If you keep your Bitcoin on an exchange, you don't actually own it. The exchange does. They hold your private keys, and if they get hacked, go bankrupt, or freeze your account — your Bitcoin is gone.
This isn't a theoretical risk. It's happened before. FTX. Mt. Gox. Celsius. Billions of dollars in customer funds, lost.
What is Self-Custody?
Self-custody means you hold your own private keys. No middleman. No exchange. No bank. Just you and your Bitcoin.
When you use a self-custody wallet like Stacks, your private keys are generated and stored on your device. They never touch our servers. We couldn't access your funds even if we wanted to.
The Trade-Off
The traditional argument against self-custody has been complexity. Managing seed phrases, understanding transaction fees, navigating clunky interfaces — it wasn't for everyone.
That's exactly what we're solving at Stacks. We believe self-custody should be as simple as using a banking app, without sacrificing security or control.
How Stacks Makes It Simple
- Guided Setup — Create your wallet in under two minutes with step-by-step onboarding
- Recovery Phrase Backup — We walk you through securing your 12-word recovery phrase
- Biometric Authentication — Use Face ID or fingerprint to access your wallet
- Clean Interface — No unnecessary complexity. Send, receive, and track your Bitcoin with ease
The Bottom Line
Your Bitcoin is only as safe as how it's stored. Exchanges are convenient, but they come with counterparty risk. Self-custody eliminates that risk entirely.
With Stacks, you get the security of self-custody with the simplicity you expect from a modern app.
Your keys. Your Bitcoin. It's that simple.