Q: can i connect a bitcoin core node to electrum directly?
A: you can’t connect it directly. To connect it you need an electrum server. The electrum server connects to the node and the wallet connects to the electrum server. This is because the node has all the transactions in the Bitcoin history but they are not indexed by “address”, so obviously it is not suitable to collect information on arbitrary addresses. The server indexes the entire blockchain and the resulting index enables very fast queries for any given wallet, allowing the user to keep track of their balances and transaction history in real time using an electrum wallet. Since you connect to your electrum server, there is no reason to connect to external servers and therefore the privacy of your addresses and balances is preserved. The bottom line is that the electrum server acts as an index to the blockchain data.
Q: why not use an exchange to hold your bitcoins? wouldn’t we have the problems of writing the seed, backup, security etc?
A: I could say the usual phrase not your keys not your coins, but that is not the only problem. the biggest problem, in my opinion, is that we are in an era where the state intrudes more and more in the personal and patrimonial sphere. since centralised exchangers are elements indirectly controlled by the state, they could be used 1) at best to transmit private and financial information without even warning us. 2) at worst they could be charged with blocking or confiscating. To all these considerations, we may add the usual risks of hacking, bankruptcy, etc that each centralized echanger has
Q: From a tweet by Snowden: “Most of your money exists not as something folded in your wallet, but as an entry in a bank’s database, faithfully requested and rendered beneath the glass of your phone. If someone else gets to decide if and how you can spend it, is it really yours?” What do you think about this?
A: I absolutely agree. i believe that national governments and central banks are working towards greater financial control of people. By obtaining and managing informations about people and their financial attitudes, spending habits, and personal incomes, they can not only acquire more detailed and precise profiles, but also actually interfere with the use of your money, specifying how and when a certain expense will be possible or to whom you can send money. This is really scary in my opinion.
Has it ever happened to you that a bank, upon seeing an outgoing payment related to a bitcoin purchase, has blocked it, saying that it is in your interest not to put you in danger? Nice eh?
This is a typical example. The purchase of bitcoin is even more typical. In fact, once the money has been converted into bitcoins, there is no longer any control by a central state body.
When my wealth is owned in bitcoin, I can freely buy whatever i want if my counterparty agrees to be paid in bitcoin. it is precisely this freedom that is not accepted by the bank which then, by algorithmically controlling our money flows, decides that such a payment is not possible, even if it is with its own money. So is this money in fiat at a bank really available to us?
