Bet you never thought you might inherit cryptocurrencies
And interesting article in Recode, “Inheriting bitcoin is harder than it sounds”, about what happens if the owner of cryptocurrencies dies without leaving complete information about the data needed to access them.
With already more than 16% of Americans having investments in cryptocurrencies, with many analysts recommending investing between 1% and 5% of our wealth in this type of assets, and even with ads during the Super Bowl halftime show, the eventuality of an unexpected death turns the problem into something that can become relatively common.
What’s the problem? The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies means that if someone loses the keys to access a wallet, they have no recourse whatsoever to any kind of central authority or customer service that recognizes that, as the rightful heir, they are entitled to take over those funds. The funds would remain on the blockchain as is the case for many users, especially from when cryptocurrencies first became popular, but they would not be accessible. If we lose our keys or our heirs don’t have them, there’s no point in trying to call Satoshi Nakamoto or Vitalik Buterin for help.
Logically, the decentralized nature ceases to be so when a a custodial service is provided. In fact, companies like Coinbase or Binance, which store your cryptocurrencies…
