Today is Bitcoin Day, the anniversary of the Genesis block that marked the start of the Bitcoin blockchain in 2009. It’s the price of bitcoin shooting for the moon that is higher this year, but Bitcoiners have more reason to four – and more reason to assert their sovereignty their private keys.
Proof of Keys, an annual event first initiated by Trace Mayer, is an informal celebration aimed at reminding bitcoiners that monetary sovereignty is a fundamental part of Bitcoin’s ethos. It lies at the heart of the famous Bitcoiner mantra, “not your keys, not your coin.” In other words, if you do not control the private keys of your bitcoin, you do not own the currency.
The proverb is a reminder that Bitcoin was built to give users complete control over their finances. It’s also a reminder of the potential consequences of trusting your bitcoin keys to a third party (such as losing your funds in a swap hack).
The establishment of monetary sovereignty
‘Anyone who does not want you to own your own private keys – this is your money enemy. “They do not want you to be free and independent with your money,” Mayer said in the run-up to the first event of 2019. “It’s just the way it is.”
The implications of relying on others to process, exchange, and hold your cryptocurrencies are irrelevant. It has acute consequences and compromises of your privacy, and limits the way you handle your own money.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) collects extensive personal information about millions of people’s financial transactions, all of which are provided to them by financial institutions, even when the people have not committed any crime.
This year, keeping track of your keys by moving them to a personal wallet takes an extra level. FinCEN has proposed a plan that will force the exchanges to meet the new knowledge-u-customer requirements (KYC) when users want to transfer their money to a personal wallet. Such a requirement, applicable to any transfer amount exceeding $ 3000 in value, threatens to undermine the early promise of privacy and self-sovereignty. (Note: FinCEN only accepts comments from the public on this issue until January 4, 2021).
Add to this the recent delisting of privacy coins by many exchanges, the above swap hacks show no signs of stopping, and other snuff like absentee exchange holders who accidentally freeze transactions: Take control of your own private keys and become the first and last line of control it comes to your crypto is even more important.
The most basic way to exercise your monetary sovereignty is to keep your private keys in your own, non-supervised bitcoin wallet. This means that you take bitcoin that you own out of the wallets and storage portfolios and transfer the keys to a wallet that you control.
Proof of keys
Proof of Keys takes the idea of self-sovereignty even further through the proverb, “Not your node; not your rules. The point here is that it is equally important to retrieve your keys for a bitcoin node you are using. This way, you can perform your own validation yourself, without relying on others’ nodes to prove that your keys are your own.
Participants in Proof of Keys usually promise to take possession of private keys on or before January 3rd. On Twitter, this promise is publicly indicated by adding the series of symbols to their username or profile: [Jan/3➞₿🔑∎] The date, arrow, Bitcoin unicode and key represent their intention to keep their keys. The block indicates that they have completed the verification process.
Casa’s KeyFest
Self-control of your keys can be a tricky proposition for the uninitiated – and even for some who have long held bitcoin. To help people take control of their private keys securely, Casa is hosting its first KeyFest, a three-day virtual conference from January 5-7.
Each day includes a new webinar, followed by a workshop to train users on different ways they can store their bitcoin. Speakers include Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, Balaji Srinivasan and co-founder of Avanti, Caitlin Long.