Scope, Risks & Important Information
Last updated: April 2026
The Bitcoin Adviser helps clients design and maintain collaborative security around Bitcoin. We may act as a key agent, but we do not take custody, manage assets, provide investment advice, or control client Bitcoin unilaterally.
The Bitcoin Adviser provides Bitcoin education, collaborative security design, key agency, continuity planning, and governance documentation for client-controlled Bitcoin. We are not a custodian, investment manager, broker, legal adviser, tax adviser, financial adviser, accountant, or estate-planning adviser. We do not provide investment recommendations, manage client assets, or guarantee outcomes.
Bitcoin and self-custody involve significant risks, including volatility, key compromise, permanent loss, regulatory uncertainty, and operational error. Clients should consult their own legal, tax, accounting, and financial professionals before acting.
Quick summary
- We support client-controlled Bitcoin through collaborative security, key agency (where agreed), documentation, education, and continuity planning.
- We do not take custody of client Bitcoin or hold unilateral control.
- We do not provide financial, investment, legal, tax, accounting, or estate-planning advice.
- Bitcoin involves significant risks, including total loss. Collaborative security can reduce avoidable failure points but cannot eliminate risk.
- Local laws, tax treatment, reporting duties, and estate consequences vary by jurisdiction.
What We Do and What We Do Not Do
What we do
- Bitcoin education and collaborative security design
- Multi-signature structure guidance and implementation support
- Key agency within documented collaborative security workflows, where agreed
- Governance documentation, authorisation maps, and continuity runbooks
- Estate Plan Protocol guidance and inheritance continuity support. The Estate Plan Protocol is designed to support your legal estate documents by documenting Bitcoin-specific continuity and recovery information. It is not a will, trust, or substitute for legal estate-planning advice.
- Education for principals, trustees, beneficiaries, advisers, and family members
- Ongoing reviews, support, and coordination with your existing advisers
What we do not do
- Take custody of client Bitcoin
- Hold unilateral control over client Bitcoin
- Pool, rehypothecate, lend, trade, or manage client assets
- Provide financial, investment, tax, legal, accounting, or estate-planning advice
- Recommend whether you should buy, sell, hold, or allocate to Bitcoin
- Determine tax treatment, reporting obligations, or tax optimisation strategies
- Guarantee recovery, security, tax treatment, investment performance, or legal outcomes
Key Agency and Collaborative Security
In some collaborative security arrangements, The Bitcoin Adviser may act as a key agent. That means we may hold or operate one key within a multi-signature structure, but we cannot move client Bitcoin unilaterally.
Any co-signing role is subject to documented workflows, client authorisation, identity verification, adviser confirmation, and the relevant service terms. Key agency is designed to support continuity and reduce single points of failure without transferring custody or beneficial ownership to The Bitcoin Adviser.
- TBA cannot move Bitcoin alone.
- TBA does not pool client assets.
- TBA does not hold client Bitcoin in omnibus wallets.
- TBA does not act as an exchange, broker, fund manager, or investment adviser.
- Client-controlled collaborative security remains the foundation.
- Co-signing support is process-controlled and authorisation-based.
Beneficial Ownership and Control
You retain beneficial ownership and participate in the client-controlled signing structure. The Bitcoin Adviser cannot act unilaterally. In a properly implemented collaborative multi-signature setup, no single party (including TBA) can move Bitcoin without the agreed policy and authorisations.
No Investment, Legal, Tax, or Financial Advice
Our services are educational and operational. We do not provide regulated financial, investment, tax, legal, accounting, or estate-planning advice. Use qualified professionals for those matters.
No investment advice
The Bitcoin Adviser does not advise clients whether to buy, sell, hold, borrow against, or allocate capital to Bitcoin. Discussion of Bitcoin, self-custody, collaborative security, inheritance planning, or long-term stewardship is educational and operational in nature. Clients are responsible for their own investment decisions and should seek advice from appropriately licensed professionals where required.
