What happens to your Bitcoin should you suddenly die?

[turvarya]

Just remember:
You could easily be hit by a truck today: No time to tell anybody about your secret stash of Bitcoin stamped on a piece of metal buried in your garden. No time to tell anybody the password to your bip38-encrypted paper wallet.

Where it is nice, that your Bitcoin are safe from the government and banks, it would be really sad, should you suddenly die and the Bitcoin are just lost, instead of supporting your own children.

So, I am less interested in theoretical ways to solve that problem, but more if somebody here actually did something to solve it.

[bitcoin_purist]

Just remember:
You could easily be hit by a truck today: No time to tell anybody about your secret stash of Bitcoin stamped on a piece of metal buried in your garden. No time to tell anybody the password to your bip38-encrypted paper wallet.

Where it is nice, that your Bitcoin are safe from the government and banks, it would be really sad, should you suddenly die and the Bitcoin are just lost, instead of supporting your own children.

So, I am less interested in theoretical ways to solve that problem, but more if somebody here actually did something to solve it.

I have thought about that also and came up an idea but I don't know how to work it out.
I think you should do something with multisigned address where more people have a key of the wallet but none of them can access the funds by themself.

[turvarya]

Just remember:
You could easily be hit by a truck today: No time to tell anybody about your secret stash of Bitcoin stamped on a piece of metal buried in your garden. No time to tell anybody the password to your bip38-encrypted paper wallet.

Where it is nice, that your Bitcoin are safe from the government and banks, it would be really sad, should you suddenly die and the Bitcoin are just lost, instead of supporting your own children.

So, I am less interested in theoretical ways to solve that problem, but more if somebody here actually did something to solve it.

I have thought about that also and came up an idea but I don't know how to work it out.
I think you should do something with multisigned address where more people have a key of the wallet but none of them can access the funds by themself.

That would be an obvious solution. The question is: Should they know of each other? If they don't know of each other, how could the multisigs be brought together, if you die?

[thompete]

Just remember:
You could easily be hit by a truck today: No time to tell anybody about your secret stash of Bitcoin stamped on a piece of metal buried in your garden. No time to tell anybody the password to your bip38-encrypted paper wallet.

Where it is nice, that your Bitcoin are safe from the government and banks, it would be really sad, should you suddenly die and the Bitcoin are just lost, instead of supporting your own children.

So, I am less interested in theoretical ways to solve that problem, but more if somebody here actually did something to solve it.

I have thought about that also and came up an idea but I don't know how to work it out.
I think you should do something with multisigned address where more people have a key of the wallet but none of them can access the funds by themself.

That would be an obvious solution. The question is: Should they know of each other? If they don't know of each other, how could the multisigs be brought together, if you die?

Well, maybe one of the family member could be part of that multisig access. EVen if you hide a stash of Cash in your garden, and no one knows about it, it will probably be hidden there for a long time, unless someone digs it up.

[neoneros]

You could put it into your will at a notary.

Have been thinking about this, not only for bitcoin, but all the digital things, like email, a lot of documentation is within mails and the digital domain, it should be convienient if people can access your digital documents should you pass away.

[findftp]

You could put it into your will at a notary.

One of the benefits of the blockchain is that we don't need notaries anymore in the future.
There is a nice website where you can (secretly) store documents on the blockchain and proof that you wrote them at a certain date.

http://www.proofofexistence.com/

With multisig you can solve the rest.

[Mobius]

Most of my friends and family have no idea what bitcoin is. It is just some weird hobby I've been into for years (in their eyes). I've simply just left a note and USB in a secure location

[Q7]

Create HD wallet, write down the seed sequence. Put the paper in a safe deposit box in a bank and have the manager release access to the box in the event something happens to you with a lawyer consent. Something like a will. That person can only access when you are no longer around. To whom you want to assign it to is up to you. But that person must know that you have a will done

[Aswan]

Give someone an nTimeLock Transaction that will be valid in 1-2 years. If you are still alive by then, send the coins to another address before the nTimeLock Tx can be cashed. Repeat until you die and the nTimeLoc Tx will get cashed.

That much for technical possibilities. Now the rational part.
If you are dead, you are dead! You won't care anymore. If noone knows about your Bitcoin stash, you don't have to worry about you dying and the coins begin lost.
However, if someone close to you knows about it (wife etc.), then you might live a better live if she knows she can access the coins if something happens to you (else she might just not stop being annoying because she wants you to give her access to the coins in case something happens).

