Don’t Let a Crypto Inheritance Get Stuck on the Blockchain

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Don’t Let a Crypto Inheritance Get Stuck on the Blockchain

Save this story. If someone you know has cryptocurrency that you might inherit, let me just say ahoy matey! I hope your pirate spirit is alive and your treasure-hunting skills sharp, because that’s what it might take to get those assets. And if you’re the one holding crypto, know that if you do nothing, it’s very possible those funds will die with you.

保存这篇文章。如果你认识的人拥有你可能继承的加密货币，我只能说：嘿，伙计！希望你的海盗精神依然活跃，寻宝技能依然敏锐，因为获取这些资产可能需要这些特质。如果你是加密货币的持有者，请记住，如果你什么都不做，这些资金很有可能随你而去。

In the US, cryptocurrency is considered a digital asset rather than money in terms of probate and estate law. With money and physical assets, you can sign a beneficiary form and create an estate plan or write a last will and testament naming who should get what when you die. With digital assets, however, the law says we should not assume that a deceased person wanted their private materials—everything from emails to photos—given to another person unless they explicitly said so. This puts cryptocurrency, as a digital asset, in an awkward position.

在美国，就遗嘱认证和遗产法而言，加密货币被视为数字资产而非货币。对于金钱和实物资产，你可以签署受益人表格并制定遗产计划，或立下遗嘱，指定你去世后谁该获得什么。然而，对于数字资产，法律规定我们不应假设死者希望将其私人资料（从电子邮件到照片的所有内容）交给他人，除非他们明确表示过。这使得加密货币作为一种数字资产处于尴尬的境地。

The options for arranging a transfer of cryptocurrency upon one’s death or incapacitation breaks down by one big division: whether the crypto is held by a custodian or in a noncustodial crypto wallet.

安排在某人去世或丧失行为能力时转移加密货币的方案，主要取决于一个重大区别：加密货币是由托管机构持有，还是存放在非托管加密钱包中。

Two Types of Wallets: A custodian or custodial wallet means a third party, such as a bank or a cryptocurrency marketplace, holds and manages the assets for you. Typically, transferring assets after death is much easier with a custodian, especially if it’s a bank.

两种钱包类型：托管机构或托管钱包意味着第三方（如银行或加密货币交易平台）为你持有并管理资产。通常情况下，通过托管机构转移死后资产要容易得多，尤其是如果是银行的话。

Noncustodial wallets eliminate the middleman and let a person hold their assets directly. For crypto enthusiasts whose interest in digital currency is driven by a distaste for the traditional banking system, then using a noncustodial wallet is kind of the whole point.

非托管钱包消除了中间人，让个人可以直接持有资产。对于那些因厌恶传统银行体系而对数字货币产生兴趣的加密货币爱好者来说，使用非托管钱包正是其核心意义所在。

Noncustodial wallets can be software or hardware-based. It can even be a piece of paper with the instructions and passwords for accessing the cryptocurrency on it. (I use “password” here and throughout to refer to any string of letters, numbers, and characters needed to gain access to someone’s cryptocurrency.) Whatever kind of noncustodial wallet you choose, passing on your assets will require a DIY solution.

非托管钱包可以是基于软件或硬件的。它甚至可以是一张写有访问加密货币说明和密码的纸。（我在此处及全文中使用“密码”一词，指代获取某人加密货币所需的任何字母、数字和字符组合。）无论你选择哪种非托管钱包，传承资产都需要你自己想办法解决。

Pros and Cons of a Custodial Wallet: When you use a third-party custodian to hold your cryptocurrency, you can choose one that has a beneficiary process in place. Charles Schwab and Chase are just two examples of large, well-known financial institutions that offer crypto services and have experience transferring assets after death.

托管钱包的优缺点：当你使用第三方托管机构持有加密货币时，你可以选择一个设有受益人流程的机构。嘉信理财（Charles Schwab）和摩根大通（Chase）就是提供加密货币服务并拥有死后资产转移经验的大型知名金融机构的两个例子。

Schwab, for example, houses its cryptocurrency services within brokerage accounts. Signing a beneficiary form for a brokerage account applies to the crypto account as well. One and done. Another benefit of using a bank is that at least three entities know you have an account: the bank, the government, and the credit reporting bureaus. Avenues exist for finding the banked money of deceased people. With a noncustodial wallet, this is not at all the case.

例如，嘉信理财将其加密货币服务置于经纪账户内。签署经纪账户的受益人表格同样适用于加密账户。一次搞定。使用银行的另一个好处是，至少有三个实体知道你拥有账户：银行、政府和信用报告机构。存在寻找死者银行存款的途径。而对于非托管钱包，情况则完全不同。

Similarly, if you get locked out of your online bank account, you can go to a bank branch with ID (I’ve had to do it) and get back in. More important to your heirs, it doesn’t matter if you were locked out of the online portal when you died—that has no bearing on the account or a beneficiary’s ability to receive the funds. This is not the case with noncustodial wallets. Note that cryptocurrency accounts, even when held through a bank, are not FDIC-insured.

