Problem:
Imagine that you owned some crypto, and you wanted to gift it your child. (Let's call the child Alex.)
How can you leave the money to Alex in such a way that:
- the wallet would survive even in the case of fire, flood damage
- the kid can't unlock the wallet until they turn 18
- the kid can't unlock the wallet unless trusted guardians believe they would use it responsibly
- optionally, allow ownership of the wallet to be irrevocably transferred to someone else (in case Alex also dies before turning 18)
- limit the ability of corrupt guardians from spending the money themselves
- no institutions (law firms, government) are involved
Solution:
Divide up the funds into multiple Monero wallets. Lock each wallet with six keys (using Samir's Secret Sharing algorithm):
Owner's key: the person who can spend the money if the wallet is unlocked.
Five guardian keys: five keys distributed to five different people.
The person with the owner's key can spend the funds from the wallet if it's unlocked. However, they can't spend the money until it's unlocked.
The guardians would not be able to spend the money without the owner's key. But they can unlock the wallet.
Store multiple copies of the wallets in multiple places (internet archive, forever.com, usb sticks in safes, etc)
Give the kid a cryptosteel with a copy of their key for each wallet.
Give each of the guardians a cryptosteel with a copy of their keys.
Choose different sets of guardians for each wallet. That way, if the kids/guardians lose their keys, or the guardians become corrupted, only the contents of that wallet are lost. Or the guardians disagree about whether the child is responsible enough or not.
Imagine that you owned some crypto, and you wanted to gift it your child. (Let's call the child Alex.)
How can you leave the money to Alex in such a way that:
- the wallet would survive even in the case of fire, flood damage
- the kid can't unlock the wallet until they turn 18
- the kid can't unlock the wallet unless trusted guardians believe they would use it responsibly
- optionally, allow ownership of the wallet to be irrevocably transferred to someone else (in case Alex also dies before turning 18)
- limit the ability of corrupt guardians from spending the money themselves
- no institutions (law firms, government) are involved
Solution:
Divide up the funds into multiple Monero wallets. Lock each wallet with six keys (using Samir's Secret Sharing algorithm):
Owner's key: the person who can spend the money if the wallet is unlocked.
Five guardian keys: five keys distributed to five different people.
The person with the owner's key can spend the funds from the wallet if it's unlocked. However, they can't spend the money until it's unlocked.
The guardians would not be able to spend the money without the owner's key. But they can unlock the wallet.
Store multiple copies of the wallets in multiple places (internet archive, forever.com, usb sticks in safes, etc)
Give the kid a cryptosteel with a copy of their key for each wallet.
Give each of the guardians a cryptosteel with a copy of their keys.
Choose different sets of guardians for each wallet. That way, if the kids/guardians lose their keys, or the guardians become corrupted, only the contents of that wallet are lost. Or the guardians disagree about whether the child is responsible enough or not.