Topic: Bitcoin is private and decentralized, ok but what if someone dies? - page 3. (Read 409 times)

I don't think it'll be that difficult to create a decentralized inheritance system that transfers wealth to loved ones when the owner of the wealth dies. It could be automatic or manual system, or both. I believe there are decentralized systems that can be used to do this already. People could even provide such service for fees... and it should be possible to include your love ones for inheritance transfer once you open your decentralized account.
   Why not get the ones he trusted most go through his stuff and search for the keys/passwords to his funds? Sorry for your loss

Those coins will forever be lost, I expect a lot of this in the future. It will just increase the scarcity thus increasing the price. The day will come when very few people actually have an entire coin. Fractions of a coin will be the norm.

The issue is that who will I trust to disclose my private keys in case something happens tomorrow. When it comes to something that involves a huge amount of money someone gat to be careful about whom to access his or her access tomorrow.
I don't want a situation where someone will access my private keys without my permission or before my time

There's no way to implement inheritance on a protocol level, just like any other features that would require human decisions, like chargebacks, freezing illegal funds and so on. It's just like strong encryption - if you don't have the key, there's no way around it. A person could have some digital possesions, like family photos or unpublished works, but if they have encrypted them, their family won't be able to inherit it too.

This is not fault of Bitcoin, but the owner of Bitcoin and all you need to do is to write a letter with simple instructions how to recover your funds and use your private key or seed words, and before that you should try to educate your family members about Bitcoin.
You are responsible for your own Bitcoin and only you are responsible for passing your wealth to your family members when you are gone one day, so you should think about it on time.
Think about Bitcoin in the same way like you think what happens to all off your other assets in case of your death and it will be just fine.


It is not gone forever and he must be keeping his backup phrase somewhere at his house or his work place, because it's the only way he can be sure to recover funds for himself or his family members.
You should be looking at his stuff for words written on paper, hardware wallets or maybe in his computer for software wallets he was using.


Interesting that you purchased Bitcoin in 2014 but you are now talking about your dead brother who talked about Bitcoin all the time.

It may well be a wild goose chase, but if you’ve got access to his emails, you can try starting to determine the wallets that he may have had. i.e. going over the emails you may find a reference to purchasing a hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor), or using a certain Exchange.
Some Exchanges actually do have a running protocol for these cases, providing you determine that there is an account to retrieve there (see for example Coinbase’s procedure here: https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/managing-my-account/other/how-do-i-gain-access-to-a-deceased-family-members-coinbase-account). Additionally, the laptop or phone may still contain a wallet software (Electrum, etc.).

The above is just a preamble to an unlikely recovery, but trying to determine what wallets may have been used, and where, is the first stepping stone (alongside any 12 or 24 word piece of paper that may be hidden somewhere around the house, with a mnemonic that can be used for retrieval).

Yeah, it also once come to my thoughts that what if I'm gone and there is no one will benefit from all of my hard work earings. Anyway, our Bitcoin will more likely get stuck in there in our wallet and no one will benefit from it unless your family does know significant information to access your Bitcoins.

You could have just started to write up or list your private key though, you don't need to wait until you get old because no one knows how long we will last in this world. In this case, better if you will put all necessary information in one place and put a password in that at least one of your family members knows it. I agreed that they might not computer savvy to access all this information but I believe there is one person at least who is capable of learning and can access these holding of yours. Being not computer savvy is not an excuse because everything can now be learned especially all the information you need to know is not published online.

Bitcoin is private as well ad the private keys of each wallet accounts of the bitcoin holders. If the bitcoin holder died then the coins or tokens on his wallet will not be able to recover, unless the person who dies has someone that he/she tells about his private keys or password in each wallet that they have but if it doesn't have then it would be sad to say that the money or coins and tokens in the wallets will be remain there and no one will be able to recover or have an access to it.

I agree. Unless you have someone you can trust to tell them where they can find the private key, the issue of death and loss of all your beloved crypto is as valid as any other.

Rather than this being a fault in the system, I think it rather has to do with you, your boundaries and your life. You can choose to take certain precaution steps to avoid being in this dilemma and those steps of course depend on you as an individual, but I reiterate that it has nothing to do with crypto - crypto needs to be secure! There are ways around this, so make sure you prepare for the worst.

do not underestimate your password and private key...
It has been repeatedly discussed so that you prepare yourself to save your password and private key in a safe so that your family can find it when you die because if you don't then your Bitcoin will be nobodies.

This is the common issue that we may encounter about cryptocurrency, what if we die? then probably your bitcoin or assets will just be stored in your wallet and no one in your family and friends can use it. Maybe the solution for this is you have to give some of your wallet details to one of your family or to the one who you trust, it will lessen the possibility to waste all the hard work you have spent on earning your bitcoin.

