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About the Protocol

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- Today, in this Samhain week — time of the year when the two 'worlds' (material and spiritual) close together - and better communicate — we have the launch of this new Protocol to honour Bitcoin and all positivity it will - bring to humanity. -

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- This project was originated to solve an existing problem: to leave bitcoin inheritance to one's own children, - but in a decentralised manner, without the intervention of an external third party - (spouse, public notary, etc.) — thus in perfect accordance with the Fundamental principle of - decentralisation. -

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- We have created this protocol (seeking inspiration from John Nash game theory 'dominant dynamics' - on which bitcoin incentives are based) so that it can have own life, without the need of a central - Big Brother to make it work. -

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- It is an open-source code plug-in and a Will-Executor, taking in charge the inheritance transactions' push, - will stay active for at least the next 10 years to await the consolidation of the protocol - with more and more Will-Executors joining in. -

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Key Features

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Decentralized Inheritance

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- Plan Bitcoin inheritance without involving any third party (notary, spouse, custodian). - Fully peer-to-peer, in perfect accordance with Bitcoin's core principle of decentralisation. - No legal overhead, no intermediaries — ever. -

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- Bitcoin Only - Protocol -
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Time-Locked Transactions

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- Transactions are created with Locktime set to a future date. - Will-Executors retain and broadcast them automatically at the specified delivery date. - Your keys never leave your device — Electrum handles all signing. -

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- Desktop - Bitcoin Only -
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Wallet Backup

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- Pre-sign a recovery transaction to a secondary address. If you lose your seed, - funds are automatically sent to your backup wallet. -

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Economic Incentives

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- Each inheritance transaction includes a fee for the Will-Executor, - paid on confirmation. Incentives grow with Bitcoin's value over time. -

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- Server - Bitcoin Only -
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Open Source & Community

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- Anyone can run a Will-Executor server and earn commissions. - The community is encouraged to find new use cases. -

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- Open Source - Server -
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How It Works

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- Six steps — from first setup to automatic execution of your Bitcoin will. -

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Add Heirs
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Enter the Bitcoin address of your heir(s) in the BAL plugin. No notary or intermediary required.
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Prepare Transaction
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The wizard builds a time-locked transaction with your delivery date and Will-Executor fee.
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Sign
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Electrum signs with your key. The plugin never touches your keys — the signed will is stored locally.
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Send to Will-Executors
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Your signed will is sent to Will-Executor servers from the WeList. They hold it until the delivery date.
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Use Electrum Normally
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Just use Electrum as usual. Every session auto-postpones your delivery date — Check Alive, zero effort.
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Your Will, Always Up to Date
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On close, the plugin checks your balance and asks to refresh your will. You confirm — it never signs for you.
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① – ③  Setup
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④  Deploy
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⑤  Stay Alive
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⑥  Auto-Execute
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- Note on signing: The plugin never signs on your behalf. - If your wallet uses a password or a hardware wallet, you will be prompted to confirm. - The plugin asks — you decide. Your will stays accurate, always under your control. -

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Will-Executors

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- The economic incentive necessary to make all this possible is a fee included in each inheritance transaction. - It is paid when the Will-Executor transmits the inheritance transaction to the nodes, - and is therefore inserted in the block. -

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- We expect the BAL PROTOCOL to be successful thanks to the incentives included in the inheritance - transactions. These incentives are substantial and increase with the Bitcoin value in time, - and above all are appealing for more and more servers to join in the inheritance transactions with a - prospective for middle / long period gains. -

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- Anybody will have the possibility to create a server Will-Executor to contribute to the protocol - and earn commissions, since the code is available as open-source. -

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Electrum Plugin

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Bitcoin After Life Plugin

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- The B.A.L. plug-in has been created for Electrum wallet, considered the gold standard - among Bitcoin wallets. We hope one day Electrum developers will integrate it directly by default. -

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BAL Server

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- The server component acts as a Will-Executor: it retains signed transactions and broadcasts them - at the specified expiry date, ensuring the inheritance process runs without human intervention. -

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- Server - Open Source -
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Documentation & Examples

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- On bitcoin-after.life you will find instructions to install the plug-in in Electrum and several - practical examples on how to manage heredity with the Plug-in. -

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Plugin Operations

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How it works

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- The plugin generates a transaction with Locktime set to a future date. The transaction - is signed and sent to one or several Will-Executors, who will take care in retaining the transaction - and send it at the expiry date. -

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- In order to provide economic incentives for the Will-Executor to keep and broadcast the transaction, - an output will contain a fee payment, which will be received only when the heredity - transaction is confirmed in the block chain. -

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- We know technology is useful when it is easily available to people in order to improve their lives; - therefore BAL's main objective will be to improve and to simplify this interface over time. -

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- All the work carried out to implement this project and BAL protocol (Bitcoin After Life) has been - procured only with payments in Bitcoin — with no use of FIAT currencies. -

