Zero Crypto at Home: Bankless in the Age of Wrench Attacks and Phishing by Jameson Lopp and Beau (A Bankless podcast)

I accidentally resubscribed to Bankless Premium for another year (goddamn auto-renewals), so I actually made sure to get some value from my subscription this time. Enter their ad-free podcast stream!

I have to admit, I wasn't much of a Bankless fan before - but I like their recent laser focus on Ethereum. I mostly listen(ed) to Anthony Sassano's The Daily Gwei, but since he's scaling back his episodes (good for him, I truly don't understand how some people can keep up with such an insane content schedule - must an American Australian thing), I am trying to keep up with the Bankless guys.

Anyway, the episode is full of sensible security advice:

• Use a password manager (e.g. no more reusing passwords, silly!)
• Enable strong authentication (e.g. passkeys, hardware keys such as Yubikeys)
• Segregate your funds / wallets (e.g. cold versus hot wallet(s), multi-sig wallets)
• Enhance your privacy (e.g. privacy focused e-mail services such as Proton Mail)
• and much more!

If you are too lazy to watch or listen to the entire episode, ask your favourite AI companion to summarize the transcription. 

Doomsday prepping

One thing I did notice, and it might be an Australian American thing, is the focus on the worst case scenario. One of the guests is ex-CIA, so I understand it's probably a bit of an occupational bias.

They cover two main scenarios: 1) the most likely one (you get phished online) and 2) the worst case one (you get homejacked). I mean, the latter is technically correct, but I don't think that is the case most people should prepare for. I'm more in the camp that you should prepare for the second most likely scenario of disaster (and after that, maybe the third and fourth most likely scenarios). Namely, you screw up your own wallet and key management. I mean, using a centralized crypto exchange is not a bad idea per se. Most people in the developed world rely on banks to custody their funds, because managing everything yourself is... well kind of unrealistic / utopian / batshit crazy / ... But of course that goes against the 'going bankless' ethos.

Don't just point out the problem - offer a solution

I know, I know, it's easy to criticize someone's work. I prepared some content in the past myself, but never got around to finishing it. For your entertainment, I just published my guide here (so as not to let the fruits of my hard labour go to waste): Get started with crypto securely.

Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash