user10744: My Brother died in April and we believe he had a bitcoin account. Is it possible to find out how to recover/take over his accounts? 
I know this is a new form of currency but it seems odd there is no way of recovering information in these circumstances. 
Any help would be welcome. I still have all his computers, so can anything be traced through them? 
Thank you.  

user7421: I am really sorry for the loss of your brother.
I know some/most of the exchanges require account holders to be verified to trade and move cash around, i.e. Know Your Customer, which involves providing proof of address, citizenship etc.
Could be worth checking their policies on death of account holders and whether they accept any kind of certification as proof of death and 'rights' of access.
If you think the wallet represents a large value, it may even be worth seeking legel rep and engaging the online exchange/wallet company through those means.
For what it is worth (perhaps for the benefit of other curious readers), a service like SecureSafe.com provides a solution for these tragic events.
To summarise it provides for 'digital inheritance'; amongst other things, you can manage beneficiaries of your digital data, whether it be a PDF document, online banking access details or in this case Bitcoin Wallet access details... or even a Bitcoin Wallet backup file in its entirety.
Good luck

user2146: There is no general answer for all cases; it will depend entirely on the ways he chose to store and secure any Bitcoins, which vary a lot from person to person.  
You will need to have a trusted person look through his effects, both digital and physical. This person should be both an expert in the systems your brother used, and Bitcoin itself. 
If this person is able to access his computer, phone, and backups – not just physically handle them, but also examine their digital contents past any logins or local encryption – then it will be more likely they would be able to determine whether he had any holdings. Similarly, access to his email accounts, or any other notes about logins/passwords, would help.
But even finding confirmation of his holdings might not grant access. In typical cases, the ability to control a Bitcoin balance is limited to those who know an impossible-to-guess secret (cryptographic private keys). If he hasn't left any accessible copies of this secret, or all such copies are protected by a strong unique password that you can't guess, there's little hope. The balance is lost to the world, and essentially destroyed – no one else will access it either (so no one else can 'give it back'). 
Your best bet might be if he held balances at businesses that verified his true-life identity via banking links or government-issued IDs. (Examples of such businesses would be exchanges and payment-processors like Coinbase or MtGox.) In such a case, with reliable information that he is deceased and that you are his rightful heir, the balance may become available to you. (For a long-lived business operating under usual laws, his absence for a long-enough time could trigger attempts to contact him, and perhaps transfer of his abandoned property to a governmental entity, such as a US state's lost/abandoned property agency. I've not yet heard of this happening with Bitcoin, but consider it likely in the next few years.)
Alternatively, if he used a local install of his own wallet software, such as the original Bitcoin-QT, Multibit, or Android Wallet, you might gain access to the balance if his local security was no greater than the machine's own login-screen/lock-screen (and especially if you have that password). Such local wallet programs do not necessarily add extra unique passwords. Where they do, that password could be a fatal block – or perhaps something something family or heirs could discover or guess. 
Finally, if he held significant amounts for the long-term, he might have printed/written private-keys. ("Cold storage", for slow access much later.) Again, an expert would likely recognize the usual forms of such keys, if they see them among papers/notes. 
Ultimately, though, in such cases you are hoping that he left sufficient clues, or otherwise chose to leave his devices or papers in a state where later possession would be enough to access the Bitcoins. Some people do this; others who are more careful or paranoid do not. 
If you had a strong indication that the amount was very large, and no simple efforts succeed, there's always some chance that heroic, expensive efforts – as might be used by a digital forensic investigator in a major legal or historical case – could enable access, even against the owner's careful intent, because of mistakes or unintentional information leakage. (For example, incompletely-deleted remnants of an earlier unencrypted wallet file might remain on a hard drive or old backup, or access passwords might be brute-guessable variants of other passwords leaked via other caches.) But, such approaches involve serious expertise and cost with no guarantee of success. 
I'm sorry for your loss and wish you luck in discovering and accessing whatever Bitcoin balances that might exist. 

user10748: There are two main ways someone can hold Bitcoin

On an Exchange or Online Wallet

or

Privately on a computer in a wallet or offline private wallet

For (1) you will need to obtain the username and password to access the account.
For (2) you will need to login to the computer and, depending on your luck, if the wallet is not encrypted, you should have access. If the wallet is encrypted you will need the password to transfer/spend the coins.  If you do get access to the computer then look for the bitcoin application and run that to see if there are any BTC in the account.
If your brother had a paper wallet then you will need to find this information as it will have public and private keys to access the coins. These can be imported into a wallet to give access to the funds.
Unfortunately, if you cannot find the info above the coins are lost. There is no central control of this currency so there's nobody you can contact for help.

