Badger Legacy

December 30, 2024•1,065 words

Badger Legacy

A community protocol for inheritance, recovery, and dead man’s switch

Preamble

Bitcoin inheritance is difficult and we don’t have many examples of successful execution. There are several services available that will set you up and connect with your heirs at the cost of ongoing fees and loss of privacy.

With open-source tools, and the community spirit of the San Diego Bitcoiners, we can model commercial services as a community protocol that has no monetary cost to the user and can improve upon missing aspects like maintenance and accountability.

Goals

Create a guideline that can be followed by anyone
Allow flexibility with details
Promote self-custody best practices
Make an execution plan that will ease the burden of mourning loved ones
Maintain privacy
Support coordination when requested
Capitalize on the human connection an in-person meet up group provides
Build good habits that become rituals

Problems to Solve

People have different methods of storing bitcoin and use different tools
We all have a different tolerance of sharing personal info
Our loved ones (aka heirs) are often less technical and will likely be distraught if dealing with unexpected death/incapacitation
You’ll likely never know if your inheritance plan works because you’ll be gone

Toolbox

Open source wallets (Sparrow, Blue Wallet, Nunchuk, etc)
Seed features
- Descriptor info
- Passphrase
- Multisig (and musig2?)
- Seed XOR
- Border wallets
Cryptography – signatures (PGP/Nostr), encryption (PGP, veracrypt, etc), Open Timestamps
Trusts & Wills
NDAs
Waivers

(Tentative) Criteria

Partner with at least 2 other people
Set a maintenance cadence (e.g. every quarter) and deadline (e.g. within a week)
Share wallet info sufficient for your beneficiary to recover funds, but not enough for inheritance partners to see wallet balance
Share an optional dead man’s switch and who the message should be sent to
Establish identity requirements
Sign NDAs and waivers acknowledging the risks and promising not to share info with anyone outside of the agreed criteria.
Optional: if routine checks are usually done remotely, consider meeting at least once per year including heirs to add a human element to this agreement and making heirs more familiar with the process and the fellowship. The main advantage of relying on a community over a company is that fewer people are involved, and they are better known to you.

Example

Alice, Bob, and Charlie have agreed to form a fellowship with a quarterly cadence and 1 week deadline.
- Due dates are the first day of the calendar quarter (1/1, 4/1, 7/1, 10/1)
- Send shared info in a direct Signal message back to the author (Alice’s info goes to Alice, Bob’s to Bob, and Charlie’s to Charlie). Disappearing messages must be on or manually deleted after
- If a peer does not respond within 7 days (1/8, 4/8, 7/8, or 10/8), their dead man’s switch is executed and the peers should be prepared to execute inheritance/recovery info.
- If a peer is obviously alive but frequently misses the 7 day deadlines the laggard can be replaced by the other participants. That peer must delete the info of the rest of the fellowship.
Each person shares info with the other two.
- Alice shared a sparrow wallet file (password protected) and a 24 word seed phrase for one of the keys in a 3-of-5 multisig wallet
  - bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon
  - “My husband (or Son if my husband is deceased or incapacitated) will send you a partially-signed bitcoin transaction (PSBT) for you to sign with this key. They already have the wallet password and other keys. Check their ID/passport.”
  - My dead man’s switch
    - Email my Husband the following message: “Hello, this is Bob/Charlie. Alice has not responded to our quarterly Badger Legacy data share. I have information to recover her Bitcoin wallet, please Signal message me at your convenience.”
- Bob shared a 12 word seed phrase and directions for the passphrase
  - gym gym gym gym gym gym gym gym gym gym gym gym
  - Passphrase is with my lawyer Jim
  - “The wallet is native segwit with the standard derivation path. Give seed and passphrase location to my Daughter if asked. She already has this info but if it gets lost or destroyed she will rely on this group. Here is her instagram, get to know her face.”
  - My dead man’s switch
    - Signal message my Daughter this, verbatim: “Honey, if you’re receiving this it’s because I have unexpectedly passed. Please work with Alice or Charlie if you need help recovering my Bitcoin. I am so proud of you, and love you with all my heart. -Dad.”
- Charlie shared a veracrypt encrypted container
  - “Send this container if requested by the following emails: wife@gmail.com, son@protonmail.com, son2@outlook365.com, they will know how to decrypt the container.”
  - My dead man’s switch, post the following as a public message on Nostr:

In this example, each person knows they must ensure the fellowship does not have enough info to see or move funds. They must also similarly test their heirs on the info not given to the fellowship. It’s a good idea to do this with the same cadence as the fellowship itself. For example, when Bob and Charlie send Alice her Sparrow wallet file, she should download it (or have her husband and son do so) and test to make sure it opens and shows the right funds.

Role of SD Bitcoiners

This process can be done by anyone with only the people involved knowing it exists. There may be value, however, an in impartial third party to facilitate certain aspects. These include but are not limited to:

Maintaining this guide and updating with corrections/improvements
Connecting people forming a fellowship, possibly with randomization
Suggesting methods of information sharing and steelmanning trade-offs
Mediating disputes between participants
Serving as a holder of fellowship details
Sending automated alerts with coreybot

Reach out to Corey for any of the above.