Oddbean

If, like many of us, you feel a bit taken aback by events of the past week in #Bitcoin    , you may be wondering about what you can do, practically, to maintain your ability to transact freely and to preserve your privacy. Whatever the enemies of freedom may tell you, in free and democratic countries it remains lawful to possess your own property, and to continue to hold and use that property without fear of unlawful search and seizure. You should confidently continue to pursue self custody of your bitcoin with the knowledge that the law is on your side, even if certain people in positions of power are not. However, it is important to remember that Bitcoin was intended to be a peer to peer system, and that delegating our personal responsibility to third party custodians has meant that the robustness of the system to resisting attacks has diminished. If you want to be able to continue transacting freely with your bitcoin, or holding it peacefully and lawfully, then you may want to take some steps to ensure that the system is as robust and as widely distributed as possible. As we know from the Cypherpunk's Manifesto, a 'widely dispersed system can't be shut down.' Here are some concrete suggestions of things that we can all do, right now, to ensure that the Bitcoin system is as widely dispersed as possible, and that each of us can continue interacting with it freely, no matter what. I'll give further details on each of these, and will put links in the thread, but as a start: 1. If you don't already, learn how to run a node, and start running one. 2. Learn how to open your own Lightning channels on your node. 3. Use open source, non-custodial wallets 4. Learn how to connect these wallets to your nodes 5. Really focus on understanding self custody. 1. Run a node Why is this important? It keeps the Bitcoin network of transaction validators as widely-dispersed as possible and helps to maintain the censorship-resistance of the network. If you run your own node, you will at the same time have access to a wallet that can't be removed from an app store and cannot be shut down. I run two - one on a little umbrel on a Raspberry Pi 4 (photo below) and the other on an old pc. If you've never done this before, then Umbrel is a fun place to begin. You may also want to look into @start9labs - each provide a good basis to learn how to do this and become part of the network. 2. Learn how to use lightning in a self custodial way Opening and closing channels costs sats; but your own channels mean that you are much more likely to maintain access to them. See the great tutorial from @BTCsessions in the thread. A second tutorial on Fedi is also linked. 3. Use open source, non custodial wallets Especially if, like Mutiny, they can be installed as a progressive web app and don't need to be listed in one of the app stores. Either @MutinyWallet or @ZeusLN are great options. 4. Connect your wallet to your node Zeus especially will enable you to be fully self-sovereign in this context. 5. Focus on self-custody I cannot recommend the guide from @parman_the enough (link in thread). If you are starting from a position where your coins are still in a custodial wallet on an exchange, read the article in the thread below as a starting point, and begin working your way up the levels of self custody. Bitcoin may be under attack; but this is what it was designed for. If it were not continually attacked, there would be no incentive for Bitcoin to improve, or for us, its users, to improve our own practices. You are not alone, and you are not helpless. I hope the suggestions in this post will give anyone new to self custody, or exploring it for the first time, some pointers as to further reading - and encouragement that while we are in a fight, we are absolutely and unequivocally going to win it. https://umbrel.com/ https://start9.com/ https://youtu.be/ypL2y63o9dk?si=AqTo8hMkSeKtatsw https://youtu.be/um2VL22R-J0?si=nx7CyiifDwwdd9y3 https://twitter.com/BTCsessions/status/1783916680361492689?t=DRFwKydOQQuuG2IjJaUHGg&s=19 https://armantheparman.com/zerotrust/ https://zeusln.com/ https://medium.com/the-bitcoin-hole/how-to-set-up-a-bitcoin-node-with-umbrel-on-a-raspberry-pi-4-32a22535c4bb https://v2.minibolt.info/