What actually happens to your coins when you die?

[Parker2010]

We spend years making our coins impossible for anyone else to touch. Cold storage, passphrase in the head, wallet nobody knows about. Then one day we're gone and it works exactly as designed. Nobody can touch them, including our family.

"My wife knows where the seed is" is not a plan if she doesn't know what a seed is. "It's in my will" is not a plan if a lawyer reads it in court. Every step that makes your coins safer while you're alive makes recovery harder after.

So, honestly:

- Does anyone in your life even know your Bitcoin exists?
- If you died tonight, could they recover it?
- Timelock, multisig, sealed instructions, dead man switch, or nothing?
- Anyone here actually inherited coins? How did it go?

Thanks

[Mr_Brilliant$]

Security of our coins and inheritance are two different things and we it should be treated separately because they are actually separate. One can secure his wallet well and give instructions on how to access it. But should be very secret about it when alive and he or she can test run it with a very trusted member of the family. You might not use your real coins to test but can create a replica to see whether they can access it if one later dies.

[JoyceBTC]

We all know that death is inevitable, no one prays to die now and no one know when they will die, so it is also good to prepare for the future because anything can happen.
I know it is not that easy to just give anyone access to our coins but all our years of patience can’t just go to waste when death comes, so it okay to give login access to someone trusted enough, wife, child, brother or sister, that’s if you can trust them.

[Popkon6]

- Does anyone in your life even know your Bitcoin exists?

No one except my family knows that I have Bitcoin, I only tell people I trust about my Bitcoin existence. And I have also taught them how to retrieve the wallet, so that after my death, no one will need to know because the matters are very confidential.

- If you died tonight, could they recover it?

Of course you can, because I have a trusted son and wife in my family. I have told them how this seed phrase works, and how to recover it and sell it, I have taught them so far. And where do I keep the seed phrase of my wallet because I have forced it to be written on the pages of my diary.

- Timelock, multisig, sealed instructions, dead man switch, or nothing?

I have given them an idea of many of the things I use, I will not reveal them here in secret. Because the more secret your assets are, the more secure your wallet is. And the more secure you want to keep your wallet, the more secure your wallet seed phrase needs to be.

- Anyone here actually inherited coins? How did it go?

The experience was much better, I did not inherit Bitcoin. I slowly accumulated Bitcoin with my own hard-earned money, because I put Bitcoin away for the future so that my son and my wife can be financially successful. Because if I die, they will not face any financial crisis, which is why my future savings are Bitcoin.

[yudi09]

If I share my Bitcoin, along with my password and seed phrase, with someone who deserves to receive them, my Bitcoin will become theirs.
If, even at this very moment, you still consider Bitcoin to be a legacy created by Satoshi Nakamoto that has brought many conveniences to life, it is not an exaggeration to say that this legacy should be carried on by those who are entitled to do so.
I have already done so with someone I trust.

[Jostle]

It's good that your loved ones (especially your spouse) is also into Bitcoin and knows how to access them (e.g. use a hardware wallet, etc).  When both parties know how to do that, then it's ok .When you pass on, your Bitcoin become hers/his.

[Nathrixxx]

- Does anyone in your life even know your Bitcoin exists?
- If you died tonight, could they recover it?
- Timelock, multisig, sealed instructions, dead man switch, or nothing?
- Anyone here actually inherited coins? How did it go?

If you fail to plan for your bitcoin in the future, the coins will not be left on hand like that; just know that it will become everyone's asset, as the value welcome in form of a spread over every bitcoin holders, increasing their asset value rather than having it completely lost.

There are other measures through which we can transfer our assets to those we want to benefit from us in the future, that is if we truly wanted some people to have a direct access to it, but when we don't or can't point out to anyone to be a beneficiary, wihich you only have it in mind that the asset was not be lost, while its value only spread across what others are holding.

[Catenaccio]

"My wife knows where the seed is" is not a plan if she doesn't know what a seed is.

