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The History of Privacy Coins: Their Rise, Their Adoptions, Their Exploits, And Their Downfalls
Two Critical Questions (Post SEC-account-hack): Who? & What's Next?
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I don’t feel sorry for those who have terrible OPSEC.
Putting all these pieces together to help privacy doesn't change the 15 decoys statement. Most of your critiques didn't answer my questions - you start talking about FCMP++ Which I understand but Eth talked about shading for 5 years. You actually depend on OTHERS OPSEC NOT YOUR OWN. "Battle-tested" doesn't seem quite right when it's just driving the fees up to keep people from unwinding the privacy by spam?
1- Monero isn't transparent, Monero uses RingCT (FCMP++ coming soon), uses Stealth addresses, Bulletproofs+ (ZKP) and Dandelion++ (protect your IP in network layer) 2- This is your opinion, ok. 3- AI and metadata? You know what you say? 4- The ChainAnalysis enterprises only can track Monero if you have a bad OPSEC (this will be solved with FCMP++, but I recommend use NON-KYC, and **USE YOUR OWN NODE, ZCASH NOT SOLVE THIS, AND NO PROTECT YOUR IP IN NETWORK LAYER LIKE DANDELION++**). You can buy Monero without KYC in: * Retoswap.com * BasicSwapDEX * Eigenwallet.org * Trocador.app (Agregator) * Cyphergoat.com (Agregator). Coming soon: Serai.exchange
satoshi did advertise bitcoin. google his posts on cypherpunks mailing list, posts on bitcointalk. people like Hal Finney were the first known recipients of bitcoin - but knowing that doesn't prove who satoshi was. the first blocks had different addresses for each block reward, satoshi used Tor and anonymous email. Satoshi clearly had thought through his OPSEC. imo you underestimate Satoshi's approach to security and anonymity, and you may thing you can connect blockchain coins to an identity without an external leak, which hasn't happened to Satoshi afaik.
Trusting other addresses to do OPSEC for you & depend on 15 anonymity set is a terrible idea. Using the full 5.5 mil transaction set is *actual* cryptographer design. Not the college kids who spent a summer premining Bytecoin. https://bhargav.wtf/blog/zcash-part-1/
Let's ignore how audited Monero and its protections were, shall we? Justin Ehrenhofer said he would release the tools to the Monero committee to improve Monero, you saying that makes it sound like Monero is nothing, Monero is used by every group that needs privacy in addition to being audited countless times by countless people and organizations, but you just spread FUD. Monero uses ZKP proofs since 2018 with Bulletproofs+, the blockchain is opaque and the only weakness is bad OPSEC (Use remote nodes without TOR/I2P), FCMP++ will increase this fungibility even more. Zcash prefers profit over privacy, the creator himself has spoken numerous times about implementing backdoors, you saying I'm “anti-math” is just ragebait. Monero audits: [FCMP++](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://moneroresearch.info/index.php%3Faction%3Dattachments_ATTACHMENTS_CORE%26method%3DdownloadAttachment%26id%3D235%26resourceId%3D242%26filename%3Dbbec3ae84b7fd65f1594068e102eaa83dfd58b4a&ved=2ahUKEwin756rmuGOAxVcrpUCHdRlLQ0QFnoECDgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2EdgETRZYKQvWksHM0BN27) [Bulletproofs+](https://blog.quarkslab.com/security-audit-of-monero-bulletproofs.html) [RingCT](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ACK-J/Monero-Dataset-Pipeline/main/Lord_of_the_Rings__An_Empirical_Analysis_of_Monero_s_Ring_Signature_Resilience_to_Artificially_Intelligent_Attacks.pdf) [CARROT](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://github.com/cypherstack/carrot-audit&ved=2ahUKEwin756rmuGOAxVcrpUCHdRlLQ0QFnoECEEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3HkMIml643TU8O1R8L597o) [Bulletproofs+](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://suyash67.github.io/homepage/assets/pdfs/bulletproofs_plus_audit_report_v1.1.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjrr6ORmuGOAxV6qJUCHRprAukQFnoECCUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0N67lhgtHW3AsZjeOD6AOG) [Blockchain audit](https://area31.net.br/wiki/Audite_a_blockchain_do_Monero). inflation bugs? https://www.moneroinflation.com/ About Riccardo Spagni: https://np.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/q8glyq/comment/hgpfelh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
TBH - because no one other than your spouse and / or accountant really need to know your personal finances, be it Bitcoin, cash, stocks, real estate holdings, etc. The only reason I even think people want to discuss what their current holdings of any asset / investment are is for the "look at me, I love attention!" aspect. Additionally, no matter how tight you think your OPSEC is, there's always breadcrumbs.
I used to post stock picks + post my positions. Somebody along the way tried to hijack my retirement and savings and trading accounts. Everything got locked for a while and was a huge hassle but luckily it was caught before the damage was done. It did take days of calls and even a few video calls to prove I was me, at my home, not being kidnapped etc etc. a lot more guarded and have better OPSEC nowadays
Hopefully it stays in your wallet. Check your OPSEC.
You’re much, much closer to becoming a millionaire then I am to becoming not a millionaire 🤦🏻♂️ figure it out. Why is it that when people post anything significant on here the same fucking comments from losers come in? We get it, OPSEC. Nobody cares when people with 0.01BTC start posting? Why? Maybe because poors don’t give a shit about $1000 but they start getting jealous at $100k. It’s obvious as all he’ll.
If you drive around a nice car, are you going to be afraid all the damn time that you’re going to get robbed at any moment? What a way to live. Yeah have OPSEC but this is literally joke for people who don’t have money. You can always bet in the comments to see this when you see $100k+ it’s sad.
OPSEC starts with protecting your seed.
