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Don't Trust, Verify
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
Bitcoin Quote Shirts.
Wear the lines bitcoiners repeat, and know where each one came from before someone asks.
A good bitcoin quote does a lot of work in very few words. Four of them teach self-custody. A Latin motto from a collectible coin explains why a network gets sturdier as it grows. A newspaper headline from January 2009 still sits inside block 0, readable by anyone who looks. This page collects the tees that print a phrase or a quotation, from the bitcoin sayings everyone knows to a few deeper cuts, each with a one-line note on its source and a link to the full story. For a wider roundup of who said what, see our collection of famous bitcoin quotes. Then pick a line you can explain in one breath, because on a bitcoin quote shirt, somebody always asks.
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Not Your Keys
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Vires in Numeris
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Cypherpunks Write Code
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Genesis Block
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Running Bitcoin
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Sound Money
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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White Paper
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Be Your Own Bank
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Low Time Preference
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Few Understand
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Magic Internet Money
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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Bitcoin Fixes This
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
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No 2nd Best
Unisex tee · XS–3XL
$39.99
No tee matches that. Try “HODL”, “pizza” or “logo”.
Where each saying comes from
Rules for holding and checking
- Don't Trust, Verify. Bitcoiners trimmed the old proverb trust, but verify, popularized by Ronald Reagan during 1980s arms talks, down to the half that matters. Background in don't trust, verify meaning.
- Not Your Keys. The self-custody rule people repeat after every exchange failure, the 2014 Mt. Gox collapse being the classic case. Read not your keys, not your coins.
- Be Your Own Bank. A four-word version of the white paper's opening idea: payments that go straight from one person to another with no financial institution in the middle.
Lines from the record
- Genesis Block. The Times headline about a second bank bailout, embedded in bitcoin's first block on January 3, 2009, as told in the genesis block guide.
- Running Bitcoin. The tweet Hal Finney sent on January 10, 2009, all two words of it. Here is the Running bitcoin story.
- White Paper. The subtitle of the 2008 paper, A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, unpacked in our white paper explainer.
- Cypherpunks Write Code. Three words from Eric Hughes's 1993 manifesto, with the mailing list behind it covered in the cypherpunk manifesto history.
Mottos and forum lines
- Vires in Numeris. Latin for strength in numbers, carried on the Casascius physical coins first made in 2011. More in vires in numeris meaning.
- Sound Money. A gold standard era phrase for money that cannot be inflated at will, explained in what sound money means.
- Low Time Preference. An economics term that the 2018 book The Bitcoin Standard carried into everyday bitcoin talk. See low time preference.
- Few Understand and Magic Internet Money come from the forums, not the library: a knowing reply on Bitcoin Twitter and a 2013 Reddit ad. Origins in few understand meaning and the magic internet money story.
Choosing your line
Pick the quote by the conversation you want. Self-custody lines start practical talks about wallets. The dated lines reward people who enjoy primary sources. Mottos make a calmer statement, and the forum lines get a laugh first and an explanation second. All of them share one black unisex tee in XS to 3XL, and each is printed once you order.
Questions
Good to know
Are the quotes on these shirts printed word for word?
The dated ones are. The genesis tee carries the headline text from block 0, Running Bitcoin prints both words of the tweet, and the White Paper tee uses the paper's exact subtitle. Mottos like Sound Money are community sayings with no single original wording to match.
Do any of these quote shirts name a real person?
No. The tees print the words only, never a name or a face. Running Bitcoin and Cypherpunks Write Code honor the people behind those lines as independent tributes, with no affiliation with them, their families or any organization.
Which bitcoin saying is easiest for non-bitcoiners to follow?
Don't Trust, Verify and Be Your Own Bank read clearly to almost anyone. Vires in Numeris usually earns a request for a translation, and Few Understand is built to make people ask what exactly they are missing.
Is there a shirt with words written by Satoshi Nakamoto?
Two come close. The White Paper tee prints the title of the paper Satoshi published in 2008, and the genesis block headline is the line Satoshi chose to embed in the first block. Both are independent tributes, not official products.
Read
Guides
Bitcoin historyFamous Bitcoin Quotes, From Satoshi Nakamoto to the CypherpunksEighteen famous bitcoin quotes from Satoshi Nakamoto, Hal Finney, Eric Hughes and other early voices, each traced to the email, forum post or block where it first appeared.Bitcoin cultureDon't Trust, Verify Meaning and Where the Bitcoin Motto Comes FromDon't trust, verify means you check bitcoin's rules and your own payments yourself instead of taking anyone's word for it. The phrase flips a Russian proverb that Ronald Reagan made famous in the 1980s.Bitcoin historyThe Cypherpunk Manifesto, Who the Cypherpunks Were and How They Led to BitcoinA Cypherpunk's Manifesto is a short 1993 essay by Eric Hughes arguing that privacy has to be built with cryptography. Here is what it says, who the cypherpunks were, and the chain of ideas that ran from their mailing list to bitcoin.