Avatar
Bitcoin Boomer
466d1c86419ab2ce90628dc1e4b7693d5cb0c3ebb343463e5d4392b0776d6e9e
Yeah, I'm a boomer (ok, boomer). My Millennial son orange-pilled me late Spring '21. I'm an Electrical Engineer/Software Dev, so it took quite a bit to convince me bitcoin couldn't be reverse-engineered/hacked. I'm glad to be part of the team!

God willing, I will never set foot in California again. It's crazyland.

Replying to Avatar Ivan

I'm so done with vaccines. They squandered the trust I used to have in the system. Fool me once...

Replying to Avatar Gigi

I sure hope for the better. I'll do my part to make things better.

For buying and transferring bitcoin, I use Swan Bitcoin. They have been great, and the fees were 1%, but I think they still have a deal for the first $10k of bitcoin purchased is "no fee". That would save you about $100 in fees, which means you can get more bitcoin. I haven't used River, but they seem good too. There are probably other good ones out there, but I like Swan.

I would highly recommend getting it off coinbase in to a hardware wallet (Cold Card, Jade, Bitbox 02 - bitcoin only, Passport). To reduce attack surface, only go with a bitcoin only hardware wallet, not one that supports other crypto. Coinbase will charge a higher fee to pull your bitcoin off, but it's highly worth it, because as the saying goes, "Not your keys, not your coins". If coinbase gets hacked, or if they don't have your bitcoin for whatever reason, then you're out of luck. It's much better to trust yourself. More stress, because it's all on you, but at least you have it in your control. I pulled my bitcoin off coinbase a few years ago, and the fee was 1.4-1.5% (I believe). I don't know how much harder it is right now, but if it's hard, that also tells you something. Good luck in you bitcoin journey. Self-sovereignty is the best. Oh, and also make sure you buy your hardware wallet directly from the manufacturer so you don't get a compromised device.