Do your own research on the blue chips and why they are the top ranked. And when researching a lesser known coin/token, look at: Founder & Team Background Who are they? Real names or pseudonymous? Former FAANG, crypto native OGs, or some random Telegram scams? Track record? Any rug pulls? Prior pumps? Check LinkedIn, GitHub, SEC filings, and rugpull databases. Do they respond to criticism intelligently? Or just block you on Twitter? OPSEC Tip: If the founders are fully doxxed and U.S.-based, know they’re subject to U.S. law (SEC, OFAC, IRS). Sometimes pseudonymity doesn’t = scam. Code Quality & GitHub Activity Is the project open source? If not, why? Check GitHub: Are there commits? Is it a fork of another project? Are they copy/pasting or innovating? Use tools like CryptoMiso or GitHub Stars as weak signal proxies. Run a linter on their smart contracts. Sloppy coding = exploitable contracts = zeroed bags. Security Audits & Vulnerability Exposure Who audited it? Are there known CVEs (common vulnerabilities and exposures)? Check Certik, Immunefi, and Hacken for bug bounty programs. Smart contracts are forever. One unchecked bug and the protocol gets drained. Mechanism Design Is the protocol’s incentive structure economically sound, or is it a Ponzi in disguise? Check for Ponzinomics: unsustainable yields, recursive leverage, or circular swaps. Is the protocol actually useful without the token? Or is the token the product? Product/Market Fit Does the project solve a real problem? Who uses it? Is it a DAO with 80 wallets and 10 bots? Or is there daily organic usage? Use Token Terminal or DefiLlama to check real usage metrics: TVL, revenue, active users. Legal and Regulatory Risk Is the token a security? Did they do a public sale to U.S. citizens? Are they compliant with AML/KYC or deliberately avoiding it? (Good or bad depending on ethos) Has it already been flagged by SEC/FinCEN/OFAC? Token Distribution & Vesting Who owns the tokens? Founders? VCs? Airdrop farmers? What’s the vesting schedule? Any cliffs? Is it linear or backloaded? Use Messari or whitepaper tokenomics sections to verify actual unlock schedules. Watch out for VC unlock seasons where the price tanks on linear emissions from private sales. Community & Narrative Strength Are the supporters real humans or Twitter bots? (Use tools like FollowerAudit or BotSentinel) Is there real discussion on forums or just pump memes? What’s the meme game like? Narrative fuels speculative bubbles. Is this thing cult worthy? Cults like LINK, ETH, SOL, and BTC sustain price through hell. Most coins die when Reddit stops caring. Protocol Revenue & Sustainability Does the protocol generate real, recurring revenue? Is yield coming from users, or from token inflation? How are protocol fees split? Burned? Given to holders? Dev fund? Check DefiLlama Revenues or Token Terminal for hard data. Interoperability & Ecosystem Integrations Is it isolated, or plugged into other chains? Is it EVM-compatible? Supported by major bridges? Are DEXs, wallets, explorers, oracles integrated? Also tokenomics: Total Supply vs. Circulating Supply How much of the total supply is already circulating? If 10% is circulating and 90% is locked up, you’re early, but you’re likely buying into a future selloff. Rapid unlocks = price suppression. High FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) + Low circulation = Delayed rug via emissions. Emission Schedule/Vesting Curve Linear: Steady inflation, easier to price in. Cliff + linear: VC dump alert. Sudden supply shock. Exponential: Pure inflation. Allocation Breakdown Look for this in whitepapers or dashboards. Here’s what you want to dissect: Team/Founders have greater than 20%, they’re greedy, and will likely dump VCs/Private Sale have greater than 25%, you’re the exit liquidity Ecosystem/Grants around 20%, okay if it’s transparently allocated Community/Airdrop less than 10%, fair but check distribution Liquidity Mining around 10–30%, good if designed well (no mercenary yield farmers who will dump on you) Token Utility: What does the token actually do besides go up? Good Uses: Governance (if active and enforced) Required for usage (gas, staking collateral, slashing risk) Fee discounts (e.g., BNB) Security layer (e.g., ETH staking) Burn Mechanics / Deflationary Design Are tokens being burned with every use? Is it programmatic or discretionary (manual = rug bait)? EIP-1559 on Ethereum is a gold standard: burn on actual usage. If it’s inflationary, check if usage is greater than inflation. If not, value bleed is baked in. Staking Incentives What APR are stakers getting? Where does that yield come from? (Fees? Inflation? New buyers?) Does staking have a lockup or slashing risk? High APR from inflation = stealth dilution. It’s yield that costs everyone. Liquidity Profile How much liquidity is there on major exchanges or DEXs? Who controls it? Is it protocol-owned liquidity (POL), or whales? Slippage test: Try simulating a $10K-$100K trade. If price impact is greater than 2%, it’s illiquid. Low liquidity = manipulated price action and whale games. Market Cap vs. FDV Market Cap = Circulating supply × current price FDV = Total supply × current price A token with $50M market cap but $2B FDV = 2.5% in circulation. You’re buying into a future inflation cliff. High FDV with low liquidity = worst combo. Inflation Control Is there a cap (like BTC)? Is there a halving or burn mechanism? Are emissions dynamic (adjusted based on usage like Curve)? Flat inflation = death by a thousand cuts unless usage scales faster. Whale Concentration Use tools like Nansen, Arkham, or Etherscan to analyze top holders. Are top wallets: Smart contracts (okay) Exchanges (neutral) Private wallets (danger) More than 10% in one private wallet = big risk
Respect! Using BTC as your main currency feels like playing life on hard mode… but with better OPSEC. 😄 How’s it been treating you?
I feel like basic OPSEC at this point is to have your main stack hidden behind a passphrase that only you and maybe a lawyer (for next of kin purposes, if you choose) only know. Cool, you stole my cash on hand and Ledger, that sucks but have fun recovering that seed to find a small amount of sats in the wallet.
