A wallet is a key.
Not a vault.
Bitcoin does not reside in any wallet, phone, or hardware device. It exists as a record on the Bitcoin blockchain, replicated across more than 20,000 computers worldwide. Your wallet holds only the private key that proves you own it.
The ledger lives everywhere. Your bitcoin lives there too.
Every full node on the Bitcoin network holds a complete copy of every transaction since January 2009. When you own bitcoin, you own an entry on that ledger, confirmed and replicated across all of them at once.You can memorize twelve words and cross any border in the world carrying your entire net worth, with no bank transfer, no vault, or declaration required. That is what it means for bitcoin to live on the ledger, not in the wallet. Matthew Kratter, A Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin
From the book
This myth is one chapter of Reasonable Doubt.
All twenty myths from this series, revised and rechecked, in one book you can read start to finish or hand to the skeptic in your life. Same standard as the site: the strongest version of each objection, the evidence, and a verdict that goes no further than the evidence does.
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