It’s Genesis Block Day. Do you know where your Bitcoin keys are located?

Today is Bitcoin Day, the anniversary of the Genesis Block that marked the start of the Bitcoin blockchain in 2009. This year, with the price of bitcoin firing to the moon, Bitcoiners have more reason to celebrate – and more reasons to assert sovereignty over their private keys.

An annual event initiated by Trace Mayer, Proof of Keys is an informal celebration that aims to remind bitcoiners that monetary sovereignty is a fundamental part of Bitcoin’s ethos. It is at the very heart of Bitcoiner’s familiar mantra, “not your keys, not your coin”. In other words, if you don’t control the private keys to your bitcoin, you don’t really own the coin.

The saying goes that Bitcoin was designed to give users full 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 during an exchange hack).

“Anyone who doesn’t want you to hold your own private keys – they’re your monetary enemy. They don’t want you to be free and independent with your money, ”Mayer said ahead of the 2019 inaugural event.“ It’s like that. ”

The implications of being dependent on others to process, trade, and hold your cryptocurrencies are not unimportant. They have serious consequences and compromises on your privacy and will limit the way you interact with your own money.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) collects a wealth of personal information about millions of people’s financial transactions, all provided by financial institutions, even when those people have not committed any crime.

This year, taking care of your keys by transferring them to a personal wallet takes on added importance. FinCEN has proposed a plan that will force exchanges to comply with new knowledge-of-your-customer (KYC) requirements when users try to transfer their funds to a personal wallet. Such a requirement, applicable to any transferred amount worth more than $ 3,000, threatens to undermine the early promise of confidentiality and self-sovereignty of cryptocurrencies. (Note: FinCEN is only accepting public comments on this issue until January 4, 2021).

Add to that the recent delisting of privacy coins by many exchanges, the aforementioned exchange hacks showing no signs of stopping, and other snafus such as absent exchange key holders inadvertently freezing transactions: Taking control of your own private keys and becoming the first and last line of control when it comes to your crypto is even more imperative.

The easiest way to exercise your monetary sovereignty is to keep your private keys in your own non-custodial Bitcoin wallet. This means withdrawing any bitcoin you own from exchanges and custodial wallets and transferring the keys to a wallet you control.

Proof of Keys takes the notion of self-sovereignty even further by adding the adage “Not your knot; not your rules. The point here is that it is just as important to remove your keys from a bitcoin node that you are using. This way, you can do your own validation yourself, without having to trust other people’s nodes to prove that your keys are yours.

Proof of keys participants generally agree to take possession of any private key no later than January 3. On Twitter, this commitment is publicly indicated by adding series of symbols to their username or profile: [Jan/3➞₿🔑∎] The date, arrow, unicode bitcoin and key represent their intention to keep their keys. The block signals that they have completed the verification process.

Self-custody of your keys can be a tricky proposition for the uninitiated – and even for some who have held bitcoin for a long time. 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 will include a new webinar, followed by a workshop to educate users on the different ways they can store their bitcoin. Speakers include Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, Balaji Srinivasan and Avanti Co-Founder Caitlin Long, among others.