nostr:nprofile1qqsvf646uxlreajhhsv9tms9u6w7nuzeedaqty38z69cpwyhv89ufcqpzdmhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2urpvuhx2ue0r0jdwk

I have a topic that I would love to hear your thoughts on in your podcast.

I have helped some of my family get Bitcoin and self custody it. They did it mostly because of my conviction and they aren't in it for the lambos because we're a pretty reserved family.

We've come to a sticking point, they would love to keep investing in Bitcoin but we're worried. We had a bad situation with the bank requiring my mum to visit the bank and be interrogated for her own good when we started buying bitcoin (in case I was scamming her), nothing serious, but it painted the picture of: banks get in your way and might not let us back in.

My mum asks, "If I deposit from Bitcoin to my bank via X will the bank know it is from bitcoin?". To be clear, she isn't trying to dodge taxes, she just fears that the bank might freeze the funds etc.

I'm the bridge, without me, she worries she couldn't navigate and get her own money... she's only known salaries, banks and savings accounts. Even stocks and shares scare her.

"If god forbid you die one day, who will help us get your money?" - Ironically this was asked when I was walking them through a recovery process on how to spend from a hardware wallet. And I know they'd know how to find and identify my keys if ever that happened.

We wanted to practice cashing out a small amount. They used Coinbase a few years back to purchase, but now they need to go through KYC and questionnaires because of regulations that have come in since. I could see they were already giving up.

Coinbase might not be here tomorrow, their web/app interface might change, the old Coinbase Pro site is gone already. Yet they want a guide on how to get from Cold to Bank while the landscape can change at any time and render the guide useless when they'd need it.

My sister is more competent and we talked about how we all can always work together even if one of us is not here, but this uncertainty leads to a conclusive feeling:

When you buy bitcoin, you are opting out of the bad of the system, but you are also opting out of the system. If it were up to me, we'd be 100% out, but then we'd be 100% unable to function. How can we give someone £20 for a gift if we only have bitcoin and that ain't an appropriate gift to give? What if you want to pay for a wedding but the bank blocked the incoming transaction and want to ask where the money came from?

Something like your bill pay (not sure if available in UK) might solve this, but it occurred to me that even if people believe Bitcoin can be good for them, the thought of "you could lose it all" is less about price going to zero, less about losing your keys, and more about how bitcoin isn't useful right now until you opt back in and that might require walking through shark infested waters.