#bitcoin #learningcurve

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Ok - again on the recommendation of L. Alden, I took the plunge and setup an account with Swan to make my first BTC (is that the proper abbreviation?) purchase today. I'm confident that the math works in this whole affair, but it's the trust factor that's hard to gauge. It was a little disconcerting to hand over a shit ton of PII to a vendor that I do not know at all (SSN, photos of drivers license, etc.). Identity management is handled by a third party and I'm sure everybody is a good custodian of this stuff, but I don't have time to do due diligence on all these companies so it is a faith-based transaction.

Once we're over the identity hurdle, it's time to hand over the routing and account numbers for my "real" bank account. I would rather pay with a credit card to provide some security buffer, but what the hell - it doesn't seem to be an option. Now that Swan is hooked into my bank, it's a simple matter to make the purchase. I'm starting with $10. If this doesn't result in bad side effects over the next couple of weeks, I'm prepared to start dollar cost averaging in.

My next goals are to set up and fund a wallet of some sort and to look into self-custody (or whatever is the proper term of art). Apparently Swan is supportive of this capability.