Most of the Bitcoin users are in their 20s and 30s and they don't take this possibility seriously. There are two options - first one is to keep the backup to your Bitcoin wallet to yourself and thereby eliminate the possibility of some of your friends or relatives stealing the coins from you. In this case, if something happens to you, then the coins will be lost forever. The second option is to inform your most trusted friend, or a relative about the backup. But in such case there is always a possibility of this person trying to steal the money from you (although it is a very remote possibility).

You know, Bitcoin is decentralized for a reason... It gives you FULL control over your own wealth ..and with that come a lot of responsibility. Now, people have to take the responsibility to make provision for their own estate and how it will be handled.

Now this is an example of how it could have been handled. The Crypto owner can split the private key into two sections.. the one section can be stored with a lawyer and the other with a relative that he can trust. Not one of the parties can do anything with the section of the private key that they have.

The executor of the Will, then have to get access of both sections of the private key and they then have to import that into a wallet and convert it into fiat. (Make sure that the executor of the Will know something about Crypto currencies and how to sweep bitcoins to a new address/wallet)  

I am so sorry to hear about your loss.
This isn't the first key of loosing Bitcoin private key. The only thing I can recommend you is trying to look for a piece of paper or notebook or USB drive in your brother's staff. I think he kept a copy of his pass-phrase in a secure place.

It isn't. It seems unfair because you "feel" that you lost out on something, but in reality, crypto is your own bank, meaning you literally manage everything on it. And everything means EVERYTHING. No one would be able to let you access your funds unless you let someone else access it, so if you mismanage it or you die and no one else can access it, that's it. Heritage, will, or what not, nothing of those matters if you don't leave a way for someone else to access it. I repeat, it is not unfair, that's just what it means to have your "own" bank.

There are already a lot of solutions for this. I recalled before, a website or tool that is able to send an email for a specific period of time, and before that, it is kinda reminding you months/weeks/days before sending the email, just like you have a pending email that will be sent to particular email address.

I read before some people who already using this, just like if incase they will leave this world and have some notes for their love ones, so we can also use this to tell our family about our wealth on Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencis.

I encourage you to get positive with bitcoin^-/*/-and that if there is any cryptocurrency in investment by your deceased brother, you will get it.

You only have to do social engineering with the technological and social habits that your brother had, in the first instance you should know and be sure, but completely sure (100%) that you have "important" investments to make this asset search "trip" worthwhile, as it can be quite fast or it can take a long time.

If you have access to privileged information, I assure you that your "trip" will take you to the point of obtaining the necessary information to really know the value of those assets and to be able to use them.

Please avoid third parties who want to help you, especially anonymous or even acquaintances but who are not trusted, try it yourself in the first instance and require only the help of recognized companies.

Finally there is something that you can know a priori and I repeat it, studying the financial income and consumption habits of your brother can determine if it is worth doing that search, if someone talks about bitcoin or if they are expected to have a large amount of money in the bank and it doesn't exist, it not means  that your brother made investments in bitcoin, this comment may sound shocking and disorienting but I'm just being objective.

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You are making your Family Stupid for having no capacity to Understand Bitcoin when you die?

Why not start teaching them clearly for how it works so whenever you die they have idea and knowledge about your remaining cryptocurrency.

Know what ? you are just making the issue worst when the truth is , you are the one who must be responsible to handle and share this to them.

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Mine? i have teached my Wife and Children about how to claim all my crypto assets when there is unexpected things happen.

Give the access to your bitcoin (through private keys or mnemonic seeds) to the person you believe in, deeply love and want to give him or her the inheritance right for your bitcoin.

It can be done in your family. If you are a husband, a father and do love your wife, your children, you will want to give them information to get access to your bitcoin wallet. Just in worst case you suddenly pass by.

Make sure to train them which wallet to use, how to import a bitcoin private key/ mnemonic seed to a wallet. If you don't train them, when you pass by, they can ask someone else and probability to ask bad people is not low.

Therefore, first of all, you need to carefully inspect the workplace of the deceased brother, and then everything where he lived and worked. However, before that, you need to familiarize yourself with the private keys of bitcoin, how it is spelled, what letters and numbers it usually consists of, their number, in order to know what to look for. It is necessary to fully examine his records and possible hiding places, that is, in all unusual places. Of course, as already indicated here, also inspect his computer and all similar devices on which he could work.
Anonymity is a feature of cryptocurrency and therefore only we are responsible for the safety of our wallets and private keys to them. Nothing can be changed here.