Fuck BNB, fuck LTC, fuck ETH, fuck ERC20 DeFi. I strayed from the Maxi I once was chasing the yield. Shame on me.
At least you realized it, better late than never I guess.
FTX absolutely ruined me and I have a slice of what "used to be" left on my Ledger.
Fuck Ledger, I want to rely on my own hardware... My own hardware I built with my own hands.
I'm not sure if that's the right move. The Ledger didn't fail you, right? I don't think you can build your own hardware, other than sticking components together. I'm not sure how that improves anything.
I have just built a laptop, installed a known secure linux distro and am ready to move everything I own to it.
How did you build a laptop?
I want to help the network. Especially the LN network. Please if you have a good link provide it on how I can with my own hardware... I am not asking for step by step instructions just resources to knowledge.p.qyite[
Start by reading
The Lightning Network FAQ.
what is the current well respected self custody wallet these days? Electrum? Samourai? I guess the real answer is just stick with the actual core wallet.
Bitcoin Core is the most basic indeed. Electrum would be my second choice. However, for convenience of offline signing, I'd pick Electrum over Bitcoin Core if you have an offline airgapped device where you keep your coins in a cold wallet.
TLDR; I want to fully be self custody and at the same time contribute to layer 2 of BTC. If you have a link on helping me achieve this with my own hardware please respond.
Keep those 2 goals separate! Your self custody cold wallet should never touch the internet, your Lightning adventures go on a different online machine.