Stay away from memecoins and do some research on CoinGecko. Look at the top 50 coins or sort by categories, you can find some real gems. Follow top creators who talk about altcoins, not those cult-like memecoin people on Twitter. They just get paid to shill garbage. Just do some research. I did this last year by sticking to one or two niches like AI and DePIN and found a coin at a 3 million market cap (OPSEC Coin) that ran to 200 million. I took profits around 90 to 120 million, but it was still a solid catch just before they got 'hacked' lmao.
Isn't revealing what device your BTC is on kinda like defeating the purpose of OPSEC, or this a psyop?
Since 2013 you have not your keys, not your coins and you did.....nothing. You had your account access on a business phone, ie not yours. You outsourced your phone upgrade. You gave your physical phone to some random. You gave that same random access information to your master (apple) account. Bro, I'm only amazed as to why you haven't been "hacked" years ago. Your OPSEC is horrendous.
Honestly, not a bad move if you're flexible and don't have a ton of obligations back home. Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines) has tons of expats living off crypto, and the cost of living is super low. You can stretch 0.5 BTC pretty far — especially if the market goes up." "As for ATMs — yeah, some countries still have working BTC ATMs, but you’ll get hit with fees. Peer-to-peer (like LocalBitcoins, Paxful, or even local TG groups) is usually the way to go. Some landlords are cool with BTC, especially in tourist-friendly areas. Just be careful with legality depending on where you are. And keep your OPSEC tight.
Lol, directing people to the best hardware ain't fud. OPSEC is core to what we are doing here. Stop being dollar focused.
Let me go check the OPSEC on Satoshi's addresses, brb.
Where the wallet is doesn’t matter as much. Depending on your wallet you may need it to receive funds. For example, the Coldcard Q has a feature where you can scan addresses generated by your software wallet to validate that they are legitimate. It’s not required to receive funds, but a nice safety check. So having the wallet in a bank vault doesn’t really make sense. Some wallets have duress pins and other protections to allow for plausible deniability. But in the first place, as many others noted, if criminals know you have Bitcoin then review your OPSEC. I hope you describe a hypothetical scenario, but either way, the less people know you own Bitcoin the better.
>Make sure you have your devices are protected by a tier one security firm , they stop all of this I'm pretty literate and even I couldn't work out what you were trying to recommend here. My AI's take: >No security firm or antivirus can prevent someone from being tricked into manually entering their seed into a phishing site. > >Good OPSEC, education, and hardware wallet best practices (e.g. never type your seed into anything except the hardware device itself) are more effective and free. > >Anyone advising paying a security firm for personal wallet protection likely misunderstands how hardware wallets work or is selling something. > >Conclusion: Comment is naive at best, misleading at worst. 🤷♂️ Rebuttal? 😋
The best defensive tactic is silence and secrecy. Don't tell people you have bitcoin or where your wallet/seeds are. But if you dont have more than 1 btc you are fine, just don't fall for Coinbase scams or similar. Don't send your wallet seeds to anyone no matter what, it is 100% always a scam. If you do have 1+ btc, you need to do some serious self-study. blogs, books, and actual OPSEC guides. I would recommend just keeping it with you, don't leave it to a bank. Your best security is that nobody knows you even have it.
Just because you say you know OPSEC and how to practice OPSEC doesn't mean you actually do, cryptobro.
I know a lot of OPSEC. Do you know about securing your accounts from hackers, making sure you have strong passwords, make your money is secure so nobody robs you, do you train your body and mind every day for security, do you watch the people around you because you have seen what happens when people get caught off guard, have you ever played around with scammers and explored various offensive techniques that have been developed? Have ever been taught different techniques to conceal your identity and have obfuscation. It’s not my fault you are mad at yourself because you haven’t achieved anything in your life but too busy stocking various subreddits getting mad people. I bet you $50 that you won’t put your bank account details on this public forum or let me have all your details. If people were as oblivious as you everyone would be helpless. Keke
> You are pissed off someone wants to spread awareness about OPSEC. No, I'm derisive of someone who thinks he knows anything about OPSEC while living in his Redditor fantasy world
Are you projecting? Why are you so mad please calm down. I don’t play games or watch tv. You are pissed off someone wants to spread awareness about OPSEC. I’m sorry you don’t have to worry anything so you have to lash out at people giving advice.
Everyone does OPSEC whether they notice it or not. OPSEC is operation security it comes with situational awareness too. You not knowing the importance of it tells me that you are living way too comfortably and you have never dealt with any adversity in your life. There are people that have to live day by day protecting themselves and their family and wealth once they see you slipping that’s when they will hit. No cop or government is going to help you
OPSEC You're not Jason Bourne, FFS.
Proper OPSEC would have discouraged him from doing so.
If you're too stingy to spend €200 for much safer hardware wallets (like BitBox 02 BTC Only) to hold a potentially million Euro asset, shit like this is prone to happen... ...and then you basically blame bitcoin for your own incompetence and lack of OPSEC.
“We are currently clean on OPSEC” -Pete
It’s just bad OPSEC imo.
Hey, I created this post to warn people, here's no reason to come at me personally. When I said I'm certain there's no seed leak on my end, I mean that I never stored the keys digitally, reused them, or exposed them online in any way. That's not a claim of technical superiority, it’s basic OPSEC. And when I mentioned not being ‘tech savvy,’ I wasn't speaking just about myself, it's about a broader group of people who’ve been affected and are trying to protect others by sharing what happened. We’re all trying to navigate a space that even seasoned users can find complex. Attacking the victims help no one.
Man, you better learn some OPSEC (Operational Security) You should NOT be telling people how much BTC you have. The evil internet men will steal or are you just trying to GLOAT???
