Self-custody is truly necessary for everyone.

[HustleZ]

[…]

I dont know which side are you taking, are you a fan of Self-custody or non-custodial wallets because both have their pros and cons, but honestly, everything has pros and cons so self-custody having cons isn’t a reason to not choose it. Self-custody provides a person security in his own hands and i dont think there is any thing better than that. A person that has bitcoin wont be a child and will be a responsible adult, so im sure keeping track of the seed phrases wont be a problem. And using self-custody doesn’t mean that non-custodial wallets are prohibited for us, we should use every type of wallet for its own benefits,,

[Cryptomultiplier]

[…]

I dont know which side are you taking, are you a fan of Self-custody or non-custodial wallets because both have their pros and cons, but honestly, everything has pros and cons so self-custody having cons isn’t a reason to not choose it. Self-custody provides a person security in his own hands and i dont think there is any thing better than that. A person that has bitcoin wont be a child and will be a responsible adult, so im sure keeping track of the seed phrases wont be a problem. And using self-custody doesn’t mean that non-custodial wallets are prohibited for us, we should use every type of wallet for its own benefits,,

Any kind of wallet that assures that your coins is safe in a long time without the fear of scammers or hackers easily gaining access, is the best wallet to use and in this case, self custody wallet is the only best option. You just got to pick the one that resonates with your style and preference.
Let's forget about what happened to coldcard, because that can't be the issue for every cold or air gapped wallet. It still boils down to personal management of seed phrases and accumulation strategy to effectively use your wallet.

[Hazink]

And for someone who has a large amount of Bitcoin, does it really make sense to put everything in self-custody?

Maybe it is better to diversify not only between different forms of custody, but also between Bitcoin, traditional investments and regulated institutions.

Diversifying investments in different sectors is nice, but saying I should leave some of my holdings in a custodial service and keep some in a self-custody wallet is not good advice at all. Any money that's in exchange balance is for trading purposes and not for storage. You can use your traditional banking system to save your fiat if you want but advising someone to save a decentralized coin where he doesn't have full control over it breaks the idea behind bitcoin, you can just use different wallet, hardware, hot wallet depending on the use of the coin and how long you want to hold it if you are too afraid of leaving everything in one wallet.

[Z-tight]

And using self-custody doesn’t mean that non-custodial wallets are prohibited for us, we should use every type of wallet for its own benefits,,

Hey man, self-custodial and non-custodial mean the same thing, that's wallets you control the seed phrase. Meanwhile, with custodial wallets, a third party controls your keys, for example, an account in Binance or Coinbase.

Any kind of wallet that assures that your coins is safe in a long time without the fear of scammers or hackers easily gaining access, is the best wallet to use and in this case, self custody wallet is the only best option.

You'd not get that assurance or guarantee anywhere. In as much as it is recommended to use an open source, well-reviewed and self-custodial wallet, it is important to note that your wallet is only as safe as the device you store it in. The user's opsec is also crucial in ensuring that your funds are safe.

[Questat]

Self-custody is necessary, but its never compulsory. Bitcoin investor can still make a choice of his own, and leave his bitcoin to a centralized exchange especially if he's not capable enough to keep his own bitcoin for long term. But trusting a CEX won't guarantee also that your bitcoin will be forever secured and safe, there are also circumstances that comes beyond the control of an exchange, so once you lost your bitcoin, that means its lost forever.

This is the reason why prior to accumulating bitcoin, study first and be knowledgeable and skillful on how to secure your coins on a hardware wallet. Master self-custody because its the only way where you can guarantee the total control of your coins, as well as its long term safekeeping and security.

[Odogwu-Blockchain]

It's painful that this information are only heard and learned by those on Bitcointalk, people over here don't seems to understand all these, they sees and treats every Bitcoin wallet like it's a friendly place where you don't keeps things as it suppose to be, at least they only keep their seed phrase and centralized logins safe but doesn't understand and knows the difference between self custody and noncustodial.

They are just blinded, don't blame them either but they are newbies;)

[freedomgo]

It's painful that this information are only heard and learned by those on Bitcointalk, people over here don't seems to understand all these, they sees and treats every Bitcoin wallet like it's a friendly place where you don't keeps things as it suppose to be, at least they only keep their seed phrase and centralized logins safe but doesn't understand and knows the difference between self custody and noncustodial.

They are just blinded, don't blame them either but they are newbies;)

I believe others are also aware about self-custody. If they are responsible investors, they should have made a thorough research first  before they will rush into buying bitcoin and leave it to a centralized exchange. This isn't about being a newbie or not, but this is all about your responsibility as a bitcoin investor.

If you don't trust yourself yet, I can understand why you chose putting your bitcoin in a centralized exchange. But it should not stay there for indefinite years, otherwise you'll wake up one day won't access anymore your bitcoin because you end up in a scam exchange, or your trusted exchange was hacked and eventually lost all your bitcoins there. This goes for every bitcoin investor out there, newbie or not.

