Staying self-sovereign in an adversarial world

A starter guide to node running and self custody

May 11, 2024

The last few weeks have in some ways felt tough for Bitcoin. We’ve seen developers arrested, wallets withdrawn from markets, and what feels like a gathering storm approaching, soon to hit your lawful right to self custody and to transact freely.

This piece began as a Twitter thread but we’re also sharing over our Substack in case any of our readers find it useful. Note that this is a starter guide - some of the products and services below may not be appropriate for power users, or as the Bitcoin blockchain grows over time. But we all have to start somewhere.

Despite recent events, whatever the enemies of freedom may tell you, in free and democratic countries it remains lawful to possess your own property, and to continue to hold and use that property without fear of unlawful search and seizure.

You should confidently continue to pursue self custody of your bitcoin with the knowledge that the law is on your side, even if certain people in positions of power are not.

However, it is important to remember that Bitcoin was intended to be a peer to peer system, and that delegating our personal responsibility to third party custodians has meant that the robustness of the system to resisting attacks has diminished.

If you want to be able to continue transacting freely with your bitcoin, or holding it peacefully and lawfully, then you may want to take some steps to ensure that the system is as robust and as widely distributed as possible. As we know from the Cypherpunk's Manifesto, a 'widely dispersed system can't be shut down.'

Here are some concrete suggestions of things that we can all do, right now, to ensure that the Bitcoin system is as widely dispersed as possible, and that each of us can continue interacting with it freely, no matter what.

I'll give further details on each of these, and will put links in the post, but as a start:

1. If you don't already, learn how to run a node, and start running one.

2. Learn how to open your own Lightning channels on your node.

3. Use open source, non-custodial wallets

4. Learn how to connect these wallets to your nodes

5. Really focus on understanding self custody.

1. Run a node

Why is this important? It keeps the Bitcoin network of transaction validators as widely-dispersed as possible and helps to maintain the censorship-resistance of the network. If you run your own node, you will at the same time have access to a wallet that can't be removed from an app store and cannot be shut down.

I run two - one on a little Umbrel on a Raspberry Pi 4 and the other on an old pc.

If you've never done this before, then Umbrel is a fun place to begin. You may also want to look into Start9 Labs - each provide a good basis to learn how to do this and become part of the network.

2. Learn how to use lightning in a self custodial way

Opening and closing channels costs sats; but your own channels mean that you are much more likely to

maintain access to them. See the great tutorial from BTC Sessions below. A second tutorial on Fedi is also linked below - it’s a working example of how a federated e-cash system can interface perfectly with Bitcoin and Lightning.

3. Use open source, non custodial wallets

Especially if, like Mutiny, they can be installed as a progressive web app and don't need to be listed in one of the app stores. Either Mutiny Wallet or Zeus LN are great options.

4. Connect your wallet to your node

Zeus especially will enable you to be fully self-sovereign in this context.

5. Focus on self-custody

I cannot recommend the guide from Arman the Parman enough (link below). If you are starting from a position where your coins are still in a custodial wallet on an exchange, read the article included below as a starting point, and begin working your way up the levels of self custody.

Bitcoin may be under attack; but this is what it was designed for. If it were not continually attacked, there would be no incentive for Bitcoin to improve, or for us, its users, to improve our own practices.

You are not alone, and you are not helpless. I hope the suggestions in this post will give anyone new to self custody, or exploring it for the first time, some pointers as to further reading - and encouragement that while we are in a fight, we are absolutely and unequivocally going to win it.

Suggestions for further reading and tutorials:

Umbrel: Personal home cloud and OS for self-hosting

Bring the cloud to your home with umbrelOS - a beautiful home server OS for selfhosting

Umbrel

Sovereign Computing | Start9

Sovereign computing for a free future: Start 9

Node running and lightning tutorials from BTC Sessions: