I understand for many of us it's not a subject we're often comfortable discussing, but let's face it we're all going to die! It's just a matter of time. But the fact is that the only certainty in life is... death!
Before you scream out saying Cryonics FTW, we're not quite there yet! Besides, most of us won't have access to such systems even if it were available for use in the mainstream.
I went through a near-fatal accident a year ago. Ever since this subject remained in the back of my head until on a call with a friend who mentioned yesterday that she retains a copy of her Steemit keys with her brother and vice versa and suddenly I had this realisation that I haven't planned for this scenario myself.
I have a sizeable savings in cryptocurrencies and this results in wallets, keys, passwords and PINs. There are exchange passwords, 2FA and email accounts. How do you relay this across to your family, especially the ones you can trust but are total noobs when it comes to understanding the complexities of transacting in this space.
Is there any service out there that makes all of this easy? I personally don't know. I assume this would be a sizeable market and multi-sig will and testament businesses will have a lot of work to handle if cryptocurrencies were to go mainstream. Infact it could be profitable to be in a business that gives access to your holdings and passwords should things go wrong earlier than expected.
Losing your Steemit key is bad enough but imagine losing access to your entire portfolio. Worse still, many of us earn for improving our livelihood and providing for our families. What if we pass away without ever handing over precious keys to our families? Has this thought ever occurred to you?
I'm now trying to plan for such contingencies and would love to hear from you about your strategies for such eventualities. How are you going about accomplishing these things to ensure your assets benefit your family in the event of your unexpected passing.
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I must get on this!
Yeah, but it much better,@jsteem, if we make the will regarding every important things we have that may of use.
@firepower, I couldn't agree more, although it quite baffling and edgy topic it's also a very important thing to tackle. I was having so much fun that I almost forgot this utmost thing, tho I don't hold much power(money) in steemit, I still have real-estate properties left untouched. Oh dear!! But please don't take us soon!
I to have thought of this. I plan on making a written copy of all my keys stored in a safe for my son. Hopefully by time he gets it, it will be worth fortunes to be passed down from generation to generation lol
What ive done is encrypt usbs which i continually update. Its a little bit time counsming but worth it. Also..make sure one person beside you and your spouse know the usb key. If you both die in a car crash that person (your brother sister dad uncle) can unlock the usbs. Also keep one copy in their house. But with a password they DONT know. Thats in case your house burns down(without you in it) or the location where your usb is compromised.
i saved my username and password in a pendrive and i gave that to my sister.....
Two hardware wallets, one seed. That covers the bulk of my hodlings.
My wife has her own USB flash drive with all the keys to my wallets and I have shown her how to use it so that makes here the one who will get all my coins if I leave the planet :)))
USBs do fail. Just a thought
Yup your right that is why I have 4 more USBs to which she has access too and I have printed them on a few papers and put them into ring binder with my paper wallets, bank and insurance stuff.
That is a really interesting point I had never conidered. Luckily, my brother is quite a tecky, so I could let him know how to access my various accounts, and he could do the same with me.
Thank you for this... I might not have thought about that until it is too late ;-)
Yeah it is an eye opener for sure not only for the aged steemians but also to the young ones because life is not predictable and it is not promised to anyone. We all need to leave our wealth in safe hands...and the right hands at that.
Yes you are right I agree with you and I start follow you to get more useful informations from you 😃😃
I suppose keeping both paper and digital copies of your keys would provide the most security, but, it is a valid point that the more places you have your passwords, the higher the odds are that you could have them stolen.
I think caution and being conscience of your actions is the best guard against scammers and thieves.
If a business did pop up that specialized in keeping of personal keys and passwords, I would not envy them. They would immediately have a target on their back.
You could print them and store them in a sealed envelope. What I have done is to encrypt the keys before printing it, but giving my inheritors the instructions on how to decrypt it. A person with some encryption skills would probably be able to crack it, but of course there will be no way to know that these are actually passwords/keys and not just some random stuff. It's note like I have written "STEEMIT PASSWORD" on the envelope :P
That definitely is a big worry for crypto holders.
There is talk about a new ico called Safehaven.io which still is to be launched maybe this month. As far as I know they are planning to do what you are worried about. You can nominate the person whom you want your funds to go in case you die.
https://safehaven.io/
Here is an excerpt from their whitepaper that would interest you:
"Have you ever thought about how, at any second, something could happen to you? Have you ever thought about the day your family will face life without you? What about your cryptocurrency investments? What about those difficult markets with hundreds of private keys, exchanges and wallets? Will they ever be able to recover your investment without you? Can they trust anyone who would help them without the fear of something going wrong? Yes, they can! Safe Haven provides the solution! We are building a platform on the most popular and secure block chains so that you can stop worrying about your legacy!"
I do not know if this is it, but for sure there is a need for one safe heaven.
Upvoted it so that it comes into somewhat limelight.
I have not, but it's definitely an interesting idea to nibble on.