10744: <p>My Brother died in April and we believe he had a bitcoin account. Is it possible to find out how to recover/take over his accounts? 
I know this is a new form of currency but it seems odd there is no way of recovering information in these circumstances. 
Any help would be welcome. I still have all his computers, so can anything be traced through them? 
Thank you.  </p>
 7421: <p>I am really sorry for the loss of your brother.</p>

<p>I know some/most of the exchanges require account holders to be verified to trade and move cash around, i.e. Know Your Customer, which involves providing proof of address, citizenship etc.
Could be worth checking their policies on death of account holders and whether they accept any kind of certification as proof of death and 'rights' of access.
If you think the wallet represents a large value, it may even be worth seeking legel rep and engaging the online exchange/wallet company through those means.</p>

<p>For what it is worth (perhaps for the benefit of other curious readers), a service like SecureSafe.com provides a solution for these tragic events.</p>

<p>To summarise it provides for 'digital inheritance'; amongst other things, you can manage beneficiaries of your digital data, whether it be a PDF document, online banking access details or in this case Bitcoin Wallet access details... or even a Bitcoin Wallet backup file in its entirety.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>
 2146: <p>There is no general answer for all cases; it will depend entirely on the ways he chose to store and secure any Bitcoins, which vary a lot from person to person.  </p>

<p>You will need to have a trusted person look through his effects, both digital and physical. This person should be both an expert in the systems your brother used, and Bitcoin itself. </p>

<p>If this person is able to access his computer, phone, and backups – not just physically handle them, but also examine their digital contents past any logins or local encryption – then it will be more likely they would be able to determine whether he had any holdings. Similarly, access to his email accounts, or any other notes about logins/passwords, would help.</p>

<p>But even finding confirmation of his holdings might not grant access. In typical cases, the ability to control a Bitcoin balance is limited to those who know an impossible-to-guess secret (cryptographic private keys). If he hasn't left any accessible copies of this secret, or all such copies are protected by a strong unique password that you can't guess, there's little hope. The balance is lost to the world, and essentially destroyed – no one else will access it either (so no one else can 'give it back'). </p>

<p>Your best bet might be if he held balances at businesses that verified his true-life identity via banking links or government-issued IDs. (Examples of such businesses would be exchanges and payment-processors like Coinbase or MtGox.) In such a case, with reliable information that he is deceased and that you are his rightful heir, the balance may become available to you. (For a long-lived business operating under usual laws, his absence for a long-enough time could trigger attempts to contact him, and perhaps transfer of his abandoned property to a governmental entity, such as a US state's lost/abandoned property agency. I've not yet heard of this happening with Bitcoin, but consider it likely in the next few years.)</p>

<p>Alternatively, if he used a local install of his own wallet software, such as the original Bitcoin-QT, Multibit, or Android Wallet, you might gain access to the balance if his local security was no greater than the machine's own login-screen/lock-screen (and especially if you have that password). Such local wallet programs do not necessarily add extra unique passwords. Where they do, that password could be a fatal block – or perhaps something something family or heirs could discover or guess. </p>

<p>Finally, if he held significant amounts for the long-term, he might have printed/written private-keys. ("Cold storage", for slow access much later.) Again, an expert would likely recognize the usual forms of such keys, if they see them among papers/notes. </p>

<p>Ultimately, though, in such cases you are hoping that he left sufficient clues, or otherwise chose to leave his devices or papers in a state where later possession would be enough to access the Bitcoins. Some people do this; others who are more careful or paranoid do not. </p>

<p>If you had a strong indication that the amount was very large, and no simple efforts succeed, there's always some chance that heroic, expensive efforts – as might be used by a digital forensic investigator in a major legal or historical case – could enable access, even against the owner's careful intent, because of mistakes or unintentional information leakage. (For example, incompletely-deleted remnants of an earlier unencrypted wallet file might remain on a hard drive or old backup, or access passwords might be brute-guessable variants of other passwords leaked via other caches.) But, such approaches involve serious expertise and cost with no guarantee of success. </p>

<p>I'm sorry for your loss and wish you luck in discovering and accessing whatever Bitcoin balances that might exist. </p>
 10748: <p>There are two main ways someone can hold Bitcoin</p>

<ol>
<li>On an Exchange or Online Wallet</li>
</ol>

<p>or</p>

<ol start="2">
<li>Privately on a computer in a wallet or offline private wallet</li>
</ol>

<p>For (1) you will need to obtain the username and password to access the account.</p>

<p>For (2) you will need to login to the computer and, depending on your luck, if the wallet is not encrypted, you should have access. If the wallet is encrypted you will need the password to transfer/spend the coins.  If you do get access to the computer then look for the bitcoin application and run that to see if there are any BTC in the account.</p>

<p>If your brother had a paper wallet then you will need to find this information as it will have public and private keys to access the coins. These can be imported into a wallet to give access to the funds.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, if you cannot find the info above the coins are lost. There is no central control of this currency so there's nobody you can contact for help.</p>
