My story
I'm originally from South Africa, where I studied Law (LLB) and Political Thought (BA) before qualifying as an attorney and spending a decade working in commercial real estate and investment. Along the way I picked up a Master's in Real Estate (MSc) and later, after moving to Australia in 2018 with my family, a Diploma in Financial Planning (RG146).
Down the rabbit hole
I'd come across Bitcoin twice before and dismissed it both times. The third time was different. In 2020, while studying for my financial planning diploma, I encountered it again and this time I had the headspace to go deep. For the first time, I asked the question every Bitcoiner eventually asks: what is money? And if governments can simply print money to keep the economy alive, why do we pay tax?
That question changed everything. I went down the rabbit hole and never came back up.
The problem I couldn't ignore
Once I became the "Bitcoin guy" within my friends, family, and broader network, people started asking for help securing their holdings. The more I helped, the more I uncovered a recurring problem. That eventually turned into professional work, and the problem only became clearer: nobody had a plan for what happens to their bitcoin when they die. And the options that did exist were either stressful, expensive, or simply didn't account for self-custody at all.
Then last year, a change in my own life meant I needed an updated will. When I went looking for a solution, I couldn't find one that actually worked.
What's out there today
The current options for self-custody Bitcoiners are surprisingly limited:
1. Buy a generic will template. These don't account for bitcoin self-custody at all. You can't put seed phrases in a will, and you shouldn't even reference them. It's an operational security issue. So you end up needing secondary documentation the template doesn't provide, and you're back to square one.
2. Hire a lawyer for a bespoke estate plan. That'll cost anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000, and there's a good chance your lawyer won't understand UTXOs, hardware wallets, or multisig. I went this route myself. Spent a fortune and came away feeling like the lawyer didn't grasp the self-custody problem at all. Unfortunately, very few lawyers understand bitcoin, let alone self-custody.
3. Hand your bitcoin to a wealth manager. That's not self-custody. Fees are typically 1% of assets under management, and if you understand compound interest, that quietly becomes 10 to 20% of your upside over time. That's expensive insurance for very little value, and it runs counter to the entire Bitcoin ethos of radical self-responsibility.
3 problems, 1 kit
When a Bitcoiner dies without a plan, three things go wrong:
1. Technical. If you've optimised for security and secrecy but haven't put a plan in place to transfer your bitcoin, it's gone. Forever.
2. Legal. If you don't have a valid will, you don't get to decide what happens to your bitcoin. The State does.
3. Educational. Even if you have a will and an inheritance plan, do your loved ones understand bitcoin? Do they know why it mattered to you, how to unlock it, or who to speak to? Without that groundwork, they could treat it as a financial windfall, and the prospect of generational wealth evaporates.
Why I built My Bitcoin Will
Drawing on my legal training and hands-on experience helping people secure their bitcoin, I created My Bitcoin Will to close that gap. It's a low-cost, accessible starter kit with will templates, education, and practical guidance designed specifically for bitcoin holders in self-custody. The goal is to help people get the process started with a practical, legally informed structure they can later refine with a local solicitor.
I believe there's nothing worse than the State deciding how your estate is distributed because you never put a clear will in place, especially when self-custodied bitcoin can so easily be lost forever. I'm focused on solving a real and pressing need: helping everyday Bitcoiners "get off zero" when it comes to a will, so their sats actually reach the people they care about.
