**Don't Take A Dirt Nap Before You Read This!!!** | A Friendly Reminder That Cryptocurrency Fortunes Are Forever But You Are Not.
Congrats on amassing (or in the process of ammasing) a cryptocurrency fortune that will one day rival the great Mansa Musa. However there is one thing that old man Mansa didn't have to worry about: private keys. Don't screw things up and buy the farm before you let you family know how to access it.
The current issue of Fortune Magazine ran an article about a Colorado man that passed away without leaving instructions on how to access his bitcoin fortune. According to the the article, most of the fortune was in a Coinbase wallet and the family was able to provide bank account records to prove it was his.
That family was lucky. However, let me be clear when I tell you:
Your family will not be as lucky.
How many readers here can say that their spouse has any idea what a private key is or where or what to do to access your crypto wallet in the event of your untimely death (maybe first, I should ask if your spouse even knows you have crypto wallets ha)?
Even if your spouse knows what a private key is, I still read the occasional sob story that a person sent coins/tokens to a wrong address. In other words, people that know what they are doing make mistakes all the time.
If you don't want all of that hard work that you did building that fortune to go to waste, then my advice is to prepare and consider the following actions:
Document (and regularly update) clear instructions on where all of your coins/tokens are held. Encrypt the document if you plan to keep a copy online. Store a physical copy in a very safe place.
Start a conversation with your spouse about the document to make sure he/she has at least somewhat of an understanding of the steps he/she needs to take. The conversation probably should stress that private keys never be trusted to anyone else.
The same understanding should be discussed if you also have wealth in cold storage. Don't assume that your family will know that the device you left for them holds all of your vast riches.
LAST THOUGHT
Don't let your legacy be that you actually did take all of your wealth with you when you decide to "cash in your chips"
Plan now.
Please share your thoughts or ideas about this topic with the steemit community.
Traversing the Cryptosphere,
Kryptonaut
What great advice! I didn't consider this at all. I wonder if there is a better way - a service - that will tell your family about your passwords in the event of your death.
Yeah tough problem here. You can't trust a third party service and there are problems with storing keys yourself. I don't think there is a perfect, or even near perfect, option yet that is foolproof.
I agree. whoever solves the problem stands to make a good profit.
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Great advice. That is one of the most overlooked aspects of crypto. I've already taken steps to educate my grown children about my Exodus wallet and the concept of a 12 word passkey.
I also educated them on the 2 rules of Bitcoin Club.
#1. You don't talk about your Bitcoins, and
#2. You don't talk about your Bitcoins.
I hope that points one and two are not your secure 12 word passkey! ; )