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Is your crypto safe if something happens to you?

10 points by tinymile ↗ HN
Curios question. What are you doing to make sure that your crypto is accesible to your family just in case something happens to you ? A few people I know gave their lawyers their secret keys. Others have tattoed their keys on their spouse.

26 comments

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retrac
Like you say. The usual ways of handling things after you are gone. Tell your spouse and mother. Or entrust it in a sealed envelope with a lawyer. I already have "if anything should happen to me" letters, addressing other but similar issues, entrusted with a couple of close friends, which get updated every few years.

If I had enough cryptocurrency to worry about this issue, I'd consider just putting the keys in those, assuming they're very close friends. If not, this situation would actually be a pretty good use scenario for a multiple signer key system. And if you're worrying about the majority of people you could trust colluding against you, you probably have bigger problems.

Sevii
Engrave your secret key on a sheet of metal, then store that in a bank deposit box. Add a note for your heirs. Include the contents of the box in the will.
Trias11
Government bureaucrats are known to violate privacy and confiscating or arresting the contents of safety deposit boxes for political and other illegitimate reasons. Creditors, past spouses, tax authorities, frivolous lawsuits, courts, political opponents - when powerful enough can tap into your safety deposit box. Imagine the jackpot they’ll hit finding the magic words.

Yet people keep suggesting safety deposit boxes as a great solution.

Please stop.

approxim8ion
Can you suggest better alternatives? I can't seem to think of any that will pass the metrics you laid down.
wikibob
Attorney.
approxim8ion
Can't be coerced into handing over information you leave them if it is involved in ongoing proceedings?
wikibob
No, not in the USA under normal circumstances.

This is known as attorney-client privilege. They are required to maintain it even when you stop paying.

approxim8ion
Thanks, I didn't realize this could be considered privileged. Seems pretty airtight then
Trias11
Right. Unless they decided to arrest or attack attorney for some fake cause that enables them to dig deeper.
Trias11
- Split words in 3 groups

- at least two groups are needed to assemble full phrase

- spread each 1/3 in different entities - ex: lawyer, safe, relative

- write a will authorizing kids access all 3 places

approxim8ion
Thanks for responding. I understand it's all about threat modelling but would this necessarily be too much of an issue for a government to gain access to? The will would still describe how to bring all the information together.
Trias11
The government doesn't necessarily need to know the location of each piece.

Of course bank safety deposit box is an easy target, but it's easy to spread more pieces among lawyers, family, even friends, even without them knowing what it is.

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muzani
I got a will for this. Passwords go into an envelope. Pass it to them. Change passwords every time I update the will - new child, major debt paid off, new major asset.

I'm partially convinced this is a social engineering attempt but the will approach is nothing special. If you can't trust them with your crypto keys, you probably shouldn't trust them to manage your assets years after your death.

randomhodler84
My keys and coins die with me. Sorry. That’s the rules. I don’t believe in generational wealth, nor do I plan on having any heirs.
[dead] govgodwhy
What about donating to charity when you die?
trcarney
At least donate them to a charity...
randomhodler84
No, I don’t respect any charity enough to deserve the keys. Sorry.
Kevin_S
Sorry this is off topic, but you seriously don't respect a single charity?

There are a ton of amazing charities doing incredibly underfunded work. Even small amounts of money can make a big difference.

I'm an academic researcher that studies nonprofits. I could recommend a few if you like?

randomhodler84
I said I don’t respect any charity to give them my keys, not that I don’t respect any charity full stop. No thank you to your offer.
randomopining
Multi-sig. It can get complicated. But yeah there's actually pretty intense ways that are more secure than anything else available.

Where I think there is a problem is the non-reversible nature of transactions lend themselves to hostage-taking or adduction schemes by cartels and criminals etc... that's where I think crypto is very weak.