Didi Taihuttu, his wife and kids spoke about their geographically distributed bitcoin in cold storage today in an interview with CNBC. The famous “Bitcoin Family” sold their house, and liquidated their assets in 2017 to buy more Bitcoin to live off of.
The Dutch family’s cold storage hardware wallets are stored around the world in secret vaults.
Didi explained, “I have hidden the hardware wallets across several countries so that I never have to fly very far if I need to access my cold wallet, in order to jump out of the market.”
Taihuttu did reveal that the hardware wallets were distributed across four continents, with two in Europe, two in Asia, one in Australia, and one in South America. His goal is to hold bitcoin in cold storage on every continent.
Didi also told CNBC that none of the hardware wallets are underground or on a remote island, rather they are all hidden in places such as rental apartments, self-storage sites, and friends’ homes.
Didi went on to explain that 26% of his Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency was kept in hot wallets, and that with this money he day trades and gambles on altcoins. However, the rest of his bitcoin is in cold storage.
Bitcoiners emphasize the importance of, and often encourage people to take possession of their coins and to use cold storage self custody solutions, because, like Didi, they tend to find banks and other custodial services “just too risky.”
However, the family did report to be fans of third party custodians who use multisig setups for inheritance planning.
“They have beautiful setups for inheritance,” Didi told CNBC. “When you die, these companies handle that, as well, and I really believe they are doing a great job.”
This interview was released coincidentally on the same day that Representative Don Beyer (D-VA) introduced the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act, and just days after the senate rejected a proposed amendment to exclude U.S. Bitcoin entities from a “broker” designation.
These increased attempts at regulating a distributed hard money network show many congressmen believe citizens are not capable of assessing and mitigating the inherent risks of being the custodians of their own wealth, despite the fact that humans have been choosing and custodying their own hard stores of value for thousands of years.
Despite this, Didi said, “I prefer to live in a decentralized world where I have the responsibility to protect my capital,” and many bitcoiners would agree.