[Churchillvv]

Validating the point of not using a self custody is invalid!!! Basically things are always very difficult in the imaginary state and that’s the trap not to attempt because you find it difficult already when you haven’t tried it, maybe ok you should try to hold $600 worth of bitcoin in a self custody and find out how difficult it is or how easy it is, most times people who claim that because of safety they live to hand over to someone else or institution are merely portraying their in ability to accept responsibility or blame for anything. I have said it over and over, they only want to shift blame and always want to have their cakes after eating it.

[Sonia_123]

It all has to do with our personal security to our various asset which bitcoin is not an exception to that, we can also loss any of our asset be it in terms of funds or otherwise, and so always reasoning of losing your bitcoin asset is very wrong all we should focus on is how we can successfully protect our bitcoin that we have in the same way we have being protecting our fiat and other assets, so that we should not see it as a major problem but see it as an obligation we owe ourselves.

The way and manner at which we secure our traditional currency the same method should always be applied to bitcoin.

For me self- custody still remains the best, all I need to do is to diversify my bitcoin into various custody and protect my seed phares since I can and have being doing the same to all my other asset be it physical or not.

[lionheart78]

Is it better to leave our money in a large regulated institution, where there are rules and, if there is a problem, you can go to court?

If it is your wealth then it is up to you, but for me leaving a huge sum of money that surpasses their limit if insurance is not ok.  I will still prefer self-custody, especially when it comes to Bitcoin.

Self-custody gives the user direct control over their Bitcoin, but it also puts all the responsibility on them.

I would rather mess up myself and lose my funding than have other people mess up and lose my money.  At least I made the mistake, and it is my responsibility, rather than other people making a mistake and telling me I can't recover my money that surpasses the bank insurance.  In addition, I always prefer pure freedom when it comes to my money.

And for someone who has a large amount of Bitcoin, does it really make sense to put everything in self-custody?

It makes a lot of sense because banks have limited insurance.  If something goes wrong and your deposit exceeds their offered insurance, the insurance will only cover what is offered and the other will possibly cannot be recovered.

[BlackBoss_]

I would rather mess up myself and lose my funding than have other people mess up and lose my money.  At least I made the mistake, and it is my responsibility, rather than other people making a mistake and telling me I can't recover my money that surpasses the bank insurance.  In addition, I always prefer pure freedom when it comes to my money.

If you mess up your fund by yourself, you will have to learn, practice with testnet, practice with main net and small fund, before you understand how these steps work for your practice and fund safety. It's dangerous to mess up with money especially if it is a big fund, your life surviving fund, and if you have yet mastered how to manage your fund as own custodian, in the meantime, don't do anything or store fund on centralized exchanges.

However, it's not a reason to delay your learning and practicing by feeling wrongly like centralized exchanges are safe places for fund storage in long term.

It makes a lot of sense because banks have limited insurance.  If something goes wrong and your deposit exceeds their offered insurance, the insurance will only cover what is offered and the other will possibly cannot be recovered.

Risk from centralized exchanges is their inappropriate use of customer money deposited on their exchanges and the collapse of FTX exchange is a classic example in cryptocurrency market and centralized exchange industry. It's used to be a tier 1 exchange but several days after a post from Changpeng Zao, FTX collapsed with its death spiral, and the fact revealed shows us that FTX exchange used customer money very inappropriately and dangerously.

[Darker45]

I agree. It seems this is the most realistic approach. To each his/her own. Not everybody can properly function as his/her own bank. My mother even forgets where she hides her money in her small room. She's not hiding a lot, but some bills could only be accidentally discovered years later. This is her in her old age. This was her before she turned 60.

To self-custody a large amount of Bitcoin is to be extra careful all the time. One false move could mean your funds are gone. And your funds aren't insured while in self-custody. Apart from that, there are other factors as well. We all know what happened to some of those who used Coldcard.

[MusaMohamed]

I agree. It seems this is the most realistic approach. To each his/her own. Not everybody can properly function as his/her own bank. My mother even forgets where she hides her money in her small room. She's not hiding a lot, but some bills could only be accidentally discovered years later. This is her in her old age. This was her before she turned 60.

The elderly have more health problems like dementia that are parts of reasons they dislike new technologies and innovative things like Bitcoin and blockchain. They will have to figure out which things are best and safest for their finance, with their lifespan counts down to the end, and along the way there will be more effects from ageing. There are third party companies and services that can help the elderly but if possible, they still have to consider about non custodial wallets to use and store funds by themselves. In addition, inheritance plan is another thing they must consider when they are old enough.

To self-custody a large amount of Bitcoin is to be extra careful all the time. One false move could mean your funds are gone. And your funds aren't insured while in self-custody. Apart from that, there are other factors as well. We all know what happened to some of those who used Coldcard.

Self-custody is very important for everyone, at any age if they can take care of it by themselves. This fund storage method is not limited to people who have big fund, large amount of bitcoin, but also is helpful for people with small funds. People who are not rich can see small funds as their real fortunes and surely they are not ready to lose their fortunes.

[Royal Cap]

Self-custody gives the user direct control over their Bitcoin.

