Have you ever wondered what if (God forbid) something were to happen to you, you would leave your crypto portfolio abandoned and no one would have the private keys to access the coins. I mean it's a possibility right? no one knows their fate. It's a dreadful thought to leave your hard earned money in a place where no one would ever be able to access it but you. No matter how hard we bash the banks, but they do provide facilities that otherwise blockchain can not provide inherently.
There has been such cases in the past, people leaving millions of dollars worth coins locked inside wallets, exchanges and hard drives. There can't be any worse feeling than seeing millions of dollars before eyes in an address that belongs to you, yet doesn't.
You remember Matthew Mellon, scion of the Mellon banking fortune right? He died with a heart attack in Mexico, his family was unable to locate the private keys needed to retrieve his fortune — said to have been worth as much as $1 billion — in XRP cryptocurrency. Loosing private keys and passwords always haunts investors. It is estimated that about 3 million bitcoins — totalling nearly $33 billion — lost because the private keys have gone missing or the currency owners died without passing the private keys onto their next of kin/heirs.
Who else can vouch for it than James Howells - who lost a hard drive with the private keys to more than 79 million dollars worth of bitcoin. The drive is claimed to have keys to more than 7500 Bitcoins. Isn't that massive?
James Howells accidentally threw away his Bitcoin drive to an empty landfill site instead the empty drive. When he realized the incident, he didn't care much. But it started to feel itchy when the prices spiked later. He even offered 10% of the lost Bitcoins to the landfill site administration if found the coins, but no luck.
And of course we all know the Billions of dollars worth of coins locked (for whatever reason) inside Satoshi Nakamoto's addresses.
So, how can you avoid this?
Honestly, I don't have a smart solution for this and I hope someone comes up with a solution. But let me tell you what I have done.
Write a diary - Compile all your passwords, keys, usernames etc. in a diary and place it somewhere safe. Leave a note on the front page and let know your loved ones (if you trust them).
Open a safe deposit box and place a copy of your diary inside your deposit box. If you are not around anymore, the deposit box will pass on to your 'next of kin'.
I find it pretty reasonable to leave traces of your heirs. Any form of digital backup is kinda of not reliable, you can lose your fortune in a flick of seconds. Let me know what measures you have taken to insure your wealth pass on to your heirs. And If you haven't, I suggest you do it right away after reading this article.
Stay safe! And if you have any suggestion let me know in the comments section. Make sure to share this blog with your loved ones to remind them and save them from potential loss.
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