Honestly, cold storage in 2025 is less about just picking a device and more about building a setup that actually covers you on all sides—security, durability, and backup. Hardware wallets like Ledger Nano X, Ledger Stax, and Trezor Model T are still the go-to for most people, and for good reason. They’re actively supported, work with a bunch of coins, and most importantly, they keep your private keys offline. If you’re a hardcore Bitcoin-only type, Coldcard is still king, but the learning curve is definitely higher. Some people are also combining hardware wallets with smart contract wallets like Safe on Ethereum to do things like multisig or social recovery. That adds extra layers of protection, especially if you’re managing a large portfolio or want a plan in place in case something happens to you. Not essential for everyone, but definitely worth looking into if you’re trying to future-proof your setup. Air-gapped setups are still around too—think old laptops with no internet used just to sign transactions—but unless you’re deep into OPSEC or moving serious size, that’s probably overkill. Most folks just want something reliable and simple enough to not screw up later. As for backups, seed phrase storage is where a lot of people drop the ball. Paper wallets used to be a thing, but they’re way too fragile and risky now. The standard today is metal backups—basically stainless steel plates where you punch in your seed words. These can survive fire, water, and whatever else. Doesn't have to be fancy, just durable. You’ll want to store the backup in a safe, deposit box, or somewhere only you (or someone you trust) can access. Some people split the seed phrase in half and store it in two places, but that can get tricky. If you go that route, make sure you really understand what you’re doing—losing one half means you're locked out forever. A good setup these days is something like: a hardware wallet for signing, a metal backup of your seed phrase stored offline, and possibly a second hardware wallet or multisig setup for redundancy. That alone gets you a pretty strong cold storage system without going full spy mode. Out of curiosity, are you mostly holding BTC and ETH, or do you have stuff spread across different chains and tokens? That might help narrow down which wallet fits best.
Honestly, cold storage in 2025 is less about just picking a device and more about building a setup that actually covers you on all sides—security, durability, and backup. Hardware wallets like Ledger Nano X, Ledger Stax, and Trezor Model T are still the go-to for most people, and for good reason. They’re actively supported, work with a bunch of coins, and most importantly, they keep your private keys offline. If you’re a hardcore Bitcoin-only type, Coldcard is still king, but the learning curve is definitely higher. Some people are also combining hardware wallets with smart contract wallets like Safe on Ethereum to do things like multisig or social recovery. That adds extra layers of protection, especially if you’re managing a large portfolio or want a plan in place in case something happens to you. Not essential for everyone, but definitely worth looking into if you’re trying to future-proof your setup. Air-gapped setups are still around too—think old laptops with no internet used just to sign transactions—but unless you’re deep into OPSEC or moving serious size, that’s probably overkill. Most folks just want something reliable and simple enough to not screw up later. As for backups, seed phrase storage is where a lot of people drop the ball. Paper wallets used to be a thing, but they’re way too fragile and risky now. The standard today is metal backups—basically stainless steel plates where you punch in your seed words. These can survive fire, water, and whatever else. Doesn't have to be fancy, just durable. You’ll want to store the backup in a safe, deposit box, or somewhere only you (or someone you trust) can access. Some people split the seed phrase in half and store it in two places, but that can get tricky. If you go that route, make sure you really understand what you’re doing—losing one half means you're locked out forever. A good setup these days is something like: a hardware wallet for signing, a metal backup of your seed phrase stored offline, and possibly a second hardware wallet or multisig setup for redundancy. That alone gets you a pretty strong cold storage system without going full spy mode. Out of curiosity, are you mostly holding BTC and ETH, or do you have stuff spread across different chains and tokens? That might help narrow down which wallet fits best.
Unfortunately you failed the OPSEC portion of the test though ...
Been thinking about wrench attacks and would like some feedback. Multisig with devices in different locations seems like a good idea because you physically cannot fulfill an attackers demands without contacting someone else who could be alerted to your distress. However, with help or a decent lure the attacker could wrench your loved one which should be avoided at all costs… Duress pins that wipe devices would anger an attacker into violence. Decoy wallets may be obvious to an attacker who knows how much you have. This is more of an OPSEC issue, but still defeats the purpose of a decoy wallet. I feel like the best route is a single sig decoy wallet to pay an attacker and a Multisig wallet with the rest. If they know about the decoy and ask for the whole stack you can call up another key holder and use a code word to let them know whether you’re asking for their hardware device in distress. Example, “I need to wallet so I can buy a boat” means ‘all clear,’ while “I need the wallet to cover some bills” would mean ‘Call the cops.’
Thanks! The primary goal of the framework is privacy. While cold wallets enhance security, they can leave digital footprints—such as payment records, shipping details, and purchase logs—that may affect OPSEC. For strict privacy, I don’t recommend them.
This is a comprehensive and well-structured framework for maintaining privacy in crypto transactions. The emphasis on both on-chain and off-chain OPSEC is crucial. Have you considered integrating hardware wallets with these practices for an added layer of security?
Do you know why you never tell your girlfriend about your bitcoin? You never know who she will tell. She might even do something as stupid as post about it to millions of people on reddit. Telling your girlfriend about your bitcoin is bad OPSEC!
Anything online is a terrible place to put anything as detrimental to your OPSEC as your seed phrase. I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT USE BITWARDEN.
