How BAL compares¶
This information may be out of date
This page compares other projects (Nunchuk, Liana) whose features and prices change over time. The details here were gathered from public sources in mid-2026 — always check each project's own site for the current situation before relying on any figure.
Bitcoin After Life is not the only way to plan Bitcoin inheritance. Nunchuk and Liana are two well-known, respected projects that solve the same problem differently. This page compares them across the dimensions that tend to matter over a multi-year time horizon — decentralization, long-term cost, the wallet each one builds on, distribution, and exposure to a single company being shut down — and it states plainly where each approach, BAL included, is weaker.
At a glance¶
| Bitcoin After Life | Liana (Wizardsardine) | Nunchuk (Honey Badger) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanism | Pre-signed transaction, absolute nLockTime, held by Will-Executors |
Script wallet (Miniscript), relative timelocks in the script | Collaborative-custody multisig (2-of-4) with a timelocked inheritance key |
| Who holds keys | Only you. Will-Executors hold no keys | Only you (and any recovery keyholders you choose) | You hold 3 keys; Nunchuk holds 1 platform key on its servers |
| Base wallet | Runs inside Electrum (in use since 2011) | Own codebase (Miniscript / Bitcoin Core) | Own app |
| Recurring cost | None | None for the wallet, but timelocks need periodic coin rotation → network fees over time | Subscription ~$120–$480/yr |
| When you pay | Only at execution, from the inheritance transaction, in bitcoin | Network fees on each rotation | Yearly subscription + network fees |
| Distribution | Desktop plugin (.zip) — no app store |
Desktop + mobile | Primarily mobile app (App Store / Google Play) + desktop |
| Single-company shutdown risk | No company to shut down | Wallet survives; hosted backend optional | Assisted flow depends on the company; on-chain failsafe as backup |
| Heir's effort | None — the network broadcasts automatically | Heir signs a recovery transaction after the timelock | Guided beneficiary flow; on-chain failsafe via timelock |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes (app); platform key is a hosted service |
Decentralization¶
BAL is the most decentralized in day-to-day operation: a network of independent Will-Executors, with no coordination between them and no company in the middle. In fairness, it does depend on Will-Executors continuing to operate, and it uses the WeList as a discovery directory — a mild point of centralization you can bypass by adding servers manually.
Liana is strongly decentralized on the keys — full self-custody, no company key — and its recovery path is enforced by the Bitcoin script itself, i.e. by consensus rules rather than any service. Its convenient hosted backend (Liana Connect) is optional; you can run your own node.
Nunchuk's inheritance plans use collaborative custody: the company holds one multisig key on its servers. Nunchuk 2.0 (November 2025) added an on-chain autonomous failsafe using timelocks and Miniscript, which reduces that dependency — but the platform key remains part of the assisted setup.
No cost that recurs over the years¶
BAL costs nothing until the inheritance is actually executed. There is no subscription and no forced periodic action: the only Will-Executor fee is taken from the time-locked transaction itself, in bitcoin, and only if a Will-Executor broadcasts it. Keeping the plan current means renewing the will yourself — no payment involved.
Liana's wallet is free, but its relative timelocks have to be reset periodically by moving coins to a fresh address (a Bitcoin consensus constraint, not a wallet flaw). That means paying network fees over time and fits cold storage that is never touched poorly.
Nunchuk's inheritance features live behind a yearly subscription (roughly $120–$480 depending on the plan). It is a real recurring cost, and the plan lapses if it stops being paid.
A single, battle-tested wallet: Electrum¶
BAL does not build a new wallet. It runs as a plugin inside Electrum, which has been in use since 2011 and is among the most heavily reviewed and tested Bitcoin wallets in existence. Electrum performs the signing; BAL never signs on your behalf. Electrum is open source and does not depend on any single company to keep existing, which matters for a plan meant to work decades from now.
The honest counterpoint: BAL is a plugin, so it depends on the plugin being maintained and on Electrum's plugin interface staying stable. (Note the correct wording: BAL is listed in Electrum's third-party plugin directory — not "approved by Electrum".)
Liana and Nunchuk ship their own, newer codebases. Both come from competent teams, but neither has Electrum's number of years in the field.
No dependency on an app store¶
BAL is a desktop plugin installed from a .zip file. It never passes through the Apple App
Store or Google Play, so it cannot be pulled from a store or blocked by a platform's policy — a
recurring problem for crypto apps in some jurisdictions.
Nunchuk is primarily a mobile app distributed through the App Store and Google Play (a desktop version also exists), which makes store availability a real dependency. Liana is distributed from its own site for desktop, with mobile options, so it is less exposed than a mobile-first app.
Resistance to a company being shut down¶
This is where an inheritance plan's time horizon really bites: a plan may need to work in ten or twenty years, across changes in law.
BAL has no company operating a custody service — so there is no single entity a government can shut down to break the plan. Will-Executors are independent, can be located anywhere, and at least one operates Tor-only. If new anti-Bitcoin rules appear in one country (as has been discussed in places like Russia), there is no headquarters to close and no license to revoke.
Liana is made by a company (Wizardsardine), but the wallet is self-custodial and open source: if the company disappeared, existing scripts keep working on-chain because the recovery path is enforced by the script, not the company. Only the optional hosted backend would stop, and you can switch to your own node.
Nunchuk runs a collaborative-custody service with a platform key, which makes the company a regulatory target — a hostile jurisdiction could force it to relocate, and closure is at least as likely as relocation. To their credit, Nunchuk engineered the on-chain timelock failsafe precisely so beneficiaries can still recover without the company; but the assisted experience does depend on the company continuing to operate.
Where the other approaches are stronger¶
Fairness requires stating this plainly — BAL is not the best choice on every axis:
- Liana gives you a cancellation window by design and needs no external network to broadcast; the recovery path is enforced by the script itself. If you keep coins consolidated, its model is very clean.
- Nunchuk offers a guided, supported experience with a beneficiary flow and a company standing behind it — valuable for users who want assistance rather than a self-run plan, and who are comfortable with one key in collaborative custody.
- BAL's own trade-offs: it is desktop-only (Electrum), it has no built-in cancellation window (so it asks the owner for renewal discipline — see Keeping the will up to date), and it relies on Will-Executors continuing to operate (mitigated by redundancy and the offline backup transaction).
There is no single best choice — only the one that matches how much you want to self-manage, whether you accept a third-party key or an app store or a company in the loop, and whether you want a plan that costs nothing and depends on nothing but Bitcoin.
Still have a question?
The FAQ answers the most common ones — costs, hardware wallets, privacy, and what happens if a Will-Executor disappears.