Heirs hold their own keys in advance, so you never expose your seed phrase while you are alive.
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Never share a seed 416-day recovery No third-party custody
Crypto inheritance planning
Inheritance MultiSig
Make sure your Bitcoin and crypto reach the people you love — without ever sharing your seed phrase, and without trusting a company or lawyer to hold your keys.
Inheritance MultiSigNo seed phrase sharingSelf-custody
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If you become permanently inactive, the remaining family members can recover the assets after the waiting period.
No company, lawyer, or exchange holds your keys. Inheritance stays fully self-custodial and on-chain.
The problem nobody plans for
What happens to your crypto when you die?
Most crypto is protected by a single seed phrase held by a single person. That is exactly what makes it disappear the day something goes wrong.
One seed, one point of failure
If the only person who knows the seed phrase dies or loses it, the funds are gone. No support line and no password reset can bring self-custody assets back.
Handing over the seed is dangerous
Writing your seed in a will or giving it to family early means anyone who reads it can drain everything today — long before it is ever needed.
Custodians and services fail
Third-party inheritance services can shut down, freeze accounts, or demand fees and paperwork. Your family shouldn't depend on a company staying online.
How Ownbit solves it
Inheritance without ever exposing your keys
Ownbit turns inheritance into a technical guarantee instead of a hope. Your heirs hold real keys from day one, but they can only inherit — never spend behind your back.
1
Set up the vault
Create a shared MultiSig — for example 2-of-3 — where you and your chosen heirs each control a separate signer key on their own device.
2
Live normally
While you are active, spending follows the signature rule you set. Heirs cannot move funds alone, and you never reveal your seed phrase.
3
Seamless handover
If you become permanently inactive, the 416-day recovery path lets your heirs regain control of the assets — cleanly, on-chain, and without a court.
Choose your inheritance setup
Three ways to build a legacy plan
In a MultiSig, every seed phrase is a separate key, and each key represents one participant. Every option below is fully self-custodial: the accident-protection plans are enforced on EVM chains by an open-source smart contract, and on BTC, TRON and Solana by Ownbit's assisting-signer design; the standard plan is a classic threshold MultiSig with no third party at all.
You hold two keys, one goes to your heir
You hold two keys (two seed phrases) and give one of them to your heir (a spouse or child) — so there are two participants, you and the heir. Day to day you sign with both keys. If you pass away and 416 days of inactivity pass, your heir's single key can spend the funds — on EVM chains the open-source accident-protection contract enforces this; on BTC, TRON and Solana, Ownbit joins as an assisting co-signer, making it effectively 2-of-3.
Best when one person controls the assets but wants a guaranteed handover to one heir.You, your spouse and your child each hold a key
Three participants, each holding one key (one seed phrase). Everyday spending needs any two of the three keys — normally you and your spouse. If one of you is gone, the remaining two (spouse + child, or you + child) can still sign, so inheritance works with no waiting period and no third party involved at all.
Best for families who want shared control today and resilience if one member is lost.Four keys — you decide how to spread them
There are four keys (four seed phrases) in total, across four participants: you can hold three yourself, or just one or two, and choose who keeps the rest. Everyday spending needs any three keys. If something happens to you, your heirs only need two keys between them to recover — EVM chains use the accident-protection contract, while BTC, TRON and Solana become an effective 3-of-5 with Ownbit's assisting signature.
Best for larger families or high-value, multi-generation holdings.
Multi-chain
One inheritance plan across every major chain
Cover a whole portfolio — Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins and more — with a single family governance model.
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Do it right
Best practices for a durable legacy plan
Use cold signer keys
Create the most important signer wallets as cold wallets so the keys that protect a lifetime of savings stay offline.
Write down the plan, not the seed
Leave your heirs clear instructions on how the vault is structured and how recovery works — but never the seed phrases themselves.
Test the recovery once
Do a small dry-run so every heir knows how to open Ownbit, find their key, and complete a recovery before it truly matters.
FAQ
Crypto inheritance questions, answered
What happens to my Bitcoin when I die?
If your crypto sits in a single wallet secured by one seed phrase, and no one else can access that seed phrase, the coins are effectively lost forever when you die or lose access. There is no bank, no password reset, and no support line that can recover self-custody funds. An inheritance plan built on MultiSig solves this: your heirs hold their own keys in advance, so they can recover the assets without you ever exposing your seed phrase while you are alive.
How do I pass crypto to my heirs without sharing my seed phrase?
With Ownbit Inheritance MultiSig you create a shared vault where each participant — you and your heirs — controls a separate signer key. Day-to-day, spending follows the signature rule (for example 2-of-3). Your heirs never see your seed phrase and cannot move funds on their own while you are active. If you become permanently inactive, the built-in 416-day recovery path lets the remaining qualified signers regain control.
Is Ownbit inheritance self-custody, or does a company hold my keys?
It is fully self-custody. Ownbit never holds your seed phrases or your private keys, and there is no custodian or lawyer holding the assets. Every signer key stays with the family member who owns it. On EVM chains an open-source contract enforces the inheritance rule with no third party at all; on BTC, TRON, Solana and similar chains Ownbit may join only as an assisting co-signer that can act after the 416-day inactivity condition — either way, Ownbit can never move funds on its own.
How does the inheritance actually work on-chain?
Ownbit uses two mechanisms depending on the chain. On EVM chains (Ethereum, BSC, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon) inheritance is a smart-contract feature: your wallet is an on-chain "accident-protection" MultiSig contract and the rule lives in the code. For example, in a 2-of-2 accident-protection wallet, if one party stays inactive for more than 416 days, the other party can spend the assets directly — no third party involved. The contracts are fully open source: github.com/bitbill/ownbit-multisig-contracts. On BTC, TRON, Solana and similar chains that cannot run this logic natively, inheritance works through an assisting watch-only participant (wallet ID: ownbit). For example, a 3-of-4 inheritance BTC vault is actually created as a 3-of-5 wallet; if one party is inactive for more than 416 days, Ownbit adds its signature as that extra participant so your heirs can complete the inheritance spend. In both cases Ownbit only ever provides the single assisting signature once the 416-day condition is met — it can never move funds alone.
What is the 416-day recovery period?
The 416-day timer is an accident- and inheritance-protection mechanism. If one participant stops signing — because they passed away, lost their device, or lost their seed phrase — the wallet enters a recovery scenario. After 416 days of inactivity, the remaining qualified signer or designated heir can regain the ability to move the assets, according to the plan you configured.
How do I make sure I stay active and never trigger the 416-day timer?
Staying active is effortless. Every time you take part in a successful spend — signing a transaction that actually goes through — your participant status is automatically refreshed to the current date, resetting the 416-day timer. If you expect a long stretch without spending, just open that wallet in Ownbit and tap the "Keep Active" button once; a single tap instantly updates you to active again. In practice, tapping it once every six months to a year is more than enough to make sure the 416-day condition is never reached while you are around.
Do I need a lawyer or estate service to set up crypto inheritance?
No. Ownbit Inheritance MultiSig is a technical plan you set up yourself inside the app, at no extra cost and without handing keys to any third party. Many families still document their plan alongside a traditional will, but the recovery does not depend on any court, company, or subscription staying online.
Which coins support inheritance MultiSig?
Ownbit supports MultiSig-based inheritance across major networks including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BNB Smart Chain (BSC), TRON (TRX), Solana (SOL), Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Dogecoin, so one inheritance strategy can cover a multi-chain portfolio.
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Set up your inheritance plan while you still can
Build the vault today, name your heirs, and give your family a clear, self-custodial path to your crypto — no seed phrase ever leaves your hands.