Quote from: DieCommieScum on October 19, 2017, 08:41:09 PM

Quote from: Pearls Before Swine on October 19, 2017, 07:23:37 PM

Quote from: DieCommieScum on October 19, 2017, 06:26:54 PM

I've given thought to this as well, some sort of multi-sig solution with a deadman switch where you can also provide your family with instructions.

Quote from: Emoclaw on October 19, 2017, 06:24:43 PM

There's absolutely no such need for a service for such a simple problem. How can you trust a centralized entity to give your Bitcoins to your family upon death, when you can't trust your family with your wallet?
It's completely useless, just ensure that they have access to your private keys.

No reason it can't be a dApp... and by your logic no one would write a will because everyone's family would already have free use of their stuff.

Right, but that's exactly what wills are for, and a will with the private keys
and instructions as to who gets what is all that's needed. There doesn't need to
be a service for this, which would probably be a scam anyway. If you write a will,
that's all you need to do.

A will either requires trust, or an insecure storage of private keys, probably both. It makes much more sense to use this programmable money to its potential, a trustless and decentralized deadman switch would be a much more reliable solution and should be trivial from a technical perspective. As for saying any such service would have to be a scam, you'd have to apply that logic to lawyers too then. The "service" need only be an interface to do what is already possible in a decentralized and trustless way.

Yes leaving a lawyer in charge of your private keys would be very risky. Not only would he have access, any number of paralegals or secretaries could have access too. If they have those keys they can rob you with no trace. Much better to have a decentralized solution to protect your decentralized currency. Normally lawyers would be agents of trust for a bank account or maybe a safe deposit box, where if they tried to withdraw the funds or access the safe deposit box there would be records of their identity and in the case of a bank transfer, an easy to follow paper trail. Leaving private keys with a lawyer would be like leaving him untraceable cash. Except no one would even have to inconvenience themselves to sneak it out of the office. Anyone could instantly take it if they can get so much as a glance at those private keys to write them down or take a quick photo.