"The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . . .”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.5.4–5

Bitcoin-Centered Interpretation: The Citadel of Self-Custody

The first principle of the Bitcoin Stoic is to draw a hard line between what is external and what is internal. The decrees of central banks, the panics of the legacy market, the pronouncements of regulators—these are externals, beyond our control. They are noise. Our good and evil are not found in the market’s fluctuations, but in the choices that are truly our own. The choice to hold your own keys is the first and most fundamental of these. It is the act of defining the walls of your sovereign citadel. Inside, you have control. Outside, you have only influence. Do not mistake the two.