What will happen to my crypto assets when I die
Have you ever asked yourself that question?
Should that day come, you'll know that all your real life assets, house, car, jewellery, best silver, valuable collections, bank accounts etc will be dealt with according to the local law and passed on to the right person. What about your crypto assets? Your Hive account, Hive Engine, Splinterland? All your other wallets and exchange? There is no law or regulation in the crypto world regarding assets of the dead.
In fact does anyone in your family even know about your crypto assets? Do they know what you're up to when you're in front of the screen all the time every day? Sure, they may know you're blogging or gaming, but do they actually know about all the rewards you get out of it? My husband knows I'm on Hive as he actually found out and told me about it four years ago. He knows I'm heavily involved in Pinmapple and I told him about the shit sun saga last year. But I'm guessing he just nods to everything I tell him as he normally does, and what goes in one ear goes out the other. Every now and then I update him on the value of my Hive wallet when there's a big movement in the Hive price, that, he takes more interest in.
If get run over by the bus today I'm pretty sure my husband would have little idea on how to access my Hive account. Undelegate first, wait five days, power down then wait thirteen weeks. No way he'd know about that. How does he convert the assets to fiat and move them to our bank account? Shifting Hive Engine funds out is even a bit of a challenge for myself, let alone him. Then he'll have to find all the various wallets and exchanges I've opened over the years because I had no idea what I was doing. On top of all this, he'll need my keys to access all these accounts.
So I've been thinking, what can I do to help my husband access my crypto assets if I die.
The easiest thing to do is to sit my husband down and go through everything with him. But remember I said what goes in one ear comes out of the other for him? Plus, it's unfair to expect him to remember this in the long run when he doesn't use these dapps and exchanges.
Alternatively, I could write everything down with clear instructions so any computer literate person, which my husband is, can follow. The problem is this becomes a double edge sword. If someone gets hold of this, I can kiss goodbye to my funds immediately.
A modification to the above, is to tear up the piece of paper to say ten pieces and stash them away at different places. As extra security, I'll give a few pieces to a close relative to keep at a different location. My husband will know the location of all the pieces, but not if someone broke into my home. Plus they will never have the complete puzzle. And my funds will be safe from theft. Not a bad idea actually but a little fiddly to keep track of.
The last method I thought of, is to find someone on Hive who can help him, a bit like setting your recovery account to a trusted person. I have one or two names in mind whom I can trust 100% in case my husband decides to give him or her all the keys to do all the transactions. I write down my keys in a little cryptic way which if you're a Hiver or cyrpto savvy person could decipher, but probably not the man on the street. Ideally my husband will know this person, or at least know of him or her. I've mentioned some people on Hive before when I tell him about the online gossip and happenings. Given an Hiver is more crypto savvy than my husband, perhaps this may be a viable and easier option.
How do you plan for these circumstances? I'm interested to hear what everyone else does as it's never too early to plan for these sort of things.
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A good discussion, @livinguktaiwan!
I've been thinking about it myself.
Perhaps I shall write about it!
Look forward to your thoughts on this @silversaver888, I don't know about most people in general, but I really don't place enough thought on all these matters, perhaps it's time to do so
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... and I have gold and silver to think of, in addition!
Write it down step by step. Show him those steps. Then keep it in a safe place.
I'm trying to help my son understand. It will take some time. My wife has no desire to learn. It's a few thousand dollars but it may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future.
Absolutely, a few thousand could become a lot more in future, let's hope it goes that way in the future for our next generation
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Teach your children well. Today looks like green for crypto but not a good day for fiat. !PIZZA
I have never thought of this and don’t hope to die soon as I am in my early twenties but if I am to think, I would love to give it to my mother or my brother.
Why my mother? I love her so much. Why not my brother? That’s because I told him about Hive but he keeps saying he cannot do it because he does not have the time when I don’t see anything he really does.
My mother is not a crypto person which is a problem but my brother understands everything about Hive and how it works.
Setting my brother as a recovery account would be a good way for him to access my hive account if anything bad happens to my enemy.
I can understand why you've never thought about this, you have the whole future ahead of you and I imagine there are lots in life that you haven't even started to do yet. But it's good that your brother understands Hive so I guess the problem has sorted itself out for you. One less thing to worry about.
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Already told someone to open my laptop in case I'm dead and everything's in there. 🙈
Yung browser history mo una kong titingnan.