This got me thinking
Great question! First time Ive considered it. Thanks for spurring my mind into action!
And remember, our lives could end at any moment. We do not know when we will called, only that it is going to happen. Thus any crypto investor with people close to them has to think about these things well in advance
I've thought about this too. I keep a small binder with life insurance, brokerage, mortgage, other information in a safe place. I printed paper wallets of all crypto accounts, including my Steemit wallet and all the keys. My wife has no clue what to do with any of those things, but we have friends who we trust who are knowledgable, and I have instructions to immediately liquidate all crypto assets in the event of my death.
Tough to think about but absolutely necessary.
You have brilliant Ideas. Sounds interesting enough. The heir should be trained first to take control.
I got experienced once by loosing my master key so this time i shared my keys to Dad & Gf :)
No, I haven't planned mine yet maybe on of these days ^^
Never think like that but after reading this post, i also thik that there should be a plan for this situation. Totally agree with you.
I haven't made any plan for this but i think i must because nobody knows that what will happen in next second and then everything will becomes useless(the tension you get when market was down and the smile when it's up). I don't want to take that money with me up there in hell/heaven doesn't matter.
@firepower thanks for this interesting topic and i am going to do something with it
Death is our final goal. We must save everything on the way .
Personally I use the Aegis Secure Key 3.0 which uses level 3 hardware encryption. There a little pricey, but if you have enough crypto to need it then that won't be a problem for you. I only connect them to a permanently offline laptop and use any other random USB drive to transfer keys and other safe files back and forth between online and offline computers. All my keys are saved on these drives along with instructions for family in the event they are to unfamiliar with the process. My family however does not have the passwords to these drives. Why? Well where are they going to store this drive? In the safe? Now where would they keep the 16 character numeric password? Also in the safe? Duhh... The passwords to access the drives are set up on somewhat of a dead man switch so to speak so if anything happened to me they would receive the passwords after a period of time. I don't and would never trust any 3rd party software or even 3rd party hardware wallets. Ultimately I will not sacrifice safety for convenience.
Here is a link to the ones I use: https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Validated-256-bit-Encryption-ASK3-16GB/dp/B01AJNGF4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517038011&sr=8-1&keywords=aegis+secure+key+3.0
This is an extremely valid point.
I'm 30 years old and I'm not likely to fall off of the face of the earth anytime soon. I rarely consider the idea of inheritance. If I were to die today, my crypto holdings would likely be lost forever - I don't think my girlfriend would recognize the value, nor would she know how to navigate the various platforms to cash out. Crypto is a difficult asset to pass on primarily because of the required technical knowledge of how it works. Even passing along my private and public keys might not guarantee that my heir would be able to extract any value from the asset.
Thankfully crypto is not my primary asset - And I don't believe it should be anyone's primary asset - But it's definitely still a significant chunk of my holdings.
I think there's a big market for tools that can be used by the common public to handle crypto. Services like CoinBase, and sites that easily allow crypto to be converted back to fiat are likely to become increasingly popular as the less technically inclined move into the crypto world.
My two cents:
Get things arranged with the IRS or whatever they are called in your country. Especially if you have a considerable some invested in crypto ( i.e. More than few hundreds of dollars, I guess). Don't try to hide it.
Give your keys to someone you trust (childeren, spouse, whatever). Yes "trust". that word true.
It will only be a matter of time before exchanges start offering Transfer on Death (TOD) contingencies just in case. Ive had to set this up for a few accounts. As for private wallets... thats something to speak with an attorney on. I can only imagine how many of the fix number of coins have been lost forever already due to hardware being destroyed, passwords lost, and physical wallets going missing.
As of now, the IRS will only monitor people om Coinbase who have more than 20,000 dollars in crypto. Let it be known that you only pay taxes when you liquidate your funds
I like your post and resteem it plz check my post if u have spare time for me @firepower
Reading this article made me think about the situation where I'm dead and my family - looking through my stuff finds the steemit key. They enter it and boom - they become the crypto millionairs.
Estoy totalmente de acuerdo, incluso debemos enseñar a nuestros hijos a trabajar y confiarles toda la información. Este mundo de las criptomonedas se ha ido extendiendo cada día y tenemos que prepararnos para cualquier eventualidad.
This is a serious concern, this is something valuable from you. Thank you
I'm not married yet, don't have kids yet either but my sisters have my passwords saved as backup. While we don't pray for death it's actually wise to let someone you trust in on your financial secrets... That way you can be rest assured that whatever happens, your funds are in good hands.
Well... i ve not thought about that yet. Probably because i don't have so much to leave behind. But its an idea i have to ponder on. True to your words, anything could happen!
On a lighter note, incase you are looking for who to make your cryptocurrency heir? Look no further! I'm right here!!😁😁
Let me start here by the saying of this great African Nobel Laurent Prof. Wole Soyinka that if knowledge is expensive try ignorance. So i can pass cryptocurrency to my heirs. I am better informed now. Thank you.
