Bitcoin Storing Approach

[alex.b.o]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

Guys, just want you to know my point of view.

It can be a good option to hold Bitcoin for the long term, but it comes with more responsibility.

The benefit is controlling the private keys on your own rather than relying on a custodian.

I also recommend offline or hardware wallets for savings.

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally. If someone gets it, they can potentially take your BTC; if you lose it, recovery may not be possible.

So, my view: for long-term Bitcoin, self-custody makes sense if you’re willing to learn basic security and keep your backup offline and secure.

I also want your opinion. Why do you think, guys?

[Z-tight]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

Yes it is!

It can be a good option to hold Bitcoin for the long term, but it comes with more responsibility.

Sure. BTC is decentralized and if you decide to use it, you should be prepared to be your own bank and be responsible for your funds.

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally. If someone gets it, they can potentially take your BTC; if you lose it, recovery may not be possible.

True, that is the risk of being your own bank, but you control your funds and the responsibility falls on you to mitigate that risk and use your funds in a safe environment. However, with custodial storage, the security of your funds is in the hands of a third party, so you have to 'trust' them to do everything right. I'd be unable to sleep well at night if i have a huge amount of BTC in a custodial service.

So, my view: for long-term Bitcoin, self-custody makes sense if you’re willing to learn basic security and keep your backup offline and secure.

That's about right!

[Nathrixxx]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

Self-custody is the best because that is one of the reason to why bitcoin with introduced in the first place, to give us financial control over our assets, and the only way to achieve this is to be under a self custody approach with the wallet we used, mind you our bitcoin is not even in the wallet but on the blockchain, but the wallet only present to us access to our Private keys that unlock our Bitcoin on the blockchain, there is much of risk under a custodial wallet used and that is why we have to concentrate more attention on a non-custodial wallet and also maintain the necessary security and privacy measures.

[Filicius]

I also want your opinion. Why do you think, guys?

You have done nothing more than describe what has been recommended for a long time in these pages, to which we should add some mention of multisig wallets for greater security, but everything you say makes sense and I doubt very much that you will hear voices that do not agree with what has been said.

It looks like you're very new to the forum. Instead of opening up new truism topics, I recommend that you read more and participate in other conversations.

[Zoomic]

In Satoshi's original vision for the Bitcoin network, self custody was introduced to eliminate the need for intermediaries and because it's still the safest measure to store your BTC asset, it'll remain the best.

Adopting the self custody measure will always be a good decision but beyond that, you should also know that it comes with vital security responsibility. If you lose your seed phrase, you don't have a customer care to call and if you ever make a mistake, there's no third-party that can be contacted to correct it.

With my level of experience in holding BTC for years, I'll say self-custody makes a lot of sense especially when it's properly backed up offline.

However, I don't think it's the perfect practice for everyone especially newbies, it's important to know much about self-custody and how to secure it before using it. Beyond the freedom it offers is the responsibility to keep it secured at all times.

[Itz-prisigold]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

I also want your opinion. Why do you think, guys?

My opinion is that self custody still remains the best way to hold your Bitcoin for long term, the important thing is for you to understand how to secure your wallet very well. The good part about using self custody is that no third party will control your coins, you have full control and your BTC cannot be frozen.

You already know that self custody comes with a lot of responsibility, any little mistakes will make you lose everything you have worked hard for years. You have to keep your seed phrase safe and don't expose it to anyone, the moment you lose your keys, then your coins are gone because there's not customer service that can help you get your account back.

[Danish Ali]

The benefit is controlling the private keys on your own rather than relying on a custodian.

We have heard “not your keys not your coins” many times and FTX proved it already. With custodian, your money can be frozen at anytime since you depend on them for trust.

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally.

This is the true risk and it is controllable. Reverting to seed backup on metal and secure location and telling it to a trustworthy person, these 3 are important.

Why do you think, guys?

Best option is self custody, but this is for those who really want to learn. And for others, CEX is the better than self custody because self custody is in a wrong way always be dangerous.

[Dunamisx]

Self-custody still remains the best, but note that the security lies in your hands, and if you are careless about how you handle your wallet by creating vulnerabilities, then know that you are not still safe. Once you are in control of your Bitcoin, it is also expected that you maintain the normal safety standard for operating a non-custodial wallet, if you don't create a loophole from your end, it will be very difficult to discover you're under attack.

[MusaMohamed]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

It's always is the best option if you want to hold your bitcoin long term.

Centralized exchanges can close their service, die, hacked, bankrupt, scam and more reasons to stop their services while users can not withdraw their bitcoins.
Bitcoin Spot ETFs can have problems in the future too.

In Bitcoin community, the famous saying is "It's your key, it's your bitcoin" while oppositely if "it's not your key, it's not your bitcoin".

It can be a good option to hold Bitcoin for the long term, but it comes with more responsibility.

The benefit is controlling the private keys on your own rather than relying on a custodian.

I also recommend offline or hardware wallets for savings.

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally. If someone gets it, they can potentially take your BTC; if you lose it, recovery may not be possible.

People must choose good non custodial wallets to use, and use their wallets rightly from start of buying or downloading to installation, verification, creation, backup, backup test, recovery.

How to back up a seed phrase?

[sunsilk]

Despite that we've seen the coldcard issue, many of us still believe that self custody is still the best choice after all.

People who think that going with a centralized exchange keeping their BTCs is up to them if that's what they think will reduce the risk.

