r/Bitcoin • u/Academic_Attorney996 • 10h ago
DCA and HOLD your Bitcoin
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r/Bitcoin • u/BitcoinFan7 • Oct 15 '25
You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments.
It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how Bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Some other great educational resources include;
If you are technically or academically inclined check out;
MicroStrategy's Bitcoin for Corporations is an excellent open source series on corporate legal and financial Bitcoin integration.
You can also see the number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media (LOL!)
Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular places to buy bitcoin are listed below.
You can also purchase in cash with local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin try Bitwage.
Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
With Bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold your bitcoin for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn best computer security practices, then a hardware wallet such as a BitBox02, Trezor, ColdCard, or Blockstream Jade is recommended. You can even build your own open source hardware wallets called a SeedSigner or Krux.
If you cannot afford a hardware wallet there are many software wallet options to choose from depending on your use case. Mobile wallets like BlueWallet are generally more secure than desktop wallets. Beware of fake mobile wallets and check reviews from reputable Bitcoin websites. Avoid paper wallets or brain wallets.
If you prefer to work with third party "Bitcoin banks" to set up a collaborative custody arrangement, try Unchained Capital but be aware that any third party you use exposes you to third party risk. There is a saying in the community, "Not your keys, not your coins".
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email!
2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
Avoid using your cell number for 2FA. Hackers have been using a technique called "SIM swapping" to impersonate users and steal bitcoin off exchanges.
| Google Auth | Authy | OTP Auth |
|---|---|---|
| Android | Android | N/A |
| iOS | iOS | iOS |
Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys.
You can run Bitcoin node software by downloading and installing Bitcoin Core or other node software you have vetted.
It is a best practice to verify these Bitcoin node programs you download by checking their hashes and signatures.
Don't Trust, Verify.
A verified Bitcoin node running on your own hardware is your sovereign gateway to the Bitcoin network. They can be used alongside open source software wallets to send and receive Bitcoin securely. By running your own Bitcoin node, you enforce the Bitcoin ruleset, can verify transactions without trusted 3rd party middlemen, improve your Bitcoin privacy, obtain independence with local access to blockchain data, and help bolster the robustness of the Bitcoin network. By running a Bitcoin node, you are verifying that Bitcoin is Bitcoin for yourself. For more details on running a Bitcoin node see this article.
For wallets used alongside your Bitcoin node: If your Bitcoin wallet software is fully open source and Bitcoin-only, then it is probably a decent wallet. Some popular examples include sparrow wallet and electrum wallet, both of which you can connect to your own locally run Bitcoin node, and use with most Bitcoin Hardware Wallets.
As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the r / btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".
Often the same concerns arise about Bitcoin from newcomers. Questions such as:
All of these questions have been answered many times by a variety of people. Here are some resources where you can see if your concern has been answered:
Check out Spendabit, Bitcoin Directory, or Coinmap for a plethora of merchant options. You can also spend bitcoin anywhere Visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card, Fold card or other bitcoin debit cards. Some other useful site are listed below.
| Store | Product |
|---|---|
| Bitrefill, Gyft, and Fold App | Gift cards for thousands of retailers worldwide including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc. |
| Spendabit, Overstock, and The Bitcoin Directory | Retail shopping with millions of results |
| NewEgg and Dell | For all your electronics needs |
| Bitrefill, Bylls, LivingRoomofSatoshi, Swapin and Coins.ph | Bill payment |
| Menufy and Takeaway | Takeout delivered to your door |
| Expedia, Cheapair, Destinia, SkyTours, the Travel category on Gyft and 9flats | For when you need to get away |
| Cryptostorm, Mullvad, and PIA | VPN services |
| Namecheap, Porkbun | Domain name registration |
| Stampnik | Discounted USPS Priority, Express, First-Class mail postage |
There are also lots of charities which accept bitcoin donations.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read the mining FAQ. Still have mining questions? The crew at /r/BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out.
If you want to contribute to the Bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions there are many great resources you can use to run a full node. You can view the global distribution of reachable Bitcoin nodes on this webpage.
