One of the mental hurdles I've been overcoming in recent months has involved moving my assets off exchanges into cold wallets‭. ‬

The reason this is a mental hurdle is because in traditional finance‭, ‬a financial institution is the safest place to keep your money and assets‭ ‬–‭ ‬right‭? ‬

Crypto exchanges feel safer than handling the custody of crypto and bitcoin personally‭. ‬I'm not the only one who struggles with this‭. ‬Just as holding an asset kept on a blockchain is a totally foreign concept‭, ‬so is having absolute control of your assets‭. ‬

It takes a while to warm up to this idea‭, ‬but I'm doing it‭. ‬A recent experience where a coupon to be paid out from a traditional investment has now taken five weeks‭ (‬and I still don't have the money‭), ‬reminds me of what I love about this space‭.‬

If I needed reminding about the risks involved with exchanges‭, ‬the recent crypto crash that happened October 10‭ ‬was a good reminder‭. ‬It happened fast and furious‭, ‬on the back of US President Donald Trump's latest tariff salvo to China when US$19‭ ‬billion was wiped out of the market‭ ‬–‭ ‬far outpacing previous crashes‭. ‬And in the fallout‭, ‬that event is raising serious questions about inside manipulation by both platforms and market makers‭. ‬

This is still a wild west‭. ‬Not your keys‭ ‬–‭ ‬keys are those 12‭ ‬random word passwords you need to recover your wallet‭ ‬–‭ ‬not your crypto‭. ‬

And so‭, ‬I've been moving my assets‭. ‬And no sooner had I gotten quite far into that process‭, ‬hyperventilating every time I pressed send‭, ‬that a reader of this column reached out to me on social media‭. ‬Not only was he encouraging me to get all my BTC off exchanges‭, ‬he‭ ‬had some homework‭.‬

He said I needed to run my own node‭. ‬He also told me that he knew I could do it‭, ‬which I really appreciated because on first reading on what that involved‭, ‬it sounded very complicated‭. ‬I'd heard about nodes‭, ‬but it didn't seem like something I would do‭. ‬I felt defeated‭, ‬as if there was a bar I had almost reached and someone moved it and added some hurdles too‭. ‬

After wallowing for a bit‭, ‬I gathered myself up‭, ‬and started figuring it out‭. ‬If you've ever heard about‭ ‬“Knots vs Core”‭, ‬that is what that conversation is about‭. ‬Most people who buy Bitcoin trust someone else's software to tell them what's true‭. ‬Running your own node means keeping a full copy of the blockchain on a computer you control and independently verifying‭ ‬every transaction and block‭. ‬When you pair that node with a cold wallet‭, ‬you create‭, ‬sign and broadcast transactions yourself‭, ‬without a third party‭. ‬I'm told the setup isn't as hard as it sounds‭: ‬a small Raspberry Pi 4‭, ‬a 1‭ ‬TB SSD‭, ‬and an always-on internet connection‭. ‬You then connect a friendly wallet app like Sparrow‭, ‬which uses your node to display balances and send transactions‭. ‬Your private keys never leave your offline device‭ ‬–‭ ‬your node simply confirms and relays what you've signed‭.‬

Bitcoin Knots is a community-maintained version of Bitcoin Core‭ ‬–‭ ‬think of it as Core Plus‭. ‬It's built from the same codebase and follows the same consensus rules‭, ‬but adds advanced features and exposes certain settings‭. ‬Both validate the blockchain and broadcast transactions‭. ‬If you run Knots‭, ‬you're running a full Bitcoin node just like Core‭, ‬but with more knobs to turn‭.‬

Setting up your own node is the ultimate expression of Bitcoin's promise‭: ‬“Don't trust‭, ‬verify”‭. ‬It's about knowing that every‭ ‬“sat”‭ (‬Satoshi‭, ‬aka the smallest possible unit of bitcoin‭) ‬you own is backed by math and open-source code you can inspect‭, ‬not by the‭ ‬assurances of a company or exchange‭. ‬

The reader who reached out was right‭: ‬True sovereignty doesn't come from price charts or portfolio apps‭; ‬it comes from the quiet hum of a little machine in the corner‭, ‬validating financial‭ ‬freedom one block at a time‭. ‬

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