Liana Wallet Review 2026: Self-Sovereign Bitcoin Inheritance with Timelocks

The Short Answer

Liana is a free, open-source Bitcoin wallet built by Wizardsardine that solves Bitcoin inheritance without trusting any third party. Instead of relying on a custody service to hold your recovery keys, Liana uses Bitcoin script timelocks — a feature built directly into Bitcoin — to allow a secondary key to access funds after a set period of inactivity.

The result is genuine self-sovereign inheritance: your Bitcoin can pass to heirs without custodians, cloud services, or monthly subscriptions. It's technically sophisticated but conceptually elegant — and for serious Bitcoiners, it's the most aligned approach to the inheritance problem available.

The tradeoff: Liana requires technical comfort. This is not a product with phone support.

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The Core Problem Liana Solves

Bitcoin inheritance has a fundamental tension:

• If only you have the keys, and you die or become incapacitated, your Bitcoin dies with you
• If you share your keys with family or a custodian in advance, you create theft risk and loss of sovereignty
• If you use a third-party service (Casa, Unchained, Vault12), you introduce counterparty risk and recurring fees

Liana's approach is different: use time-locked Bitcoin script to give a recovery key access to funds — but only after the primary keys have been inactive for a specified period. Your Bitcoin is fully under your control until you stop using it.

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How Liana Works: The Decaying Multisig

Liana calls its approach a "decaying multisig" or recovery path wallet. The structure:

Normal operation: Only your primary key(s) can spend funds. Your heir's key has no access.

After a timelock expires: If no transaction has been signed with the primary key for the specified period (e.g., 1 year), the recovery key gains the ability to spend.

Key insight: The timelock resets every time you make a transaction with your primary key. If you sign any Bitcoin transaction once a year — even just moving dust to yourself — the timelock never expires and your heir can never access funds while you're alive and active.

This is elegant: your Bitcoin is fully sovereign while you're active. It becomes recoverable by heirs only after genuine prolonged inactivity.

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Technical Foundation: Miniscript

Liana is built on miniscript — a structured language for Bitcoin script that makes complex spending conditions composable and verifiable. Miniscript was developed by prominent Bitcoin Core contributors (Pieter Wuille, Andrew Poelstra, Sanket Kanjalkar) and represents the most rigorous approach to complex Bitcoin spending policies.

Practical implications:

• Liana's scripts can be independently verified by any miniscript-compatible tool
• The spending conditions are deterministic and auditable — no black boxes
• The wallet is interoperable: Liana-generated addresses can be recovered with any miniscript-compatible wallet, not just Liana itself

For technical users, this auditability is a significant advantage over proprietary custody solutions.

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Setup Overview

Liana's setup involves configuring a wallet policy with at least two key paths:

1. Define your primary key(s) Usually a hardware wallet (Coldcard, Ledger, Trezor). This is your normal spending key.

2. Define recovery key(s) and timelock A second hardware wallet or an extended public key (xpub) that belongs to your heir or recovery setup. Set the timelock period: 6 months, 1 year, 2 years — your choice.

3. Fund the wallet Send Bitcoin to Liana wallet addresses. These addresses encode both spending paths in their script.

4. Keep your timelock fresh Once configured, sign a transaction using your primary key at least once before the timelock expires. Liana's interface shows you how much time remains before the recovery path becomes active.

5. Hand heir the recovery key + instructions Your heir holds their key (ideally a hardware wallet). They cannot access your funds until the timelock expires — but if you die, they simply wait the timelock period and then sweep the funds.

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Hardware Wallet Support

Liana supports all major hardware wallets for both primary and recovery key roles:

• Coldcard (recommended for primary key — most security-focused)
• Trezor (Model T and Safe recommended)
• Ledger (Nano X and later)
• Bitbox02 (Bitcoin-only version)
• Jade (Blockstream)
• Specter DIY

For the recovery key — the one your heir will hold — a simpler device is fine. A Trezor Model One or a Ledger Nano S Plus is a reasonable choice to give a family member.

