Finney Vol. 1 - Immutable Journey - Flipbook - Page 72
“Nice to meet you, OG,” said Finney.
“I’m Finney. I see you have a Bitcoin
ATM inside?”
he said. “You know about custody? If
you don’t, that’s the first thing you need
to understand.”
“Sure do,” said OG. “You mess around
with Bitcoin?”
“Custody?” asked Finney. “That’s like
ownership, right?”
“I’m on a mission to learn about
cr yptocurrency and bloc kc hain
technology,” replied Finney.
“They’re related, but not exactly the
same,” said OG. “Custody is all about
possession, and possession is ownership.”
“Is that so?” said OG, tossing his finished
cigarette into an ash bucket and heading
inside. “How’s that going so far?”
“I know about private keys,” said Finney.
“Is custody like that?”
“It’s not going very well,” said Finney,
following OG inside. “I met a man who
stole from me and several others who
seemed to have good information, but
only little bits. I can’t really put it all
together yet.”
“Maybe I can help,” said OG, sliding
behind the counter while Finney became
distracted by the Bitcoin ATM in the corner.
“There was a time when I was the only
person I knew who knew about Bitcoin.
I was mining back when there was just
one Bitcoin wallet. It had to download
the whole blockchain to get started and
came with a ‘Generate Coins’ option for
mining. You believe that?”
“Really?” asked Finney, amazed. “Are
you still a miner?”
“Nah,” said OG. “These days, I mess
around with staking rewards, DeFi, yield
farming, stuff like that. But I’m semiretired. There’s something about dusty
old treasures that I like, so I run this
shop.”
“You got it,” said OG. “Not your keys,
not your crypto.”
“Not my keys, not my crypto,” repeated
Finney.
“The reason that’s important is that there
are all sorts of wallets and exchanges
out there that offer to hold your crypto
for you,” explained OG. “Now, that can
be convenient in some circumstances.
But if they’re holding the keys, it’s their
crypto, not yours.”
“That makes sense,” said Finney.
“And remember,” continued OG. “A
private key isn’t like a password that
can be recovered by a company if you
lose it. If it’s lost, it’s lost forever. Some
people have a hard time with that. But it
means that what’s yours is yours. No one
but you is responsible for securing your
private keys and maintaining custody of
your crypto.”
“You sound like a real expert,” said
Finney. “I want to know everything there
is to know about crypto.”
“Not my keys, not my crypto,” said
Finney again, adding new weight to the
words. “If my money’s in a bank, it’s the
bank’s money until they give it to me. But
if my money’s in crypto and I have the
keys, it’s really my money.”
OG chuckled. “Dig that enthusiasm, kid,”
“Now you’re getting it,” said OG, pleased
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FINNEY VOLUME ONE - IMMUTABLE JOURNEY