I assume most Bitcoiners here practice self custody of their Bitcoin, but that doesn't mean that a few individuals may need an extra bit of help in this department - especially new Nostriches that have found Zaps and decided they wanted to buy a little bitcoin and start their journey.

We often say not your keys, not your coins. So, what exactly does that mean? Simply put: If you don't own or have access to the private fey for your bitcoin, then it's not your bitcoin. This can be seen as a true statement time and time again, when exchanges and lending platforms collapse. People that thought their bitcoin was safe with that entity quickly found out that their bitcoin was not safe.

Taking custody of your bitcoin can be a bit scary sounding, but if you arm yourself with the collective knowledge of all Bitcoiners over the past 14 years, you'll feel safe in knowing that we've done the research, we've tried various methods, and we're here to help with recommendations.

Next up, you may have heard us mention a hot wallet or a cold wallet. What are these? A hot wallet means the wallet is connected to the Internet. A cold wallet means it is not connected. A hot wallet is riskier, because there's an attack vector here. An example of a hot wallet would be a Bitcoin wallet that runs on your phone. A cold wallet would be a separate physical device such as a Coldcard or Blockstream Jade.

Wallets are similar to Nostr signing devices or Nostr signing apps or Nostr signing extensions. They hold your private key for you and sign transactions, just like you do with Nostr. Only one is a financial transaction and one is a social transaction.

Back to wallets, Coldcard is somewhat of an "industry standard", but other cold storage wallets exist. The Blockstream Jade and Foundation Passport are other good and popular devices.