Authority
Who may decide? Ownership, delegated decision rights, the right to pause and the route to follow when in doubt.
Evidence: recorded decision rightsFor families & advisors
Succession takes more than a power of attorney.
Your Bitcoin can stay entirely under your control and still be prepared, so that those who may one day need to take over understand the roles, the evidence and the dependencies.
01
For families: the succession gap
Being entitled is not the same as being able to act.
Heirs or attorneys may be entitled to deal with an asset without knowing which backup is current, how the wallet is structured or how a recovery can be verified. Advisers understand the legal arrangements – and rightly stay clear of the cryptographic secrets.
What is missing is a clear structure: who is responsible for what, which procedures apply, what evidence exists and whom to turn to when in doubt.
02
Prepared for an emergency
Four questions. Four distinct safeguards.
A good result at one level does not prove the next.
Access
Can the authorised people find documents, devices and procedures under the expected conditions?
Evidence: controlled access rehearsalEvidence
Can they demonstrate that the wallet, structure, addresses and dependencies match the intended set-up?
Evidence: defined, dated checksRecovery
Can access be restored if a person, device, location or provider becomes unavailable?
Evidence: completed recovery rehearsal03
Roles
Separate responsibility from secrets.
Today, one person often holds several roles. Good planning makes it possible to separate them – in the event of absence, illness, dispute or inheritance.
Owner
Has authority over the asset and decides what it is for.
Operator
Carries out the agreed technical steps.
Verifier
Checks that the set-up and the evidence match.
Emergency contact
Knows when and how to start the agreed procedure – without receiving any secrets in advance.
04
Evidence status
Confidence should end where the evidence ends.
CurrentChecked within the agreed period.
StaleChecked previously; a new check is due.
UnknownThere is no reliable evidence for the claim.
UnavailableThe source of the evidence cannot currently be used.
If required evidence is contradictory, stale or unavailable, pause before taking any irreversible step.
05
For advisers, notaries and tax advisers
Your role stays yours. We add the technical side.
Many clients hold their own Bitcoin and, alongside legal and tax advice, need someone to organise, explain and verify the technical side. Working together on this is planned for the pilot. You are welcome to contact us now for an initial conversation.
Clear documentation
Planned for the pilot: well-organised documents for your clients covering roles, structure and procedures – without recovery words or keys.
A clear division of work
Wills, powers of attorney and tax remain your domain. We design the custody arrangements with your clients and verify with them whether recovery works under the agreed conditions.
Independent
We receive no referral commissions and pay none. Recommendations in either direction are guided by your clients’ interests.
Engineer & Founder
Felix Brandt
Felix Brandt approaches Bitcoin security as an engineer would: making assumptions explicit, thinking failures through in advance, rehearsing procedures and requiring evidence for every security claim.
He concentrates on procedures that stop when evidence is missing and that keep facts clearly apart from mere confidence. At 21 Fruits, he develops methods that help families and their advisers understand the roles, dependencies and limits of Bitcoin self-custody. He founded 21 Fruits, leads its development and is your personal contact.
Practical foundation
Bitcoin Self-Custody Readiness Framework
Our model for roles, evidence, verification limits, dependencies and recovery decisions – the foundation of every protection plan.