Wala ka makikita dun. Magaling ako magtago ng kabulastugan.
Guard your laptop!!!
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My brother has all of my keys and passwords and I have his. When one of us dies, which is inevitable of course, the other will take care of things.
It definitely helps to have family on Hive who knows about the whole eco-system. Having read about health scare and near misses from some Hivers recently, has really prompted me to give this some good thought, and hopefully others will as well
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I hope so, it's a genuine and important matter. Also, in the real world:
These are the minimum for a person to have their death sorted, their life also (the last two points). I have gone as far as pre-payinf my funeral. It's a simple affair...Bundle me into box, roll me into the fire.
Fair way to go I guess, and puts less burden on the future generation to attend to your grave.
Talking of which, my poor old gran was dead against that, said it would hurt her to burn her flesh. Bless her soul. We respected her wish of course, and make sure we drop by whenever we're back which sadly isn't as often as we can
Death isn't a great subject and people have their own ideas around it. For me I don't see a point in trying to deny it, but I see a point in living life as best I can whilst I have it. :)
Lost BTC just reduces the supply and the value is redistributed back to all Hodlers.
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That's nice to know!!! But probably not so nice for the deceased's family _
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Perhaps there is a future for end-of-life smart contracts.
thank you for this discussion, @livinguktaiwan
I often think what you think too. The only person I trust the most is my mother. I told my mom about hive and how it works, but of course my mom isn't someone who can run this kind of app. As for friends, I hope one day I can truly trust someone to share my hive about me. I started to weigh in and there seemed to be two candidates. Ha ha ha.
It's good that you're starting to think about this as well, can never be too sure about life nowadays. Accidents and misfortunes don't discriminate by age
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This is a very good and important topic to think about.
It’s the opposite for me…my husband is already a crypto guru and he’s the one actually helping and teaching me how to do everything. He has access to all of my keys and passwords and knows exactly what to do.
We are also teaching our children about crypto. The next step for us would be to figure out the best way to prepare our oldest daughter in case something were to happen to the both of us. This wouldn’t be just for Hive but for all of our investments. We would definitely want our kids to know how to access and use these funds.
Perhaps maybe an encrypted spreadsheet mapping how to do everything that can be kept safe.
It kinda sucks being the eldest as so much responsibility is placed on the child! But I guess he/she has some benefits as well, like bossing the younger ones around!
Yes, maybe an encrypted spreadsheet stored on the chain or cloud could be an option. Like a smart contract that is only accessible with a key. I wonder if that's doable or if all smart contracts are public? Food for thought
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Haha yes it does suck that so much responsibility lies on the oldest. But as you said they do get the “say so” lol.
Hmmm that is food for thought. I was mainly thinking just a personal spreadsheet on our computer that would be encrypted but not sure how the smart contract route would work. 🤔
Couldn't you just lodge your keys and instructions with a lawyer like people do with a will? Someone throughout the process there has to be an element of trust.
I don't even have my will sorted out!!! That's probably something I should do as well now that I'm back home. I wonder how well equipped lawyers are to deal with the crypto world....
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I ran the hubs and older kids but same, same. No interest
Then I told them if have to, then I gave them a couple of peeps to reach out to :D
Did you tell them the value involved? Maybe they will become interested _
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This is something I discuss with friends and family that have cryto holdings on a regular basis. My "solution" was to give a thumbdrive to someone that is password locked and in the event of my untimely demise my lawyer has the password to it. Of course there are lots of ways that this could go wrong such as losing the drive but it is better than nothing!
I wonder if someone out there has a service for this? Seems like it could be a big business if they do.
I think there's definitely a demand for this type of service, wonder why there isn't yet?
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Important discussion! Break up into ten cryptic parts then e-mail to ten relatives/friends residing in different countries for safekeeping. My successor will need to contact all these ten people to retrieve her/his assets. Or, upon my death, the kins of these ten selected relatives will e-mail back to my successor. Thirty different secure e-mail addresses for sure. Numbers will vary according to the situation. Can be more and can be less.
That sounds really secure, or maybe a bit too secure? You'll have to ensure all those ten people are trustworthy and won't got awol..
