Cryptocurrency has revolutionized the way we perceive and interact with money. But as it continues to push boundaries, one question lingers on many investors' minds: "What happens to my crypto if I die?"
Cryptocurrency and Death
Traditional assets like houses, cars, and money in the bank have well-established processes for inheritance. However, cryptocurrency, with its hallmark decentralization and privacy, poses a unique problem. Crypto assets, by design, aren't linked to your identity. They're controlled solely by those who hold the private keys. If these keys are lost or inaccessible, so are your digital assets - forever.
Potential Scenarios
Let's walk through a few scenarios:
- Your family doesn't know about your cryptocurrency: If you die without sharing your cryptocurrency information, it could become lost forever. According to a study by the cryptocurrency insurance firm Coincover, nearly 4 million Bitcoins are presumed lost forever, with death being a significant contributor.
- Your family knows but lacks access: Even if your family knows about your crypto, without your private keys or seed phrases, they won't be able to access it. This might be a safer approach to avoid theft, but it's disastrous if you're not around to provide access.
- Your family has access: This is the ideal situation. Your family knows about your crypto and how to access it. However, the risk here is that your keys or seed phrases could fall into the wrong hands, even before your passing.
Jinca: A Trustless Solution
Given these challenges, the question remains: how can we make sure our crypto assets pass onto the right hands without exposing ourselves to undue risk?
Jinca provides a unique, trustless solution to this problem. It's a non-custodial digital asset inheritance service that employs advanced encryption and a decentralized model to safely transfer your crypto assets upon your passing.
Here's a brief overview of how it works:
- Set up your account: Sign up and set up your sources for your crypto assets.
- Encrypt your data: Use Jinca's secure, end-to-end encrypted service to split your seed phrase into multiple shards, one of which is held by Jinca. Or set up your withdrawal api's for exchanges.
- Choose your Destinataries: Specify who should recive your digital assets and provide their contact information or wallets.
- Set up 'dead man's switch': Set up a check-in system; if you fail to respond to check-ins after a certain period, Jinca initiates the process.
- Jinca is triggered: Your destinataries receive instructions on how to reclaim the assets. Jinca provides the shard it holds, enabling your inheritors to reconstruct the full seed phrase and gain access to the assets. Or they can receive the assets directly to their wallets.
Remember, Jinca is designed to be trustless. At no point does Jinca have access to your full seed phrase or your assets.
Death is a difficult topic, but ensuring your crypto assets are secure is a necessary part of financial planning. Services like Jinca offer peace of mind, knowing your digital wealth will safely reach the hands of your loved ones, securing your legacy in the new age of digital currency.