It’s almost 1am and I’m scrolling socials, and I keep seeing the same posts over and over.
“I don’t use pools.”
“I’m fully sovereign.”
“I run my own node.”
Cool. Then I read a little further and realize they bought a preconfigured setup from someone else. Umbrel. Start9. Plug it in, follow a wizard, done. That’s… sovereignty?
I get the appeal. Truly. Those projects lower the barrier to entry and that’s not a bad thing. But let’s not confuse convenience with understanding. If you can’t install and configure Bitcoin Core yourself on your own Linux box, how are you supposed to actually understand what it’s doing? Or how it’s configured. Or whether it’s running the way you want it to run.
You’re not sovereign. You’re just responsible for infrastructure you don’t really understand.
That’s exactly why tried and trusted solo pools exist. They let you participate without pretending you’re operating some bespoke, deeply understood stack when you’re not. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s weird is cosplaying as ultra-sovereign while outsourcing the hard parts to a prebuilt appliance.
Here’s the analogy I keep coming back to. If you were running a business, would you trust Google Workspace for email, or would you buy a random Linux box off eBay and run your own SMTP server because “sovereignty”?
One option is boring, proven, and well understood.
The other is fragile infrastructure you’re suddenly responsible for, whether you like it or not.
If you want to run your own node, awesome. Learn it. Build it. Break it. Fix it. That’s real sovereignty.
If you don’t want to do that, also fine. Just be honest about what you’re actually running, and why.
End rant. Back to doomscrolling.
Posted: 2026-01-27