Hold My Keys

Photo by Maria Ziegler on Unsplash

When bitcoiners say “hold your own keys,” we’re not being cute—we’re describing ownership in plain English. A “key” is just a very long private number (a 256-bit secret) that unlocks your bitcoin. From that private key, software derives a public key and address—the place your coins sit on the blockchain. Because that long number is impossible to memorize, wallets back it up as 12 or 24 random words (a “seed phrase”). Those words recreate the same private number if your device is lost. Whoever controls that private key—or those words—can move the coins. If an exchange or ETF holds the key, you don’t own bitcoin; you own a promise.

Self-custody is the antidote. It means you secure your savings with keys you control, not keys someone else “manages.” And here’s my advice (but, do your own homework because I’m not your mamma and take zero responsibility for your actions or decisions): buy a Bitkey. Bitkey is Block’s self-custody wallet built around a simple but powerful 2-of-3 multi-signature design: one key on your phone, one on the Bitkey hardware, and a third key held by Bitkey’s service that can’t move funds without one of your keys. Any two approve a spend. Lose your phone? You still have the hardware and the service key to recover. Lose the device? Your phone and the service key get you back. You stay in charge; middlemen don’t.

Mississippi’s Joel Bomgar has been crystal clear on this point: stop trusting luck and move off exchanges. His plain-English write-ups and videos about Bitkey emphasize the same thing I’m saying here—self-custody with a sane recovery plan beats hoping a platform will be solvent on the day you need your money. Bitkey’s defaults make that easy for normal people without watering down sovereignty.

Why Bitkey over a single hardware wallet? Single-signature puts everything on one secret; if that seed phrase is lost or exposed, game over (ask me how I know, it was painful). Bitkey’s default multi-signature kills that single point of failure. It also smooths the two places most people mess up: recovery and inheritance. Recovery is guided and doesn’t require you to be a cypherpunk. For inheritance, you can provide a clear path so your spouse or executor can access funds without turning your estate into a scavenger hunt—and without giving any one party enough power to drain the account.

Here’s the playbook: Order a Bitkey. Set it up, practice a small test send, and walk through a recovery drill while the balance is low. Withdraw from the exchange. Store the device securely, keep your phone locked down, and write plain-English instructions for your heirs. Review once a year.

If you want freedom, hold your own keys—your own long number, backed up by your own words—and make it simple enough that you’ll actually do it. Bitkey makes that practical. Bitcoin gives you sovereignty. Don’t hand it back.