The Future of Owning Bitcoin | Jonathan Pollock

In this episode of 'What Bitcoin Did,' host Jonathan Pollock dives deep into the future of Bitcoin self-custody, focusing on the critical challenge of 'wrench attacks'—physical coercion to surrender private keys. He explores how current self-custody solutions, while secure in theory, fail under real-world pressure when a person's life or loved ones are threatened. Pollock argues that the industry must shift from glorifying self-reliance as a virtue to building safer, easier, and more resilient systems. He highlights BitKey, a new multi-sig hardware wallet developed by Block (formerly Square), which eliminates seed phrases, integrates inheritance and recovery by design, and introduces a screen for broader verification. The centerpiece of the discussion is BitKey’s upcoming solution to wrench attacks: a dual-door vault system combining time-locked biometric checks with a self-custody escape path. This design aims to deter attackers by forcing prolonged compliance, while still preserving ultimate user control. Pollock also challenges the assumption that ETFs are safer than self-custody, emphasizing that institutional risks—like government confiscation or exchange failure—are real and often overlooked. Ultimately, he advocates for a holistic view of 'safety' that includes security, recovery, privacy, and ease of use, not just security alone.