同样，如果你被锁在网上银行账户之外，你可以带着身份证件去银行网点（我曾这样做过）重新进入。对你的继承人来说更重要的是，即使你在去世时被锁在在线门户之外也无关紧要——这不会影响账户或受益人接收资金的能力。非托管钱包则并非如此。请注意，即使是通过银行持有的加密货币账户，也不受联邦存款保险公司（FDIC）的保险保护。

Other custodians include crypto marketplaces, such as Coinbase, and peer-to-peer payment services, like PayPal. Neither Coinbase nor PayPal have beneficiary forms as of this writing, though they do have a clear process for proving a person is entitled to a decedent’s account. In both cases, you must have legal documents saying you are the executor of the estate (for PayPal) or are entitled to inherit the account (Coinbase), as well as a death certificate and other documentation. So the process is clunky and takes some advance planning, but it’s still straightforward.

其他托管机构包括加密货币交易平台（如 Coinbase）和点对点支付服务（如 PayPal）。截至本文撰写时，Coinbase 和 PayPal 都没有受益人表格，尽管它们确实有明确的流程来证明某人有权获得死者的账户。在这两种情况下，你都必须拥有法律文件，证明你是遗产执行人（针对 PayPal）或有权继承该账户（针对 Coinbase），以及死亡证明和其他文件。因此，这个过程比较繁琐，需要提前规划，但仍然是直接的。

How many disadvantages there are to using a custodian depends on your outlook. As mentioned, crypto enthusiasts who eschew traditional banking may not see any value in using a custodian. Banks require ID, so you cannot hold the crypto anonymously. Banks and many other custodians report your transactions to the federal government, holding you accountable to an honest tax filing. Custodial wallets also cost money. They typically charge transaction fees, usually a small percentage of each trade.

使用托管机构有多少缺点取决于你的看法。如前所述，那些避开传统银行业的加密货币爱好者可能认为使用托管机构毫无价值。银行需要身份证明，因此你无法匿名持有加密货币。银行和许多其他托管机构会向联邦政府报告你的交易，要求你进行诚实的税务申报。托管钱包也需要花钱。它们通常会收取交易费，通常是每笔交易的一小部分。

Pros and Cons of a Noncustodial Wallet: The primary benefit of a noncustodial wallet is that everything is in your control. You hold the assets directly. You’re responsible for knowing and keeping safe the information you need to access your assets. You also have to come up with a plan for informing your beneficiaries that a crypto account exists and making sure they can access it.

非托管钱包的优缺点：非托管钱包的主要好处是所有事情都在你的掌控之中。你直接持有资产。你有责任了解并妥善保管访问资产所需的信息。你还必须制定一个计划，告知受益人加密账户的存在，并确保他们能够访问该账户。

The first and biggest problem is that if you get locked out while you’re alive, it’s game over. “If you lose your cryptographic key, there’s no company that you can appeal to,” says Benjamin Orzeske, chief counsel for Uniform Law Commission and a staff attorney for the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, the law that guides how digital inheritance is handled in most states.

第一个也是最大的问题是，如果你在生前被锁在账户之外，那就彻底完了。《统一法律委员会》首席法律顾问、《修订后的统一受托人访问数字资产法》（该法指导大多数州如何处理数字遗产）的专职律师本杰明·奥泽斯克（Benjamin Orzeske）表示：“如果你丢失了加密密钥，没有任何公司可以让你申诉。”

In the case of a hardware key, a corrupted device or one lost to fire or theft may also cut off a person and their heirs from their crypto, permanently and irreversibly. The other major hurdle is that your fiduciary needs to know the crypto exists. No government or credit reporting bureau has a record of you holding the account. The only people who know are the ones you tell.

如果是硬件密钥，设备损坏或因火灾或盗窃而丢失，也可能导致个人及其继承人永久且不可逆转地失去对加密货币的访问权。另一个主要障碍是你的受托人需要知道加密货币的存在。没有任何政府或信用报告机构记录你持有该账户。唯一知道的人就是你告知的对象。

Now let’s get procedural. Because of how the blockchain works, you must figure out a secure way to give your heirs instructions for obtaining the assets. Your system has to be safe. It doesn’t come with any backups or failsafes unless you create them. And whether you can test your system to make sure it works before you die will require a huge amount of trust. Ideas from Reddit users for how to build a system for passing on cryptocurrency include email dead-man switches.

现在让我们进入程序性问题。由于区块链的工作方式，你必须找到一种安全的方法，向你的继承人提供获取资产的说明。你的系统必须是安全的。除非你亲自创建，否则它不会附带任何备份或故障保护措施。而且，你是否能在去世前测试你的系统以确保其有效，这需要极大的信任。Reddit 用户关于如何建立加密货币传承系统的想法包括电子邮件“死人开关”。