In recent decades, the intense use of the internet and digital devices have contributed to the accumulation of a large personal database in the virtual environment. Photos, videos, social networks and other digital products, such as monetized content, cryptocurrencies and NFTs, configure a person’s assets and are considered their digital heritage.
A study by the Cremation Institute reveals that 90% of cryptocurrency owners are concerned about what will happen to their cryptocurrency after death, but most investors are not concerned about their digital heritage. As it is a recent market, there are still no laws or regulations to deal with this type of heritage.
For Adriana Molha, founding partner of Go Digital Factory, the terms of the service agreement in the United States already indicate how the control of that good goes beyond the original owner. The executive also claims that, in some cases, it is possible to plan who will have access to a person’s digital assets.
However, she reinforces that there is a difference between access and possession: “specifically in the American legislation, access to the account is limited to exactly that. It is what happens with iTunes and Kindle: it is not possible to transmit songs and books to the heirs”, explains Adriana, in a text forwarded to the Canaltech.
The other founding partner, Ana Wadovski, explains that in Brazil the processes are different. She claims that it is possible to notify cryptocurrency companies with a court order, so that the heirs can request that the digital inheritance be included in the estate of the deceased person.
lost fortunes
To exemplify some cases of people who died and left fortunes in NFTs and Bitcoins, Ana cites the Romanian investor Mircea Popescu, who would have left the equivalent of US$ 162 billion, or R$ 811 billion at the current exchange rate, in Bitcoins.
“None of Mircea’s relatives or friends had access to his private keys and access credentials. Therefore, these Bitcoins would have been completely lost”, says the executive.
Another case that received a lot of notoriety was that of Gerald Cotten, founder of the QuadrigaCX brokerage, who died mysteriously and disappeared with the US$ 250 million (R$ 1.2 billion) of his 76 thousand investors, since he was the only person who had access to the cold wallet password that held the assets. Cotten’s death earned a documentary on Netflix called “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King”, released in 2022.
How to leave inheritance cryptocurrencies and NFTs?
Experts claim that it is possible to leave digital assets as an inheritance, as long as it is determined in a will who the heirs will be. According to Adriana, digital currencies are easier to resolve, as they have daily quotations and will be evaluated at the time of division with the heirs.
Ana explains that the case of NFTs, for example, is a little more complicated, as they suffer a considerably smaller variation and can generate disagreement between heirs about the value of the asset. Therefore, the judge may request the presence of a judicial evaluator who has knowledge in the crypto world to help price the NFT.
The founders of Go Digital Factory still bring examples of companies that work with digital heritage, which is protected with blockchain technology and cryptography, they are: Safe Haven, Casa and TrustVerse. “In time, the service is not limited to cryptocurrencies and NFTs, but also covers your profiles on networks such as Facebook and Google”, concludes Ana.
Source: Cremation Institute
