And it should have been implemented in Bitcoin long ago. Basically, we need a sort of smart contract done either as a second layer solution or right in the blockchain protocol. For example, to prevent such cases from occurring, you would create a smart contract that should send bitcoins from your wallet to another wallet in case you don't prolong this contract, say, in a month or so (something like "a dead hand"). In this way, if you die, lose private keys or whatever, your bitcoins won't be lost but instead will be legitimately transferred after a specified amount of time
This is a great idea. Is there any development focusing on this matter? Or is this still an idea at the moment?
But I'm not sure if Bitcoin would be able to support this, it should require more complex script, isn't it?
There's no reason to do it at the protocol level. Dead man's switches for Bitcoin inheritance have been a topic of discussion for years. Here's one interesting approach to the problem.
The simplest way to do it is to use nLockTime: Make a transaction that pays your inheritors in the future and reveal it to them, then periodically spend those coins before the timelock triggers (every 6 months or something). Rinse, repeat. When you die, the coins will finally be transferred to your inheritors.
