The recent article: Venezuela's Maduro Denied Access to Gold Storage as Self-Sovereign BTC Shines written by Benjamin Pirus ) is a full-time writer for Coin Telegraph appeared recently and could be summarized by these article excerpts as follows:

Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, recently lost a court battle involving approximately $1 billion of gold. “The UNited Kingdom High Court has ruled against Venezuela's government in a legal battle over access to $One Billion USD of gold stored in the Bank of England,” the British Broadcasting Corporation reported. “The gold is being retained by the Bank of England (BoE) following British and U.S. sanctions on Mr Maduro's government,” BBC said in its July 2 story. Both Maduro and Guaidó staked claims seeking access to the precious metal storage. Maduro did not win the court’s favor.

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While the article is shocking in that a Sovereign nation Venezuela is being denied access to its money, or gold, stored in the Bank of England in the United Kingdom. This is a historical event and it sets a very impressive precedant, of unknown future impact for bank depositors.

But more clearly and importantly for cryptocurrency investors, it illustrates one big reason many people love cryptocurrency: No Bank can deny you access to your money.

Banks control your money

Most of us have our local currency deposited in a bank. We can only access our money, when the bank lets us, and we can only withdrawal our money or send someone our money when the bank says it’s okay. This loss of control is accepted by the majority of us, as the norm. But with the advent of cryptocurrency people are taking back control over their money.

My keys my money

In the cryptocurrency world, a favorite statement is my keys, my money. This means as long as you possess your cryptographic keys, you can transfer, withdrawal or send your cryptocurrency to anyone you wish, anytime you wish, and you don’t need anyone’s permission. This is a key component of financial independence.

Not your keys, not your money.

Alternatively, if you store your cryptocurrency on a centralized exchange, or in a custodian account at a bank or brokerage firm like Fidelity, they hold your cryptographic keys. So you can’t move, transfer, with draw or send your cryptocurrency without their permission. It’s your cryptocurrency but it’s in their possession and they control it. It’s almost like it’s not your cryptocurrency, it’s almost like it belongs to the bank.

Bank of England versus President Maduro

This brings us back to our lead story. The ownership of the one billion US dollars worth of gold is not in question. It clearly belongs to Venezuela and it was deposited in the Bank of England by the government of Venezuela. The same government that the Bank of England is refusing access to the deposited gold. This is an extreme action taken by the Bank of England, but it makes it crystal clear, that if you deposit your money or assets in a bank, you no longer control those assets and you may be refused access to those assets.

Not your keys, not your crypto

The moral of the story is control means possession. If you don’t control the keys to the bank vault, you don’t control your assets deposited there. It’s the same with cryptocurrency, if you don’t control your keys, you don’t control your cryptocurrency. In short, not your keys, not your cryptocurrency.

by @shortsegments