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Vault12 Blog

Vault12 Launches Digital Inheritance to Safely Pass on Digital Assets to the Next Generation

The platform facilitates the easy and direct transfer of digital assets to a designated recipient upon passing.


Vault12, the leading personal digital asset security platform, today announced the launch of its Digital Inheritance offering, the first solution suitable for all kinds of assets to offer a simple, direct and secure way to ensure digital assets can be passed down to and accessed by future generations. Digital Inheritance enables users to designate an individual, who could be the executor, trustee or beneficiary, that will be granted access to the entire portfolio of digital assets stored in a secure Vault upon the investor's death, eliminating undue risk of lost access and the need to continually update an inventory or issue updated instructions.

"While nearly 90% of cryptocurrency investors worry about experiencing an unexpected calamity or even dying with their assets, less than 25% have a documented plan to deal with that possibility, which leads to millions of dollars worth of crypto and digital assets being lost each year. The space has lacked a real, cryptographically secure option when it comes to securely passing on your digital assets to your family. Realizing that the unbreakable security of crypto assets was also a challenging barrier when passing them onto the next generation, we built a decentralized peer-to-peer solution that would enable the easy generational transfer of digital assets."

— Max Skibinsky, co-founder and CEO of Vault12

Digital assets — including cryptocurrency, financial information, legal documents, medical records and any other kind of digital asset — can be added to a Vault12 digital Vault. The Vault is protected by a network of Guardians, who are trusted individuals that range from friends and family to business associates. The Digital Inheritance offering allows a recipient of the assets to be designated by the Vault owner from amongst the Guardians. A declaration of the Vault owner's intent is then digitally signed, transmitted to the designated recipient and shared with lawyers, as needed. Upon the passing or permanent incapacitation of the Vault owner, when the recipient is ready to access the digital assets, a predetermined number of Guardians confirm the request and the assets are restored and transferred to the recipient.

Video: Introducing Digital Inheritance

Vault12 Digital Inheritance has been designed to reduce the risks associated with managing digital assets and preparing them for future transfer.

  • Comprehensive Digital Asset Inventory: Designed to accept all forms of digital assets. When used to secure and back up an investor's full range of assets, it provides an up-to-date asset inventory to be inherited.
  • Direct access for the designated individual: Offers a simple and direct way for the designated individual to gain access to digital assets without having to petition multiple organizations, financial institutions and/or authorities.
  • Privacy Protection: Ensures that, unlike with multi-sig solutions, information about the digital assets is kept private and secure.
"Inheritance planning with digital assets can quickly become a complex process with the need to collect and distribute information on the owner's digital asset inventory and access instructions. In addition to privacy considerations, maintaining tight control over the inventory of assets is essential as this is difficult to complete later on. Any solution that protects the privacy of the asset inventory, the private keys, passwords, account numbers and other access instructions, and enables direct access by the designated beneficiary, trustee or executor, is a welcome and efficient solution for digital asset estate planning."

Philip C. Berg, Chairman of Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice, Otterbourg P.C.

Vault12 Digital Inheritance is designed to be used as part of the inheritance planning process and can easily include Trusts and Estates attorneys as appropriate. It is independent of the specific legal approach chosen by the owner of digital assets, and can be used with a will, living trust or other approach to inheritance. Investors should always obtain legal advice to ensure that all their assets are comprehensively taken care of.

Vault12 Digital inheritance is part of the Vault12 app and now available in the App Store, Google Play, macOS and Windows. Download on https://vault12.com/download.

If you are a lawyer or a crypto investor please view our web seminar hosted by the Chamber of Digital Commerce, with
- Philip C. Berg, Otterbourg P. C.
- Jason Lederman, Senior Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
- Wasim Ahmad, Chief Crypto Officer, Vault12

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxskibinsky/
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Vault12 Blog

Vault12 Launches Digital Inheritance to Safely Pass on Digital Assets to the Next Generation

The platform facilitates the easy and direct transfer of digital assets to a designated recipient upon passing.

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Max Skibinsky

Max Skibinsky is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and startup mentor. Most recently, Max was an investment partner with Andreessen Horowitz, where he focused on enterprise security and bitcoin and deals with Tanium, TradeBlock, and Digital Ocean. In addition to co-founding Vault12, Max leads the R&D team. Before that Max was the founder and CEO of Hive7, a social entertainment company that became part of The Walt Disney Company. In 2003, Max joined the newly formed Voltage Security, an encryption startup incubated at Stanford University, where he architected and designed an Identity-Based Encryption messaging system that was showcased at DEMO '04. Voltage was acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2015. Max has also advised and invested in many startups graduating from Y Combinator including Eligible, Transcriptic, and ZenPayroll. Max graduated with a masters' degree in theoretical and mathematical physics from Moscow State University.

