Bitkey v Trezor for long-term holding and inheritance.

Let's say I have a Bitkey, and a Trezor with a seed + passphrase. The seed and passphrase are in two different locations on steel plates and I have no concerns about the security of those locations. The locations are known and easily accessible to an heir, and there are clear instructions on how to restore a wallet as part of my Will. The user-friendly Multisig and inheritance features of Bitkey are appealing, but I still have a few concerns. * My main one is long-term storage. If Bitkey disappear, and you then discover your Bitkey hardware is broken, what recovery method is there? The Emergency Exit Kit seems to rely on the hardware key. * Risk of phone exploits, and fact that app key and server key both run on software Block wrote and control. * No plausible deniability/hidden wallet if victim of a wrench attack. (sounds like it's something Bitkey are working on) * The 6-month inheritance delay is quite a long time if a beneficiary were in desperate need of funds. Bitkey's inheritance is certainly easier for a non-technical heir, but I'm not convinced that explaining how to recover a Trezor using a seed + passphrase is beyond the ability of most people if they've been talked through it beforehand. I appreciate there is no perfect solution and every setup has trade-offs. I'm curious to hear from people who had similar concerns and still chose Bitkey. Thanks in advance.

5 comments held Reddit says 0 on reddit ↗

u/Scholes_SC2 1 4 hours ago

I know its more complex setup and higher risk of error but I'd use both in a 2/2 multisig. If 1/2 goes rogue and steals your private key you're safe
u/NewWaveHookerr 1 4 hours ago

For long term storage trezor wins every time, relying on company servers for inheritance defeats the purpose of bitcoin
u/[deleted] 1 4 hours ago

[removed] — already gone when the archive first saw it
u/Savik519 1 3 hours ago

Open source wins
u/12PALABRAS 1 2 hours ago

Your two concerns can be tested rather than debated. I’d run the same no-value inheritance drill for each setup and require the heir to complete it with only the materials named in the will. For Trezor, use a synthetic seed/passphrase: recover on a spare device, then verify a pre-recorded non-secret wallet fingerprint or first receive address. This catches the passphrase trap: a typo creates another valid-looking empty wallet. For Bitkey, test two failures separately: service unavailable, and hardware unavailable. If the exit path cannot be completed in both cases, write down exactly which dependency remains and decide whether you accept it. I’d score: owner unavailable, company unavailable, phone unavailable, hardware unavailable, and no live coaching. The better choice is the one whose failed scenario you can explain and periodically re-run, not the one with the nicer inheritance page. Given your six-month concern, I’d also test how the heir covers immediate expenses before access; inheritance delay is a liquidity problem as much as a wallet problem. Have you tried either drill end-to-end with your heir yet, using a zero-balance test wallet?