OPSEC & Cyber Security 101
“Not your keys, not your crypto”
With a non-custodial wallet, you have sole control of your private keys, which in turn control your cryptocurrency and prove the funds are yours. With a custodial wallet, another party controls your private keys. Most custodial wallets these days are web-based exchange wallets.
Why can I have two different wallets (Phantom & Solflare) and use the same seed phrase to open them in both places?
The answer is quite simple: Your seed phrase and private keys are what offer the ultimate access to funds, whereas a wallet simply is the software you are using to access your funds.
Cold Storage
- Buy yourself a Ledger right now if you don’t have one. You *NEED* at least one Ledger to honestly participate in the crypto ecosystem. Without a Ledger / cold wallet, you are gambling with the risk of losing all your funds due to malicious actions every single day.
Consider ordering your Ledger via our official referral Link if you’d like to support our network and free content creation >here<
- Secure, buy, exchange, grow your crypto and manage your NFTs with our new Bluetooth-enabled hardware wallet. All your digital assets are secured in one place.
- Using a Ledger for all on-chain assets you care about is the first thing you should do when starting your journey in the crypto ecosystem.
Exchanges
Non-custodial. Similar to depositing your cash in the bank. You have to then ask them when you want it back, and it might not be as smooth as grabbing cash from inside your own wallet.
Also, as we’ve seen from the Luna Crash & the FTX crash: exchanges/platforms have been exposed for using other ppl’s crypto as liquidity or to collateralize loans, or WORSE to pay their debts when the exchange proves to be insolvent.
The only exchanges we can recommend currently are primeXBT and Bybit
Even these two are considered to only use with the greatest care. Leverage is a tool that allows you to trade bigger funds with less initial capital, not to multiply your base capital — keep that in mind and never deploy more than 1% of your net worth on one exchange at a time.
On-Chain Trading & Investing
There are tons of protocols on chains that you can use to yield additional revenue and we know that it looks weird recommending this without showing you any website or examples but the current state of the market does not allow any recommendation or shilling in this regard.
Sitting on your hands also is a highly profitable position. Once we are out of the woods and able to recommend truly safe protocols and platforms, we surely are going to do that. Until then:
Change all your passwords, set up 2 Factor Authentication, sell non-bluechip assets, and stack liquidity on your Ledger.
2 Factor Authentication
- Yubikey seriously, not changing from simple windows OS with chrome password manager to Ubuntu, an open source password manager and a YubiKey to verify all that simply sounds like you want to get “hacked”
- Google Authenticator — preferably Authy
Of course, using Google Authenticator is 100x better than no 2-FA but if you want to be able to restore all your 2-FA accesses, even when your phone is drowning in a lake, you should consider downloading the Authy App.
- Do not use SMS as verification as sim swapping can be your worst enemy. What does that mean: Traitors have an easy time stealing phone numbers or simply catching messages that belong to you.
checklist:
- never share your personal login details with anyone
- use unique passwords and usernames for different services
- update your passwords every 3–6 months
- don’t use passwords that are related to your personal life
- store your details/ seed phrase/ private keys on paper, never digital
- don’t dox yourself, it’s usually not worth the risk
- never flex your huge wins on Twitter for clout.
- Use a YubiKey to 2-FA your password and a Ledger to store your crypto
- Never keep more than 1% of your net worth on one exchange
- Sell profits into hard money and stack tools instead of clout
- Dig into Linux as Windows is an upright scam security wise
That’s a wrap! Of course, this has just been a small pilot starter for our educational content series, which we are publishing on a weekly basis from here, focussed on topics spinning around keeping your funds safe, steadily rising, and last but not least: having fun while doing so.
OPSEC can be a boring task but in the end, it is highly satisfying to have full control over your funds and know what you are doing.
Authors: Umbas / @artimg0 & bae / @baetheape
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