E256 Multisig Keys for Bitcoin Inheritance Planning

<p>If you have a multisig, who should hold keys as part of your bitcoin inheritance plan?</p> <p>Multisig is a great way to reduce risk of theft or catastrophic loss by reducing single points of failure. Michael Flaxman does a nice job explaining <a href= "https://btcguide.github.io/why-multisig">why to use multisig</a>.</p> <p>But what happens upon your death? You’ll want one (or more) of your keys held by someone other than you. Let’s review some good options for who.</p> <h2>Bitcoin custody service</h2> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-41784" src= "https://anthonyspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Bitcoin-custody-service-300x169.jpg" alt="Bitcoin custody service" width="300" height="169" /></p> <p>Nowadays there are several businesses to fill this void, led by <a href="https://unchained.com/">Unchained Capital</a> and <a href= "https://keys.casa/">Casa</a>.</p> <p>Some advantages of hiring a pro keyholder:</p> <ol> <li>Expertise. These guys appear to know what they’re doing.  So you won’t have to worry much about them losing their keys, maintaining good opsec, or generally keeping up to date.</li> <li>Immortality (sort of). Even if the founder or your main point of contact dies, the business itself will carry on and be there after your death (unless they go out of business, of course)</li> <li>Handholding for your heirs. Both Casa and Unchained offer services to guide an executor or heir who is completely clueless about seed phrases, multisig, etc. So not only are they one of your</li> </ol> <p>And a few disadvantages:</p> <ol> <li>New. Custody services, collaborative custody, whatever they’re called, it’s all very new. So it’s hard to predict if they’ll stick around, change their focus, or what business standards they’ll adhere to. Only time can tell</li> <li>No probate expertise. While these guys are clearly experts in custody and security, they don’t have experience with probate and executor issues. No shame there, even most “estate planners” and financials advisors don’t really understand