1. To be sovereign totally depends on your zip code. If you live in the United States or Canada the absolute best exchange for a freedom-loving Bitcoin savage is the Bitcoin Well. What makes them the best? They don’t custody your Bitcoin. Ever. All Bitcoin buys are sent directly to on on-chain address, or to a Lightning address that you provide.
Other good exchanges in the US include River and Strike. Both of them are Bitcoin only. They have great, zero-fee options if you set up a recurring buy (i.e., daily cost averaging (DCA) purchase strategy).
2. Set up a non-custodial hot wallet on your phone. I started with the Muun wallet. I installed it before I went to El Salvador in early 2023. It’s a pretty good wallet for new coiners. My top pick here; however, is the Aqua wallet. It’s a custodial wallet that has on-chain Bitcoin, Lightning, Liquid and Tether.
A non-custodial wallet is your first step on the road to monetary sovereignty. In Bitcoin the key is the treasure. To sleep well at night you’ll have to write down your 12 or 24 word seed phrase and secure it properly.
Write it down in a private place. In a room with no cameras or microphones. I write mine down on an acid free 3″ x 5″ index card and laminate the card. After you write it down you need a safe place to store it, ideally not in your home. A good place to start is a safe deposit box in a bank.
3. Next, set up off-line cold storage. Now that you have some experience with managing and storing seed phrases and you have your systems in place for that, get a signing device for cold storage. I like the CoinKite ColdCard. If you can afford it, I recommend the ColdCard Q; otherwise the ColdCard MK4 is a great option as well. Both of these devices have purpose-built secure elements. Both of them are air-gapped. That means you never plug them into a computer. They are designed from the ground up to keep your Bitcoin safe.
4. Happy Bitcoining.