Understanding Counterparties and Wealth Preservation Through Financial Repression. Continued: Banks can now act as counterparties between fiat currency, digital dollars, and crypto assets. This is known as brokerage. Centralized exchanges are brokerage dealers and are currently the counterparties between crypto assets and bank dollars. The only remaining non-counterparty opportunity is the exchange between crypto assets and stablecoins on decentralized exchanges. Self-custody is the only non-counterparty wealth protection you can have. Note: Physical gold is neither realistic nor practical. Yes, tokenized gold is interesting, but it again introduces a new counterparty between physical gold and token holders. This is not your gold. Note: The Genius Act provides a legitimate counterparty between U.S. Treasury bonds and regulated on-chain stablecoins. Therefore, stablecoins are essentially digital forms of U.S. Treasury bonds that can be exchanged for hard currency crypto assets and self-custodied. Note: Learn how to use cryptocurrency, not just hold it. Understand why it is so special and why it is by far the most "American" technological embodiment. Own and trade your own value without a counterparty. This right will soon be enshrined in law. Then, everything will change.