Respectfully, the claim that we 'only exist to get users to join premium bullshit services' is the opposite of reality.

Since day one, we have been pouring huge resources into building and maintaining a professional-grade Bitcoin wallet and offer it for free. We led the way with standards like BIP129, advanced coin control and were first with features like encrypted group wallet and Taproot/MuSig2 support. We do this because we believe that if the majority of Bitcoin is not in self-custody, the project will fail. In fact, the vast majority of our users are free users, and we dedicate about 80% of our development efforts each year to free features.

Calling our premium services 'bullshit' is a mischaracterization. They solve critical, high-stakes problems for people who need them, and the revenue from those services is precisely what allows us to keep the core wallet free, private, and independent.

The alternative is VC funding, ads, or tracking users. We're committed to building a sustainable business on a Bitcoin standard, and we believe our model is the right one for our users and for Bitcoin itself.

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Discussion

+1

I’m happy to pay for a KYC free inheritance solution, and I do.

Nunchuk offers great value all around. You can even manage your collaborative multisig wallet with Sparrow unlike Casa.

If you want better features and inheritance planning then you have to pay for it as we do for any service. The free wallet is plenty capable.

Sorry, I didn't want to dismiss your services. I think they are great. It's just not that interesting for a wallet app for the general public.

But the upselling is annoying, even on your website. I wish the base app was paid as well so you didn't need to sell other stuff.

No worries at all, and thanks for the clarification. Finding the right way to present our paid services without being intrusive is a tough balance. It’s something we always try to improve on. Appreciate the feedback.

The idea of a paid base app is interesting, but we're committed to keeping the core tools free for all, for reason we highlighted above: we need as many people as possible to have access to safe and easy to use self-custody tools. If the base app is paid, we wouldn’t be able to achieve that goal.

I have no issues at all with you guys selling me stuff.

But I'd appreciate a Nostr login option as an alternative to email. Is that something you've considered?

It’s on the roadmap, yes. We also have a major release coming soon. One of our best features to date. Stay tuned!

Take a look at the 1Password model. No free layers. It's about piece of mind. All upsell-based models require marketing that centers on suggesting to base users that they are not doing enough. There is just no way around it. And that drives anxiety and makes them hate the free layer of your product, regardless of how good it is.

On the 1Password, I pay the base layer and I know I am as valuable as a customer as the other stuff they sell. They never offered more stuff to me because they don't need to and they do not want me thinking that I am not doing enough to secure my keys, even at the base layer. It makes a huge difference.

That's a valid point. Finding the right balance in our messaging is a constant challenge, and we take the responsibility to avoid creating that anxiety very seriously.

But for us, putting up a paywall isn't the answer, because 1Password, as great as they are, don’t solve the same existential threat we're focused on.

Bitcoin self-custody is already seen as "hard" by most people, and the massive push towards ETFs and custodial services makes it worse every day. Our core mission is to fight that trend. From day one.

What use are our services if the foundation itself gets destroyed? If 90% of Bitcoin ends up with custodians in 20 years, the project will have failed, and everything we've been building (which, btw, include networks like Nostr) will have been for nothing.

To win this battle, the best and most secure tools for self-custody must be free and accessible to the largest number of people possible. That's why the Nunchuk base app will always be free. It’s non-negotiable for us.

I'd love an option to just pay you to disable your advertising of services I don't want to use. I liked your wallet when I tried it, but seeing that stuff in the UI bugged me so much that I stopped.

I know that you need to make money, but maybe you can make some this way too as an option.

How do you build a truly independent, self-sustaining Bitcoin company?

Here’s our philosophy and North Star:

* Build best-in-class self-custody tools. Make them free.

* Offer premium services for advanced needs.

* Use revenue from (2) to fund (1).

This keeps us independent and 100% aligned with our users and Bitcoin ethos. The full context from a recent discussion is below.

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