The toolkit, curated.
A short, opinionated list of what every bitcoiner should know how to use. These are mere suggestions, not official endorsements. Everything on this page is bitcoin-only.
── Learn ──
If you're starting, start here. If you think you already know, read the newsletter anyway.
- 01 → Learn Me a Bitcoin
Plain-English walkthroughs of what keys, addresses, and transactions actually are.
- 02 → Bitcoin Optech Newsletter
Weekly summary of Core, Lightning, and ecosystem development. The serious dev feed.
- 03 → Saylor Academy: Bitcoin for Everybody
Free 12-hour course. History, economics, technology, practice, certificate at the end.
- 04 → Bitcoin Design
Open-source design community. Wallet patterns, UX research, guidelines anyone can use.
── Buy without drama ──
Bitcoin-only on-ramps. Boring on purpose. No tokens, no launches, no staking.
- 01 → River
US bitcoin-only brokerage. No-fee recurring buys. Free Lightning withdrawals.
- 02 → Swan Bitcoin
US bitcoin-only brokerage with strong DCA tooling and a private-client desk for larger buyers.
- 03 → Strike mobilelightning
Bitcoin and Lightning. Fast on-ramp, instant Lightning sends, cross-border remittance.
- 04 → RoboSats no KYClightning
Peer-to-peer exchange over Tor and Lightning. Single-use avatars, held escrow.
- 05 → Peach Bitcoin no KYCmobile
Mobile-first peer-to-peer. Multi-sig escrow. Cash, bank transfer, online wallets.
── Keep your keys · software ──
Where you actually look at your coins. All non-custodial. All audit-friendly.
- 01 → Sparrow Wallet desktop
Desktop wallet with real coin control, PSBT support, and a built-in server switcher.
- 02 → Nunchuk desktopmobilemulti-sig
Single-sig, multi-sig, and collaborative custody with your own cosigners.
- 03 → Zeus mobilelightning
Runs an embedded LND node or connects to your own. Self-custodial Lightning on mobile.
- 04 → Phoenix mobilelightning
Self-custodial Lightning wallet for mobile. Splicing under the hood. One-tap receive.
- 05 → Breez mobilelightning
Self-custodial Lightning with a point-of-sale mode. Also an SDK for apps that want to embed LN.
── Keep your keys · hardware ──
Devices that sign transactions without ever putting your seed on an internet-connected computer.
- 01 → Coldcard air-gapped
Secure-element, bitcoin-only. The maxi standard from Coinkite.
- 02 → Foundation Passport air-gapped
Bitcoin-only, fully open-source hardware and firmware. Camera-based QR workflow.
- 03 → BitBox02 (Bitcoin-only edition)
Swiss-made. Dedicated bitcoin-only firmware that strips out every other chain.
- 04 → SeedSigner DIYair-gapped
Raspberry Pi Zero and a camera. Stateless, under $50 to build.
── Multi-sig and inheritance ──
When a single key is no longer the right security model. For larger balances, shared treasuries, and handing coins to the next generation.
- 01 → Unchained multi-sig
Collaborative multi-sig vaults. Bitcoin-only IRA, loans against bitcoin, inheritance planning.
- 02 → Casa multi-sig
2-of-3 and 3-of-5 multi-sig with hardware wallets. Dedicated inheritance product.
- 03 → Nunchuk (Collaborative) multi-sig
Build multi-sig quorums with a lawyer, a cosigner, a family member. No Nunchuk key in the quorum.
── Run a node ──
Validating the chain yourself is the entire point. None of these ask permission to run.
- 01 → Umbrel
Home server OS. Bitcoin Core, Lightning, BTCPay, and Nostr relays all one click away.
- 02 → Start9 (StartOS)
Alternative home-server OS with stronger sandboxing and a curated service marketplace.
- 03 → RaspiBolt DIY
From-scratch guide to a Raspberry Pi Bitcoin and Lightning node. Nothing hidden, all command-line.
── Lightning and merchants ──
The rails for accepting sats without a processor in the middle.
- 01 → BTCPay Server
Self-hosted payment processor. Invoicing, point-of-sale, Shopify and WooCommerce plugins.
- 02 → LNbits
Accounts layer on top of any Lightning node. Split a single node into hundreds of sub-wallets.
- 03 → Alby
Lightning Address, NWC, browser extension, Nostr zaps. The glue for most of the modern LN web.
- 04 → Lightning Address
Open spec for email-style Lightning payments. You can receive at yourname@yourdomain.
── Nostr ──
The publishing side of sovereignty. An identity you own, posts that survive the platform.
── Mining worth pointing at ──
Where the hashrate goes next matters as much as the hashrate itself.
── Read and listen ──
Signal sources, roughly in order from technical to philosophical.
- 01 → TFTC
Marty Bent. Daily notes, long interviews, no-nonsense bitcoin-only podcast.
- 02 → Citadel Dispatch
Matt Odell's roundtable. Core devs, privacy researchers, noisy live chat, no guest pitches.
- 03 → Stephan Livera Podcast
Long-running Austrian-economics-meets-bitcoin show. Deep guest list, careful arguments.
- 04 → Stacker News
Hacker-News-style bitcoin forum where every upvote is a sat. Real signal-to-noise.
── Find places that take it ──
Bitcoin is a currency when people treat it like one. These help.
── Funders of the code ──
Non-profits and investors paying the people who write Bitcoin. Worth knowing about, worth donating to, worth applying to if you're the one writing the code.
- 01 → OpenSats
Wave-based grants to open-source Bitcoin and Nostr projects. Currently on the sixteenth wave.
- 02 → Brink
Year-long grants to established Bitcoin Core contributors. The single largest funder of Core devs.
- 03 → Spiral
Block's bitcoin-only open-source team. Pays full-time engineers across LDK, Core, and privacy work.
- 04 → HRF Bitcoin Development Fund
Grants specifically for privacy, censorship-resistance, and tools that help dissidents.
- 05 → Ten31
Bitcoin-only investment platform. Backs infrastructure and freedom-tech companies, not token plays.