【Digital Asset Inheritance Trust: The Legacy Guardian in the Digital Age】

Mr. Lu, an internet entrepreneur, owns digital assets worth 4 million RMB, including Bitcoin, NFT collectibles, and several social media accounts with millions of followers.

Facing risks associated with private key management and the lack of relevant knowledge among family members, he established a dedicated trust for digital asset inheritance.

The trust adopts a three-tier protection mechanism:

• First, digital asset ownership is legally certified through a notary office, and the cold wallet private keys are sharded and stored separately in bank vaults.

• Second, a smart contract is set up to automatically transfer ¥20,000 in monthly revenue from the social media accounts to his spouse’s account—while restricting ownership transfers.

• Lastly, his children can only gain full control of the assets after passing a blockchain knowledge assessment.

To address emergencies, the trust includes a contingency clause:
If the settlor is unreachable for over 30 days, the trustee is authorized to activate a backup key transfer procedure.

This structure not only fills the legal gap in digital asset inheritance but also introduces technical safeguards to prevent improper handling or mismanagement of the assets.

By establishing a family trust, Mr. Lu effectively addresses the challenges of digital legacy succession.

• Legal notarization + sharded custody: Dual protection against single point of failure in private key storage.

• Linking inheritance rights to capability: Prevents minors from mismanaging or losing valuable assets due to lack of knowledge.