

Ask HN: Startup idea - bitcoin inheritance - debugunit

In the, perhaps unlikely, event that bitcoin becomes mainstream, there are going to be lots of people with significant wealth in cold storage that risks being permanently lost if they die (or stolen if their inheritance documents reveal too much).  So we need a way of getting private keys to beneficiaries without risk, perhaps involving some kind of secret sharing scheme and reasonably trusted third parties (lawyers, friends, relatives).  I&#x27;ve spent some time thinking about how you&#x27;d achieve this, and have concluded that it&#x27;s beyond me.  But if anyone here wants to try it, I&#x27;ll be both a tester during development and a customer.
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kennyledet
> So we need a way of getting private keys to beneficiaries without risk,
> perhaps involving some kind of secret sharing scheme and reasonably trusted
> third parties (lawyers, friends, relatives). I've spent some time thinking
> about how you'd achieve this, and have concluded that it's beyond me.

Seriously? I could have the core system developed within a day. Do you want me
to do it?

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nkuttler
With
[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0038](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0038) the
protected private key can be stored securely, and family members could be
given the passphrase during the owner's lifetime.

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debugunit
Am I missing something significant? If my wayward indebted 19 year old (not
that I have one of those currently) can get hold of the encrypted key, he can
take its money. So I'm putting total trust in the security/honesty of the
lawyer or whoever who is storing the protected key. So they might just as well
be storing the unprotected private key. I'd rather not put total trust in
anyone, but reasonable trust in several (disinterested) people.

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davidsmith8900
\- Thanks for sharing.

