About Buoy

Why Buoy exists

Every year, central banks create more money. Every time they do, the money you already saved buys less. That is not a bug in the system. It is the system. Wages rise slower than prices. Savings lose value while you sleep. The people who benefit are the ones closest to the money printer. Everyone else falls behind.

Bitcoin fixes this by removing the ability to create more. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. No government, no central bank, no corporation can change that rule. For the first time in history, ordinary people have access to a form of money that cannot be diluted. But knowing that Bitcoin exists is only the first step. You still need to buy it, store it, spend it, and verify it. And the tools you use for each of those steps matter enormously.

That is why Buoy exists. Not to sell you anything. Not to promote one service over another. But to help you compare Bitcoin-only tools so you can make informed decisions about your own money.

What Buoy does

Buoy is a comparison platform for Bitcoin services. We cover exchanges, wallets, merchant payment processors, Lightning apps, and node platforms. For each category, we present the tools side by side so you can see how they differ on the things that actually matter: custody model (who holds your keys?), KYC requirements (do you have to share your identity?), fee structures, Lightning support, open-source status, and privacy protections.

You select any two services. Tap compare. And you see a clear breakdown of the differences. No affiliate rankings. No sponsored placements. Just the information you need to decide for yourself.

How we think about Bitcoin

Technology is deflationary. It makes things cheaper, faster, and more accessible over time. That is how progress works. But the current monetary system needs inflation to survive. It needs prices to go up so that debts can be repaid with cheaper money. Those two forces, technology pushing prices down and central banks pushing prices up, are in direct conflict. One of them has to win.

Bitcoin is built on the assumption that technology wins. A fixed supply of money in a world of increasing productivity means prices fall naturally. Your savings gain purchasing power over time instead of losing it. You do not need to take on risk or chase yield just to stay in the same place. That is a fundamental shift, and it changes everything about how people save, spend, and plan for the future.

Buoy does not tell you what to believe. But the tools we compare are all built on this foundation. They are Bitcoin-only because we think clarity matters more than optionality when it comes to money.

Our principles

Bitcoin only. We do not cover altcoins. Not because they do not exist, but because they introduce noise. Every minute spent comparing thousands of tokens is a minute not spent understanding the one protocol that actually solves the problem of sound money. We stay focused so you can too.

Self-custody first. When an exchange holds your bitcoin, you do not own bitcoin. You own a promise. Every major loss of user funds in Bitcoin's history, Mt. Gox, FTX, Celsius, happened because people trusted a third party with their keys. We highlight which services let you hold your own keys and which require you to trust someone else.

Independence. We have no affiliations with the services we compare. No sponsorship deals. No affiliate commissions influencing which tool ranks higher. Our data comes from public documentation, open-source code, and direct testing. If something changes, the community can flag it and we update it.

Privacy as a default. In a world where data is permanent, the information you reveal today can be used against you tomorrow. We flag which services require identity verification and which let you use Bitcoin without attaching your name to every transaction. That distinction matters more than most people realize.

Transparency. Every comparison on Buoy is based on verifiable criteria. If you disagree with how we present a service, you can check the source. We welcome that scrutiny. Trust should be earned through transparency, not demanded through authority.

Who Buoy is for

If you are new to Bitcoin and overwhelmed by the number of wallets, exchanges, and apps available, Buoy gives you a starting point. Instead of reading dozens of reviews and blog posts, you can compare the options that matter and choose based on your own priorities.

If you have been using Bitcoin for a while and want to improve your setup, maybe moving from a custodial exchange to self-custody, or from on-chain to Lightning, Buoy helps you evaluate the trade-offs between tools without the noise of marketing pages.

Buoy is for anyone who believes they should be the one deciding how to manage their own money.

What comes next

We are building Buoy for the long term. New services get added as they prove themselves. Existing comparisons get updated as features change. Articles go deeper on the trade-offs that the comparison tables cannot capture. And the voice you read across the site is designed to explain, not to sell.

If you have feedback, a correction, or a service you think we should cover, reach out. Buoy gets better when the community holds it to the same standard it holds the services it compares.