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Frequently Asked Questions

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- It is a software designed to manage the inheritance of your Bitcoin stored with a seed phrase (private key). - It also allows you to create an emergency backup of your wallet in case you lose your seed. - The protocol uses time-locked transactions sent to Will-Executor servers, which broadcast them to the Bitcoin network at the pre-set delivery date. -
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- It is not known exactly who the author or developer is — there are likely more than one. - It is an open-source software, belonging to everyone, just like Bitcoin. - The first public post about Bitcoin After Life was published on - BitcoinTalk - on 31 October 2024 (Samhain), signed by Svātantrya. - The code is open to all, and anyone can contribute to its development through donations. -
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- For the simple reason that Electrum is hyper-tested and considered the gold standard among Bitcoin wallets. - The BAL plugin does not sign transactions itself — that is entirely Electrum’s job. - This design choice maximises security, reduces the maintenance burden of the software, - and means users can trust the signing process completely independently of BAL. -
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- An inheritance costs two fees, both paid exclusively in Bitcoin — no subscriptions, no credit cards: -
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  • Miner fee: chosen by the user at the time of signing. A higher fee is recommended to ensure future confirmation.
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  • Will-Executor fee: deducted directly from the inheritance at the moment of execution, when the Will-Executor broadcasts the transaction to the network.
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- Will-Executors are free to set their own commissions to cover server running costs. - The fees are visible both on the official WeList website and directly inside the plugin. - It is strongly advised not to manually lower them below what the server requests, - as the server may reject the transaction entirely. -
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- Will-Executor servers are the beating heart of the BAL Protocol. - They receive your pre-signed, time-locked transactions, store them securely, - and broadcast them to the Bitcoin network at the pre-set delivery date. - They cannot alter or steal the transaction because it is already fully signed by you. - Their only incentive to act correctly is the fee embedded in the transaction, - received only once the inheritance is confirmed on-chain. -
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- No — with the latest versions of the software, even the smallest VPS is sufficient. - The earnings are medium-to-long term: the Will-Executor collects Bitcoin fees in the future, - when the inheritance transactions it holds reach their delivery date and get confirmed on-chain. - As Bitcoin’s value grows over time, so does the value of those fees. -
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- Yes — you need to have a second wallet already set up as the destination - (for example a BlueWallet on your phone). If you lose access to your original wallet and no longer - open Electrum before the delivery date, the funds will be automatically sent to the backup address. - It is a practical and decentralized safety net against private key loss. -
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- It is very simple: the plugin includes a step-by-step guided wizard. - You will be asked to set two key parameters: -
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  • Delivery time: the future date on which the Will-Executor will broadcast the transaction.
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  • Check Alive period: how often Electrum should ask you if you want to postpone the delivery date (see Q10).
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- The Check Alive is a parameter that defines the period of inactivity - after which the BAL plugin — installed inside Electrum — will ask you whether you want - to postpone your inheritance delivery date. -

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- Example: suppose you set an inheritance date 2 years from today, - with a Check Alive period of 6 months. If you open Electrum after 7 months - (i.e. more than 6 months since the last postponement), the plugin will prompt you: - your original delivery date is now only 1 year and 5 months away, and since you - are still alive and active, you will likely want to push it back to 2 years from - today again — so the plugin asks whether to postpone by another 6 months. -

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- This mechanism ensures your will is never executed as long as you keep using - Electrum within the Check Alive window. If you stop opening Electrum before - the delivery date is reached, the Will-Executors will broadcast the inheritance - automatically. -

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- Yes — from version 4.7.0 onwards, the BAL plugin is fully compatible - with Electrum Portable. This makes it usable on older PCs or in offline / air-gapped environments, - adding an extra layer of security for users who prefer cold wallet setups. -
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- Yes — the BAL plugin is compatible with any hardware wallet supported by Electrum - (Ledger, Trezor, Coldcard, BitBox02, Jade, KeepKey and others). - Using a dedicated PC for cold wallet signing is recommended for maximum security. -
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- The plugin monitors your UTXO balance every time you close Electrum. - If it detects a change (funds sent or received), it will automatically prompt you to - update the inheritance transaction to reflect the new balance. - This prevents two problems: new funds being excluded from the inheritance, - or the old transaction being rejected by the network because its inputs were already spent. -
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- Yes — the WeList (the official Will-Executor directory) is open to everyone. - Adding your server requires a donation of approximately 30,000 satoshis - to cover the management costs of the official list. - Once registered, your server will be visible to all BAL users directly inside the plugin. -
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- Yes — the plugin was designed to be used by everyday people, not just technical users. - The guided wizard simplifies every step of the process, and the BAL team’s ongoing goal - is to keep the interface as simple and intuitive as possible. - Detailed documentation and practical examples are available on - bitcoin-after.life. -
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- Yes — BAL 2.0 is currently in development. The main new feature will be - support for staggered inheritance: instead of a single lump-sum transfer, - it will be possible to schedule gradual distributions over time - (for example 10% per year), giving heirs a more structured and flexible inheritance plan. -
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- No problem — the plugin proceeds to write the inheritance and send it to the Will-Executors - even if there is an incoming transaction still pending in the mempool. - It is sufficient that the transaction is visible in the mempool; - it does not need to be confirmed yet. The plugin handles this case automatically. -
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