Death and bitcoin wills | Bitcointalksearch.org

EhVedadoOAnonimato

hero member

Activity: 630

Merit: 500

The protocol supports delayed transactions, which can be handy for this purpose. The problem is that currently there's no client that implements it, at least not that I'm aware of.

You could send transactions to your heirs that would only be valid in, like, 2 years from now. Then, if you're still alive when these transactions are about to be valid, you just use the same inputs to make another transaction to yourself, paying a higher transaction fee. This will cancel the other transaction.

The problems in this are:

You probably want to transfer everything you've got, including the money you move around all the time. So the delayed transactions would need to be canceled and resent every time you spend bitcoins.
You probably do not want to send everything to one address only of your heir, since that would completely expose your finances on the blockchain (people would easily know how much you've got and to where you send your coins). The ideal solution is to make at least one delayed transfer per input you've got, what means that your heirs should provide you lots of addresses. Another way to solve this is by not sending the transaction to the network, instead, give it as a file to your heirs, and ask them to only send it to the network in case you die.

It would hardly be practical to do all that by hand. You would need some piece of software to help you.

RodeoX

legendary

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The revolution will be monetized!

What about just a USB stick with wallet on it? Maybe kept in your safe deposit box with a set of instructions.

tvbcof

legendary

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I keep the passphrases for my encrypted wallets in my safe deposit box (the actual encrypted wallets are 'in the wild'.) If/when I do a large transaction, I'll possibly be giving away one or more of the wallet.dat files rather than transferring coins depending on the situation.

I should put some detailed instructions to my family about what these phrases are an how to deal with them and always meant to. Just have not gotten around to it yet. I'll do it next time I access the box.

brocktice

sr. member

Activity: 292

Merit: 250

Apparently I inspired this image.

I set my wife up with GPG a while ago so we could send encrypted emails about financial or other private stuff, tax docs, etc, so she has a key and knows how to use it.

I've put some things in place that will allow her to access my encrypted offline wallet in the event of my demise, and told her only that it's there, not what the provisions are. In the event of my death things will transpire that will allow her to figure out how to access it, probably with some help from the executor of my will, a very tech-savvy guy.

spruce

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

Quote from: Jointops420 on July 22, 2011, 08:18:08 AM

This is a great community and so many people working on making BTC better stronger and easy to use. So many things to learn about the tech behind it I get a bit overwhelmed with it. I have no doubt it wont be long and many things will be nub friendly.

Yes. Be thankful that right now everything isn't easy with abundant infrastructure. By the time it is all in place the price of bitcoins will have rocketed!

Jointops420

full member

Activity: 132

Merit: 100

This is a great community and so many people working on making BTC better stronger and easy to use. So many things to learn about the tech behind it I get a bit overwhelmed with it. I have no doubt it wont be long and many things will be nub friendly.

spruce

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

Quote from: Serith on July 22, 2011, 08:02:35 AM

Quote from: spruce on July 22, 2011, 07:35:17 AM

Get a paper bitcoin wallet from Casascius or elsewhere. Keep the private key(s) private. Maybe encode them (see SpruceCodes link in my sig). Pass them on when you're dead.

You should be careful about that option because if the guy ,who sells paper bitcoin wallet, wouldn't destroy his copy, he would be able to access your money at any time. I think good solution is on it's way https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19137.0 .

It's a question of choices. Of course you have to trust the source of the paper bitcoin wallet not to keep a copy. I believe that from version 4.0 of the regular bitcoin client software you will be able to easily export private keys yourself. The question is, how certain are you of your ability to do all this securely? Personally, I'm not too confident of my ability to even keep my wallet.dat file(s) permanently secure, so I choose to risk Casascius' wallets, i.e. I take him at his word that the keys were created securely and that he has no copies at all. People who are much more confident in their computer crypto abilities could well choose differently.

Serith

sr. member

Activity: 269

Merit: 250

Quote from: spruce on July 22, 2011, 07:35:17 AM

Get a paper bitcoin wallet from Casascius or elsewhere. Keep the private key(s) private. Maybe encode them (see SpruceCodes link in my sig). Pass them on when you're dead.

You should be careful about that option because if the guy ,who sells paper bitcoin wallet, wouldn't destroy his copy, he would be able to access your money at any time. I think good solution is on it's way https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19137.0 .

spruce

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

Quote from: Jointops420 on July 22, 2011, 07:42:14 AM

Thanks for that its something thats been on my mind not morbidly just its a reality.

Yeah. I've wondered about it too. One advantage of the paper bitcoin wallet is that the whole thing can be kept on a bit of paper sealed in an envelope, and does not depend on some electronic copy on a computer requiring that your hard drive be accessed.

You would need to be aware of what could happen if someone unfamiliar with bitcoin handles the paper contain the private keys insecurely, not knowing that if someone merely takes a copy, like with a digital camera, they could shortly access all the funds you have stashed.

Dansker

hero member

Activity: 740

Merit: 500

Hello world!

Remember to contact a lawyer and make an actual will too, if this is any significant amount of money, and you want them distributed in a special way after your death.

Jointops420

full member

Activity: 132

Merit: 100

Thanks for that its something thats been on my mind not morbidly just its a reality.

Piper67

legendary

Activity: 1106

Merit: 1001

Try ownlegacy.com... I was thinking of starting a similar service about a year ago. It will allow you to create a legacy that, upon your death, can be bequeathed to your loved ones. That could very well be an encrypted wallet.dat file and instructions on what to do with it.

spruce

full member

Activity: 140

Merit: 100

Get a paper bitcoin wallet from Casascius or elsewhere. Keep the private key(s) private. Maybe encode them (see SpruceCodes link in my sig). Pass them on when you're dead.

Jointops420

full member

Activity: 132

Merit: 100

I am a bit older than the average punter on the site and have lost my share of loved ones over the years. So I have been thinking I would hate to die and leave all my coins so secure that not even my family can get them when I am gone.
I am trying to work out a way where you can pass them on to whoever you want but keeping it 100% in your control until your gone knowing while your alive there all yours and happy in the fact your loved ones will get them even if they know nothing about them in the meantime.
I doubt if I ever want to disclose to anyone how much wealth I gain in these but want them to get a nice surprise, ah I can fantasise about being secure financially.
Otherwise over time bitcoins will eventually disappear whittling down to forgotten wallets.
There maybe a business in this but I am not financial enough to start nor do I have the business attitude to run one.

Topic: Death and bitcoin wills (Read 2323 times)