So as usual, not telling anyone about your coins is the best option here.

[raganius]

It is really necessary (maybe urgent) that the owner of bitcoins (a considerable anount, of course, not just some change earned from faucets) takes measures in order to assure that his bitcoins will not be lost in case he passes away, so that his loved ones will be possible to at least benefit from it.

The idea of a will with a notary seems to be the best, and should be combined with the multisig solution (so that you don't have to trust the notarial service - after all the cryptocurrencies are about trustlessness).

 - First of all, you should educate the people you love (which will be the beneficiaries in your will) about Bitcoin. It's a good idea that they already know what it is about;

 - With the multisig keys it will be possible that you leave one of these keys concealed in the will, the notary will only reveal it after he receives enough proof of your death;

 - The other keys will be left each one to each one of the beneficiaries: With their understanding of what Bitcoin is and how they should proceed in case of your death you can be sure your Bitcoins won't be lost when the time comes.

[Stifler]

What happens to them is up to you and how you store them. I must admit this is a potential problem and tricky to solve but you could store your passwords or private keys securely to only be released upon death or use 2 of 3 so your close family can access the coins upon your death.

[okae]

Most of my friends and family have no idea what bitcoin is. It is just some weird hobby I've been into for years (in their eyes). I've simply just left a note and USB in a secure location

exactly, thats happends to me too, when i talk to my family about BTC they look at me like     is not a bad idea to kep all info into one pendrive or something like that, so in the end, "someone" can check it and use it.

Maybe the best idea is to give all your info to one REAL friend who is already into the bicoin world, you know, there is always someone near you who know about it too, but there is a high risk you must trust on him ofc

A notary i think is not needed, there is lot of "light" ways to solved it, multisig is not a bad idea too.

[1Referee]

What happens to them is up to you and how you store them. I must admit this is a potential problem and tricky to solve but you could store your passwords or private keys securely to only be released upon death or use 2 of 3 so your close family can access the coins upon your death.

This isn't a problem.

People are champions in making a problem from nothing.

[raganius]

Most of my friends and family have no idea what bitcoin is. It is just some weird hobby I've been into for years (in their eyes). I've simply just left a note and USB in a secure location

exactly, thats happends to me too, when i talk to my family about BTC they look at me like    is not a bad idea to kep all info into one pendrive or something like that, so in the end, "someone" can check it and use it.

Maybe the best idea is to give all your info to one REAL friend who is already into the bicoin world, you know, there is always someone near you who know about it too, but there is a high risk you must trust on him ofc

A notary i think is not needed, there is lot of "light" ways to solved it, multisig is not a bad idea too.

Well, when we talk about "real" money (in a sense that it's an amount that matters, and not just some pennies) I can hardly believe that no one will be interested. I can assure you that if you let the people you love know about your savings in bitcoins and what was your decision for after your death, they WILL be interested in it and WILL look forward to receiving it when the moment comes.

[Mewtwo]

This is a really interesting thread. You don't see too many of these, these days.

[Daniel91]

I think that the simplest and the best idea will be to give all your BTC secure info to your partner or someone you trust or love, so that your family or good friends can inherit your BTC funds.

[turvarya]

I think that the simplest and the best idea will be to give all your BTC secure info to your partner or someone you trust or love, so that your family or good friends can inherit your BTC funds.

What if you have a car accident, where both your partner and you die?

[Kevin77]

Just keep your paper wallets in the same place where your other important/valuable papers are.

[turvarya]

Just keep your paper wallets in the same place where your other important/valuable papers are.

That is what I am currently doing. I  think, that somebody who would look through it, wouldn't recognize it as something valuable and would just throw it away.
I showed my paper wallets to my girlfriend once and told her how much they are worth, but she just asked me, if I would put that money into a bank.
I couldn't really bring my self to telling her, what to do, with them in case of my death, since she already worries enough about the future.

[Daniel91]

I think that the simplest and the best idea will be to give all your BTC secure info to your partner or someone you trust or love, so that your family or good friends can inherit your BTC funds.

What if you have a car accident, where both your partner and you die?

In this case (specially if you don't have adult children) I think our BTC funds will be lost, like in the real world to.