Brother Died, Bitcoin Access

[Imsupposedtobeworking]

My Family and I are in an awful position and hoping to find someone with experience in bitcoin. My brother had an unexpected serious brain trauma in his late thirties, rendering him completely paralysed with locked in syndrome. this left him with only the ability to move his eyes as form of communication. This happened whilst he was travelling on another continent, without adequate insurance. Many generous people and friends of my brother donated towards a fund to get him home. The donations were very generous, but not enough to pay all of my brothers bills + the cost of medically transporting him. My sibling and I ended up donating a chunk of both our individual savings and my mum remortagaged the house she had literally just paid off after decades a few months previously. Happily we managed to get him home and he spent the last three years of his life here before unexpecedly passing away this year. My Mum is over 70 and now working two night shifts a week in order to pay off this mortgage, this is not conducive to her health and my sibling and I help where we can but cant afford to pay off her mortgage. My brother had invested in bitcoins but refused to provide details in order to access this cash to help pay his medical bills / contribute towards my mums mortgage. I cannot judge my brother for this as his finances were the only part of his life that he had any autonomy over following his stroke. However, I would like my mother to no longer have to work at her age and after all she has been through with my brothers illness. He may have nothing saved in bitcoin, or he may have saved enough to help my mum pay off the mortgage she took out to get him home and also help towards his funeral costs - we just dont know. Does anyone here have insight into how a Bitcoin account can be accessed by next of kin?

@esme333

What i really should of said is

''Hai, download linux kali, put it on a live usb, and use the tools on there to systematically gather what is required, and there we go''

Sorry, there is also parrot, arch linux, backtrack and a few others.

But kali, the way forward to reckless retrieval of virtual property.

Research metasploit and BeeF, and you will be amazed how easy it is.

Oh, also, don't forget to download your word lists and hash'

I understand you initially posted to try and help, as you recognised that OP's request for help to access a potentially loaded Bitcoin wallet could very quickly go south for her, even if she doesn't think she is providing any obviously identifying information. Mumsnet feels like a safe community and people don't always remember it's the 'open internet'.

But you could have helped further by explaining why in layman's terms rather than leaping into technical jargon. That gets people's backs up, as you have seen.

Goodness me this sounds very Nigerian prince doesn't it 👀

You need to locate the code, or see if he has any related apps on his phone? Do you have his papers and personal affects from before the accident?

He might just have a crypto app of some kind on his phone, possibly that you can immediately log into or linked to a phone/email?

Do you know how much trading he did, was this a little side thing with a few hundred or likely to be more professional setup? Obviously don’t give the password to anyone, that should be pretty clear.

Ignore @esme333 😂 not sure what she’s on

What you need is the seed

Here's some tips or things to think about

Firstly where did he have the bitcoins?

On an exchange? eg Coinbase, Kracken, Binance, Gemini are all names of exchanges. If you have access to his email, go through it and see if you can find any emails from those or other bitcoin providers. If you can, get in touch with them directly. I know Coinbase has procedures for next of kin accessing accounts, and I suspect the others may as well.

On a software wallet (like exodus, and there are quite a few others). Go through his computer and search for a "wallet.dat" file. If you have that, you have the bitcoins. DO NOTHING FURTHER FOR NOW. The bitcoins are safe, they arent going anywhere, dont do anything in a rush.

On a mobile wallet (like Mycelium and there are a few others). Unless you can directly access the app (usually with a password), you need to find the seed phrase (see below).

On a hardware wallet (like Ledger or Trezor), If you can find a hardware wallet (google for what the two above look like, there are others, but only hardcore bitcoiners would go for the more obsure ones), these can be accessed by a pin number - typically 8 digits. If you know what he might use you can try, but you risk getting locked out if you put the wrong one in more than twice, so only try once.

If none of this helps then you are looking for either

• a seed phase - this will be 24 or 12 random words, the order is important. It would typically be kept on paper, not digitally

• or a private key - this will look like a long string of random alphanumeric digits.

If you have either of these you have the bitcoins.

If you do find a seed phrase or a private key. Do not do anything in haste. The bitcoins are safe and they arent going anywhere. In particular.

