Self-custody removes counterparty risk and replaces it with operational risk. That is a good trade for many people, but only if the operational side is genuinely handled: tested backups, a plan for the device failing, and a plan for inheritance. Keys that exist only in one person's head vanish with them.
Self-custody
Holding the keys to your own bitcoin, rather than trusting a company to hold them for you.
Also called: non-custodial, holding your own keys
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Spot ETF
An exchange-traded fund that holds bitcoin itself, giving investors exposure through an ordinary brokerage account.
UTXO
An unspent transaction output: a discrete chunk of bitcoin that a future transaction can consume.
Block
A batch of transactions, cryptographically chained to the one before it, added to the ledger roughly…
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