Sorry for your loss OP. This was a shitty way to learn good OPSEC, but it’s crucial when pursuing self-custody. You will be able to rebuild, don’t beat yourself up too much. Again, terribly sorry this happened to you OP.
considering the amount of data breaches in recent years, it’s not as hard as you would think. Also digging into people’s profiles can provide people with way more information than you think. For example, after looking at your profile I was able to find out you live in the east coast area, play the guitar, grow figs and cannabis, and have a very nice red brick house with a great front yard. That was after 5 minutes and no motivation to dig deeper. Think about what someone will do if they wanted to extort/intimidate someone for money. Cross referencing to find out other accounts, where someone might frequent, finding meta data on pictures to get accurate locations, etc. Good OPSEC is very important, especially when the biggest security risk in any system is the human behind it
It sounds like you went full degen into the dumbest shit and are upset that you got burned. I'm still doing just fine in this market, so maybe stay out of memecoins and leverage trading (and apparently poor OPSEC practices).
i love money stamps. it might work better if you provide education alongside so try a big ass stamp that explains OPSEC with wallets and basic concepts like how the ledger is public
I totally get that — **OPSEC is key** when it comes to Bitcoin. A lot of people prefer to keep their holdings private, and that makes sense, especially with security concerns. That said, some people wear Bitcoin merch not to flex their bags, but to support the movement, spark conversations, or just rep what they believe in. It’s like wearing a band tee — you don’t have to be in the band to show support. Do you think there’s a way to wear Bitcoin gear **without signaling wealth**, like low-key designs that only other Bitcoiners would recognize?
why Monero is better than Zcash: * no CEO * no vulnerable corporate presence, anonymous core developers not subject to US/EU regulatory pressure or intimidation * not overly-concerned with compliance, privacy is prioritized in every consideration regardless of the consequences * fully private at protocol level (no optional privacy), all transactions look the same, transparency is strictly opt-in * auto-shielded IP addresses * uses established, well-understood, battle-tested and thus reliable cryptography as opposed to novel, experimental, much less understood and thus potentially flawed cryptography i.e. no "spooky moon math" * modular approach to privacy = no single point of failure * proven track record, 6+ years of sustained darknet usage with 0 users traced, has notably foiled the FBI, Europol & the IRS * no suspected backdoors * no dev tax i.e. "founder's reward/community development fund", conditional donation-based dev funding gives the community more leverage and keeps devs disciplined * wasn't designed to systematically enrich founders & early Zerocoin Electric Coin Company LLC investors, whales either mined or bought their coins like everybody else * not a Bitcoin fork * not transitioning to Proof-of-Stake, PoW has a proven 10+ year track record while consumer-grade CPU mining remains the most anonymous, most permissionless way of acquiring coins * ASIC resistance * tail emission * dynamic blocksize * lower inflation * ever-increasing real-world adoption, actually displacing Bitcoin in OPSEC-critical markets, endorsed by the DNM Bible * growing criminal adoption = infinitely more street cred + law enforcement/regulator hostility = additional battle-hardening * passionate grassroots enthusiasm, considerably more community engagement and activism, has better memes * significantly better reputation, widely admired and respected by non-hodlers, has much more traction on Reddit, 4chan, etc * greater decentralization = much more likely to survive a governmental crackdown on privacy coins * no trademark restrictions, no pandering to the Establishment, has steadfastly remained true to crypto's anti-authoritarian free market cypherpunk ideals [https://moneroinfodump.neocities.org/#ZcashBlackpill](https://moneroinfodump.neocities.org/#ZcashBlackpill)
Great question! As others have mentioned, a little search goes a long way, but I’m happy to start you on that journey. Read up and educate yourself about self-custody: https://strike.me/learn/?category=custody Please be aware that self-custody comes with its own inherent risks, so be prepared for those risks by practicing good OPSEC. Check the sidebar for more information on hardware wallets. Everyone will give you a different opinion, so just be ready to watch several YouTube comparison and review videos to help you decide which hardware wallet is best for you. I have used Ledger and Trezor and Trezor is my personal favorite. Most importantly, you can ask for options on here but as any good researcher should do, never trust but always verify! Best of luck!
More points of failure. Seems like it would be better to reduce down to as few points of failure as possible and improve OPSEC of the few points that remain.
Same bullshit can be seen on the Coinbase sub. Tons of noobs with money that don’t know proper OPSEC for managing their crypto
DOT, MATIC, HBAR, SOL, and then do some "gambling" on Neural.ai and OPSEC. Risky, yes, but upside potential is super attractive. Don't take out a second mortgage, but gamble a little.
I can’t really respond to all of this. So I’ll just say that I meant using ex CIA in an advisory role mostly, just to teach me OPSEC. I could even just be one of the random people going through everydayspy, I just need to find a way to get the knowledge I need to pull this off. And I might use the same organization to launder the money I just wouldn’t do it all at once. You have to do it slowly such that they know more money is coming, so there’s a disincentive to rip you off on any one deal because they would just be screwing themselves over of millions for thousands. What id probably want to do is use a front, but a front that’s not actually laundering any money but secretly has the sole purpose of making the drops while they are thinking they are doing something entirely different. Like I said, I’d have to think about it. Ultimately I’d want to come up with something no one has ever done before so no one is looking out for it. And I realize nothing is “foolproof” but if you put enough layers between you and the actual operation it’s very unlikely anyone would be able to find out who I am because it’s simply just not enough money to devote those kinds of resources for. My main problem would be financing this thing without any startup capital, that would be the most difficult issue to solve I think. Once it gets going it’s self-sustaining, but it would probably require at least a few hundred thousand to get running in the first place. I’d also have to put in a lot of effort learning cybersecurity OPSEC first because one of the first things I would need to do is split the BTC up into multiple wallets, and I’m certain that’s traceable if not done correctly.
Jesus Christ you’re making a lot of assumptions here. 1. I wouldn’t tell them anything about money laundering I would only have them advise me on OPSEC about things like making sure you don’t get tailed. 2. I never said I would do it all at once…once again, you’re making assumptions and arguing with straw men. 3. Again I wouldn’t be telling anyone anything. People would be transporting briefcases for me, or possibly absolutely nothing more than a piece of paper with routing numbers/private keys on them. No one would know anything other than the fact they are making some kind of drop. And I would do it in small enough amounts that nothing would arouse suspicion. 4. I’m not trusting anyone here, the whole point is to use intermediaries because I don’t trust anyone. And if no one knows anything about what’s actually going on they don’t really have anything to sell me out on. I definitely would sit on it for a year and make sure my plan is absolutely fool proof and I know I could do it given enough time and planning. Every counterargument you have is based on a straw man that either misunderstands what I said or is filling in the blanks about what you think I’ll be doing.
