Self-Custody Masterclass

About this course

The Beginner course teaches you what a wallet is. The Security Bootcamp teaches you how to keep it safe day-to-day. This course is about the rest — the cryptography and operational discipline that decides whether you actually keep self-custodied funds across years, hardware failures, jurisdiction changes, and your own death. Eight lessons of about 22 minutes each move you through the custody decision itself, BIP-39 entropy and seeds, BIP-32 derivation paths, passphrases done properly, backup architectures, individual multisig, inheritance planning that survives probate, and the supply-chain and physical attacks that scale with on-chain wealth. There is no financial advice anywhere in this course, no preferred wallet brand, and no affiliate link. Just the operational practice that separates people who self-custody well from people who lose everything.

What you'll be able to do

• Decide whether self-custody is the right choice for your situation rather than ideology.
• Generate, validate, and verify a BIP-39 seed with enough entropy to be unbreakable by brute force.
• Use BIP-32 derivation paths correctly and recognise the wrong-wallet-wrong-path trap on restore.
• Set up a BIP-39 passphrase with realistic expectations of what plausible deniability does and doesn't buy.
• Choose a backup architecture (paper, metal, SLIP-39, multisig) matched to your holdings and threat model.
• Operate a 2-of-3 multisig wallet for individuals — including descriptor backup, which is as critical as the seeds.
• Build an inheritance plan that survives probate without disclosing keys in public legal filings.
• Size operational paranoia to actual holdings — supply-chain and wrench-attack reality without theatre.

Lessons

1. 1

   Lesson 1 — The custody decision: when self-custody is right and when it isn't

   ~20 min

   'Not your keys, not your coins' is true, but it doesn't mean self-custody is right for everyone in every situation. Today: the four real choices and how to decide.

2. 2

   Lesson 2 — Entropy and seeds: where your keys really come from

   ~22 min

   A seed phrase isn't magic — it's a human-readable encoding of randomness. Today: where the randomness comes from, why 24 words is the practical ceiling, and why brain wallets keep getting drained.

3. 3

   Lesson 3 — HD wallets and derivation paths

   ~22 min

   One seed, infinite keys. How BIP-32 hierarchical deterministic wallets work, why the same seed in two different wallets can show different balances, and how to avoid the 'wrong path' trap on restore.

4. 4

   Lesson 4 — Passphrases: the 25th word done right

   ~22 min

   A BIP-39 passphrase isn't a password — it's an extra ingredient that creates an entirely different wallet. Today: what it does cryptographically, what plausible deniability really gets you, and the fatal mistake.

5. 5

   Lesson 5 — Backup architectures: paper, metal, SLIP-39, and the redundancy/disclosure trade-off

   ~22 min

   How seeds actually die: fire, flood, time, theft, accidental disclosure. Today: the realistic backup options, what 'metal-fire-flood' actually means, and where SLIP-39 fits.

6. 6

   Lesson 6 — Multisig for individuals

   ~22 min

   Multisig is two-or-more keys required to move funds. Today: the canonical 2-of-3 layout for individuals, why the wallet descriptor is as critical as the seeds, and when multisig is overkill.

7. 7

   Lesson 7 — Inheritance and incapacity planning

   ~22 min

   Self-custody that doesn't survive your death isn't self-custody — it's a delayed loss. Today: how to make keys reachable by the right people without disclosing them publicly.

8. 8

   Lesson 8 — Supply-chain attacks, wrench attacks, and operational paranoia that scales

   ~22 min

   Most readers will never face a supply-chain or physical attack. The skill is sizing defence to the threat, not the imagination. Today: what to actually do, and what to stop worrying about.

Final quiz

When you've worked through every lesson, pass the final quiz to mark the course complete. You can retry any number of times.