Crypto inheritance · Crypto estate planning

Your crypto should outlive you.

No one else, but you and your trusted (e.g.: your family, lawyer or accountant), should ever hold your key shares.

A crypto inheritance plan built for your family members who aren't technical. You keep your keys. We give you an open-source and self-custodial setup, a short handbook for your heirs, and a real rehearsal with your family. If our company disappeared tomorrow, your setup would still work.

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Open source
Non-custodial: we hold zero keys
BTC · ETH · Stablecoins

What is crypto inheritance planning?

Crypto inheritance planning makes sure the right people can access your Bitcoin and other digital assets after you die, and that nobody can access them while you're alive. A complete plan covers three things: keeping control of your keys during your lifetime, making sure your heirs can find what you left, and giving them a way to actually move the funds. Without a plan, crypto held in self-custody is usually lost for good when its owner dies.

Crypto inheritance vs. digital asset estate planning

Digital asset estate planning covers everything you own or use online: email and social accounts, photos, domain names, online banking, loyalty points and crypto. For most of those, a list of accounts and passwords plus each provider's legacy contact or death-claim process is enough. Crypto is different. There is no provider to call, and whoever has the key can move the funds. That's why crypto inheritance is the one part of a digital estate plan that a password list can't solve: it needs a key setup your heirs can use after you die, and that nobody can misuse while you're alive.

A complete crypto inheritance plan has to solve three things

Secure

Nobody can take it while you're alive

Your keys stay with you. Your heir holds one piece, which can't move anything on its own. The second piece only reaches them through your will after you die. No company holds a spare key, and there's no “emergency co-sign” backdoor.

Findable

Your family can find it

Your family knows where things are, who to contact and what to do first. “The Bitcoin is on my Trezor” doesn't help someone who isn't technical.

Usable

They can actually get it out

Your heirs shouldn't need to understand private keys or use a command line. They need steps written in order, a person they can call, and a setup where one mistake can't lock the funds away forever.

Most inheritance plans solve only the first problem, or only the second. Securing your keys without a way for heirs to use them is like locking your money in a safe that only you can open.

How it works

01

Set up (wallet in minutes, full plan in one sitting)

Creating the wallet takes a few minutes in a free mobile app. Control is split into 3 pieces, and any 2 can move funds. You hold two (your phone and another device), so you can spend on your own. Your heir's phone holds the third, which can't move anything by itself. After you die, your will passes your another device's piece to your heir. The rest of the sitting (about two hours) goes on the key-split and beneficiary plan and the family rehearsal.
02

Maintain (a check-in every 6 months)

Every 6 months we remind you to confirm three things: the pieces are still where they should be, the beneficiary list is up to date, and your family can still find the handbook.
03

Execute (no technical skills needed)

Your family uses the same free mobile app: open it on two phones and approve with a QR code. A short handbook covers what the app can't: who to contact, where the pieces are, and how your another device's piece reaches them through your will. They don't have to read it for the first time on the day it matters, because during setup we walk your heirs through the whole process once, with you there.

What if I lose my key shares?

Losing one device isn't a disaster. With 3 pieces and any 2 able to move funds, your two remaining pieces can issue a fresh set of 3, and the lost piece stops working. No backup is needed for that. Backups are for the rarer case where two pieces are gone at once, for example a house fire that takes your phone and your another device.

Where to keep a backup of each piece

Each backup is an encrypted file protected by a password. Pick one place per piece:

Your phone's cloud

Save the file to iCloud Drive or Google Drive, with the password in iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager. The easiest option, with nothing to remember.

Watch out: you're trusting your Apple or Google account.

A file you manage yourself

Keep the password-encrypted file on your own computer or storage, with the password somewhere you'll remember. Full control.

Watch out: lose the password and the backup is useless.

A USB stick in a safe

Put the encrypted file on a USB stick or SD card in a home safe or bank safe-deposit box. Offline, so it's out of reach of online attacks.

