Can I rant about some subsets of our own rank for a minute?
Bitcoin is receiving a lot of criticism as of late, and I think a lot of it is justified. Not because of Bitcoin - but because of it's user base, and the larger crypto community. Fortunately for us, this is all just noise. Here's whats up.
There was a post on a sister subreddit warning people to start withdrawing their funds from centralized exchanges. The reasoning is primarily, the old addage, not your keys not your coins. Secondarily OP voiced a real concern about exchanges being deceitfully speculative with investors crypto and not actually having adequate liquidity to the amount owed to it's customers. This is all fine and dandy, but what horrified me was the comments.
There were multiple camps arguing against the OP. I'm going to break down into three separate camps:
Your post is making the situation worse by encouraging a "bank run" and making things spiral out of control.
If the big exchanges fail, crypto (and bitcoin) will too, so it doesn't even matter!
Self-Custody is just as risky as storing it with a centralized exchange, and maybe even better because of the insurance!
Excuse me, but what? Did I walk into an old dinosaur convention discussing Money 1.0? Has nobody gotten the point?
To answer each:
Self-Custody is exactly the solution to bank runs. Are you letting some stranger "hold on" to your house keys while you're at work because you can't be trusted with them?Doesn't it seem kind of silly that we are asking some stranger to "hold on" to our money while we don't use them? WTF.
Bitcoins main features are the true, radical democratization of exchange and store of value. No crypto should ever be "too big to fail". If we all take the responsibility we were clearly shown in 2008 we are obligated to take, we will deserve to have solved the problem. The problem was - and continues to be - centralization of power. Not in the centralization of wealth, but in the centralization of control over wealth.We have the responsibility to store and hold our own god damn money so they're not being used for gambling and artificial instruments of finance.
Back to the house keys analogy: Oh so now you're letting someone "hold on" to your house keys because you're just so irresponsible you may leave them on the street and a robber will take advantage and steal your stuff.Just like you're letting someone "hold on" to your money because you're too lazy to understand the ACTUALLY PRETTY SIMPLE AND STRAIGHT FORWARD, SO SIMPLE EVEN GRANDPA CAN UNDERSTAND IT ways you can safely self-custody.
It is shocking to me how few have actually understood what Bitcoin is and what it does. These kinds of attitudes are rightfully exposing a bleak truth of the crypto sphere: Maybe all of this doesn't even matter.
A lot of intelligent critics are equating crypto to a pyramid scheme -- the lest bright compare it to tulip bulbs. I think they're both wrong: The issue is that crypto is being used like Gambling. "It might go up, it might go down. WHO KNOWS? Anyway here's $100,000 to the moon". And truly, with all these shitcoins popping up it's like walking around in a casino full of blinking neon lights and attractive glittering sounds. Money is constantly exchanging hands and the house always wins. I admit, I've been tempted many times myself ... but there is only one Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is of course not about any of that -- not a get rich quick scheme, and not a financial instrument to manipulate, and not some whimsical collective item. Bitcoin is like nothing that came before it.
Move your keys off the exchanges. Do your own research. Self-Custody. Not your keys, not your coin.
If even just one person takes self custody because of this post, it will have been worth it.
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