and professional thieves will be the ones with the time, skills, and motivation to learn all the ins and outs better than anyone.
Discussion
There is a technical barrier to entry, sure, but that’s ebbing away.
It’s far simpler now than it used to be to self custody. It will be even easier in the future (new products coming out all the time).
If someone isn’t comfortable then they can now buy the ETF which effectively rules out a repeat of FTX etc. It’s not a self sovereign as holding it yourself ofc but it’s a reasonable alternative.
There are many other reasons to choose bitcoin over other assets or fiat too. It’s scarcity and decentralised & permissionless nature being just a few.
A thief needs to get the keys to get your bitcoin. The bitcoin network itself is secure (literally the most secure network ever created).
I once lost my debit card. Called my bank and everything was taken care of in under 5 minutes. It didn't cost me a dime.
re: "A thief needs to get the keys to get your bitcoin."
Yup. A thief only needs to find the combination to the safe where you keep your life savings...
but with bitcoin there are tons of ways he can do that, and when he does the cops have no clue where to begin to try to get your crypto back.
You might as well buy gold coins and leave them on your front porch.
Satoshi mined 1 million bitcoin - can you let me know where I can pick up his coins please - or explain why the most sophisticated criminals in the world have been unable to steal them despite the network being a completely open honeypot. I suggest you read into this more as your future self will not be happy with your dismissive present self
LOL 😀 😀 😀
Every day I read about someone's crypto getting stolen or lost or some scammer tricking someone.
One guy with a pseudonym hasn't been hacked yet. That proves something? 😀
Fort Knox has never been robbed either. But that doesn't mean that uncle Charlie keeping gold in his garage is safe 😀
People get scammed in all walks of life and a fool and their money are easily parted. It’s a different approach where (if you want to hold your own bitcoin) then you need to treat it as the bearer asset that it is. If that’s too much hassle then you can use the ETF or a regulated exchange like coinbase or kraken. This won’t be a bearer asset, more of an IOU but the trade off may be worth it.
The pseudonymous creator not being hacked proves that it’s not feasible to steal coins without having the private key. So yes, it proves something. I chose him as his addresses have ~1 million coins but no coins have ever been hacked from any address without the private keys. It’s the most secure network ever created.
Another good thing about bitcoin is its auditability - you’ve no idea how much gold is in Fort Knox or how much has been siphoned off etc. Bitcoin runs a full audit every 10 minutes or so.
Anyway, it’d be tragic for you personally if you found yourself on nostr in the early days and somehow missed out on investing in bitcoin with all the experts and helpful plebs that reside here. Don’t be that blinkered - look into it dispassionately. I’ll say no more on this
With all due respect, I'm not going to read all that. The fact that you have to write it proves that securing your crypto is complicated AF and there are tons and tons of ways to get scammed and get robbed.
a fool and his money are soon parted. Yup. one way fools lose their assets is by buying crypto and getting fucked over.
I am free of all that. It's awesome. I never have to worry about my crypto getting stolen 😀
I struck a nerve. I questioned your dogma. The faithful react strongly when you tell them their faith is bullshit. To be expected. Bitcoin is a religion. You are a true believer. I can't change that. but I can tell the truth.
Have a good life.
I constantly try to guard against the cultish elements of bitcoin which certainly do exist. You’re quite right about crypto which is generally a cesspool of scams. My conviction is borne of a lot of digging and stress testing ideas. There are many events that could happen that would make me sell it all. Dogmatic, never - always pragmatic