When a Steemian Dies

Components

This is quite an unconventional suggestion and it has to do with what happens when a steemian dies.
Most of us would agree with me that a steem account can be considered an asset and as such should be transferable.

Consider a scenario where a steemit whale haven acquired a lot of steem power, steem and sbd running in millions of dollars suddenly looses his or life, what happens to the account and all of it's content? would it just remain dormant like that with all the sp, steem and sbd or will it be escheated?

Proposal

I strongly suggest that a measure be put in place for transfer of asset ownership in the case of sudden loss of life to a steemian and this is how.

I suggest that a next of kin feature be added to the profile settings of our steemit account such that a next of kin can be added and this next of kin must a steemian as well or a steemit account.
So when a steemian dies the next of kin should be able to present a valid proof of death which could be in form of a valid death certificate, social media condolences from friends and family, or any other proof of death.

Once the documents are reviewed and valid then a transfer of asset can begin. The transfer of asset can either occur in terms of total account transfer or just transfer of wallet content. I prefer the later so that the blog of the deceased remains untampared.

A valid document should initiate a total power down of steem power, while the power down takes place an email should be sent to the email of the deceased informing him/her of the power down and imminent transfer of all wallet asset to the next of kin, this is so that in case of a faked death the real owner of the account has the about 3 months powering down takes to report the issues and avert the process.

Once the power down is complete and there has been no report of faked death, all steem and sbd should be transferred to the next of kin's account.
This feature of course should be optional so that if a user doesn't see the need of it he/ she can decide against using it.

It's quite a process I admit but I also suggest that this should be coded into a smart contract to ensure that it's a totally decentralized process.

Mockups / Examples

I had to code this interface for this purpose that is just the minimum information that should be required when adding a next of kin and the interface should be added to the profile settings of our steemit account as shown below.

Benefits

The benefits of this is obvious in that it makes transfer of ownership or wallet asset possible and that would bring about more involvement on steemit.
It would also encourage more investment in steem as a true asset as users can even ensure even ensure that their steemit asset be transferred to their companies steemit account and all of that.
It also ensures users are aware of what would happen to your asset on steemit should anything happen to them.

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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