Published on May 31st, 2019 | by Sunit Nandi

Your Loved Ones Can Inherit Your BCH Thanks to Last Will

You have obviously heard of a will or testament that decides who inherits what when someone dies. But, this has been limited to fiat currencies up until now. Introducing, Last Will that allows your loved ones to inherit your cryptocurrency.

Here are all the fast facts.

Who is behind Last Will?

Karol Trzezczkowski, a software developer, launched a platform known as the Last Will on April 10, 2019.

What is Last Will?

Last Will is a smart contract program that allows someone to inherit all your BCH that you have in your BCH wallet or that you earned while Bitcoin Cash mining.

How does the Last Will work?

An Electron Cash plugin, the Last Will protocol allows users to create and manage their BCH investment and decide who should receive it in case of their demise.

How is Last Will different from regular wills?

A normal will or testament often requires a custodian to ensure that it is carried as per as the deceased’s wishes. Last Will is a non-custodial and permissionless inheritance solution.

Where did Trzeszczkowski announce the project?

Karol announced the project on sub-Reddit called r/btc and explained how Last Will works.

A deep dive of how Last Will works

The platform leverages checkdatasig covenants and is currently open source and can be reviewed by developers on Github. The solution uses BCH chain and implements a dead man’s switch with a six-month trigger. A dead man’s switch is essentially the fail-safe protocol that is followed in case of death – natural or untimely demise. If the Last Will agreement is not refreshed within the time frame, the holdings become available to the inheritor. This means that they can either withdraw it and convert it to USD or a fiat currency or convert it to other crypto coins, for instance, make a BCH to BTC conversion if the exchange rate is good.

Technology that the Last Will uses:

Implementation of looping transactions to keep refreshing the contract
Spedn programming language and BCH checkdatasig covenants
Pay to Script Hash to make the endowment available to the inheritor.

How to use Last Will

STEP 1: Download and verify the software on Github.
STEP 2: Open the Electron Cash version 4 or higher. Navigate to the Tools tab and choose Installed plugins.
STEP 3: Once the plugin is added, you can create a new Last Will contract, check an existing one or load contract information.

In order to prevent the inheritor from receiving the endowment while you are still alive, Last Will sends you an email before the six months are up between refreshes to remind you.

Does the inheritor have to know about the endowment?

No, you can keep it anonymous. Last Will will let the inheritor know after you pass away about their inheritance. The inheritor is sent an encrypted email and the contract address. Alternatively, they can also verify it if they have previous knowledge of it.

Last Will solves a very important problem for crypto enthusiasts. Matthew Mellon, a US investor has around $500 million in cryptocurrencies but his heirs were not able to access them because of a lack of protocol like Last Will.

Tags: BCH, inherit, last will, loved ones

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.