Watch out: storage can fail, so check it at the 6-month check-in.

With your lawyer

Your lawyer keeps the encrypted file with your will, and the password is kept somewhere else. This is also how your another device's piece can reach your heir.

Watch out: never give the lawyer the password too.

On paper

Print the encrypted file as a QR code. Paper lasts for decades and needs no device to survive.

Watch out: store it as carefully as you would cash.

What we don't do

Some services keep one of the pieces on their own server so they can help you recover. We never hold a piece or a backup, so no company can be hacked, pressured or shut down with your key inside.

The one rule: never put two backups behind the same lock. The same cloud account, the same password or the same safe counts as one lock. If your phone and another device both back up to one iCloud account, anyone who gets into that account has 2 of 3 pieces and can move your funds. A simple default: your phone's backup goes in your phone's cloud, and your another device's backup is an encrypted file held by your lawyer.

Crypto inheritance options compared

There are four common ways to pass on crypto. They differ in who holds a key, whether your heirs can realistically carry out the plan, and what happens if the provider goes away.

Approach	Who holds a key	Non-technical heirs can execute it	If the provider shuts down	Typical cost
Seed phrase written in a will	Anyone who reads the will	Sometimes, but probate can expose the seed phrase / private keyto many people	Not applicable	Cost of a will
DIY multisig (e.g. Sparrow + hardware wallets)	Only you	Rarely, without written instructions and a rehearsal	Not applicable	Free software + $100–$500 of hardware
Collaborative custody (e.g. Casa, Unchained)	You and the provider, who holds one key for recovery or co-signing	Yes, with the provider's help	You fall back to your own keys; recovery help ends	Casa lists $250, $2,100 and $7,500 / year
Vastlink inheritance plan	Only you and the people you choose. Vastlink holds no keys.	Yes: a mobile app, a short handbook and a real rehearsal	Nothing changes: open-source tools, no Vastlink key involved	$249–$1,900 / year

Pricing

Self-Guided

$249 / year

✓ Open-source tooling
✓ Key-split and beneficiary setup guide
✓ Heir handbook template

For people who can set it up themselves and just need a document to give their family.

Guided

$249 / year

+ $249 one-time setup

✓ Everything in Self-Guided
✓ A 60-minute one-to-one setup session: we watch over screen share while you set it up
✓ One heir rehearsal: your family runs the full process once, and we note where they got stuck
✓ Written gap report after the rehearsal

For people who want their family to have run the process once while they're still here.

Legacy

$1,900 / year

✓ Everything in Guided
✓ Annual review covering changes to your crypto, beneficiaries and the rules that apply
✓ We work with your own lawyer or estate planner
✓ Setups for multiple assets and jurisdictions

For larger holdings, or families with assets in more than one country.

Founding families offer

The first 20 families who choose Guided get the $249 setup fee waived, so it's $249 a year with the setup session and heir rehearsal included.

Frequently asked questions

Can my family inherit my crypto if they can't log in to my wallet?

Yes. There's nothing to log in to and no seed phrase or private key to find. "The key" is split into pieces kept on different devices, and no complete key ever exists. That's why a plan has to state which pieces are held by whom and in what order they are combined. The full procedure goes in a handbook written for your heirs.

When the unfortunate happens, how will my family know who to contact?

That's why the first step of setup is a list of people, not technology: who is the executor, who helps with the technical side, and who is the backup contact. The list goes in the handbook. Your will points to the handbook, never to a seed phrase.

Should I put my seed phrase in my will?

It's the most common approach and the most dangerous one. After death, a will usually goes through probate, and many people may see it. Anyone who sees a seed phrase / private key can take everything. Your will should say who inherits and where to find the pieces, not the seed phrase / private key itself.

How is this different from a crypto trust?

A trust deals with legal title: who is legally entitled to inherit. A key-split plan deals with technical execution: how your family actually gets the assets. They don't conflict, and you need both. If you already have a trust or a will, this plan is the execution layer underneath it.