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If some trustees go awol, then my successor lacks the luck to inherit my fortune. If all ten of my safe-keepers can figure out each other plus are willing to co-operate to distribute wealth equally (game theory), I am happy for them to inherit my cryptos 😄
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I think about this too. The only thing I could think of was to leave instructions/keys with a solicitor, or maybe a safe deposit box at a bank. My ex (on behalf of my kids), who is clueless about crypto and computers, would have real difficulty liquidating my crypto assets into fiat. I was going to leave my passwords with her, and suggest she get help from the hive community in how to deal with my crypto assets. But I think this is probably too much for her. Might have to write a specific manual on how to do it, and then store that in a joint safe deposit box at the bank. And then there's when. I'm not planning on dying anytime soon, but as you say, we could be hit by a bus tomorrow. As time goes on I think more and more about how I am going to deal with this.
Your idea is actually workable, providing your ex can get hold of a trusted Hiver because that's probably the missing block in my plan now because my Hive life is quite separate from my real life.
If you have kids, I think it's worth thinking about this sort of things, I've known people who suddenly died at quiet at a young age in recent years, and then this whole Covid thing blows up, killing a lot more, no one really knows what's going to happen tomorrow, sad but a fact of life.
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I have had this discussion with a friend here on Hive before.
My suggestion was that someone should develop an App for deceased estates on crypto.
The wife or husband that is entrusted with the keyes can then simply access the app and access the funds via a simple application.
This is a great idea! Or for someone who would like to leave it to somebody on Hive, to be able to just write off a post-mortem delegation lol. Sounds creepy, but it would be better than all of the crypto going to waste
Creepy yes, but they can always leave it to our charity of course.
It will indeed be sad to see it all go to waste.
!PIZZA
I wonder if this kind of idea could be implemented on Hive as any user having the possibility to decide to whom to delegate in case of...
One day I will find a developer that can help me to build such an App.
A lot of work as it will have to be very secure and easy to use.
It would be such an useful app, that's for sure! I hope you succeed!
Thank you milady.
and if the app could somehow automatically do all the transactions and convert to fiat or another chosen crypto, making the whole process very simple for the entrusted person would be great.
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I totally agree with you and if only we can find a developer to create such an app on Hive.
!PIZZA
My wife is the same, has no clue how to access any of our crypto. We don't have a lot to make it a big deal or anything but maybe one day?
When I told her its a problem that she doesn't know how to access our crypto she was like:
"Well do you know how to access any of our real money?"
.... .... 🤔
"Well played wife, well played"
touche
Well, if you don't, your lawyers will be able to deal with it, but there is no lawyer in the crypto world... But seriously, you never know how valuable your crypto assets will become one day!
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Yes very true!
This sounds like a good plot for an adventure movie. 😂 Kidding aside, I am so glad I was able to convince my girlfriend to join Hive. I know I can count on her to take care of everything for me. I should leave behind specific instructions though like who to give my money to, how much, and how often. I'd like her to trade some of it too.
That's great, one less thing for you to worry about. Maybe we should all aim to bring on a member of our family or close friend, it might be much easier in the long run should anything happen.
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Yes. Yes I have. I made a video a year ago I think with the exact title as this post :)
I still think of it all the time. I'm now considering revealing all my keys to someone I really really trust, just in case.
Great minds think alike, but your's was greater a whole year before !!!
A trusted person is the key to the key in all this
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I had that discussion with my wife. Both of us are invested in crypto and both of us have accounts of which neither one of us has the log in details. I suggested that we write the passwords etc down someplace so as to have them ready for the other person, should something bad happen to either one of us. All of my info is recorded in a safe place and relatively easy to pass on to my spouse. The bigger issue, however, are my children. I don't foresee a tragic accident in which both my wife and I kidck the bucket at the same time, but, if that were to pass, how would my kids, be able to get access to any of that info? I guess the best thing I can do is to instill in them the urge to learn about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, which is the future of humanity anyway. This way when they grow up, they'll be able to figure out on their own what to do with all those passwords and keys, provided that the exchanges and apps I use for my crypto necessities, still exist.
Sounds like your family is quite involved in crypto, and like you say it is the future so it's great your kids will have a head start in learning about it. Sadly the crypto world is still a dark space for many, who view it with suspicion and scepticism. I was talking to a friend today, a very seasoned IT consultant, and he was still talking about stocks and share for investment. I decided not to talk about crypto ^_^
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I just spaced out for a solid minute after reading this. My family do not know enough about crypto let alone accessing my assets. My friends are not into crypto either. My boyfriend could do the job, but what if we are not together anymore when I pass away? I guess I'll go with writing manual in parts and keep them safe in different places.
