We all know how important our secret crypto keys are. They are access to our cryptocurrencies.
Sometimes my peace of mind are affected by this fear of losing all my crypto assets due to loss of keys.
Let me tell you, the stress is real.
The main reason is that life is uncertain, for sure. Hope you see the irony here.
We can die anytime. Period. The causes of death are plenty, and unpredictable. The question is whether we have time to hand over all our Hive assets, for instance, to our love ones when we pass on suddenly.
Yes, we can tell our loved ones where we hid our keys. But are things so simple?
Not at all, if you consider how different blockchains and crypto projects are. They require specific instructions to gain access of. Take the example of Hive, is it easy for a family member to gain access to your account even if they can get into your laptop? If they hadn't been using Hive, they can't. It is worse if we just leave behind the file with our keys. They wouldn't know what to do with it, unless there are instructions.
Multiply that by the number of different assets we potentially hold on in self-custodian wallets. The complexity involved to access the tokens can be enormous.
The dilemma is that it is not enough to just leave the instructions along with the secret keys TOGETHER somewhere at home. First, it is unlikely that it is fire proof or theft proof. The bad actors may get hold of it and help themselves with our cryptos! Neither is it safe to save these details entirely online.
So how to have peace of mind with our crypto assets, suppose we consider that we might die anytime?
The first step is to identify trusted family members (or friends). Hopefully they know something about handling crypto keys, and they are willing to be entrusted with helping out with this contingency plan of ours.
Next, we need to find a safe place that we can hide our keys, before we tell our trusted family member or friend where they are. It all depends on our situation. It could be buried deep under a tree and kept in secure and robust containers, but I don't recommend it!
In this modern age, I am sure there are better solutions. In my situation, what I have identified is to pay for a safe box rental from a bank and just keep the secret crypto keys there. With such safes, only the trusted member and I have access to it. Other times it is guarded and they usually have fire resistant protection features. I think one can also designate a list of people to gain access when we pass on.
Thus far, this is the only approach that can give me peace of mind. It costs some 100 over dollars per year, but its a small cost for peace of mind.
What other method do you use?