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Blake Commagere

Blake is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and advisor to several companies in the SF Bay Area. He has started seven companies and sold five of them. He regularly gives talks on subjects including Growth Hacking, Fundraising, and Psychology Management.

He created the social gaming category by building some of the biggest apps ever (over 50 Million players) on Facebook, including the iconic games Zombies, Vampires, and Werewolves. Blake also wrote and designed the first version of Causes on Facebook, which has over 120 Million users and has raised over $100 million for various charities. Blake graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Rice University.

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Wasim Ahmad

Wasim is a serial entrepreneur and an advisor in the fields of AI, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and encryption solutions. At Vault12, he led the private and public fundraising efforts and focuses today on expanding the Vault12 ecosystem. His crypto experience began with AlphaPoint, where he worked with the founding team to launch the world's first crypto trading exchanges. Previously he was a founding member of Voltage Security, a spinout from Stanford University, that launched Identity-Based Encryption (IBE), a breakthrough in Public Key Cryptography, and pioneered the use of sophisticated data encryption to protect sensitive data across the world's payment systems. Wasim serves on the board of non-profit, StartOut, and is a Seedcamp and WeWork Labs global mentor.

Wasim graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and French from the University of Sussex.

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Vault12

Vault12 is the pioneer in crypto inheritance and backup. The company was founded in 2015 to provide a way to enable everyday crypto customers to add a legacy contact to their cry[to wallets. The Vault12 Guard solution is blockchain-independent, runs on any mobile device with biometric security, and is available in Apple and Google app stores.

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You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...

You will lose your Bitcoin and other crypto when you die...

...unless you set up Crypto Inheritance Management today.

It's simple — if you don't worry about crypto inheritance, nobody else will — not your software or hardware wallet vendors, not your exchanges, and not your wealth managers. So it's up to you to think about how to protect the generational wealth you have created, and reduce the risks around passing that wealth on to your family and heirs. What are the challenges with crypto inheritance?

  • Crypto Wallets are difficult to use and do not offer crypto inheritance management. In fact, most of them tell you to write down your seed phrase on a piece of paper, which is practically useless.
  • Some people back up their wallet seed phrases or private keys on paper, local devices like hardware wallets or USBs, or in the cloud. All of these options have severe drawbacks that range from hacking to accidental loss to disrupted cloud services.
  • Software wallets operate onspecific blockchains, yet your crypto assets span multiple blockchains. For inheritance to work, you must be able to manage inheritance across every blockchain — now and forever.
Vault12 is the pioneer in crypto inheritance management. Watch our explainer video above, or our inheritance demo today.
Screenshot of Vault12 Guard apps - Add an Asset screen

Crypto Inheritance Management: Get ready today

Vault12 is the pioneer in Crypto Inheritance Management, and offers an easy-to-use and secure method for assigning a legacy contact to your crypto wallets. Vault12 Guard enables you to pass on your wallet seed phrases and private keys for any cryptos including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to future generations. It's designed for everyday people, yet strong enough for Crypto OGs.

This innovative, decentralized system uses a hybrid approach of software fused with the Secure Element of phone devices (the Secure Enclave for iOS devices, and Strongbox for Google devices).

Vault12 Guard enables users to appoint one or more people or mobile devices as Guardians. The designated Guardians are entrusted to collectively protect the user's comprehensive collection of wallet seed phrases and private keys, which are safely stored within a decentralized digital Vault. Nothing is stored on cloud servers or Vault12 servers, and no assets are stored on local devices, making them less of a target.

The decentralized approach reduces points of failure and removes the necessity for regularly revising wallet inventories or modifying instructions for your lawyers (which could lead to privacy breaches). Simply put, Vault12 Guard is the best way to preserve crypto generational wealth.

Screenshot of Vault12 Guard app - Adding data into the Vault

Take the first step and back up your crypto wallets.

Designed to be used alongside traditional hardware and software crypto wallets, Vault12 Guard helps cryptocurrency owners back up their wallet seed phrases and private keys (assets) without storing anything in the cloud or any single location. This increases protection and decreases the risks of loss. Making sure you have an up to date back up is the first step in crypto inheritance management.

The Vault12 Guard app enables secure decentralized backups and provides inheritance for all your seed phrases and private keys across any blockchain, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20, and other crypto wallets.

Note: For anyone unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies, Vault12 refers to wallet seed phrases and private keys as assets, crypto assets, and digital assets. The Vault12 Guard app includes a software wallet that works alongside your digital Vault. The primary purpose of this is to guard your Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) wallet seed phrases, private keys, and other essential data, now and for future generations.