# How BAL compares

!!! danger "Draft — needs review before publishing"
    This page describes other projects (Nunchuk, Liana) whose features and prices
    change over time. Everything below was compiled from public sources in **mid-2026**
    and has **not** been validated by those projects or by the BAL developers. Verify
    current details on each project's own site before treating any claim as authoritative.
    Tone rule for this page: **factual, no disparagement** — these are design trade-offs,
    not mistakes.

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

<div class="compact-table" markdown>

| | **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 |

</div>

## 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](will-executors/welist.md)
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](user-guide/updating.md) 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](user-guide/updating.md)),
  and it relies on Will-Executors continuing to operate (mitigated by redundancy and the
  [offline backup transaction](user-guide/backup-transaction.md)).

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.

---

!!! question "Still have a question?"
    The [FAQ](faq.md) answers the most common ones — costs, hardware wallets,
    privacy, and what happens if a Will-Executor disappears.