Quote from: tryptamind on July 02, 2013, 03:47:22 PM

What happens to the bitcoins if I have 100,000 BTC, and I die?

Are they out of "circulation" forever?
Or does something else happen to them?

Avoiding the political/economic discussions at the end of this thread.... In it's simplest form, compare it to fiat cash upon death.

If you die with 100,000 {your currency here} in a suitcase, it it lost until the suitcase may be found. If it is bricked inside your fireplace, it may never be found. It's mostly easy to spend a suitcase of cash.

If you die in a raging house fire with your fiat in a suitcase, the chances are higher that the cash (assuming paper) will disintegrate and be gone before anyone finds it.

I believe that if you die with 100k BTC, and do not leave instructions/passwords/wallet.dat information backed up somewhere, your BTC has died with you in a raging housefire and will never be spent.

It's really hard to make a safe backup of a suitcase full of cash. It's really easy to keep multiple backups of 100k BTC, you just need to leave instructions and passwords to your next of kin.