There's nothing you or anyone can do about that now. But the odds are very low, unless you can somehow be identified as owning a large amount of coin. The vast majority have only small amounts and the rewards from random wrench attack aren't worth the risks. Practice good OPSEC and never tell anyone how much you have, and you'll be fine.
Fuck off Nobody here is gonna tell you their wealth We like our OPSEC
Most people are debt addicted, they don´t invest nor care about it. Do your OPSEC right and stop talking about it.
I will not explain to you how to launder your money using Monero, but once you understand its mechanics and why deanonymization is impossible on the Monero Blockchain (except for the incredibly theoretical EAE attack, which requires incredibly bad OPSEC), you will know how one could launder money on the monero Blockchain. [Breaking Monero](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsSYUeVwrHBnAUre2G_LYDsdo-tD0ov-y&si=gkTJex77bSwbknkJ) is a very good source of information for this. Money laundry is usually illegal, but actually not a bad thing IMO. Every transaction on the Monero Blockchain is untracable and always perfectly launders the money over and over again. This is necessary so that funds can be fungible. If funds are not always automatically laundered, they are no longer fungible and no longer to be considered real money, because real money must be fungible, in order to be considered a reliable measurement of value and usable for trading whatever you want to trade. If you just look up EAE attack you will see how you can easily eliminate this threat (no EAE attack attempt had been satisfyingly successful in the past because this attack relies on statistical analysis, which is a weakness of the current implementation of Ring Signatures, which will be replaced by FCMP (Full chain membership proofs) in the future with completely eliminates this weakness for good). TL;DR If you want to understand Monero, research these terms: Ring Signatures (and why FCMP is more (perfectly) secure compared to ring signatures) RingCT Stealth Address Key Image UTXO Pederson Commitment Dandeloin++ Bulletproofs EAE Attack Watch out to not loose your mind. At least to me, understanding all this tech was incredibly complex at first but it all makes sense now. Its very smart and incredibly, what some random people on the internet came up with in their spare time.
Well basically, its due to adoption. Many ransom attackers actually offer a Monero discount. Lets say someone asks you for 10k USD worth of Bitcoin in ransom. It is not uncommon that they at the same time will also offer you to pay your ransom in Monero at a 10% discount, lowering your ransom to 9k USD. As long, as they have good OPSEC, it is impossible to catch them. But the cases of those being caught, are the ones, where the criminal didnt have good OPSEC. Just as bad OPSEC as their victim had, which led them to becoming a victim in the first place. So far not a single Monero transaction has ever been deanonymized. Criminals using Monero have been caught in the past, because they accidentally uploaded private documents of their victims (because they didnt pay the ransom) alongside their entire home folder. Thats how the Vastaamo guy got caught for example. Others just talk way too much. Most criminals actually just talk way too much. Thats why we dont need everything to be transparent. In the end, criminals will just catch themselves, due to their bad OPSEC outside the Monero network. Its very hard to fuck up inside the Monero network, but incredibly easy to fuck up outside of it.
But breaking the traceability, that’s where it gets tricky. Bitcoin’s like the nosy neighbor of crypto, watching all your transactions on the blockchain. So, they’d probably have to bounce those funds through a mixer or use something like CoinJoin to scramble the trail a bit. Still, even after all that, it's not 100% clean. Bitcoin isn’t Monero—it’s not built for hiding your tracks, and there’s always some digital breadcrumbs left behind. These guys will need some serious OPSEC to stay outta sight. Probably be looking to swap it for Monero or another privacy coin before cashing out, just to play it extra safe. But, yeah, definitely not the easiest loot to disappear with.
If youre that worried about it, get out. Dont invest what you cant aford to lose or recover from. Also the fact that you got robbed. Use it as a lesson to teach yourself better OPSEC and learn to manage your risk better.
Couple scammers used social engineering to trick a man into screensharing his private key and also gave access to his 2FA. Scammers gained access to multiple accounts with over 4000 BTC. They drained his wallet and spent up to $500k per day on buying gifts for crushes like Lamborghinis and Birkin bags for random women at the club. Total losers with little OPSEC. Could’ve gotten away with it if they were just a little smart.
Well you probably want to make sure you use proper OPSEC before sending it to those wallets, but yeah.
Maybe I’m conflating that with some other famous case of how they caught a cyber criminal. I’m telling you that running your own node is absolutely the worst possible idea. Think about it, if they can trace the traffic without you owning a node then they can essentially pin down the traffic to your specific node, and if they find out it’s owned by some private entity then they are obviously going to assume it’s you. They don’t need a warrant to figure any of that out nor do they need one to employ the various mechanics they would use to deanonymize you. If you put a big enough target on your back there is nothing you can do once you’re no longer anonymous, which is why maintaining anonymity is paramount in standard OPSEC. But go ahead and run your node and think it protects you. Hope you aren’t doing anything too illegal.
I mean I didn’t know you lived in a gated community before. Do whatever you want. Can’t force OPSEC.
I mean it would seem to me you should buy a floppy drive and some random cheap pc off Facebook market and plug it in. Could be a virus, could be someone’s seed phrases. Floppy for the last 10 years has been pretty decent OPSEC. When’s the last time you saw a floppy drive or something with one it for on a store shelf?
That is some top tier OPSEC, to put your burner online id on your personal data. Also, Satoshi left Bitcoin before seeds where a thing, and that storage medium was long obsolete in 2009...
You’re not guaranteed your assets when an exchange goes under. You might eventually get a payment if they do, but it’s entirely up to the company and any potential lawyers and judges involved how you’re paid, and how much you’re paid. Also if your exchange account gets hacked you aren’t getting anything back. You get to have your own OPSEC with your own keys and node.