Yeah, if someone cannot properly store the seed phrase, then self custody can be more risky for them than a regulated institution. So yeah the same method does not work for everyone.

Maybe it is better to diversify not only between different forms of custody, but also between Bitcoin, traditional investments and regulated institutions.

Just as keeping all your savings in BTC is risky, it is also not right to rely on one institution, because we have already seen the case of Colcard.  The main thing is to make arrangements so that one mistake or one institution's problem does not put the entire asset at risk.

And personally, if I were asked to choose, I would definitely keep the BTC I want to keep for the long term in self custody. And the amount of BTC I need to trade occasionally or convert to fiat, I would keep on a central platform. This keeps the long term holding and daily use funds separate, which is more convenient for me.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

Yeah, if someone cannot properly store the seed phrase, then self custody can be more risky for them than a regulated institution. So yeah the same method does not work for everyone.

Because it is easy or not-too-hard to learn storing your wallet seed phrase, it's worth to learn and try to use self custodial wallets for your bitcoin. Learning and practicing it only needs time for reading and practicing while it can help to secure your bitcoin completely by yourself. It's worth if compares to risk and possible fund loss if you store your bitcoin on centralized exchanges or online platforms.

Hopefully, people don't only learn about non custodial wallets after losing coins on centralized exchanges.
Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts.

[Sticky Bomb]

I am actually a bit concerned that even hardware wallets have become vulnerable to careless lines of code, given how adept AI has become at spotting bugs. That is why I fully support the initiative by major crypto industry players to ensure the sector gets early access to powerful new AI technologies specifically to use them for identifying blockchain vulnerabilities.

Yeah, ColdCard reduced the trust people had on hardware wallets to some extent, but using any wallet is safer when you extend the security of your seed phrase using a strong passphrase, that is your own way of making sure the hardware or software limitations in RNG or ay exploit targeted at reconstructing your private keys does not put your funds in jeopardy. It would be safer to use even hardware wallets as cold storage devices.

Continuous maintenance of these wallets is key, just like Bitbox had an update recently that fixes vulnerabilities that would've been exploited if a scammer identified it first. I think that besides a wallet being open-source, it's best to always choose wallets that the dev team is more committed to maintaining and updating the software with respect to recent security developments.

[Yablee0]

There is always a two side to every coin. What ever have an advantage must also have a disadvantage either and that is very normal in life.

For those that knows they can't manage their self custodial very well, nobody is stopping them from patronizing custodial wallet. But they should be ready to face it's implications also because even if their assets get scammed or hacked along the line, there's still no guarantee of them getting back their assets even after every necessary actions is being taken, meaning their chances of securing back their lost assets is under probability. So you can see how complicated it's. But for me, I prefer self custodial. I know this automatically  means bearing every risk and responsibility all by myself but it's fine. I will rather place the burden on myself instead of resting it on where I can't be assured or go to bed at ease. Moreover, self custodial wallet is more safed and reliable than custodial wallet. It's only when you hate bearing responsibility is when you see it as a problem otherwise that's the best.

[Muba20]

And for someone who has a large amount of Bitcoin, does it really make sense to put everything in self-custody?

If someone has a large amount of Bitcoin and is concerned about the security of their self-custody, especially if they are concerned about the proper security of their seed phrases or keys, it is not logical for them to keep all the amounts in a self custody. If something goes wrong for some reason, there is a possibility of losing all the assets. Therefore, it is better to consider the holder's own situation whether it is worth keeping it under their own control or not.

Maybe it is better to diversify not only between different forms of custody, but also between Bitcoin, traditional investments and regulated institutions.

An investor can diversify his assets to reduce risk. In this case, instead of keeping all his Bitcoins in his own custody, he can keep a part in a centralized exchange, and even if he keeps it in self custody, he can keep it in several different wallets. And if it is divided on a regulated site, it is better. Keeping it in self custody and regulated platforms and some traditional platforms is the most appropriate policy.

[sunsilk]

Just as keeping all your savings in BTC is risky, it is also not right to rely on one institution, because we have already seen the case of Colcard.  The main thing is to make arrangements so that one mistake or one institution's problem does not put the entire asset at risk.

There are people who have decided to keep all their life savings in BTC and that's savings + investment at the same time.

They know the risk and where it is heading but, they know more about what's coming for its future because the potential has been seen already. And they cannot ignore when that time comes and they don't have anything they hold.

While the risk remains to be there, as long as we can take it whether it's a life savings in BTC or a huge amount of hard earned money in it. We know that it's a good asset that can change our lives.

But keeping it is another thing due to the issues that we've seen lately about the trusted hardware wallet and probably some other wallets too.

[Z-tight]

One false move could mean your funds are gone. And your funds aren't insured while in self-custody.

True, but neither are funds stored in centralized exchanges insured. The exchange can make a mistake that would cost their customers and they end up getting nothing. If people actually want their funds insured up to a certain amount, then they should keep them in fiat and store it in the bank. To be honest, i would rather leave my funds in fiat and keep it in the bank, than buy crypto and store it in an exchange.