Bitcoin Custody New Baby

Custody Updates After the Birth of a Child

This memo is published by CustodyStress, an independent Bitcoin custody stress test that produces reference documents for individuals, families, and professionals.

Bitcoin Inheritance New Baby: Extended Time Horizons

A child is born. The bitcoin holder is now a parent. The custody system has not changed. The keys are in the same places. The documentation describes the same process. The technical arrangement is identical to what existed before. Bitcoin custody new baby describes how the meaning of that system changes when a dependent enters the picture who cannot act for themselves and who may need the bitcoin to be accessible for decades.

This memo looks at how custody systems behave when the birth of a child alters dependency assumptions and inheritance priorities. The system's mechanics do not change. The stakes do. The time horizons extend. The people who matter expand to include someone who cannot participate in their own recovery for many years.

---

Bitcoin Custody New Baby: What Changes

Bitcoin custody new baby introduces a new category of person into the custody equation. Before the child, the system served the holder and possibly a spouse. After the child, the system implicitly serves someone who cannot understand it, cannot access it, and cannot advocate for their own interests.

A couple holds bitcoin. They have documentation. They have a recovery plan that involves each other. A baby is born. The baby cannot read the documentation. The baby cannot operate a hardware wallet. The baby cannot interpret custody artifacts. The baby depends entirely on adults to preserve, interpret, and eventually transfer the bitcoin on the baby's behalf. The custody system now serves someone who cannot participate in it.

The system did not change. The dependency structure around it changed. Bitcoin custody after having a child reflects this new relationship between the custody arrangement and the people it serves.

---

Bitcoin Inheritance New Baby: Extended Time Horizons

Bitcoin inheritance new baby extends the time horizon over which the custody system needs to function. A system designed for a spouse assumes adult capability and relatively near-term access. A system that serves a child assumes decades may pass before the child can act independently.

A parent sets up bitcoin custody at age thirty. The child is born. If the parent dies at age thirty-five, the child is five years old. The child cannot access the bitcoin for another thirteen years at minimum. The custody system that worked when the parent was alive needs to remain functional, interpretable, and accessible for over a decade without the parent's involvement.

The system exhibits new fragility when its original design assumed shorter time horizons. Documentation that made sense to a spouse in the same year may not make sense to a guardian interpreting it eight years later. Passwords stored in a password manager may become inaccessible when the subscription lapses. Hardware wallets may become obsolete. The manufacturer may go out of business. Bitcoin inheritance new baby exposes how time degrades custody assumptions.

---

Bitcoin Custody After Having a Child: Authority Layering

Bitcoin custody after having a child introduces authority layers that did not exist before. A minor cannot own property directly in most jurisdictions. The bitcoin passes through intermediary structures: trusts, custodial accounts, guardianships. Each layer adds interpretation and coordination requirements.

A parent dies. The will leaves the bitcoin to the child. The child is three years old. A guardian is appointed. The guardian has authority over the child's affairs but may not have authority over a trust that holds the bitcoin. A trustee manages the trust but may not have the technical knowledge to access the bitcoin. An executor handles the estate but the executor's role ends after distribution. Three different people hold three different pieces of authority. None of them alone can act. All of them together may not understand how the pieces connect.

The system becomes sensitive to who can act for the child versus who can act for themselves. Bitcoin custody parent considerations include how these authority layers interact when the parent is no longer present to coordinate them.

---

Guardian and Executor Coordination

Custody changes after baby include the introduction of new coordination surfaces. A guardian handles the child's daily needs. An executor handles the estate. A trustee handles trust assets. These roles may be held by different people with different priorities and different understanding.

A parent designates their sibling as guardian and their parent as executor. The sibling lives in another state. The parent lives locally. After the holder's death, the executor gathers custody information from the home. The guardian needs access to funds for the child's immediate needs. The executor controls the process. The guardian controls the child. Neither controls both. Coordination between them determines how quickly and smoothly the child's needs are met.

The system becomes dependent on relationships between people who may not have worked together before. Bitcoin custody new baby surfaces this dependency because the child cannot bridge coordination gaps themselves.

---

Bitcoin Custody Parent Considerations: Mediated Interests

Bitcoin custody parent considerations include how the child's interests are represented when the child cannot represent themselves. Every decision about the bitcoin passes through an adult. The adult interprets what the child needs. The child has no voice in that interpretation.

A trustee holds bitcoin for a minor. The trustee decides when to sell, when to hold, and when to distribute. The trustee's understanding of bitcoin may differ from what the parent intended. The trustee may be conservative and sell immediately. The trustee may be aggressive and hold through volatility. The trustee may not understand bitcoin at all and hire someone who does. Each choice reflects the trustee's judgment, not the child's preference, because the child has no preference to express.

