ripsline on Nostr: Better Bitcoin Beginnings When I first discovered bitcoin, I heard "get your bitcoin ...

Better Bitcoin Beginnings

When I first discovered bitcoin, I heard "get your bitcoin off the exchange" and "get a hardware wallet", so that is what I did. I ordered a coldcard with my credit card and shipped it to my home.

Shortly after my coldcard arrived, I learned I need something called sparrow wallet to interact with my coldcard. All a coldcard does is generate a seed phrase offline and sign transactions through my sparrow wallet.

So I went down the sparrow wallet rabbit hole. I learned that when I use a software wallet, it is important to use a device that is mostly dedicated to the wallet. I needed to be very careful about what I do on this device.

I learned that linux is ideal for sparrow wallet because linux operating systems limit malicious software by design. I also learned that linux does not spy on users the way that MacOS and Windows does.

Next, I learned how important it is to download & verify any software I put on my dedicated device. This ensures I do not download malicious software that can steal my bitcoin.

After a few days of figuring this stuff out, I had my linux laptop with sparrow wallet. I downloaded & verified sparrow wallet using Craig Raw's amazing documentation on sparrowwallet.com. I was ready to use my coldcard.

I opened sparrow wallet for the first time and was met with the introduction, where Craig Raw educates the wallet user on bitcoin privacy as it pertains to bitcoin nodes.

I learned that I cannot use any bitcoin wallet without first connecting to a bitcoin node. I learned that it is not ideal to connect my wallet to someone else's node because they will see too much information about my bitcoin.

After a few hours of research, I found a decent plug n' play node implementation. I ordered it with my credit card and shipped it to my home.

Okay, now I have my own node, my dedicated device running linux with sparrow wallet, and my coldcard. I was ready to be self-sovereign. Wait, what was the point of the coldcard again?

I paid $250 for this fancy piece of hardware that screams, "I own bitcoin and the keys are right here." What if I lose it? What if someone sees it and threatens to kill me unless I give them access? This is not private, this is not sovereign personal finance.

To be self-sovereign is to have knowledge. There is no need for a fancy hardware device attached to my home address. I can download & verify sparrow wallet on a dedicated linux device and use sparrow itself to create my first wallet.

There is no need for a plug 'n play node attached to my home address. I can rent a Virtual Private Server and use BTCPayServer as my node backend.

I can access my bitcoin from anywhere in the world and never need some fancy piece of hardware. All I need is the knowledge to do three things: flash linux on a computer, download & verify software, and deploy BTCPay on a Virtual Private Server.

I never opened my coldcard.