It’s Time to Become Your Own Bitcoin Bank: Five Important Things to Know

Ok, so you’ve bought a few Sats on an exchange, and you went as far as moving them off-exchange, and now you’re confidently walking around as a new bank owner feeling safe from a financial collapse. Well, I have news for you. Albeit an excellent start, there is more to it than owning your keys to your bitcoins.

Being your own Bitcoin bank comes with a few risks that you should address thoroughly and responsibly before you can rely on your newly found banking capabilities. As a way of introduction, here are some of the risks that you now face:

• Wallet key loss with no backup or no abilities to restore correctly;
• Not letting anyone know where things are in case of death or disability;
• Insolvent exchange with a loss of client assets;
• Exchange wallets hacked (SMS-based 2FA, SIM swap, social engineering, etc..) resulting in loss of client assets and leaked personal information;
• Businesses and people coerced or misled into sending their coins to hackers (virus, blackmailing, phone fraud, etc..);
• People getting mugged and physically coerced into sending their coins;
• Poor crypto-related tax knowledge and planning putting people at risk with unforeseen…