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What Your Heir Needs to Do

This is the inheritance handoff protocol:

You provide them in advance:

1. The recovery hardware wallet (or the xpub, recoverable on a fresh device)
2. A written description of the Liana wallet policy (primary key descriptor, recovery key descriptor, timelock period)
3. Instructions for downloading Liana wallet
4. The Bitcoin addresses where funds are held (for verification)

When they need to claim:

1. Download and install Liana
2. Import the wallet descriptor (this reconstructs the wallet)
3. Connect the recovery hardware wallet
4. Wait until the timelock has expired (confirmed by the blockchain)
5. Sweep funds to their own wallet

No password reset. No customer support call. No legal process. The Bitcoin moves when the timelock allows it.

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Liana vs Third-Party Inheritance Services

Feature	Liana	Casa Inheritance	Unchained Inheritance
Monthly fee	$0	$250+/mo	$250+/mo
Third-party dependency	None	Casa key required	Unchained key required
Custodian risk	None	Casa must exist	Unchained must exist
Technical requirement	High	Low	Medium
Bitcoin-only	Yes	Yes	Yes
Timelock mechanism	Bitcoin native	Multisig coordination	Multisig coordination
Open source	Yes	No	Partial
Recovery if company closes	Full (script is on-chain)	Difficult	Difficult

The key distinction: Liana inheritance works even if Wizardsardine (Liana's developer) ceases to exist. The spending conditions are encoded in Bitcoin script on-chain — recoverable with any standard Bitcoin wallet tooling. Casa and Unchained inheritance require those companies to remain operational.

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Wallet Features Beyond Inheritance

Liana is a full-featured Bitcoin wallet, not just an inheritance tool:

• UTXO management: Coin control and UTXO labeling
• Transaction batching: Send to multiple outputs in one transaction
• Replace-by-fee (RBF): Bump stuck transactions
• Watch-only mode: Monitor balances without signing keys loaded
• Taproot support: Scripts use Taproot for better privacy and lower fees
• Multiple recovery paths: You can configure more than one recovery path with different timelocks

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Who Should Use Liana?

Ideal for:

• Experienced Bitcoiners comfortable with hardware wallets and seed phrases
• HODLers who want inheritance sorted without third-party dependency or monthly fees
• Privacy-focused users who don't want inheritance data on a corporate server
• People who want to understand exactly what Bitcoin script governs their funds
• Those willing to educate their heirs on a simple recovery process

Look elsewhere if:

• You need hand-holding through setup (try Casa or Vault12)
• Your heir is not technical enough to follow a script recovery guide
• You want phone support and a product manager you can call
• You're managing small amounts where the setup complexity doesn't justify the effort

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if Wizardsardine shuts down? Nothing bad. The wallet policy is Bitcoin script encoded on-chain. You can recover using any miniscript-compatible wallet. The wallet descriptor file contains everything needed.

How do I prevent the timelock from expiring while I'm alive? Simply sign any transaction with your primary key before the timelock expires. Liana shows you a countdown. Setting a calendar reminder for 6 months before expiry is good practice.

Can I set multiple recovery paths? Yes. Liana supports complex policies: for example, a 1-year timelock for Heir A with their own key, and a 2-year timelock for a backup recovery key held in a lawyer's safe.

Is Liana audited? Wizardsardine has published their miniscript policies and the codebase is open source. The miniscript primitives themselves have been peer-reviewed by Bitcoin Core developers. Independent audits have been conducted on portions of the codebase.

Can I use Liana on mobile? Currently desktop only (Windows, macOS, Linux). Mobile support is on Wizardsardine's roadmap.

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Bottom Line

Liana is the most technically pure Bitcoin inheritance solution available. Zero fees, zero third-party dependency, full auditability, recoverable with standard tools even if the developer disappears. For serious HODLers who have the technical foundation to use it, it's the best answer to the inheritance problem.

For those who need a more guided experience, Casa and Unchained provide excellent inheritance services with professional support at a monthly cost. For a complete comparison, see our Best Bitcoin Inheritance Planning Tools guide.