When Bitcoin exploded from the CPUs of the hard core techies on January 3rd 2009 (10 years ago), a new world opened up for us.

For the first time in history, technology allowed us to create and protect our assets that lie entirely outside the realm of governments and banks.

Before that, we were at their mercy.

The 2008 global financial crisis was a good example of all the malice that comes with fraud, manipulation and greed.

Secret deals made a very tiny fraction of those bad people very rich at the expense of ordinary taxpayers, like you and me.

When Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin a fraud, he failed to mention that his company, JP Morgan were bailed out with taxpayer money in the sum of $12 Billion in 2008.

JP Morgan is also fined for rigging and manipulating the market. They were charged with money-laundering and all kinds of high-profile violations.

But, as ever with the egotistical man, he said, “Hit me with a fine…. we can afford it!”

This is mass public fraud that deserves severe punishment.

But what does the law do? He escaped with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

There’s so much more beneath the surface. Dimon publicly called out Bitcoin a fraud, and yet a few weeks later, he gave the green light for his company to purchase Bitcoin.

JP Morgan isn’t the only evil corporation in town. Barclays too was fined for manipulating the price of gold for decades, sending “burst” of sell orders to trick retail investors into giving up their valuable assets.

You see the real issue with either gold or fiat currency is control.

Banks would be dead already without regulation. Regulation only serves to protect its masters. And you should know better who their masters are.

Nick Szabo, a polymath and pioneer in smart contracts said, “Financial institutions make people feel safe by hiding behind layers of complexity…”

Your bank and the government can easily seize, monopolize and manipulate your assets without having to even lift a finger.

Make No Mistake: Your Money Will Rot

Inflation is built into the economy as an additional way to tax productive labor very gradually so that we wouldn’t notice it or be alarmed.

Individuals aren’t the only victims. Weaker countries get bullied too. All the time.

Venezuela for example, tried to withdraw $1.2 Billion of their own gold out of the Bank of England.

They were denied this simple request by the bank.

If you don’t think uncensorable and unseizable money is going to become the standard one day, you’re incredibly myopic.

Bitcoin is about being your own bank, having sovereignty over your wealth and assets and at the same time not being at the mercy of evil politicians and their socialist policies.

Bitcoin is uncensorable and unseizable money only if you know how to store and secure them.

Here’s how…

Our List of Dedicated Bitcoin Wallets

Virtue has no authority. But can our mind really break free from authority?

There’s no authority of learning, no authority of knowledge and no authority of Bitcoin.

Extracting your personal information is easy with a credit card but we sacrifice that little convenience by giving away our privacy to an authority.

Why is privacy so important?

With these Bitcoin wallets, your privacy is assured.

If you truly believe Bitcoin is a currency worth owning, your first investment should not be in buying bitcoin, but in spending time learning how to buy, store and own bitcoins securely.

The knowledge of securing your own wealth in your own personal Swiss vault is the kind of knowledge that cannot be delegated or outsourced to someone else.

Bitcoin is liberation from our ignorance, from sorrow.

Top Bitcoin-only Wallets that Can Replace Your Credit Cards

A. Samourai Wallet

You can download the latest Samourai Wallet from the Play Store via Android.

My first impression upon downloading the app is its clean User Interface and the fact that its software is open source.

You will find tons of useful features and customization that only medium to expert users dream of having.

With a laser focus on privacy, the developers have made a sophisticated wallet that is still relatively unknown.

The Samourai Wallet is trying hard to navigate the Bitcoin world full of harmful surveillance by adding features like Ricochet, Stonewall, PayNym, intelligent alerts and more. Check them out here.

What this wallet does is offer you a proactive approach towards securing your Bitcoins as well as stopping common privacy pitfalls before it happens.

Recommendation: Use Samourai Wallet as a side-wallet for day-to-day small transactions.

B. Wasabi Wallet

Wasabi’s creator Ádám Ficsór calls Wasabi an “open-source, non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet.”

Ficsor humbly calls his creation “nothing-revolutionary”, but his software is incredibly lightweight and easy to use on your computer whether you’re using Windows, Linux or OSX.

While it is lightweight, it protects you from any information leak against a network adversary. Its mixing functionality is based on the Chaumian CoinJoin.

Anonymity loves company. As more users use Wasabi, the privacy improves. In a CoinJoin transaction, everyone receives each other’s coins, so this obfuscates the trail of every sender.

Wasabi is the kind of project built by real Bitcoin enthusiasts who value anonymity. It’s also the type of project that doesn’t get as much attention as a mainstream VC project that focuses on the money.

With that being said, Wasabi already made 8363 BTC fungible since August 1st, 2018 which amounts to over $27 million dollars.

C. BLW

The Bitcoin lightning wallet also acts as a fully operational Lightning node. It provides on-chain Bitcoin and off-chain Lightning Network transactions.

It has so far received well-over a hundred 5 star reviews on Google Play.

