“Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins” is officially case law thanks to a new California appellate court decision.

Here is a crypto lawyer’s reading of why Archer v. Coinbase is important. A weekend #bitcoin thread.

TL:DR: HODL your own damn coins! https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2020/a157690.html

As we know, BTC can be forked into new currencies for lots of reasons by damn near anyone. BCH, BSV, Bitcoin Gold are examples. As someone that holds Bitcoin you’re entitled to an equivalent number of forked coins. In other words, your Bitcoin includes the value of all its forks.

But accessing your forked coins is only guaranteed if you hold your own private keys! If you let someone else custody your crypto it is up to their discretion whether to give you your forked assets.

Coinbase honored BCash, but not Gold. That’s what this case is about. Facts:

A person kept 350 BTC on Coinbase and wanted the equivalent Bitcoin Gold (valued at $159k at its height) but Coinbase said no. Dude sued claiming breach of contract, conversion, and negligence but the Court rejected all these arguments because....

It found that Coinbase had no obligation, contractual or otherwise, to support every fork of bitcoin. The Court said:

"There is no requirement that investors keep their coins in exchanges; they can always withdraw the coins to their own private wallets."

In other words: “Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins” is now precedent in California and I imagine will be highly instructive for other jurisdictions hearing similar claims.

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