About the author

Why I built this.

Last updated · May 2026

Supply Mined
19.916 M/ 21 M BTC

Behind this site (and why it's pseudonymous)

I publish under a pen name. That's not because I have something to hide — it's because the entire point of Bitcoin is that you don't need to hand a stranger your government ID to verify a piece of information. You verify the information itself. So this site doesn't ask you to trust a real-name credential I could fake anyway. It asks you to verify the claims, the sources, and the math. Don't trust, verify. The name on the byline is the same on every page; the public track record is what I want you to weigh.

I became a Bitcoin self-custodian in 2017, which means I've lived through the ICO mania, multiple multi-year bear markets, the SegWit wars, Taproot activation, and a few too many catastrophic exchange collapses. Through all of it, the one thing that kept me grounded was the act of holding my own keys. Not on an exchange. Not on a custodian's server. In a hardware wallet I verified, on a seed phrase I generated offline.

I'm Bitcoin-only. Not because I haven't looked at altcoins — I have, carefully, repeatedly — but because after nearly a decade of studying monetary history, cryptography, and game theory, I believe Bitcoin is the only asset in this space that has genuinely solved the hard problems. I don't have an altcoin bag to shill. I don't have a VC backing this project. I pay for the server with ad revenue and a few honest affiliate relationships, which I disclose in full.

I hold my own keys. I run my own node. I've opened a handful of Lightning channels. I've helped friends set up their first hardware wallets. This isn't a persona — it's just what I do.

Why dont-trust-verify

The phrase "don't trust, verify" is Bitcoin's epistemic core. It's in Satoshi's original design: the whole point of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system is that you don't have to trust a bank, a government, or a company. You verify the chain yourself. That mantra is the lens through which I try to look at everything on this site — every tool, every guide, every review.

I built this because I was frustrated. The Bitcoin tools landscape is fragmented and often terrible. You want to decode a Lightning invoice? You're using some five-year-old GitHub repo with no HTTPS, or a fintech startup's marketing page that also asks you to KYC. You want to validate a BIP39 seed? Half the sites that do this are honeypots. You want a simple sats-to-fiat converter that doesn't track you? Good luck. I built the tools I wished existed, then wrapped them in the education I wished someone had given me in 2017.

The site is free and there are no paywalls. I fund it with Google AdSense — banner ads that serve generic content — and eventually with disclosed affiliate links to hardware wallets and Lightning services. If I recommend something, I'll tell you exactly why, and if I'm getting a commission I'll put that in bold at the top of the page. That's the deal.

What you'll find here

There are six sections:

What you will not find here: altcoin coverage, price predictions, "when to buy" advice, custodial wallet recommendations as a default, leverage trading tutorials, or affiliate slop disguised as editorial content.

A note on experience

I want to be specific, because specificity is what separates someone who's actually done this from someone who's just read about it.

The first time I sent sats over Lightning — early 2019 — the experience was rough. My channel was unbalanced, the route failed twice, and I ended up force-closing a channel because I didn't understand how liquidity worked yet. The fee I "saved" versus on-chain got eaten by the force-close transaction cost. Today, four years of protocol development later, I open channels on Phoenix with no manual liquidity management, route payments instantly to Europe and South America, and pay a sub-cent fee for a coffee-sized transaction. That arc — from "this is impossible" to "this is instant and almost free" — is the actual story of Lightning, and it's the story I'm trying to tell in the guides.

I've set up Ledger Nano devices, Trezor Model T, and Coldcard Mk4. I've lost access to a testnet wallet because I stored the seed in a place I forgot, which was a cheap lesson I'm glad I paid on testnet rather than mainnet. I've done multisig with Specter Desktop. I've verified firmware hashes. I've read the OP_RETURN of a transaction I was curious about. This isn't a resume — it's context for why I think I have something worth saying.

How I make money

Transparently. There are two revenue streams:

  1. Google AdSense — standard banner ads. Google serves ads based on your browsing history and the page content. I have no control over which specific ads appear. I collect the ad revenue; Google takes their cut. This is how the site stays free with no paywalls.
  2. Affiliate commissions — when I link to products I recommend (currently planned: Ledger, Trezor, Strike, Swan Bitcoin, Bitrefill), those links may earn me a commission if you buy through them. Every affiliate link on this site is labeled with "affiliate link" or "sponsored link" in the surrounding text. The commission never influences the review — if I think a product is bad, I say so, even if they offered me a partnership.

That's it. No token sales. No premium memberships. No "exclusive signals" for paying subscribers. I don't take sponsored posts or paid placements disguised as editorial. If a company offered me money to write a positive review, I would decline and probably write about why they offered.

Editorial integrity

Every factual claim on this site has a primary source linked inline. Bitcoin claims cite the whitepaper, the BIPs, or Bitcoin Core's GitHub. Fee estimates cite mempool.space methodology. Historical data cites its origin. If I can't find a primary source, the claim doesn't go on the page.

Tool methodology is open: the calculation logic is visible in the page source. You can read it. If you find an error, please tell me — use the contact form below. I've corrected mistakes before and will again.

Opinions are labeled as opinions. "I think multisig is overkill for most people with under 1 BTC" is a judgment call I hold, and I'll tell you it's a judgment call. I won't dress up an opinion as a fact.

Get in touch

If you spot an error, have a question, or want to suggest a tool or topic, the best way to reach me is through the contact page. I respond within 48 hours on most weeks, longer when life is busy. I also read feedback about what tools are missing — if there's a Bitcoin calculation you do manually every week and wish were automated, tell me. That's basically how half the existing tools got built.

Verify the pen name

Pseudonymity isn't anonymity — it's a stable, public identity that you can audit. Below are the same handle on every platform I'm active on, cross-linked with rel="me" so the open web (and Google) can verify they all belong to the same author. If a claim on this site looks wrong, point it out from any of those handles and I'll either correct it or defend it in public.

Editorial standards & financial disclaimer

This site is educational. It is not financial advice. Bitcoin is volatile and the historical price chart is not a future return. Anything I write about Bitcoin's properties, history, and mechanics is research and opinion — not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or do anything else with money. Make your own decisions, do your own research, and if you need investment advice, talk to a qualified advisor in your jurisdiction.

I do not run a fund, a trading group, an exchange, or a paid signal service. I have never received compensation in exchange for a positive review and never will. When affiliate relationships exist (e.g. with hardware-wallet vendors), they are disclosed at the top of the page where the link appears. The presence of an affiliate link does not influence the editorial content — if I think a product is bad I will say so, even if there is a partnership offer on the table.