phrases. This isn't the case for most though because there might be some out there that will give out their seed phrase to a person they trust the most, and there's nothing wrong with it as long as they're ready just in case their assets will be gone, they know who will blame. It's a case-to-case basis when it comes to this one.

2. That's what I'm saying on the first one. Since you will be exposing and kind of sharing your seed phrase to other people, you're increasing the risk of losing your assets since they can just betray you, steal your assets and go away. Of course, this isn't the case for most though because there might be some who thinks that it's not worth it. I mean stealing those assets might be harmful especially with the relationship with your other family members if it's a family member.

Anyway, as for me, my wife knows that I have those seed phrases, but she don't know how to access it at all. When I die accidentally, I'm pretty sure she will do some research just to learn how to access those assets all by herself.

[ColdLava40]

So, I'm of the opinion that there is no point of sharing such a sensitive information. Them being aware that you hold a few Bitcoin, should be more than enough.

Loved ones can do crazy things when they are angry.. I've heard of stories where wife steals husbands property and runs away from the house.. or where a girlfriend decides she no longer wants to be with you and just want to ruin your life before she takes her leave.
Or son selling his father's property just to fund his lifestyle.

If we put these things together, we may reconsider giving our keys to loved ones as a wrong idea.

If you can so much trust them, then it's up to you.

[macson]

1. Is it good to give our seed phrase or wallet password to our next of kin while we are alive since death is inevitable?

It's up to you whether you want to give your seed phrase to someone you trust or not. But make sure the person you trust is someone you really know and are familiar with, because the seed phrase is like the key to your wallet, and when you trust it to someone else, they also have the same access as you.

2. If the answer to the first question is Yes, what then happens to us if the next of kin defraud us of our hard earn wealth while we're alive?

If the person deceives you, then it is your own fault why you trusted the wrong person. You can't blame other people for this because you were the one who made the decision to believe that seed phrase to that person, so you are the one who is responsible for it. That's why you need to consider as carefully if you want to trust your seed words to other people. If you can't afford it, then don't, it's your full right whether you want to inherit your assets or not.