The Bitcoin Estate Playbook

There is only 21 million Bitcoin that will ever be created. A unique asset and money that has taken the world by storm. It's estimated more than 4 million out of those 21 million have been either trusting third parties with your Bitcoin, or having a poor self-custody set up.

Bitcoin is the first asset a family can hold with no one standing between them and it. That is its strength, but this trade off make it hard for it to reach the next generation. This handbook sets out, in plain language, the principles a family needs to hold Bitcoin securely for decades and pass it on with intention.

Inside: the one secret everything rests on, and why the key, the device, and the backup must be held apart in the mind; the handful of ways Bitcoin estates fail, from custodial risk to family confusion; the practical rules that prevent almost every avoidable loss; how to choose between a single key, a passphrase, and shared control; how one recovery phrase can give rise to many accounts; and how to keep the plan alive with drills, a checklist, and an annual family conversation.

It is written for families who hold Bitcoin in their own custody and mean to keep it there, and for the lawyers, accountants, and wealth advisers who serve them. It contains no price talk and no investment advice.

Schelling Point is an advisory firm devoted to one task: helping families manage their Bitcoin estate well, across generations. We never hold a family's keys.