Saving¶

There is a lot to learn to even attempt to answer the question "is Bitcoin true?". And in general, the best we have, is that we can't prove it false. Maybe one day we will, and we'll realize there was a fundamental flaw that everyone missed. But until then, Bitcoin remains as true as anything we can know, making it the hardest and most secure money in the world.

Ready to get started? But where to start?

Often times those curious about Bitcoin will find themselves overwhelmed by the many passionate and seemingly fanatic Bitcoiners. These zealots (myself included) will overwhelm anyone new to Bitcoin with a firehose of information, including hard-learned lessons and important dangers. Or we'll talk someone's ear off about Austrian Economics or how fiat money is indefensibly immoral. And yet, due to the curse of knowledge people new to Bitcoin will and should start exactly where most experienced Bitcoiners tell them not to (i.e., keeping Bitcoin on an online exchange account). The truth is, most all Bitcoiners started exactly this same way, and made many mistakes along the way.

Inspired by the very excellent Zero Trust System from Arman the Parman, I have outlined a series of levels to guide those new (and those experienced) towards safe self custody suitable for all levels of savings (from pocket change to generational wealth preservation). The early levels start simple and can serve as a guide to avoid the many pitfalls and scams those new to Bitcoin will likely encounter.

As you progress, you'll also be learning practical knowledge that will allow you to safely and confidentaly store larger and larger sums of wealth. At the higher levels, the extreme sense of ownership and the knowledge gained will burn away the initial skepticism that many start with. In fact, I'd recommend to start with skepticism and keep in mind the following maxim,

The more one learns about Bitcoin, the more one supports Bitcoin.

Below is an overview of the levels along with a rough guide on the amount of wealth appropriate at each level (that is, how much a reasonable person should feel comfortable with at each level).

Sovereignty Levels¶

Level 1: Getting Started -- Save Bitcoin on a reputable exchange (a small amount that you can risk losing).
Level 2: Your Keys -- Save Bitcoin on a home computer + smartphone (a small amount that you can risk losing).
Level 3: Dedicated Hardware -- Save Bitcoin on a dedicated offline device (as much as you'd be comfortable hiding under your mattress).
Level 4: Full Node Plus -- Save Bitcoin and run your own node (as much as you'd be comfortable hiding under your mattress).
Level 5: Airgap Quarantine -- Save Bitcoin with greater security than any bank ever could (as much as you'd be comfortable hiding under your mattress).
Level 6: Metal Backup -- Save Bitcoin with metal backups that can survive a house fire and/or natural disaster (as much as your house is worth).

Wealth Preservation¶

Before advancing to higher levels of self custody (self sovereignty) it is recommended to first focus on Wealth Preservation strategies, because at this level you should also be thinking about privacy, inheritance planning, and physical security.

Level 7 and above are use-case specific and not as universally relevant as the prior levels. At this point you can already store any amount of wealth (even extreme amounts of wealth) with more security than any bank or institutional custody system could ever offer.

Advanced Sovereignty Levels¶

Level 7: Protocols + Multisig -- Protocols to manage the complexity of multi-signature keys.
Level 8: DMZs -- Keep your full-node and transaction-manager completely safe from untrusted devices on your network.
Level 9: Fault Tolerance -- Remove all "single points of compromise", in other words, an attacker who compromised a signing device would have no access to your wealth.
Level 10: Fail-safes -- Require fully redundant networks with explicit verification of cryptographic signatures.
Level 11: Countermeasures -- Electronic countermeasures to safeguard against "NSA-level" threats.
Level 12: Off-grid -- Receive-only (e.g., satellite) nodes with offline transaction management requiring remote and geographically distributed key signing and redundant online drop-points (points to transmit).

Before you begin this journey and question everything you thought you knew about money, you may want to first understand the terms.