@firepower
That thought has crossed my mind many times in the past few months too. I initially bought a keepkey, thinking that I would just place everything on there, but that has not worked out quite that way. I am constantly moving things around and adding new platforms and crypto etc. that half the time nothing gets placed on keepkey at all.
I have since resorted to listing every platform I use with all the usernames and passwords, I have ended up using the same email for all crypto stuff, so I have given my nephew, who is a highly qualified computer wiz with programming skills in 101 things, access to that email address as well as all my cpanel details just in case. So trust that he would be able to make sense of everything.
That is my current plan, but I do see how some kind of all-in-one solution would be a great idea. I think maybe I should chat to him and we could get started on just that. lol :-)
Great post, food for thought. it has made me give some more serious thought to organising my crypto draw.
stay blessed...
death is the only reality in life and very sad:((( @firepower
Great post! I wish you all the best.
Feel free to check out my blog @crypto-moon, this way we can support each other!
Cheers
yaah Losing your Steemit key is bad enough but imagine losing access to your entire portfolio!
we have to care not to lose our key !
The time I bumped into accidents twice last year and the moment made me think about my daughter.... and I realize life is really short and cryptos are getting huge... soooooooo....
I let my partner knows all of my passwords in crypto and also I gave her a list of what to do in case there's something happen... wanted to secure my daughters future.
Thanks for the reminder, I just made a back up plan!
So much for the ATO clamping down on the black market. Bitcoin is invisible to everyone except the owner, even the ATO, unless it is inherited and even then, can be dissolved into family trusts without regulatory scrutiny. It can be bought and sold without any reporting required. What a joke on the system of taxation in a fiat currency. If Governments realised how dangerous Bitcoin is to the legitimacy of sovereign monetary policy, they would ban it outright. They won't and can't because the horse has bolted and they they've spent their time picking on low hanging fruit like personal income taxation compliance and slashing social welfare. Outstanding in it's stupidity really. And what do we hear from the mainstream economists? Chirp, chirp ....................
That's groupthink at work in the neoliberal world.
i have no idea about future... i just like it... and your word is impressed me.... that's it...
I’m sorry you had to go through the accident experience, these words makes people like me scared lol, I mean unexpected death but the truth has to be told and they say the truth is bitter. What you just said is absolutely right, we don’t know for sure when we are leaving this world and your idea of giving out our investment to our loved ones is right. I think storing all crypto coins in open ledger then letting our family members have access to them is a good thing, Storing our steemit passwords in emails and our details also giving the ones we trust so much is also a nice idea. Thanks for bringing this awesome idea to us. Stay bless
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There is no knowledge that is not power we shall all die but we need to live a legacy behind most people are scared of death and its sure but in old age and fulfilment of our wishes and plan
I always read your articles my friend is still a junior who needs your help sir ..
Man, I didn't think about that! My husband and I are both on Steemit and we both have access to each other's passwords and stuff. But that's about it! I think you're right - the potential for lawyers in the future to deal with all crypto inheritance is huge! Because it's still early days, we're like in the Wild West times of crypto - there are no rules really. Not yet!
I was discussing this issue to fellow steemians a while ago, we thought sharing passwords to loved ones, write bookeeping and keep into safe deposit box, all e maill passwords and etc .. not sure will this works .. but somehow have to do .. we may not know what will happen to each of us tomorrow ..
Thks for sharing @firepower .. its a reminder to me and us fellow steemians ..
Extremely solid point, not once have I thought about the future of my portfolio or where it's gonna end up when the day comes.
I appreciate this article ! Thanks a lot! I will think this through a bit more and make a better decision for my future endeavors!
U so gorgeous!! Thank u
your post @fireprower very good and very useful for visitors and readers ... continue to work
I see this as something that everyone has to think about. Infact, we are requested to choose a nominee when we open our bank accounts or take life insurance. Eventhough, many would not want to think about their demise, that is one thing that is always looming over our head. You just don't know when or where it could happen.
Eventhough, I don't have a sizable income from Cryptos at this juncture, I have a very close family member with whom I have shared my online wallet, email, PINS and so on. Infact, I have his account credentials as well. This has infact come to my aid when I lost my mobile phone once and I was able to retreive my online wallet and email from his phone.
For some though who have huge funds in their online wallet, it's exceedingly tough to trust anyone.
I think you have saved a lot of future disasters with this post. I opened an account here because my brother told me about it. Which is perfect because he's the only one who knows about this stuff that I can trust.
I think I'll send him a message now.
Wow..never thought of this...I think I should write about this for my followers from Nigeria. Thanks for sharing
I would say I have never thought about this till now.
But I have read about it, somewhat related to it.
Every year, a sizeable amount of bitcoins are lost due to sudden deaths of their owners, this was one of the lines I remember when I was trying to figure out what bitcoins were.
I will think about it now and will also keep a check on this post's replies.
Maybe someone will have the solution about this.
Thanks for bringing it up to everyone's attention.