Why a wallet balance proves nothing

A screenshot of a balance, a block-explorer page, or a QR code someone found can look like proof. It is not. Confusing the three levels below is the most expensive mistake in crypto inheritance, it leads to wrong valuations, wrong expectations and, worst of all, decisions based on assets that may not be reachable.

The three levels

1. Indication, a wallet app on a device, an exchange email, a paper note, a screenshot. This tells you something existed or may exist. It proves nothing about the present.
2. Confirmed wallet, it has been established that a specific wallet or account exists and holds a specific balance on the blockchain or the exchange’s books. This proves existence and current balance only.
3. Legal title, who, under the applicable law, may act on those assets. This is determined by the estate rules of the jurisdiction, not by possession of a device or a screenshot.

What a public address is

Every wallet has one or more public addresses. Anyone can see the balance and transactions of such an address. That is like a bank account number: the number and the balance say nothing about who may use the account or to whom the money legally belongs.

Watch-only wallets

A watch-only wallet is a view of one or more addresses without the corresponding private keys. It shows balances but can send nothing. Whoever finds such a wallet therefore has no access, only a picture. It is an indication, not access.

What a balance still does not show

• Access. A balance can be visible while nobody can move it (missing seed phrase, forgotten password, hardware wallet without its words).
• Ownership. An address can receive funds the person who passed away did not own or had lent; an exchange account can be shared or mislabelled. Addresses are not linked to persons.
• Reachability. Assets on a frozen exchange, in a stuck smart contract, or behind a lost key are worth less than the headline number suggests.
• Time. A screenshot is a point in time; the balance may have changed, and its source is unverifiable.
• Completeness. A visible address may be one of many; the balance shown is not necessarily the whole picture.

Access, possession, ownership and title

Four terms that are often confused:

• Access, you can technically use the crypto (keys, password, device).
• Possession, you hold the device or material; that is not the same as access and not the same as ownership.
• Ownership, the legal question of who is entitled to the crypto: answered by the applicable law, not by a visible balance.
• Legal title, the legal basis on which someone makes a claim, for example inheritance law.

An heir can have legal title and no access. And someone can have access without legal title, and must not use it in that situation.

What to do instead

• Record the balance and its source/date in the estate inventory as an indication.
• Never value the estate from a screenshot.
• Establish authority first (see legal authority vs technical access), then confirm the wallet through the correct route, then value.

Anyone who offers to “release” a balance you merely saw (for a fee) is the situation described in scams targeting crypto estates.