- Task – Get your security figured out and understood well before moving forward.
Share your suggestions in this topic.
3 Likes
Dam boi.
Never tell ppl your public address online.
Even if your keys are ‘safe’.
3 Likes
never ever post your seed phrase anywhere unless its to replace your old wallet.
1 Like
Always write down your seed phrases if you are using Defi Wallets. Don’t click a link within emails. Don’t tell about your info over emails. And check the sender of the email to make sure that the email is actually from the institution or company the email says it is from.
3 Likes
I realized that I have not a very tight security regarding the security of my assets, they are minimal.Thanks for your advices. By the way a really liked the DEFCON video!!!
1 Like
Yes bro, unfortunately a lot of people get hacked that way.
Be very skeptical regarding your internet security
1 Like
My Suggestions:
- Get a hardware wallet to store safety your long term funds, savings and funds you do care about.
- Private keys are never shared with anyone, you should be the only one with access to them.
- Store private keys on a safe way, the same way you keep a piece of gold (chains, bracelets…) in a vault or some sort of, you do the same with private keys.
- Even more secure is just to memorize your private key (24 words in your head are the best secure vault you will have).
- Do not have all your funds in 1 place, diversify smartly, a huge % in your main wallet, then another % in other services (like cryptobanks like coinbase, hot wallets, exchanges…).
- Get more hardware wallets, in case your main wallet fail, having a backup to recover fast your funds is a must.
- Have more than 1 account or wallet, for example your hardware wallet is your saving account, while your metamask is your normal account to use every day for any purpose.
- Do not sent all funds in 1 transaction, its always nice to do a test transaction 1st, sent a minimum, if it reach to the destination properly, sent the rest.
- On ethereum: always read and be sure what you are approving, sending, claiming, there are malicious contracts every where, so keep an eye on what transaction are you signing.
- Avoid any private message about an amazing invest opportunity, true projects will never reach to you first, they will never sold you anything.
- DYOR always, take your time and be patience on the learning curve, taking investment decisions through emotions is most of the times a secure fail. (do not FOMO/FUD in your investments in few words, use your brain and knowledge instead)
My Example for funds distribution:
- 70% in hardware wallets (assuming you know, store securely your private key)
- 10% in banks, like coinbase, celsius, blockfi…
- 10% in Exchange, in case you want to trade or need fast money for any urgerncy (keep in mind taxes for your country if apply).
- 10% in a hot wallet like metamask or exudos, another way to get fast money in case of need it.
Carlos Z
2 Likes
Is it true that hardware wallets only work with BTC? It was mentioned at some point in the course. According to an article in Coinmarketcap, more than 1800 cryptocurrencies are supported via the Ledger Live Platform. I would like to understand how they work in case you want to trade them at some point. Thank you.
1 Like
There are a lot of tutorials on how the hardware wallets works, most of them have a limited amount of storage that allows you to install lets say 4 to 5 wallets from different blockchains (btc, eth, sol, ada… for example), but off course there are many more wallets available so you can use 1 hardware wallet to store safely (as long as you secure your private key properly).
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ledger+wallet
Carlos Z
For me, first things first… how safe is your current installation?
Phone, computer, router, network, email etc…
For example, on buying a used computer the first thing I do is wipe it down and rebuild the OS, turning off settings and functions before even connecting to the interwebs.
Always change the network router name and password from default… and dont allow wake up over the network!
Install online security first before doing any browsing including VPN, Firewall & Virus software.
Always keep keys and passwords safe and secret!
1 Like
Yes work out your personal security found out that my email had been pwnd (ihave beened pwned.com)it may have been an old resolved breach since that website does’nt update breach repairs. Anyway stopped and took full stock from ground up. Fortunately didnt have a phone breach. So defi security turned into a live case study for me definitely very good learning. Your email security is such a gaping attack vector if your phished there. Moving over to differentiated email addresses and physical encrypted token key for passwords.For myself another live device with authenticators let alone sms two factor is not enough.Then there’s the issue of good browsers and usage protocols or habits. Its interesting what seems like a mountain of detail can become second nature pretty fast. This might be amongst the most important subject since we obviously like defi and want to partake of building assets in this space it won’t matter how clever we are if we end up being pick pocketed. best to everyone.
Honestly, I think for an average human being (and not crypto nerds as us haha), the most important thing is to quickly realise how scams work. Sharing seed phrase, “send 1 to get 2 BTCs” schemes, unknown files, rugpulls, pump & dump, “Binance Support #242” scammers. Just always be 100% aware of what you’re clicking, and most likely you’re good.
However, if you wanna explore more, or operate with money you can’t afford to lose, greater security is definitely recommended.
Edit: However, this lecture definitely encouraged me up to update my vault 
1 Like
- This is really interesting because i am totally worried about security but i might neglect my virtual security as i don’t know things that was said in the lesson… but i already updated almost everything - and started to use things like pass generator, a cryptographic e-mail and so on… -; now i’ll buy a cold wallet… everything that was said in the lesson and in the support materials are invaluable tips of how to avoid a huge headache; but i would say that being skeptical is the key, for personal security, just adopt it and be happy; i can’t describe how important is this…
1 Like
Don’t click on links in E-mails
Don’t keep seeds in digital form, use pen and paper.
Educate yourself.
A VPN & a hardware wallet is a good start.
I find that using an entirely separate computer/laptop for crypto related transactions. Never use the same computer you browse from and do all kinds of testing with.
1 Like
Use a new email address for Crypto and never use your name in the email address.
I believe that it is also worth using the Linux operating system.
1 Like
This topic is worth it’s own mini-course. Or in my case: sphere.
This is the sphere I’m setting up to do an explainer video about why you want a hardware wallet. This lecture’s notes just became the equatorial band of groups/thorts.
I would add:
- Go watch DEFCON session videos. They’ll frighten, amaze, and motivate you.
- Next level on Windows: run a Hyper-V sandbox for internet browsing in Edge. All infections and hacks get obliterated at the end of each session. It protects your system by running an entire faux system that malicious code can’t escape. You get a factory-fresh faux Windows at the start of your next session. You’re just stuck using the Edge browser w/ no extensions or bookmarks because re-installing Brave at every session is too much of a pain.
- General next-level: run inside a VM snapshot. This allows you to configure the system as you like it, use it carelessly and get it infected–and then just reset it to the configured clean state. It’s also a faux machine that malicious code can’t escape.
- General security: run a PiHole and switch your main network’s router to it for DNS requests. It’ll castrate most malware by dropping un-whitelisted telemetry packets broadcast by any machine on the network. It also logs and reports all outgoing DNS requests…many of which you wouldn’t like if you saw them. It’s a basic home office network traffic snooper/shield.
- Advanced security: switch to running Brave Browser…on a Linux VM…on Windows. Now Malware’s gotta get past Brave’s tracking shields, infect a Linux machine…then escape a VM and switch operating systems to infect the Windows machine. It would take something as sophisticated as Stuxnet to crack that. Not impossible–but now you’re talking nation state-level adversaries. “Joe Jablonsky” writing malware in India has zero chance of cracking it.
- The holy grail: operate on a 3Fold network deployments. Now everything’s quantum-resistant encrypted and decentralized beyond even nation state adversaries.
1 Like
If somebody do not want to spend money to ledger or other hardware wallets and want to use metamask only once per few months I figured out how to do that without it. There are linux distros which can be installed on your typical USB. I recommend linux tails because it provides build-in tor connection (privacy) and has enrypted memory area named “persistence memory”. So you can keep secret phrases in your persistence memory and recover metamask in tor every time you need to interact with DeFi.
1 Like