You can teach her because it's quite simple to learn and easy to practice, just take your time to take her, guide her to do steps of wallet creation, then recovery from backups that are actually what you will give her as inheritance.

"It's in my will" is not a plan if a lawyer reads it in court. Every step that makes your coins safer while you're alive makes recovery harder after.

If you don't trust your wife, it's worse if you plan to trust the lawyer or anyone else with your wallet backups.

- If you died tonight, could they recover it?

Only if you tell your family members, whoever you want to tell about that, about your wallets, backups and where they are, how to recover a Bitcoin wallet.

- Timelock, multisig, sealed instructions, dead man switch, or nothing?
- Anyone here actually inherited coins? How did it go?

Many topics about Bitcoin inheritance.
Using Locktime for inheritance planning, backups or gifts
[DISCUSSION] Bitcoin Inheritance Planning.
Saving Bitcoins for your Children.
Inherit coins to my family after passed away.
How can i pass on my bitcoins in case i die?
Death & Bitcoin: How I Prepared My Family’s Digital Inheritance

A lesson from Hal Finney: Bitcoin and me.

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.

[Dareo]

I have already written a post regarding the solution to your post, where I have discussed in detail how to plan for Bitcoin inheritance in advance.
 If you want, you can read the post: Don't Let Your Bitcoin Die With You I hope you will find most of your questions answered there.

[Bitcoin.com97]

One thing for sure is that death is unenvitable , and it can happen at anytime, it's unpredictable and it's also something that must happen just as it is design , as we all have known this ,I really don't see any reason why someone will be so secretive that know one in your family knows about your investment, that shows if anything happens it's gone just the way the system has designed it , in this life no matter what ,one should have one trusted person,be it a wife, husband,sister, brother, parents or children,that you can disclosed your seedpharse in case anything happens, life is too short to carry everything on your own with out someone to trust .

[MainIbem]

I haven't entrusted anyone with my seed yet but I'm having a second thought of doing so cause death is something that can happen to anyone at anytime which is why i have to rethink my decision of keeping my seed to myself alone so what am holding won't end up being useless in future if am gone and no one can access it. So i think I'll include it in my will and tell my lawyer not to read it out in public and also make sure that the people or person it would be entrusted with would have knowledge about Bitcoin with the mentality of buying and holding longer.

[Italian Panic]

That’s always a good question. At the moment, I’m thinking of a scenario that would oblige heirs to do something positive for the decentralised network, nothing extraordinary, just the minimum contribution needed to keep it running. Obviously, there are no scripts available on Bitcoin that can create such rules, and I don’t think it’s feasible with miniscripts, but I’m working on it and will set it out in the coming weeks. The main condition is that no third parties are involved, because we’ve seen how that ends.

[KiaKia]

I have two family in my life that can take over where I left off, my partner and a cousin who has been so good to me from the day one, I don't mind them having it, because we humans don't know when time will be up and we will return empty handed.

If you don't have anyone it makes no difference, no one will be able to steal what you have and after death Bitcoin comes even more scarce which be is way better than what the bank would do.

Banks knows how to steal money and rob you once they get information that you are dead, even if your family members take a step they will never reveal to you how much is left or taken.

[Big Dirams]

I have two family in my life that can take over where I left off, my partner and a cousin who has been so good to me from the day one, I don't mind them having it, because we humans don't know when time will be up and we will return empty handed.

If you don't have anyone it makes no difference, no one will be able to steal what you have and after death Bitcoin comes even more scarce which be is way better than what the bank would do.

Banks knows how to steal money and rob you once they get information that you are dead, even if your family members take a step they will never reveal to you how much is left or taken.

Death is inevitable and we don’t actually have the idea of when we might end up leaving this world so at least unfortunately if we leave this world our holdings would be of a good help to our family and loved ones so let always make it possible for them to have access to it so Incase when we leave this world they would get something valuable and helpful.
 Let not let our holdings stay there without uses that sounds greedy and selfish so the right way is give it out to our loved ones because it is of no uses to us when we are dead.
And actually this is my first time of hearing about how some banks might hold someone’s property and that is very wrong.  At least reaching out to the next of kin is something they should do and I very certain this is part of the policies.

