Crypto Inheritance: Pass On Your Crypto Without Handing Over the Keys Today

The crypto inheritance dilemma

Every inheritance plan for self-custodied crypto runs into the same tension:

• If you give one person your seed phrase now, you are trusting them, and everyone who can get to them, with all of it, starting today.
• If you tell nobody, your family may not even know the wallets exist, let alone how to open them.
• If you leave the phrase in a will, it can be read by more people than you expect during probate.

The way out is to split trust so that no single person can act alone, while a group of the right people can.

What a crypto inheritance plan needs

1. An inventory. Which wallets, which networks, roughly what is in them, and which apps or devices are involved. Your heirs can't recover what they don't know exists.
2. The keys. Seed phrases, passphrases, PINs and anything else needed to open each wallet.
3. Instructions. Plain-language steps a non-technical person can follow, including who to ask for help and what to be careful about (scams target grieving families).
4. A trust structure. Who can unlock all of this, and how many of them must agree.
5. The legal side. Your will or estate documents should say the assets exist and who inherits them. This page is not legal advice; talk to a professional where you live.

Using a threshold so no one can act alone

With Shamir's Secret Sharing you choose, for example, five people and a threshold of three. Each holds a key share. Any three together can unlock what you left; one or two alone learn nothing at all.

ShareMySecret puts that into an iPhone app. You write the secret, which can be seed phrases, passphrases and the instructions themselves, and the app encrypts it on your device with AES-256 and splits the key among the people you choose. Each recipient gets one key share together with the encrypted secret, so recovery doesn't depend on your phone still working. There is no server holding a copy and no company that has to be in business when the time comes.

Choosing your key holders

• Mix circles. A spouse, an adult child, a sibling, a close friend, a professional you trust. People who would not easily coordinate behind your back.
• Plan for absence. Holders may be unreachable, ill or no longer around. Use more shares than the threshold so a couple of missing people don't block recovery.
• Tell them what they hold. Each holder should know they have a share, that it only works together with others, and who else to contact. That note can be part of the plan without revealing anything sensitive.
• Keep it current. If you change wallets or a relationship changes, create a new secret with new holders.

Limits to know before you rely on it

• ShareMySecret is iOS only: you and every key holder need an iPhone with the app.
• If the threshold number of holders choose to collude, they can open the secret. Pick the threshold with that in mind.
• There is no automatic "dead man's switch". Recovery happens when your holders decide to combine their shares.
• Your phone must be trustworthy when you enter seed phrases. See the threat model for what the app does and does not protect against.