Self-Custody: Your Keys, Your Coins

We learn what it means to truly own Bitcoin.

When you leave Bitcoin on a platform or in an app, you don't really own it — you own a promise to get it back. If the provider fails or shuts down, that promise can vanish.

Self-custody means you hold your own keys yourself. Then no one needs to grant permission for you to use your money, and no one can stop you.

This freedom comes with responsibility: keeping your keys safe is your job. But it's the step that turns Bitcoin from a balance held by someone else into real ownership in your hands.

The well-known rule: if you don't hold your keys, you don't own your Bitcoin. Sovereignty begins here.

In the next station, we meet the nodes — and how the network verifies everything itself.