Trace Mayer’s “Proof of Keys” plan is gaining popularity

The campaign of the cryptocurrency investor and entrepreneur Trace Mayer, who proposed to withdraw Bitcoins from third-party wallets to private ones, is gaining popularity.

Over the past week, hundreds of its supporters, including such well-known figures like Nick Szabo, one of the pioneers of the blockchain and smart contracts, made corresponding entries on Twitter to support the campaign, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin.

Mayer calls on cryptocurrency owners to control their private keys again.

 "Not your keys; not your bitcoin," is the mantra he invoked. "I want to start a new cultural tradition where we declare and re-declare our monetary sovereignty every Jan. 3 as a celebration of the Genesis Block," he said.

The vast majority of cryptocurrency holders know that they really own their coins only if they are stored in a private wallet. However, due to the desire to be able to trade them at any time, many keep their coins on third-party services, such as cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to Mayer, this is not the most reliable storage, and this method violates one of the basic principles of Bitcoin - only its owner controls cryptocurrency.

As Mayer states, the day of the genesis of the Bitcoin block is in many ways a return to the roots of the first cryptocurrency, when the only available wallet was a Bitcoin-qt client that was not related to regular payments, and there were no any storage sites.

Numerous representatives of the Bitcoin community express support for this idea. Among them is a well-known cryptocurrency investor and founder of Heisenberg Capital Ltd. Max Keiser, legal expert and former chief executive of Morgan Stanley, Caitlin Long, and blockchain technology consultant Giacomo Zucco.

Most likely, January 3, 2019 will be a very busy day for Bitcoin supporters, because many media will be talking about its decade. However, they can now switch to Mayer's plan, which he called "Proof of Keys".

The number of BTC and BCH transactions registered per day can measure the success of this scheme. A serious increase in their number may be evidence that the campaign has found a response from the community.

"Proof of Keys" will probably become the basis of the Bitcoin unofficial calendar for many years, and thereby return people control over the cryptocurrency.