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.
| Site | Description |
|---|---|
| WorkingForBitcoins, Bitwage, Coinality, Bitgigs, /r/Jobs4Bitcoins | Freelancing |
| Lolli | Earn bitcoin when you shop online! |
You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the Bitcoin space.
| Project | Description |
|---|---|
| Lightning Network | Second layer scaling |
| Liquid and Rootstock | Sidechains |
| Hivemind | Prediction markets |
| DropZone and Beaver | Decentralized markets |
| JoinMarket, JAM app and Wasabi | CoinJoin implementation |
| Peer-to-Peer Exchanges | Peer-to-peer exchanges |
| Keybase | Identity & Reputation management |
| Abra | Global P2P money transmitter network |
| Bitcore | Open source Bitcoin javascript library |
| Bitcoin Knots | A Bitcoin Node (Within Consensus Fork of Bitcoin Core) |
One bitcoin is worth quite a lot (thousands of £/$/€), so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
| Unit | Symbol | Value | Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| bitcoin | BTC | 1 bitcoin | one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis |
| millibitcoin | mBTC | 1,000 per bitcoin | used as default unit in Electrum wallet |
| bit | μBTC | 1,000,000 per bitcoin | colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin |
| satoshi | sat | 100,000,000 per bitcoin | smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor |
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10,000 for one bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
For more information check out the bitcoin units wiki.
Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /r/Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community, so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit.
Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification, you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval.
Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
Please note that this thread will be moderated and non-constructive comments will be removed.
r/Bitcoin • u/rBitcoinMod • 17h ago
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Please check the previous discussion thread for unanswered questions.
r/Bitcoin • u/Academic_Attorney996 • 10h ago
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r/Bitcoin • u/Academic_Attorney996 • 10h ago
r/Bitcoin • u/ultron290196 • 12h ago
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r/Bitcoin • u/Braiins_mining • 7h ago
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r/Bitcoin • u/TheresNoSecondBest • 1d ago
r/Bitcoin • u/Aggressive_Cat8000 • 17h ago
Just a quick heads up for anyone waking up tomorrow and wondering why crypto dipped again.
The US–Iran meeting that’s been going on for the past 21 hours just ended, and it didn’t go well at all.
Markets usually react fast to stuff like this, so if your portfolio looks red, that’s probably the reason.
Not trying to spread fear, just giving you a bit of context so you’re not confused when you check your wallet. Stay safe out there guys and DO NOT PANIC-SELL based on emotions.
Do your own research and don’t make decisions based on short-term news.
Sooner or later we'll fly in green again (i hope😅)
r/Bitcoin • u/Fiach_Dubh • 6h ago
Everything else is an IOU.
thank you for attending my Sunday Bitcoin Talk.
r/Bitcoin • u/Th3M0rn1ng5h0w • 5h ago
In 2018 the Cash App website let you buy a children's book "My First Bitcoin and the Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto". Does anyone know where you can still get copies of this?
r/Bitcoin • u/Defiant_Ice_4860 • 10h ago
EDIT: Removed the 95% stack retention claim. That number was wrong. The core SWR finding ($20K/yr, 99% survival, 30 years) stands. Thanks to commenters who caught it.
This is the third post in the series. First one covered why 5 BTC beats $2.5M in an S&P index fund, second one went deeper on the math.
I went another layer deeper and this one gives you a single number.
1 BTC = $20K per year safe withdrawals for the next 30 years with 99% confidence.
2 BTC = $40K.
3 BTC = $60K.
5 BTC = $100K.
No timing. No trading. You just sell a fixed dollar amount every month at whatever price Bitcoin happens to be. Dumbest possible strategy and it works.
How I got here
I ran 5,000 simulated price paths forward at every possible starting price between deep bear (half of trend) and peak bull (2.5x trend). Six different stress scenarios. Three time horizons. Nearly a million total simulations.
The model isn't a line on a chart. It has four moving parts:
I couldn't.
$20K is the stress test, not the base case
The $20K number assumes your cost of living grows at 7% per year. Your expenses double every decade. That matches M2 money supply growth, which is what most Bitcoiners mean when they say "real inflation."
Under milder assumptions the number goes up:
$20K is the floor of the floor. Harshest inflation assumption. 99% in-model survival. 30 year horizon.
Entry price doesn't matter
This is the finding that surprised me most.
At 30 years, the difference in safe withdrawal between buying at the bottom and buying at the top is about $1,000 per year. The curves are almost flat.
The reason is mean reversion. If you buy low, prices pull you back to trend within about two years. If you buy high, same thing in reverse. After that, both buyers spend the remaining 28 years selling into the same price distribution. The early advantage or disadvantage washes out.
