California Fires and Bitcoin

First responder and Bitcoin maxi here. There is nothing like working for the government to make you not trust it. I cannot express the amount of devastation I've seen over the last two days. It felt like I was in the middle of a war zone. Fires, explosions, power outages, injured people, people refusing to leave their residences as they were going up in flames, helpless people trying to recover what they could—99 % of what they owned gone in an instant.

It's important to note that these people did not live in the mountains or hills. We are several miles from the base of the closest mountain. These are populated communities. This could happen anywhere at any time, something I did not fully understand until the last two days.

How is this relative to Bitcoin.

1. Seed phrases and self custody.

I've preached this several times before. If you self custody any meaningful amount, you should use multi-sig with geographically dispersed keys. Splitting one key in half or three locations is not a good idea. Suppose you lose one part of that; you won't be able to recover anything. You can also look into Bitcoin-only companies who assist with multi-sig. Unchained and SWAN are two off the top of my head. You hold two keys; they hold one. You can still recover your funds if you lose or have one key compromised.

Edit: Put your keys onto fireproof steel. Then you have a chance to recover it. That being said, we have also had some looting. If your house burns down and you can't get back to it for a day or two, your seed (if recovered) may already be compromised. This further enforces the multi-sig point.

2) Bitcoin is a safer investment than real estate.

"You can't live in a Bitcoin" - Very true. But I can rent and put the excess money into Bitcoin. I hope insurance helps people who have lost everything. Even if they are compensated financially, the process will take years, and they will never truly make up for the property they lost. Bitcoin does not have nearly as much counterparty risk. Matthew Kratter has two great videos on this subject: https://youtu.be/0l-mlHw3Bz0?feature=shared and https://youtu.be/7uYVcDa_t6M?feature=shared . Although I had already watched these videos and agreed to some extent, the last few days have hammered these points home.

Just remember, devastation like this can happen to you, no matter where you are. Plan accordingly.