Why Self-Custody Became Central

Joe Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Unchained. In this latest episode, Joe shares his story and Alaskan roots that shaped a deep respect for self-sufficiency—an experience he now applies to the digital frontier. In this episode, Joe joins The Bitcoin Frontier to share why Unchained is launching a new miniseries, The Last Free Americans, how self-custody became his life’s work, and why the conservation movement offers a powerful analogy for protecting financial freedom. We dig into the frontier phases of new assets and ideas, the role of ETFs as a bridge (not the destination), and how policies like developer protections and “keep your coins” language can ring-fence essential rights.

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro: The Last Free Americans and what’s at stake with self-custody
1:06 – Alaska, boats, and learning self-sufficiency
2:54 – Conservation mindset: preserving wilderness and preserving peer-to-peer money
4:03 – From accounts to keys: the “aha” of sending bitcoin yourself
5:39 – Seeing the water we swim in: intermediaries, fees, and privacy tradeoffs
8:03 – Frontiers and phases: from prospectors to politics—how new assets mature
10:57 – Gold rush parallels: excess, scams, and integration into the mainstream
12:55 – National parks as a model: ring-fencing what matters for future generations
15:00 – “The last free Americans”: a proud warning about peer-to-peer rights
17:02 – Building Unchained on bitcoin’s assumptions, not fiat rails
19:16 – ETFs as a useful bridge vs. living the peer-to-peer experience
21:03 – Who are today’s “John Muirs”? Gear, guidance, and making self-custody approachable
23:42 – Beyond one bill: culture, developer protections, and keep-your-coins language
26:34 – Free speech, code, and the very American fight for financial privacy
27:34 – Short memories: SVB, protests, and why self-custody matters before the next shock
29:16 – What to expect from the series and the intellectual adventure of bitcoin

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