Monero Why You Should Hold Your Own Keys

#monero # crypto #cryptocurrency Why is holding your own keys important? It preserves the privacy that Monero affords users. One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of self-custody in Monero is that if you do not hold your own keys, you gain little to no benefit from the privacy Monero offers. As the sender of a transaction has full visibility into the true spend, amount, and recipient address, if you are not the one sending the transaction and instead leave that to an exchange or custodian, they have full visibility into the ways you spend your Monero. Thankfully, after they send the funds, Monero’s privacy guarantees kick in and provide strong “forward-secrecy”, but it will be clear to the exchange or custodian where you sent the funds and how much you sent initially. It enables the incredible censorship-resistance of Monero One of the foundational aspects of Monero is enabling censorship-resistant transactions – allowing you to make transactions that may or may not be approved of by “them”, no matter what they try to do to stop you. While the need for censorship-resistance may be a bit lost on those of us in “free” countries, the rapid slide toward authoritarianism and political decay in many parts of the world is making it more apparent by the day that we need a way to transact with or without governmental approval.