Using BLW, you can take advantage of the Lightning Network today, which include the benefit of near-instant sending and receiving of Bitcoin for fees that are infinitesimal. ($0.0000755141)

The BLW is completely standalone on your phone, meaning it doesn’t communicate with a centralized server located somewhere in the world like most software do.

Before you setup your BLW, you will be given a mnemonic passphrase which you must write down and store properly in case you lose your phone. The passphrase will be the only way for you to recover your funds.

BLW is receiving rave reviews, with users calling it simple, fast and lightweight, yet it has a great User Interface.

D. Electrum

Few can brag about being in the game as long as Electrum did. It is estimated that about 9% of all Bitcoin transactions occur on this wallet.

While it may not be suitable to use for beginners, this wallet comes with plenty of handy features as well as privacy. You can also integrate this wallet with more secure hardware wallets such as the Ledger or the Trezor.

Electrum comes with Windows, Mac and Linux compatibility as well as an android app.

You will be charged a default flat fee of 0.2 mBTC (0.0002 BTC) for sending any transactions in this wallet.

E. Green Address

Green Address was acquired by Blockstream, a company focused on providing Bitcoin-oriented solutions who also developed the Liquid Network.

This wallet uses a 2 of 2 signature address, meaning it is extremely difficult to steal your Bitcoins. Keeping two keys on separate computers would require the hacker to compromise both, which is extremely difficult.

This wallet uses per-transaction two factor authentication (2 FA), multi-signature and deterministic wallet which gives you unparalleled control.

You can safely check your Bitcoin balance on the go even if you’re at a public Wi-Fi or Starbucks using the “Watch-only” feature. This feature doesn’t allow full access to your wallet.

Downside: This wallet requires centralized validation to enhance security, at the cost of speed and trust. However, it remains a better and more secure choice of storing your Bitcoin than on exchanges like Coinbase.

F. Muun Wallet

By using Muun together with your Trezor hardware wallet, the developers of Muun claim that you can level up the security and usability of your bitcoins.

Muun allow you to watch and conduct frequent operations like transacting and checking balances from the comfort of your phone wirelessly.

You can “Deposit money to your Trezor directly from your Muun Account.” Doing so would limit the need to connect your hardware wallet to your computer just for that sake.

Hardware wallets are a well-known to be the industry standard to secure your bitcoins that you don’t intend to spend frequently.

Your private keys on a hardware wallet is stored offline, making your Bitcoin inaccessible by anyone aside from yourself. This is done to protect your assets for the long run.

However, in certain activities, such as firmware updates or making withdrawals, you need to still plug-in your Trezor. Each time your cold storage/hardware wallet connects to a computer, it becomes less cold. 

By pairing your Muun and Trezor, you can optimize the experience for both of your wallets and keep your cold storage colder.

G. Hodl Wallet

HODL Wallet is a SPV Bitcoin wallet dedicated for you to easily send, receive and store bitcoin. It’s free, open source and doesn’t need you to create or register an account with them.

SPV stands for Simplified Payment Verification, which connects your mobile wallet to the Bitcoin blockchain to ensure that your transactions are indeed valid.

H.  Blue Wallet

Blue Wallet is available on both Android and iOS which integrates the Lightning Network (LN) for lightning quick transactions and ridiculously cheap transaction fees.

If you don’t have the technical means of setting up your own lightning node, it’s safe to say that Blue wallet is the easiest and safest way for you to get involved.

Blue wallet allows you to:

1. Refill the LN wallet with an on-chain transaction without closing/opening a new one
2. Backup (export) the LN wallet with a QR code/URL
3. Use the same LN wallet across multiple devices

I.  Wallet of Satoshi

Wallet of Satoshi Aims to be the world’s simplest lightning wallet that’s available on the iOS and Android.

Currently it’s in Beta mode. Lightning is used to solve the issue of micro-payments for Bitcoin and so you will begin to see more and more of these wallets making headway.

Similar to Blue Wallet, it’s custodial, meaning that you don’t really own the keys to your Bitcoin. You will be relying on their LNHUB.

Conclusion: The Best Bitcoin-Only Wallet

Sometimes money belongs in different places: some is kept on hand, in a checking account, and savings in a savings account. Other times, you keep assets equivalent to Gold in Swiss vaults.

These Bitcoin-only wallets have the ability to organize and keep your bitcoins safe while improving their usability.

Try some of these wallets and get closer to being your own Bitcoin bank!

The greatest enemy to security is complexity.

This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. What we don’t understand in security could be fatal.

We all have domains in which we think we know, but don’t.

Our ignorance of what we don’t know makes us cocky, we take risks we don’t even understand, because we don’t have enough knowledge to evaluate the risks.

In security, this will cost you your Bitcoins. You don’t know the risks that you can’t evaluate.

So make sure you understand the pros and cons of each of these wallets before you start storing everything you own inside.

As always, hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano S remains your best bet to store Bitcoin for the long run.

Related articles:

• How I Chose My Bitcoin Wallet
• 3 Bitcoin Wallets That Are Iron-Clad, Unhackable and Time-Tested
• 10 Master Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Wallets That’ll Instantly Empower You