Estate Plan Protocol
Estate Plan Protocol guidance is operational continuity documentation for Bitcoin. It is designed to support, not replace, your legal estate documents. It is not a will, trust, or substitute for legal estate-planning advice.
Bitcoin and Self-Custody Risks
Bitcoin and self-custody involve significant risks. Collaborative security can reduce avoidable failure points but introduces coordination requirements. By engaging with our services, you acknowledge awareness of these and other risks:
- Volatility: Bitcoin price can fluctuate sharply; you may lose some or all of your capital.
- Total loss: Lost keys, forgotten passphrases, or unrecoverable seed backups can result in permanent loss of Bitcoin.
- Key compromise: Theft, phishing, malware, or physical coercion may compromise private keys.
- Operational error: Incorrect transaction details, address reuse, poor device handling, or user error may result in loss.
- Third-party platform risk: Hardware wallet vendors, coordination software, exchanges, banks, and communication platforms may fail, change terms, suffer outages, or become unavailable.
- Inheritance and family coordination risk: Beneficiaries, executors, trustees, or advisers may misunderstand instructions, delay action, or fail to coordinate properly.
- Identity and authorisation risk: Fraudulent requests, impersonation, compromised email, or social engineering may affect transaction workflows.
- Fee and tax consequences: Payments, transactions, transfers, or disposals may create tax, accounting, or reporting obligations depending on jurisdiction.
- Cyber threats: Software vulnerabilities, exchange hacks, or social engineering can lead to loss.
- Regulatory changes: Laws and tax treatment of Bitcoin vary by jurisdiction and may change.
- Coercion and incapacity: Situations involving duress, dementia, or other incapacity may complicate access and recovery.
We design systems to reduce avoidable failures through collaborative security, documentation, and education, but we cannot eliminate risk.
Jurisdictional Notes
We serve families globally. Custody classification, tax treatment, reporting obligations, and regulatory requirements depend on jurisdiction. We can help coordinate governance documentation and controls around the advice you receive from your existing legal, tax, accounting, and professional advisers, but we do not provide jurisdiction-specific legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory advice. Review your situation with local counsel and other qualified professionals.
No Guarantee of Security or Recovery
Collaborative security, key agency, documentation, and education are designed to reduce avoidable failure points. They do not guarantee recovery, prevent all loss, stop all theft, or ensure beneficiaries will successfully act. Client participation, accurate documentation, device security, adviser coordination, and jurisdiction-specific legal arrangements all remain important.
Our services are not insurance and should not be treated as a substitute for appropriate legal, tax, estate, security, or insurance arrangements.
Track Record and Claim Scoping
The following metrics are provided for context; they are not guarantees and should not be relied upon as such:
- $1B+ aggregate client-family Bitcoin exposure across advisory relationships since 2016. This is not assets under management, not custody, and not client money managed by The Bitcoin Adviser.
- No client satoshis lost to key compromise or theft in our collaborative security engagements, based on internal records. This is historical information only and is not a guarantee that loss cannot occur.
- No unilateral control: In a properly implemented collaborative multi-signature setup, The Bitcoin Adviser cannot move client Bitcoin alone.
Testimonials Disclosure
Testimonials and case studies on our website reflect experiences from verified clients. Clients are not compensated for these statements. Testimonials reflect individual client experiences and may not represent every client’s experience. They should not be interpreted as guarantees of security, recovery, investment performance, or suitability. Past experiences do not guarantee future results.
Terms of Service Prevail
This page is a general summary. It does not replace our Terms of Service, engagement terms, invoices, or written agreements. If there is any inconsistency, the applicable written agreement or Terms of Service prevail.
Questions About Scope or Risk?
We welcome questions about our role, service boundaries, key agency, collaborative security, and the risks involved in self-custodied Bitcoin. Contact us to discuss your situation.
Last updated: April 2026 · Terms of Service