Bitkey’s Inheritance feature gives you a way to plan ahead and make sure your loved ones can access the funds in your Bitkey wallet in the event of your death. Because there’s no central authority for recovering bitcoin, these funds could otherwise be lost forever.
With Inheritance, you can designate someone you trust as a beneficiary. They’ll be able to access the funds in your wallet—but only after your death, and only through a secure, time-delayed process that gives you the opportunity to respond if a claim is ever made in error or fraudulently.
Setting up Inheritance is straightforward. You send an invitation from the Bitkey app to your chosen beneficiary, who must have their own Bitkey hardware device to accept it. After they accept, reopening your Bitkey app completes the setup and activates your Inheritance plan. Until a claim is made, your beneficiary cannot see, access, or control your wallet in any way—and you can update or remove them at any time.
If your beneficiary initiates a claim, a six-month security delay begins. During this time, you’ll receive critical alerts notifying you that a claim has been started. If the claim goes unchallenged for six months, it is approved automatically. At that point, your encrypted Mobile Key is passed to your beneficiary’s Bitkey app, and—together with the Block server key—they’ll be able to transfer the funds to their own wallet.
⚠️ Important: Designating a Bitkey beneficiary does not guarantee they are the legal owner of your funds. Ownership may be governed by your will or other legal documents, which could take precedence.
We recommend speaking with an estate attorney or another licensed professional in your jurisdiction.
To learn more about Inheritance and how it protects your funds, see:
👉 What is Inheritance and how does it work under the hood?