on the crypto
Bitcoin Day was celebrated on January 3, the anniversary of the Genesis Block which marked the start of the Bitcoin blockchain in 2009. This year, with the price of bitcoin skyrocketing (here the quotation in real time), Bitcoiners had even more reasons to celebrate - and more reasons to assert their sovereignty over their private keys.
In fact, on Bitcoin Day, an informal event called Proof of Keys takes place every year, started for the first time by Trace Mayer, which aims to remind bitcoiners that monetary sovereignty is a fundamental part of Bitcoin's ethics.
This is the concept that lies at the heart of the well-known bitcoin mantra, "not your keys, not your coin". In other words, if you don't control your bitcoin's (BTC) private keys, you don't really own the coin. The saying recalls that Bitcoin was created to give users complete control over their finances.
Establish monetary sovereignty
The implications of depending on others to process, trade and store your own cryptocurrencies are not irrelevant. They have serious consequences and compromises for user privacy and limit the way everyone interacts with their money.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed a plan that will force exchanges to comply with new KYC requirements that threaten the initial promise of privacy and self-sovereignty of cryptocurrencies.
Add to this the recent delisting of privacy coins by many exchanges, hacks at exchanges that show no signs of stopping and other problems such as the sudden absence of the key custodians of the exchanges that block transactions for shorter or longer periods. . The simplest way to exercise monetary sovereignty is to keep private keys in your unsecured bitcoin wallet.
proof of keys
The Proof of Keys event takes the concept of self-sovereignty even further with the saying: “Not your node; not your rules. " What we intend to point out here is that it is equally important to collect your keys on a bitcoin node that you are using.
This way, anyone can perform their own validation without having to trust other people's nodes to prove that the keys are indeed their own. Proof of Keys participants usually commit to take possession of any private key by January 3rd.
The Home KeyFest
Self-custody of keys can be a tricky business for those new to the industry - and even for some who have held bitcoin for a long time. To help people take control of their private keys safely, Casa is hosting its first KeyFest, a three-day virtual conference from January 5th to 7th.
Each day will feature a new webinar, followed by a workshop to educate users on the different ways they can store their bitcoins. Speakers include Blockstream CEO Adam Back, Balaji Srinivasan and Avanti co-founder Caitlin Long, among others.