If you go far enough down the rabbit hole and live in places like the U.S you realize Non-KYC is essential to own, otherwise your trusting big brother not to leverage your identity against your Bitcoin holdings. Currently KYC is nice for buying/selling large amounts quickly since non KYC is pretty restricted/low liquidity. Non KYC requires better OPSEC, but It’s a good idea to have both. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pay your taxes, but if the tax rate becomes 90 percent you will have some optionality. Few look at the Boston Tea Party participants as tax evaders, and we are on a crash course for our own Boston tea party moment so be prepared.
It’s $OPSEC’s staking contract I believe
Hey man, it is great you could do it in time and have confidence in your future from that aspect. As you mentioned tensions where you live: Just make sure your OPSEC is good and your threat model adapted to what your country is experiencing now, if in a state of emergency and civil unrest. Backups you made work and you proved they work (wipe and reset a wallet, try transaction out of the wallet,...) Safe backup methods/redundant/etc... May you be force to move region/country/loose property/ etc... ? Keep extra quiet about self ownership as violence may be around the corner Consider how to pass it along to loved ones if the worst happens or you loose memory or whatever.. Best,
I dont want to bash your friend because moving to their hardware wallet was good practice, but due to lack of preplanning, they’ve made their OPSEC way more complicated than it needs to be. The first problem was buying Bitcoin with KYC from Coinbase. At that point they might as well left on exchange (or transferred to any other custodian like Strike app for example) for their travel, then withdrew to their wallet once they arrived to their new home. Due to having KYC’d Bitcoin, they could be open to tax obligations from their previous country, in which case they need to be able to pay the tax with a bank account from the previous country anyway, which ALMOST makes holding the Bitcoin in the new country burdensome and somewhat less valuable. That being said, the Border Wallet from Sparrow someone else mentioned might be the best, most secure option. You could use any hot wallet and send back to hardware wallet once done traveling, but the border wallet is best if your friend just NEEDS to keep a seed phrase while traveling for some reason. A simpler method is just create a 2nd wallet inside the Trezor with a passphrase. Keep the majority inside the wallet with the passphrase and keep a small amount in the regular wallet with the seed phrase so if they get stopped and asked to empty their Trezor, they can dump the decoy wallet with the small amount of sats and keep the rest of the Bitcoin hidden inside the passphrase wallet.
No, not at all. I don’t need the multi-sig bitcoin in any emergency. If I had to leave country I could access in 24-48 hours with one key and the entity I use for multi-sig with verification. There is just a delay. So, very portable still. Still have instant liquidity with bitcoins that I don’t have in the multi-sig. And, of course, my OPSEC setup doesn’t do anything to the scarcity of bitcoin. So, that point certainly doesn’t ‘fall through’ .. same for audibility and transparency that still enacted. You clearly don’t understand bitcoin.
Well, in this case Crunchbase is one of many partners they announced other partners include OPSEC and Ionet. That aside like i said earlier it has an active data marketplace so your obsession with the project not solving anything implies laziness on your part.
First off, I like Joe. I worked at ConsenSys for a bit. He's a bit of an old school money guy, but his heart is in the right place. Second, I don't really care if he gets in trouble. It would have negligible impact on the Ethereum ecosystem. Third, the (weak) pseudo-anonymity he's talking about there is not even a little bit shady. Splitting up sales so the general public can't see obvious whale activity is just good OPSEC. It isn't going to fool regulators or law enforcement, since emails are attached, and it's clearly not indented to.
"Its unstealable and unlosable for all practical purposes." Backup need not be on the cloud... it can be in a medium (cryptosteel) and location (bank vault, etc.) where you will not lose it. Our OPSEC recommendation strongly encourages you to have more than one such backup for maximum safety and security under this framework. Our goal is to turn the odds in your favor so much that it is unlikely for you to lose your Bitcoin. And insurance is not the subject matter of this discussion. What you insure for and how is a subject matter of your relationship with your Hybrid Custody Provider. Even if you chose to insure, it will be exponentially cheaper to underwrite risk under this framework compared to other scenarios.
If your private-key is stolen and you also lost all access to it... then your Bitcoin cannot be recovered as your key always takes precedence over vendor key. This failure scenario is discussed clearly in the video "Hybrid Custody with Ledger - TechnologyOverview" To prevent this... our standard recommended OPSEC practice is to have an encrypted cloud back up as stolen keys are less of a problem in this framework than lost and stolen keys. Once you have backups as recommended, you can tide over this edge case easily.
Have you had any close call OPSEC moments with personal secuirity IRL?
The distinction I would make here is that there is always risk. If you perceive it to be negligible, then that's entirely your prerogative and I'm not saying that's wrong. What I am saying is that thinking there's no risk is simply untrue. Also, your point about people who have conventional wealth -- that is protected by institutions, laws, police, etc. Bitcoin is more than likely protected by individuals. I am just saying from experience that most people do not have good OPSEC.
Assuming someone has good OPSEC might be a reach considering they're openly advertising what they have. If you understand the basic tenants of security and risk, you understand that it's not possible to be completely secure. There will always be risk and each individual has to decide what their own risk appetite is. Generally speaking, it's not wise to invite potential risks to look in your direction.
OPSEC on Uniswap. Recent ATH over $3 , now sitting at around $1. It's AI and RWA. Hard working team, active community. Sure people will say it's gambling and to buy BTC but if I only had $100 then I'd rather take a chance on something then a boring 2 x
Practice securing something else first. Build your confidence. The fact that people are so scared of their own ability to secure Bitcoin is a very big testament to how well society has conditioned us to not care to look after anything on our own. This also extends to children, we are scared to raise kids, we send them to schools to learn "the correct way", we ask for external advice on how to discipline children, yet children actually may be the one thing we have most autonomy and most desire to take responsibility for. But back to the topic, securing Bitcoin is hard, there are many choices, no one will give you "the correct way" to do it, because the decision is up to you based on what you know, what you will read, what you can understand and what your surroundings are like. One good piece of advice is to follow OPSEC. This is actually a thing where you write down all the things you are scared about, as an exercise, and sort them from realistic to unrealistic and you may even find simple solutions for some of them. Eventually as you work through this, discover other things you hadn't thought about, you will gain confidence that you do have the ability to secure 12 FRICKING WORDS.