But in fact, that doesn't change the risk at all and even increases it more. And your point of view OP is on point and correct.

Threads like this are starting to increase due to the recent cold card bug.

[Obim34]

I also want your opinion. Why do you think, guys?

I honestly don't think you need our opinion. You already talked about self custody like you know it and certain that it is much better than giving authority to a third party to control our Bitcoin, or are you not sure of what you advise people to do?

Our opinion can not be different from yours, maintain self-custody. It will save you as an investor from many complexities with central authorities.

[decodx]

<...>
I also want your opinion. Why do you think, guys?

I think this topic has been discussed a lot on this forum, especially after the recent coldcard incident. Do we really need another thread about it?

You didn't bring a single new thought, or practical nuance to the table; yiu just rehashed a basic AI-generated checklist that everyone here has read a thousand times.

[legiteum]

Here in the USA (and probably most developed countries), institutions are pretty reliable, especially if you select an established player. Virtually all Americans with any decent amount of savings use a company of some kind to guard their wealth, and hold it in their name. And this is far safer than guarding it yourself, which has risks.

In other countries with less stable governments this might not be the case.

[Awaklara]

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally. If someone gets it, they can potentially take your BTC; if you lose it, recovery may not be possible.

We know the risks, and we know what to do to avoid making mistakes. Especially if your goal is to store a large amount of Bitcoin for the long term. You would definitely treat Bitcoin as your most valuable asset. There's no way you would just keep your wallet and recovery seed anywhere. The more you value your asset, the more you will care about its security.

[Findingnemo]

If someone can't spend an hour or two for learning the basics of crypto wallets and how to keep them secure, then they don't deserve the privilege of owning their assets. This is how banks entered into the picture and made us to believe that keeping our money with us is not safe so they offer the service to keep them but later it turned into a whole mess/scam.

[suzanne5223]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

It's the best, and it also aligns with the core principle of Bitcoin in terms of censorship resistance and the permissionless aspect.

It can be a good option to hold Bitcoin for the long term, but it comes with more responsibility.

Yes, but it is better to be in charge of your investment and be responsible for it than giving it to a stranger that promise heaven and earth, whereas their service only presents a modern form of slavery.

The benefit is controlling the private keys on your own rather than relying on a custodian.

Using self-custody is when you truly own BTC. do not keep your money in online accounts

I also recommend offline or hardware wallets for savings.

Yes, but not every offline or hardware wallet is secure. If you're not sure about the wallet to use, try Electrum, Foundation Passport, Trezor, and Bluewallet

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally. If someone gets it, they can potentially take your BTC; if you lose it, recovery may not be possible.

Visit the guide to safely download and verify Electrum and this air gap wallet discussion

[Cheema02]

Self-custody still remains the best, but note that the security lies in your hands, and if you are careless about how you handle your wallet by creating vulnerabilities, then know that you are not still safe. Once you are in control of your Bitcoin, it is also expected that you maintain the normal safety standard for operating a non-custodial wallet, if you don't create a loophole from your end, it will be very difficult to discover you're under attack.

Well, before the recent coldcard attack, we used to think that a person can only lose their bitcoins even after using a hardware wallet or a self-custodial wallet if they expose their seed or private keys themselves, but after this attack, it is apparently clear that it's not always the holder that creates vulnerabilities, but there can be vulnerabilities within the system they are using which can cause a loss of assets for them.

However, it is not impossible for one to keep their funds safe even if there is an attack, because as we all know, any person who had used a strong password phrase on their wallets could not be hacked or compromised by the recent attack, which proves that each extra step that you take for the security of your funds can give you an extra layer of safety from attacks and exploits, which is why people should take security more seriously.
Before this attack, most people never protected their wallets using a password, but after this, they will and they should.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

Guys, just want you to know my point of view.

It can be a good option to hold Bitcoin for the long term, but it comes with more responsibility.

The benefit is controlling the private keys on your own rather than relying on a custodian.

Yes, and that's why when we do self-custody, it's called BYOB (Be Your Own Bank), So your have the responsibility to take care of your private key or seed phrase. You could add a pass phrase if you want for more protection. Just remember, not your keys, not your coins.

I also recommend offline or hardware wallets for savings.

The risk is losing or exposing your seed phrase unintentionally. If someone gets it, they can potentially take your BTC; if you lose it, recovery may not be possible.

So, my view: for long-term Bitcoin, self-custody makes sense if you’re willing to learn basic security and keep your backup offline and secure.

I also want your opinion. Why do you think, guys?

Learning security practice is a must if you are going to hold Bitcoin for a long time. You can also read about this topics.

• [Guide] Secure air-gapped crypto wallet storage method
• How to setup a Bitcoin Air-Gap Computer?

Or setting up cold storage wallet using Electrum:

• Cold storage
• Creating a cold storage wallet in Electrum

[salad daging]

Have you done what you said yourself?
After ColdCard sold a firmware vulnerability that resulted in the loss of many BTC by its customers many people asked about self-custody, asking if this was safe may have been discussed several times here.
I think experienced people have shared their views on this, you can do what you want, what I mean is that self-custody is still very important rather than choosing a third party, about security it's up to you to decide.

[dkbit98]

Is self-custody still the best option for holding Bitcoin long term?

Sure it is.
Self-custody is the best and safest option for most people, and for even more security there is always multisig option.
There are even some companies like Casa that can help customers with that, but they are charging fees for that.