1. Do not put it into a computer until you know what you are doing
2. Do not share with anyone, ESPECIALLY randoms on the internet
3. Do not take a digital picture of it.

Thanks for the recommendation SaskiaR. I think I heard it mentioned on another podcast and that looks right up my street.

@donquixotedelamancha

The fact you ask why, demonstrates lack of understanding, otherwise the use of'why' and 'hypothetical' wouldn't be used.

The truth is, there is no spoon.

😂😂😂

OP. Who is handling probate?

The OP sounds like a scam to me.

Check his phone or laptop for a program or app that remembers passwords. Dashlane or Lastpass are a couple of apps that do.

Crypto is unregulated. Hence why some people love it, and some people dont.

@Cailleachian

Here's some tips or things to think about

Firstly where did he have the bitcoins?

On an exchange? eg Coinbase, Kracken, Binance, Gemini are all names of exchanges. If you have access to his email, go through it and see if you can find any emails from those or other bitcoin providers. If you can, get in touch with them directly. I know Coinbase has procedures for next of kin accessing accounts, and I suspect the others may as well.

On a software wallet (like exodus, and there are quite a few others). Go through his computer and search for a "wallet.dat" file. If you have that, you have the bitcoins. DO NOTHING FURTHER FOR NOW. The bitcoins are safe, they arent going anywhere, dont do anything in a rush.

On a mobile wallet (like Mycelium and there are a few others). Unless you can directly access the app (usually with a password), you need to find the seed phrase (see below).

On a hardware wallet (like Ledger or Trezor), If you can find a hardware wallet (google for what the two above look like, there are others, but only hardcore bitcoiners would go for the more obsure ones), these can be accessed by a pin number - typically 8 digits. If you know what he might use you can try, but you risk getting locked out if you put the wrong one in more than twice, so only try once.

If none of this helps then you are looking for either

• a seed phase - this will be 24 or 12 random words, the order is important. It would typically be kept on paper, not digitally

• or a private key - this will look like a long string of random alphanumeric digits.

If you have either of these you have the bitcoins.

If you do find a seed phrase or a private key. Do not do anything in haste. The bitcoins are safe and they arent going anywhere. In particular.

1. Do not put it into a computer until you know what you are doing
2. Do not share with anyone, ESPECIALLY randoms on the internet
3. Do not take a digital picture of it.

As someone that works in this area (Blockchain), this is the only bit of actual advice on this thread. Good luck OP, if you're real.

@esme333

I was the first person to say, DO NOT DISCLOSE ANYMORE!!

Now you are clarified. Read up for reference, change topic for drama.

Pick the latter

People cannot be 'clarified'. Only butter.

And it's 'SHOULD HAVE' not SHOULD OF.

@esme333 alright calm down Elon, we're all very impressed with how many Internet Words you know.

OP - in short, there is no NOK process.

‘Opsec’ 😂

MI5, not 9-5.

@lljkk

I would be furious at my brother if he was doing this.

Well that would be very unfair of you, as strokes can affect people's character and moods as well as their physical person.

OP, even if you find the bitcoin it is not yours to do what you want with. Did your brother leave a will?

Surely you can't pay a mortgage off with but coin

I'd be furious at your brother for putting all of you in the position of having to pay for his care when he had access to money. Your poor mum, having to work to pay her mortgage.

Hope you get it sorted.

@Bobbiebigbum

Surely you can't pay a mortgage off with but coin

You can use crypto currency for anything now, as long as you have kept accurate accounts, declared your trades and accounts and paid your taxes.

That should be declared your profits. I can't type today. Must be the heat.

@HollowTalk

I'd be furious at your brother for putting all of you in the position of having to pay for his care when he had access to money. Your poor mum, having to work to pay her mortgage.

Strokes can affect people's personalities, as well as their bodies.

@Bobbiebigbum

Surely you can't pay a mortgage off with but coin

Not quite yet but it's not far off and you can sell your crypto currency and convert to cash and pay a mortgage off that way.

You can pay any Ransomware demands you might get with it (and buy drugs and weapons online of course...)