I understand your point. I’m thinking for beyond me and taking into account the poor OPSEC of my wife. There is no “I have forgot my password” with self custody. Life has changed for me and I need to think beyond myself. If I’m still alive when my kids prove being cypherpunk themselves that’s maybe time for a change. We will see by then.
I think it’s important to mention that OPSEC is important. Always talk about Bitcoin. Don’t talk about your Bitcoin.
I made a post about OPSEC which has no reason to not go up 100%: [https://www.reddit.com/user/Ok-Blood-4246/comments/1bznlo4/opsec\_crypto\_to\_5x\_easily\_from\_here/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/user/Ok-Blood-4246/comments/1bznlo4/opsec_crypto_to_5x_easily_from_here/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) I have seen enough to know that it can't go wrong. The worst already came, with the FUD and price dropping during btc dip. My target is 10$ but I don't see why it shouldn't go more up. Another interesting one is VELO. go check it out.
AI summer >>>> DeFi summer. To add to your AI picks i will go with more undervalued AI projects like NAI, VMINT and OPSEC.
If you have your seed phrase, you can download any wallet app, and do recover from seed phrase. You need an internet connection as it's downloading and looking up your wallets and balance etc. The reason for the ledger is to store your keys, and prevent any dodgy malware that could have compromised your phone/laptop/computer from detecting you have crypto, stealing your keys or doing stuff like monitoring your clipboard ( copy / paste ) and switching what's stored for a different wallet address For example imagine you have something like exodus on your laptop. You are sending someone some BTC and they provide you their wallet address to send to. You will likely copy this to your clipboard and then go to the app and paste in it and send. What some malware could do is run in the background looking for keys or any sign you have crypto software, and steal keys or detect you have copied a wallet id into your clipboard ready to paste, and instead put its own wallet id in to clipboard so when you paste you send your BTC to someone else. By storing your keys on the device and Ledger not holding them on your computer they are implementing a 2FA. One doesn't work without the other. The above is obviously a big issue for people who don't practice OPSEC very well, or doesn't even bother with basics like antivirus software. However antivirus software wouldn't protect you in a zero day situation. You then have scammers who try tricking you into doing Remote Desktop connection and take over your laptop, these kind of scams are very common and pose the same risks above. The above is why people shouldn't brag on here about how much they have, based on Reddit history etc you can often identify people and you then become a target such campaigns and attacks.
>How can I as a total novice go about setting this up Buy a modern hardware wallet, I liked both Bitbox02 (Bitcoin Only Edition) and the Coldcard Mk4. Initialize the device, write down your device login/password and your 24 seed words, make a backup copy, stash the backup somewhere secure, off site. Send a small amount of Bitcoin to the wallet, factory reset it, practice re-initializing the device from your seed words. Send a small amount from the wallet to an exchange. If all of that worked fine, you're good to go for six or seven figures easy. Consider using Sparrow Wallet for the software portion (the UI/interface), it's a great desktop wallet that works awesome with most modern wallets. Basic OPSEC, don’t go around talking to people about how great Bitcoin is. Just get rich quietly. That's it, that's all you need to do. Your 24 word seed *is* your Bitcoin. Do nothing, for years, a four year cycle or two. When it comes time to retire, maybe you buy a fancy new hardware wallet and set it up with your seed words, maybe your Coldcard still works totally fine. Hope that helps!
Please stop using the word OPSEC like you know what you are talking about. I haven't posted any sensitive information at all except I have almost 3 Bitcoin which is unconfirmed information by the way. Maybe I have zero Bitcoin. You didn't even think of that did you? I didn't say any anything about 2FA having anything to do with OPSEC so let's not play that game of making up things I said. You are right it is possible I could lose my Bitcoin like what could happen to anyone else BUT it won't be because I said have almost 3 Bitcoin in a random Reddit thread.
Are you comfortable ordering a cold card to your home address or for OPSEC would you advise receiving it somewhere else?
Im maxi ETH but had some money today to buy some bag differents..bought me a bag (MEME), (ONDO) and (OPSEC)..the last one looks interesting new upcoming project. We shall see..
Ok, I've been buying since 2014 or so, here's my two cents. Buy a modern hardware wallet, I liked both Bitbox02 (Bitcoin Only Edition) and the Coldcard Mk4. Initialize the device, write down your device login/password and your 24 seed words, make a backup copy, stash the backup somewhere secure, off site. Send a small amount of Bitcoin to the wallet, factory reset it, practice re-initializing the device from your seed words. Send a small amount from the wallet to an exchange. If all of that worked fine, you're good to go for six or seven figures easy. You don't need a passphrase, or multisig, or metal plates, or three friends to hold a portion of your seed words or a linux laptop, that's all overkill, you're straying into paranoia. You \*do\* need Sparrow Wallet, it's a great desktop wallet that works awesome with most modern wallets. Basic OPSEC: don't talk about Bitcoin with people around you, friends, family, coworkers, just play dumb. Get rich quietly. That's it, that's all you need to do. Your 24 word seed \*is\* your Bitcoin. Stop worrying, obsessing, wondering what if. Relax. Do nothing, for years, a four year cycle or two. When it comes time to retire, maybe you buy a fancy new hardware wallet and set it up with your seed words, maybe your Coldcard still works totally fine. Hope that helps.