What does this mean for Bitcoiners?
“Where trust ends, self-custody begins – and with it, the duty to protect.”
🔒 1. Where trust wanes…
In the Bitcoin community, loss of trust is a central motif – distrust of banks, governments, centralized exchanges, and financial systems. Financial crises, inflation, expropriations, and scandals like the collapse of FTX show: trusting third parties is risky.
👉 Satoshi Nakamoto put it this way:"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work."
🛠️ 2. …the desire for control germinates
This distrust gives rise to a desire for sovereignty and self-determination – and this is precisely where Bitcoin comes in: By self-custodying your own keys (seed phrase), you take control. No one can take your coins, freeze them, or deny you access – as long as you maintain control over your private keys.
🧠 "Not your keys, not your coins
."The step to self-custody with a hardware wallet is therefore a direct consequence of the lost trust in central instances. However, it offers no protection, only control.
🛡️ 3. …and the need for protection begins
With control, however, also comes the responsibility to ensure that your keys are secure. Secure storage of the seed phrase (physical, offline, digitally stored as code) to protect against theft, fire, loss, phishing, malware, etc. The avoidance of single points of failure (multisig, geographical separation, inheritance rules)Without protective measures, self‒custody quickly becomes a vulnerability.In this phase, it becomes clear that self-determination not only means freedom, but also brings burdens and risks.
We see ourselves as
protectors of your seed, says Torsten Schmitz. Do you want to store your seed securely? Check out our solutions at
seedprotector.eu