HeirKey
An offline-first desktop app that lets crypto holders safely rehearse their own seed-phrase backup and pre-configure a family inheritance plan, without ever phoning home with the secret.
Long-term Bitcoin and Ethereum holders who store their own seed phrases and worry about losing access or their family being locked out
- Air-gapped rehearsal: type your 12/24-word backup, the app confirms it's correct and shows the derived first wallet address locally with zero network calls
- Inheritance kit: split, encrypt and time-lock seed-phrase shards for family, with a printable recovery booklet
- Read-only Ledger/Trezor integration so you can confirm your hardware-wallet backup matches without re-entering seeds on a hot machine
- Heir walkthrough mode that walks a non-technical family member through restoration step-by-step, mimicking metamask/Electrum screens
The WalletGen repo trends on GitHub with 105+ stars because ordinary crypto holders panic about their own lost seed phrases; nearly all currently available 'recovery' tooling is either dark or developer-only, leaving a massive legitimate demand unmet.
Spark estimates 3-4M BTC permanently lost (16-20% of supply) and only 4-5% of crypto holders have a formal inheritance plan; Ledger 2025 survey shows 23% never backed up seed phrase — large latent but under-penetrated need.Bitcoin Inheritance Solutions Compared | Spark ↗How to Backup Seed Phrase: Complete Security Guide 2026 ↗
Mature competitor set already covers this space: Casa ($250/yr), Unchained ($250/vault/yr), Nunchuk ($480/yr), plus free DIY options like Liana miniscript wallet and existing Shamir/SLIP-39 tools — the offline 'rehearsal' framing is novel but partially overlaps with DIY guides.Best Bitcoin Inheritance Services | Unchained Compare ↗7 Best Crypto Inheritance Tools for Keys - jasonwootten.net ↗
Proven willingness to pay $250-$2,100/yr for hosted inheritance plans (Casa, Unchained, Nunchuk), but an offline desktop app likely caps out at one-time purchase ($59-$169 Shamir tool range), and competing with free DIY miniscript is hard.Casa Inheritance pricing ↗Bitcoin Inheritance Solutions Compared | Spark ↗
Assessed from the GitHub Trending signal: ★ 105.
Well-scoped build using mature standards (BIP39, SLIP-39 Shamir, miniscript), and open-source reference implementations like Liana exist; main challenge is UX safety to prevent users leaking secrets during rehearsal.Bitcoin Inheritance Solutions Compared | Spark ↗