Isn't a social recovery wallet enough?

Social recovery helps you get back into your own wallet if you lose a device. Inheritance is a different problem: someone else needs access after you're gone, with legal authority and instructions they can follow. A recovery setup can be part of an inheritance plan, but on its own it isn't one.

Can't I just set up multisig myself with Sparrow or other free tools?

Yes, as long as you'll always be around, always clear-headed, and willing to write a handbook for your family. We don't sell software. Multisig tools like Sparrow, and the tools we use, are free and open source, and you can use them yourself whenever you like. You pay for the parts that aren't code: choosing who holds which piece so your heirs can't act while you're alive, writing down where the backups are and what proof releases them, running a rehearsal with your family, and keeping all of it current when a device is lost, a piece is reissued, or someone joins or leaves the family. The result: on the day something happens to you, your family has a document they can follow and a person they can ask. If you'd rather do that yourself, Self-Guided gives you the templates.

Will you hold any of my keys?

No, not a single one. This is where we differ from Casa and Unchained, who each hold a backup key for recovery or emergency co-signing. The trade-off is that we can't recover your funds for you, but our user-friendly and self-managed backup and recovery process helps to minimize the risk.

Could someone claim my crypto while I'm still alive?

No. No single piece can move funds, and there is no company backup key. In a 2-of-3 setup you hold two pieces, so you can spend on your own, and your heir holds one, which is not enough. The piece your heir is missing is your another device's, and it passes to them through your will after the unfortunate happens. That's the same trust you already place in whoever holds your will.

What happens if Vastlink shuts down?

Nothing changes for your crypto. We never hold a key, the tools are open source, and the handbook only uses software your family can get for free. Signing happens between your own devices: a relay can pass encrypted messages between phones that are far apart, but it can't move funds, it can be self-hosted, and phones on the same WiFi can sign without it. Your plan keeps working without us.

I hold ETH and stablecoins, not Bitcoin. Does this work for me?

Yes. The same inheritance logic applies to Bitcoin, Ethereum and the major stablecoins (USDT, USDC). Tell us what you hold during the gap review and we'll confirm the setup for each asset.

Do I need to be technical?

No. Creating the wallet takes a few minutes in a mobile app, and approving a transfer means scanning a QR code with a second phone. The app handles the cryptography. What it can't decide for you is who holds which piece, where the backups are kept, and what your family does first. That's what the plan and the short handbook cover, tested in a real rehearsal.

How much does crypto inheritance planning cost?

Self-Guided is $249 per year. Guided is $249 per year plus a one-time $249 setup fee. Legacy is $1,900 per year. The first 20 founding families get the Guided setup fee waived. For comparison, Casa's inheritance plans are listed at $250, $2,100 and $7,500 per year, and a lawyer-drafted crypto trust typically costs $2,000 to $10,000 one-off.

Do I need an estate attorney to do this?

For the technical side, no. You can set up the wallet, the key split and the heir handbook without one. For the legal side, yes, we recommend it. An estate attorney makes sure your will or trust names who inherits your crypto, holds the encrypted backup file with your will, and confirms what proof (a death certificate or probate) your executor needs before anyone moves estate assets. Your attorney never needs your seed phrase, private key or passwords. On the Legacy plan we work directly with your own estate attorney.

The Crypto Inheritance & Digital Estate Planning Checklist

A free 4-page checklist that covers each of the three problems above: what to secure, what to write down, and what your family must be able to do. Fill in the short form below and we'll email it to you. No newsletter, no spam.

Get the checklist

Find out what your plan is missing before you decide to buy anything

Not sure where to start? Spend 15 minutes telling us three things:

What you hold, and roughly how it's stored today
Who you want to inherit it
Whether your family knows about it yet

We'll send you a written list of the gaps in your plan, whether or not you buy anything from us. Never send us a seed phrase or private key. We will never ask for one.

Prefer not to use a form? Email johnny@vastlink.xyz directly. See our privacy policy.

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