It's tricky isn't it, trying to figure all this out in a decentralised world. We got no one to fall back on if anything happens to us really need to plan ahead
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The truth is that this is an important issue for all of us since we do not know what may happen to our accounts and it is better if our family can help themselves with it. My account is not very big but it helps me a lot, so I sent my keys by email to my two daughters, I have them saved in my email in case my computer should have any problems. They have hive accounts so it should be easy for them. Another thing that I would like is that they continue to use my account since for that my reputation should be quite high and my HP too. They already know it works, so it would be my greatest wish.
That's great you've started to plan for it, not that anyone would want to execute the plan in anytime, but it's good to be prepared. I'm sure you're ahead of many people
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I left some riddles, so the people I trust will know how to access the funds, but no one else. A sort of Da Vinci Code ;)
Why not make your friends happy after you die!! I like that - the fun part, not you dying of course!!!
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Well I feel the best way to do so is by making a video explaining everything you own and how to access them. This way your husband can always watch and rewatch and take his time to understand every detailed step. The only thing you have to do is probably make copies of the video and put them in secure location send it to his email with a caption “To Open When Dead”. Then have the discussion and tell him about the email.
Actually, this is probably where the good old VHS or VCD comes in handy (assuming you know what they are ^_^)
Actually I think I read about some service a couple years ago where people can pre record a video and leave instructions on how and to whom it will be released after they die. I wonder how secure they keep the video...
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😆 of course I know what they are. They need to be agreement based on its safety
Can never tell people's age on the chain 😂
That’s true, am quite young . Just in my twenties.
I never thought yet about this, but it is a good point. At this point of my life, I would totally be ok to leave it to a charity organization, preferably also on Hive. But for sure if I would have a family I would think differently
Leaving to a charity is very noble particularly if it's on Hive as it would make the transfer very easy. The difficulty is really if you want to leave it to family which most people do, and the family have no idea how to access the accounts in the crypto world. Maybe something to deal with when your situation or decision changes.
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For sure I will consider other options later in my life
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I find it very funny that you are thinking about the possibility of dying and who will have your monetary funds, you know that in the same way I was thinking that, how would I do in such a case and to whom to leave the assets, another situation that I have considered is what happens With those assets of people who abandoned, died or lost their memory so to speak, and are kept in the accounts but no one agrees, it is unfortunately a waste of resources ...
I imagine there must be a lot of these lost funds around in the crypto spere. I can't access one wallet, luckily it's only worth around US$100 now, but that could go up on future !!
There is no easy way around this as like you my family knows I am on Hive and that is about it. I do have some close friends though and I would rely heavily on them to help out if it came to it. I think having a close buddy you can trust is the only way really for this to have a good outcome. Writing the the keys is one way but still they could mess up as this is not easy. I know of one or two people on here who would help me out and I would do the same for them.
My biggest concern is also that, they might mess it up , my husband is very technically capable, but all this is a bit different and there's is no fallback if he makes a mistake, that's my biggest worry
I've thought about it but never come out with a solution. I thought you have something.
I think paper is a problem. They can be subject to storage and all sorts of accidents like expected wet or flooding. So, it paper is the way, at least need to water proof seal it.
Anyone who has a solution will be a very popular person! I seriously think we need to think about it for those who have no crypto savvy family who can deal with it
Well, it's not easy if your family doesn't care about crypto which probably means paper is the best document but need to be comprehensive and waterproof is the tough part.
I guess the only person who know about my account balance is @bitrocker2020 and hopefully they find my keys in my computer.
Just make sure you leave your keys or bit of paper with your wife and you're all sorted. Bitrocker is a solid trusted hiver, plus you guys are so tight knitted in Malaysia, should the day come, I'm sure there will be no shortage of people who can help your family navigate around Hive and the ecosystem
Interesting topic one that, I will have to give some thought to who, I will give this information to. Thanks for bringing this topic up @livinguktaiwan :)
No one likes to think about kicking the bucket, but a little planning will go a long way, especially with assets in the crypto market. We have already covered that base. My son, the crypto genius that he is, got us invested years ago when everyone was poo-pooing the whole idea of digital currency. He is on top of his game so we just ride along with his moves. It's perfect!
Hope things are going well for you. Thanks for the insight.
Have a great week.