The system routes the child's interests through layers of adult interpretation. Bitcoin custody new baby makes this mediation explicit because the child is entirely dependent on others to act in their interest.

---

Documentation Decay Over Years

Documentation created when the child is born may not remain useful when the child reaches adulthood. Formats change. Services disappear. Terminology evolves. References become opaque.

A parent writes custody instructions in 2024. The instructions reference a specific wallet app, a specific exchange, and a specific cloud backup service. The parent dies in 2030. The child reaches adulthood in 2042. By 2042, the wallet app has been discontinued. The exchange was acquired and rebranded twice. The cloud service no longer exists. The instructions reference entities that cannot be found. The seed phrase may still work, but the path described in the documentation no longer exists.

Custody changes after baby include exposure to documentation decay. The longer the time horizon, the more the world changes around the static documentation. What was clear when written becomes unclear over time.

---

Changed Tolerance for Failure

The presence of a child changes how failure is perceived. Outcomes that might have been acceptable before the child become less acceptable after. The stakes feel different when a dependent is involved.

A parent loses access to a small amount of bitcoin due to a forgotten password. Before the child, this was an annoyance. After the child, the same loss carries different weight. The bitcoin was part of what the child would inherit. The loss now affects someone who had no role in creating it. The failure feels different even though the mechanics are identical.

The system does not know a child exists. The system behaves the same way regardless of who depends on its outcomes. The perception of that behavior changes when the dependent cannot absorb losses, cannot understand mistakes, and cannot participate in recovery. Bitcoin custody new baby shifts how the same outcomes are interpreted.

---

Spouse and Child Priority Questions

Bitcoin custody after having a child introduces questions about priority that did not exist before. Who gets access first? Who gets how much? What happens if the spouse needs funds immediately but the child's inheritance is meant to be preserved?

A parent dies. The spouse and child both survive. The bitcoin is in self-custody. The spouse knows how to access it. The will says the bitcoin goes to the child. The spouse needs funds now for living expenses. The child's inheritance is supposed to be held until adulthood. The spouse has operational access. The child has legal entitlement. The tension between immediate need and long-term preservation creates a coordination problem the custody system does not resolve.

The system does not prioritize between dependents. Documentation may describe access but not allocation. Bitcoin inheritance new baby exposes these priority questions because the child's interests extend over a longer horizon than the spouse's immediate needs.

---

Knowledge Transfer Across Generations

A parent who understands bitcoin custody may not survive long enough to teach the child. The child inherits assets without inheriting understanding. Someone else interprets the system for the child.

A parent accumulates bitcoin over twenty years. The parent understands self-custody deeply. The parent dies when the child is seven. The child eventually receives the bitcoin at eighteen. The child has no memory of the parent explaining it. The child receives artifacts without context. The guardian who managed things in between may not have understood either. The knowledge the parent held died with the parent. The child receives value without understanding.

Bitcoin custody parent considerations include how understanding transfers across generations or fails to transfer. The system does not carry knowledge with it. The system carries keys. The meaning of those keys can be lost when the people who held that meaning are gone.

---

What Does Not Change

The birth of a child does not change the technical custody arrangement. The same seed phrases control the same wallets. The same hardware devices function the same way. The same documentation describes the same process.

The birth of a child does not change legal ownership until the parent specifies inheritance. The bitcoin belongs to whoever holds the keys until legal structures redirect it. The child has no automatic claim until a will, trust, or intestacy law creates one.

The birth of a child does not change how recovery works. The same steps produce the same outcomes. The system does not know or care that a child now depends on it. The mechanics remain constant. Only the meaning and stakes around those mechanics change.

---

Outcome

Bitcoin custody new baby describes how custody systems behave when the birth of a child changes the dependency structure around an unchanged technical arrangement. The child cannot understand, access, or participate in custody. The child depends entirely on adults to preserve, interpret, and eventually transfer the bitcoin on their behalf.

Bitcoin custody after having a child introduces extended time horizons, authority layering, coordination between guardians and executors, and mediated interests. Documentation may decay over the decades before the child can act independently. The tolerance for failure changes when a dependent is involved who had no role in creating the custody arrangement and cannot absorb its failures.

This memo describes modeled system behavior under stated assumptions. It observes how custody systems respond when a new child enters the dependency structure. The observations remain limited to the modeled conditions and do not extend beyond them.

---

System Context

Examining Bitcoin Custody Under Stress

Duress Wallet Features and Inheritance Survivability Behavior

Bitcoin Pourover Will Coordination

← Return to CustodyStress