In a recent episode of the Bitcoin Nova podcast, host Staci sat down with Peter Dunworth, founder of The Bitcoin Adviser and a veteran wealth strategist with over 30 years in finance. Their conversation delved into the transformative power of collaborative multisig setups for self-custody, the critical need for inheritance planning, and how these tools protect families from the risks of Bitcoin ownership. Amid rising adoption, Dunworth's insights highlight why secure, family-oriented strategies are essential for turning Bitcoin's volatility into long-term prosperity.
Dunworth's Bitcoin journey began with a cautionary tale. Introduced by his brother in 2011 when Bitcoin traded at $3, he dismissed it as a fleeting experiment doomed by government intervention. Five years later, in 2016, he capitulated, buying in and advising clients to allocate just 2% of their net assets - backed by four pages of disclaimers warning of total loss. "I don't tell people to do what I wouldn't do myself," he explained. Early challenges included limited liquidity; large buys could swing prices wildly, and self-custody options were rudimentary. For his clients - high-net-worth individuals uncomfortable with USB drives or seed phrases - leaving funds on exchanges was a reluctant compromise.
The game-changer arrived with multisig technology from pioneers like Unchained Capital and Casa in 2018. Multisig, or multi-signature wallets, requires multiple private keys to authorize transactions, eliminating single points of failure. In a typical 2-of-3 setup, Bitcoin is sent to an address derived from three public keys. To spend, only two private keys are needed, but all three reconstruct the wallet. "It's like a bank's safety deposit box," Dunworth analogized. "The bank has one key, you have another - neither can access alone." For families, this means distributing keys: one held by the client, one by The Bitcoin Adviser, and one by a third-party. Even if a client loses their key or falls victim to a phishing scam, the Bitcoin remains secure.
This collaborative model addresses the psychological barriers to adoption. Staci shared a recent horror story of a Bitcoiner who lost funds to a fake Sparrow Wallet app on the App Store - a sophisticated scam that stole over 100 BTC from multiple victims. "He trusted the institution," she noted. In a multisig setup, inputting a seed phrase into a fraudulent app would be harmless; only partial keys exist on any single device. Dunworth emphasized, "We've advised clients for nearly 10 years without losing a single Satoshi." The 24-hour coordination for transactions? "That's a feature, not a bug," he said. It curbs impulsivity, as fraud in crypto "happens at speed." For corporate treasuries - now proliferating with Bitcoin on balance sheets - multisig disperses responsibility, preventing any one employee from absconding with millions.
Inheritance planning emerged as the conversation's emotional core. Bitcoiners often self-custody zealously, but what if tragedy strikes? "Most don't think about it until it's too late," Staci observed. Without a protocol, fortunes vanish forever. Dunworth's firm builds "inheritance protocols" into every setup—a "bouncing ball" roadmap for recovery. Families follow predefined steps: trusted advisors guide heirs through key recovery, ensuring no single person holds all power. This "psychological unlock" rallies non-Bitcoiners in the family, alleviating fears of sole responsibility. "It makes them more willing to allocate more," Dunworth said. His goal? Help families stack sats securely, turning Bitcoin from a gamble into a legacy asset.
The discussion extended to Bitcoin's unique time-locking feature, a digital safeguard for family protection. Users can "suspend" BTC in cyberspace, inaccessible until a future block height - potentially centuries away. No court or government can override it; cryptography reigns supreme. Staci recounted a guest's tale: a man rediscovered a hard drive in his shed, extracting long-forgotten BTC after 14 years. Unwittingly, he'd time-locked it physically. Dunworth's brother took it further, locking one BTC past 2140, publicly sharing the private key as a global bounty. In that post-halving era, daily mining rewards dwindle to one satoshi every 10 minutes - making the prize equivalent to trillions today. "It's a treasure hunt," Staci marvelled, evoking Ready Player One. For families, time-locks protect against impulsivity: "Your greed can't touch it." Parents could lock sats for children's futures, ensuring generational wealth without legal entanglements.
These tools foster bolder allocations. Dunworth now sees clients at 100% Bitcoin exposure, living on a "Bitcoin standard" - save for one case where a wife threatened divorce. Fees at The Bitcoin Adviser start at 1% but halve over eight years, defying inflationary finance. "Everything in Bitcoin gets cheaper," he noted. Free resources, including a ChatGPT bot for self-custody queries, democratize access. "We're giving back to the community that built us," Dunworth said, underscoring Bitcoin's open-source ethos.
Ultimately, collaborative multisig and inheritance planning transform Bitcoin from risky speculation to family fortress. As institutions eye $1M/BTC for liquidity, and supply tightens, Dunworth predicts 100x gains in 10 years—$10M per coin. "You're not too late," he urged. For Staci, a salon stylist "orange-pilling" clients mid-haircut, it's personal: "They come in stressed about inflation; Bitcoin offers hope." In a world of scams and uncertainty, these strategies lift the burden, empowering families to HODL with confidence.