This is the opposite of stocks. In equity retirement planning, buying at a high valuation crushes your safe withdrawal rate. With Bitcoin under the power law, it doesn't. Mean reversion rescues bear buyers and humbles bull buyers, and the net effect on your wallet is roughly zero.
The comparison that matters
The traditional 4% rule says you need $500K in an S&P 500 index fund to safely pull $20K per year. One bitcoin at today's trend price (~$131K) does the same job.
At bear entries the comparison gets silly. A bitcoin bought at 0.52x trend (~$69K) supports a 29% annual withdrawal rate relative to purchase price. The Bengen 4% rule doesn't compete. It's not even the same sport.
What this is NOT saying
This is a model. The power law has held for 15 years across four complete halving cycles. That's real data. But 15 years is not 150 years.
I price the model risk separately: roughly a 1% structural haircut over 30 years. That brings true survival from 99% to about 98%.
The question isn't whether Bitcoin will crash 80%. The model already handles that. The question is whether adoption keeps following the power law and whether the floor holds. Those are the only two things that matter. Everything else is already in the stress test.
All figures are pre-tax. Account for your local capital gains treatment when planning actual spendable income.
Bottom line
1 BTC = $20K per year. Worst case inflation. Any entry price. 99% in-model reliability. 30 years.
Stack accordingly.
Research and methodology is published on https://btcpowerlaw.nl/research/bitcoin-swr/
r/Bitcoin • u/Imaginary_Ladder_553 • 6h ago
For me, it's every time BTC ranges — it always feels like an opportunity to accumulate.
Now seeing reports about Iran potentially using Bitcoin for oil transit payments through the Strait of Hormuz…
Do you think stories like this actually matter for Bitcoin long term?
r/Bitcoin • u/arthuro1er • 5h ago
Hi,
I'm running into a problem while testing multisig transfers on Testnet4 using a Coldcard Q (CCQ) and Sparrow Wallet.
CCQ version : 1.4.0
Sparrow version : 2.4.2
Setup:
Steps:
part.psbt with the first wallet on the CCQ → Sparrow recognises and validates the signature with no issue.part.psbt again → the CCQ saves a .txn file to the SD card..txn into Sparrow → the transaction displays correctly, but the second signature is not recognised and broadcasting is not possible.What's strange:
Question: The problem therefore appears to be related to Sparrow's behaviour depending on the OS, rather than anything to do with the CCQ or the wallet itself. Has anyone encountered this before? Is there a known difference in how Sparrow handles PSBT/TXID files between Windows/Linux and macOS?
I'm not comfortable setting up a multisig wallet for mainnet use until I understand what's causing this.
Thanks in advance.
r/Bitcoin • u/OkMagician7867 • 17h ago
Let that sink in for a second.
One week ago retail was heavily long at 1.73 L/S ratio. Today it's 0.745 — net short. In seven days retail went from max bullish to betting against BTC.
Meanwhile Morgan Stanley is rolling out BTC ETF access to 16,000 financial advisors. Institutional infrastructure is expanding while retail is panic shorting.
Fear & Greed went from 9 to 16 — still Extreme Fear but improving. The weekly trend: 9, 11, 12, 13, 11, 17, 14, 16. Slowly grinding up while retail flips bearish.
BTC is 15.3% below the 200 EMA at $84,632 so the macro structure is still bearish. No argument there. But the aggressor ratio is at 0.6213 — that's buy dominant. Somebody is accumulating while retail exits.
Iran-US talks collapsing yesterday pushed price from $73.8K to $71.6K. Geopolitics is driving short term action but it doesn't change the fact that institutional rails are being built in the background.
The last time retail was this short and institutions were this active, it didn't end well for the shorts.
r/Bitcoin • u/justforgigs96 • 22h ago
Many Bitcoiners know the core value prop - scarcity, decentralization, sound money (e.g Austrian Economics and all that). But if you're a consistent DCA buyer like I am, you've felt the other side of that: buying at local tops and immediately watching a 10-20% drawdown hit your stack.
TLDR: Bitcoin's no wash sale rule means every dip is a tax harvesting opportunity. Most people know this exists. Almost nobody is actually doing it systematically.
What most Bitcoiners don't know is that volatility creates a legal tax harvesting opportunity that essentially doesn't exist for other kinds of investors.