Hi @livinguktaiwan, actually I never thought of that. However, I agree with you that we should really think about it now because we never know what might happen tomorrow.
Although my account is not large, but I think it has a certain value to us, at least it can help buy food for my dogs for many months. So I thought I would sit down with my wife to share my account information with her and some necessary steps for her to know how to handle my account. And I will also ask the wonderful friends in the Hive Vietnam community to help her with that. Is that okay, @trangbaby?
Thank you very much for your sharing. It's actually something I haven't thought about before, but it's really important and necessary. Wish you a beautiful day!
Sure bro. It's my pleasure and thank you for your trust.
I hadn't thought of it before as well.. thanks for sharing this great article, @livinguktaiwan.
I need to act now and will pass along the information to someone trustworthy. ❤️
While I have not done so yet about my Hive/crypto stuff, I do have instructions about my other assets with my notary, where my will is deposited. I would just have to add a digital document to the will that contains the relevant information. This is stored in a safe vault at my notary firm. Of course you have to trust somebody, so selecting the right one is crucial.
These are all good points and is amazing how few people actually think about this. Perhaps it doesn't matter what happens to a Twitter account and such, but with crypto that's definitely a different kettle of fish.
I have written all my passwords together with applicable URLs and rough instructions in a text file, which I update periodically. This file lives on 3 USB thumb drives, 2 of which are in my bank safe and one is well hidden in the house. 3 drives for backup against corruption, and the bank vault because they are usually fire proof, which is a bigger danger than theft.
With regards to Hive I have added extra instructions as it is a bit more complicated than regular digital accounts. However, to keep it simple, I have only given "keywords" what to look for / learn, roughly in which order, and which software / URLs to use for access. I have also pointed out some pitfalls, i.e. where to be extra careful. This includes things like undelegating, powering down, and which exchanges to send the loot in order to convert it to fiat in the end.
In addition, I have listed a few members of the German community whom I trust to help with such a situation and how they can be contacted easily on Discord. Although I don't know these people physically, they are "pillars of the community" and have more to lose in reputation than what they stand to gain from stealing my few dollars. If you have a big investment in Hive your level of trust and comfort might bear closer scrutiny than that.
Lastly, one should not forget to name devices, e.g. mobiles, tablets, cloud storage, together with which important files to find on which device and the passwords thereto. It used to be easy - just find the pertinent folders in someone's home and office, and deal with the paperwork. Nowadays, much of this paperwork is never printed and only lives in the digital domain.
I think any reasonably net savvy person could deal with my entire digital estate in this fashion. I have told enough family members about the USB sticks as well.
However, I don't plan on croaking anytime soon. I still have too much living to do ;-)
P.S.: It goes without saying that the files on the USB drives need to be revisited and updated periodically. As this may not happen at the same time between the bank-USBs and the home-USB it is important to have a version date stored in those files.
Also, be sure to bring the prophet to the mountain and not the other way round. To update the thumb drives at the bank, carry the file on your mobile and take along a USB OTG adapter. Then do the updating right there in the bank vault. Saves a trip and reduces vulnerability.
I had my last will sorted out a few weeks back and left it to someone I trusted the most. But I haven't thought of my crypto assets yet, maybe because I'm still starting out. hehe
Lol this was a rather interesting skim through... I'd recommend you write all info on a sheet of paper and put it in a safety deposit box for safe keeping. That way it can be willed away and someone has access to it instead of going to the abyss and burned until one day someone can hack it.
!PIZZA party before you die though okay?
I know the feeling. It’s wise in Taiwan because crypto is really frowned upon by most people- many people jumped out when Bitcoin dropped two years ago. That when I started. Bitcoin was 6000!
Anyway I prepared a book of accounts, keys, password, and back up phrases. I I’ve shown my kids. Whether they reject or not it’s another thing- like you’re husband.
Found this one looking for something else and I find it an important and relevant topic today as it was when it was written. I've tried to make it manageable for my wife to be able to get to most of the things she needs to, but I as well also wrote down the names of two or three people that she can look up here that would be able to help her out if the unfortunate circumstance of my passing had occurred. I actually did this two years ago when I had a health scare and thought that I was doomed to die in a short term. Thankfully it wasn't the case lol but these days you never know! I am glad that I did it though, as the value has gone up over time and if all goes well, will continue to grow healthily even if I were to leave this plane and her be set on her own to figure this stuff out.