[aoluain]

What actually happens to your coins when you die?

That all depends on the plans we make when we are alive! otherwise absolutely nothing happens,
they sit exactly as they were when you last transacted them forever and eternity

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the alternative come down to "trust" - something us Bitcoiners are not entirely confortable with
so to speak.

Educate your family/friend/law firm etc. on how to access the wallet in question and trust that they
respect that it isnt their property until you die.

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Options:

Gifting your wallet to the community - as Satoshi has done

Time lock similar to Trezor'ss "Locktime"

[bitLeap]

- Does anyone in your life even know your Bitcoin exists?
- If you died tonight, could they recover it?
- Timelock, multisig, sealed instructions, dead man switch, or nothing?

For now I have not handed over the passphrase to anyone, but I have kept it in the safe box bank Storage. So the closest people, especially my wife, know that I have bitcoins, she also knows that I store the seeds in a safe box, when I die it will automatically be handed over to her. He also knows the basics of bitcoin and how to use it. For information in my country the cost of rent/year for a safe in a bank with a size of 60×12×7 cm $8 + key guarantee $17.

[ArabBTC]

Personally i haven’t shared the private keys to my coins to anyone yet but this thread has actually raised concerns because wether we like it or not death remains inevitable and no one knows when it will come knocking at the door so i will ensure i put my house in other soonest and find better ways to secure and transfer my coins to my preferred next of kin so that in the future my coins won’t be lost forever. A friend of mine some years back even used a particular strategy to secure his coins between his two sons, he actually split the seed phrase in two and gave one part to each of his sons to memorize, he further instructed them that incase he dies that both of them should come together and merge their individual parts of the seed phrase to open his wallet and they should split the coins equally amongst themselves, to him he said he did it that way in other to foster unity amongst the two of them, and to solidify the security of the wallet so incase one is careless with his it will still be difficult to defraud the wallet knowing fully well that the other part is with his second son, i didn’t really buy into his idea though but seems everyone has their own unique pattern of handling things.

[rbynxx]

- Does anyone in your life even know your Bitcoin exists?
- If you died tonight, could they recover it?
- Timelock, multisig, sealed instructions, dead man switch, or nothing?
- Anyone here actually inherited coins? How did it go?

- Some in my family knows that I am working for cryptocurrency and yeah they know it exist but only me and me alone is capable of it all.
- Nah, that's impossible. They won't.
- Sealed instructions is probably I'm trying but right now, there's nothing tbh and this thread is a slap in the face for me.
- You probably mean inherit it to the heirs or a Bitcoin/altcoins inheritance from other people? This last question is vague imo.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

What actually happens to your coins when you die?

Options:

Gifting your wallet to the community - as Satoshi has done

Lost bitcoins are gifts and donations to everyone, satoshi wrote it in 2010.

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

Time lock similar to Trezor'ss "Locktime"

There are other resources about inheritance and actually people can leave their bitcoins to others without Trezor's Locktime because Bitcoin itself has locktime.
Cryptoasset inheritance planning.
How to manage bitcoin like a whale with inheritance plan.
Using Locktime.
Bitcoin transaction locktime.

[Rockstarguy]

If you are too bothered about your Bitcoin investment, and if eventually you are no longer here and no one will have access to your coins, then it is important to also make inheritance a part of your security plan.

The way you go about your security is how it will be when you are no longer here. One of the mistakes some people make regarding their Bitcoin inheritance is that they disclose how to obtain the seed phrase of the wallet but fail to explain how the seed phrase should be used to recover the Bitcoin. Some of the people who have arranged inheritance for their Bitcoin, these beneficiaries are mostly Bitcoin illiterate; if they obtain the seed phrase, they may even expose it to strangers all in the name of seeking assistance to claim Bitcoin, which poses a risk of losing the Bitcoin.