<oembed><type>rich</type><version>1.0</version><title>waxwing wrote</title><author_name>waxwing (npub1va…knuu7)</author_name><author_url>https://nostr.now/npub1vadcfln4ugt2h9ruwsuwu5vu5am4xaka7pw6m7axy79aqyhp6u5q9knuu7</author_url><provider_name>njump</provider_name><provider_url>https://nostr.now</provider_url><html>Philosophical reflections incoming:&#xA;&#xA;A famous anarchist once said &#34;privacy is not a right, it must be taken&#34;. There&#39;s also the more catchy &#34;privacy is a human fight&#34;.&#xA;You should look at bitcoin ownership similarly, except a bit more optimistically: *general* privacy is stupidly hard bordering on impossible; bitcoin ownership is just &#34;bloody hard&#34;.&#xA;&#xA;There&#39;s two ways in which this affects my personal philosophy around bitcoin self-custody. 1/ i consider myself in a permanent war against others trying to steal my coins, and in an even more violent war against my own stupidity and errors. I know this sounds a bit exhausting, but it is realistic. This feeds into 2/ don&#39;t put all your life savings in bitcoin; even 50-70% of your life savings in it is *way* more risky than most should be comfortable with.&#xA;&#xA;2/ almost seemed liked heresy at some points in recent years. And that&#39;s insane. It didn&#39;t used to be, it used to be common knowledge/obvious that you don&#39;t put in more than you can afford to lose. Somehow this idea that &#39;everything fiat is crap so put all your accumulation of wealth in btc&#39; became not just acceptable but required in some social groups. it&#39;s wrong mainly because of the above - namely that holding bitcoin is not super-safe, people make errors, people get hacked, people get unlucky with software. it&#39;s also a bit wrong because of bitcoin&#39;s high volatility. it&#39;s also a bit wrong because diversification makes sense with savings (perhaps not so much with investments, where you need growth), but with savings, I think so.&#xA;&#xA;So plan around the worst outcomes, including losing your btc (and you can plan around that by diversifying *that* into different storage clumps, but of course how much complexity you can stomach will depend on you).&#xA;&#xA;All of that sounds like I&#39;m saying, meh, bitcoin, useless, but never forget: you can lose fiat money too, just as unfairly and cruelly, in different ways - mostly through &#34;powers-that-be&#34; just shafting you. It&#39;s happened to me, and more than once. With that system you&#39;re little more than a slave, just hoping your masters don&#39;t decide they don&#39;t like you today. There&#39;s a reason a system as impractical as bitcoin exists. &#xA;&#xA;</html></oembed>