Your Bitcoin wallet is lying to you.
Most Bitcoin wallets connect to third-party servers by default - not your own node. This creates a subtle but important limitation many users don't realize:
- Your wallet shows an estimate of your balance based on external servers
- You're trusting others to validate transactions for you
- Your transaction patterns are visible to service providers
- You have limited control over transaction broadcasting
What changes with your own node:
- You verify transactions against Bitcoin's consensus rules yourself
- Your wallet shows your actual confirmed balance (no guessing)
- You control exactly how transactions enter the network
- Service providers can't see your wallet activity patterns
This isn't about "right" or "wrong" - it's about understanding what you're verifying. For casual use, third-party servers work fine. But if you care about true self-custody, running your own node completes the picture.
Without your node: "I think this transaction is valid"
With your node: "I know this transaction is valid"
@Start9 makes this easy by providing a user-friendly interface that handles complex setup while maintaining security - no command line skills needed. This tutorial on @Plan ₿ Network academy focuses specifically on the security and privacy steps that actually matter for genuine sovereignty.
Link to tutorial: planb.academy/en/tutorials/node/bitcoin/start9-8c8b6827-8423-4929-bcba-89057670ed6a
