I wanted to write my system for bitcoin inheritance and seed storage that will likely outlive me - the reason why is recently bitkey (squares hardware wallet) announced their inheritance system which is a vast improvement but still has a single point of failure square and the app they maintain though this is still a good thing and will improve the ecosystem and raise awareness there is a cheaper method that is just a secure but doesn’t have a single point of failure.
2/3 seed storage
2/3 seed storage is actually a pretty simple way of splitting up a key into three parts, if you have one part it’s useless, if you have any two parts it’s complete - if one piece is destroyed it doesn’t matter (demo below)
| A | B | C |
|---|---|---|
| 1. apple | 2. zipper | 3. dog |
| 4. tree | 5. car | 6. bus |
| 7. banana | 8. motorbike | 9. dune |
| 10. frank | 11. foundation | 12. meditation |
| 13. whiteboard | 14. laptop | 15. books |
| 16. perfume | 17. computer | 18. stone |
| 19. brick | 20. spreadsheet | 21. bird |
| 22. blog | 23. leaves | 24. grass |
This is a seed phrase split up into three parts (a,b,c) - now you can create your 3 parts
(1)
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. apple | 2. zipper | |
| 4. tree | 5. car | |
| 7. banana | 8. motorbike | |
| 10. frank | 11. foundation | |
| 13. whiteboard | 14. laptop | |
| 16. perfume | 17. computer | |
| 19. brick | 20. spreadsheet | |
| 22. blog | 23. leaves |
(2)
| B | C | |
|---|---|---|
| 2. zipper | 3. dog | |
| 5. car | 6. bus | |
| 8. motorbike | 9. dune | |
| 11. foundation | 12. meditation | |
| 14. laptop | 15. books | |
| 17. computer | 18. stone | |
| 20. spreadsheet | 21. bird | |
| 23. leaves | 24. grass |
(3)
| A | C | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. apple | 3. dog | |
| 4. tree | 6. bus | |
| 7. banana | 9. dune | |
| 10. frank | 12. meditation | |
| 13. whiteboard | 15. books | |
| 16. perfume | 18. stone | |
| 19. brick | 21. bird | |
| 22. blog | 24. grass |
Now you have your parts, you need at least 2/3 for it to be useful.
distribution
Distribution is pretty simple, keep one part, give a part to whomever you want to be able to claim your bitcoin upon death, give a part to someone you trust (along with instructions to post it to the claimant upon your death).
failure
For this to fail either
- Two out of three parts would have to be destroyed
- The trusted party would have to not post it AND either your part or the claimants would have to be destroyed
- The trusted party cannot figure out how to use a seed phrase (by default you should include instructions i.e NEVER SHARE THE SEED, transfer to a recommended wallet from bitcoin.org then transfer to an exchange and sell)