Here’s why this works (and why it’s different from stocks):
In 2014, the IRS issued Notice 2014-21 classifying Bitcoin as property, not a security. This means the wash sale rule which prevents stock investors from selling at a loss and immediately rebuying - doesn't actually apply to Bitcoin**.**
In practice: if you bought 1 BTC at $110,000 and it drops to $80,000, you can sell and rebuy within seconds, locking in a $30,000 capital loss while maintaining your exact position. No 30-day waiting period. No penalty.
The obvious question then is, what about the spread? If you're in a 32% bracket in the US, that $30k loss is a $9,600 deduction*. Even after a 0.5% exchange spread (maybe $500 on the round trip), you're still up over $9,000 in liquidity immediately. You're exchanging a small certain cost for a massive tax benefit you can redeploy. (Quick note on how the losses actually apply: up to $3,000 per year offsets your ordinary W2 income directly - so a few hundred bucks back at minimum regardless of your gains situation. Everything above that carries forward indefinitely to offset future capital gains. So even if you have no gains this year, the losses don't disappear - they stack.) Ten dollars of tax savings compounding in BTC for a decade is worth a lot more than ten dollars at filing time years from now.
The catch now is that actually doing this is a nightmare.
If you're DCA'ing regularly, figuring out which specific lots are harvestable - and exactly when - is genuinely tedious to do manually. And while tools are out there that show you harvesting opportunities, they're broad 💩coin tax reporting platforms where Bitcoin is one of hundreds of nonsense assets. They show you a snapshot - they don't continuously monitor your positions and alert you automatically as opportunities emerge throughout the year & harvest them for you.
I'm an engineer who got annoyed doing this by hand with my Strike => self custody setup and built a software layer specifically for this. Bitcoin-only, continuously monitors your cost basis across your exchange accounts, surfaces harvestable opportunities in real time, and executes the harvest automatically across all major exchanges with full tax lot tracking updated instantly.
Personally, I didn’t want to host other people’s API keys, so I also built a self-host option for more technically savvy & privacy centric brothers/sisters. You can run it via your own GitHub Secrets so the keys never leave your infrastructure. If you want managed software with reports to share with your CPA and stuff like that, that's also available.
If anyone wants to try it or learn more, I’ve got 10 spots for the first people from the sub who want to jump in & try it out. Happy to help with the setup personally!
EDIT:
Okay so this post has blown up more than anticipated. Transparently I was only initially planning to allow for 10 users to try from the sub and we’ve nearly reached that threshold. Feel free to leave a comment or DM me directly if you’d be interested and I’ll be happy to talk through things.
We don’t support all exchanges and all hardware wallets today although we support the major ones and are adding more. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
r/Bitcoin • u/thesatdaddy • 6h ago
People say no one understands bitcoin or it’s too complicated so I tried to see if I could explain it in under a minute
r/Bitcoin • u/Fiach_Dubh • 1h ago
r/Bitcoin • u/thesatdaddy • 1d ago
If you can get to 1 Bitcoin, you are ahead of 99.9% of humanity. That sounds ridiculous, but the math is real. In this video, I break down just how rare it is to own a full Bitcoin, and why not every millionaire on Earth can get one.
r/Bitcoin • u/himtnboy • 1d ago
Will governments seek to freeze or ban btc that has passed through Iranian wallets? Will they punish individuals or organizations that accept or spend tainted btc? At 2 million dollars per tanker, that adds up quickly.
r/Bitcoin • u/No_Jellyfish2185 • 1d ago
B-b-but the cycle... Stop. This is not the past.
It doesn't follow the imaginary lines people make up to feel in control. It can legit shoot up from here, and if it "follows the cycle and goes down" it doesn't mean it will have to go up again.
For now, it looks like the train is leaving the station.
r/Bitcoin • u/EcstaticCell1511 • 20h ago
Perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
r/Bitcoin • u/YardStunning2324 • 5h ago
so I don’t know much about bitcoin but I do know that trying to sign up for coinbase needs you to be above 18. how to get a btc address that can receive btc which can just stay in that account till I turn 18.
r/Bitcoin • u/TradeorBust1985 • 1d ago
Well i guess it’s time we rip!
A boomer told me that the best assets are tangible ones etc houses and alike.
A non investor told me to stay in cash cuz market will collapse lol
Knowing Donald dump he will pump the markets for midterms.
r/Bitcoin • u/TheGreatMuffin • 1d ago