Category: Self-Custody & Security

Many beginners to self custody are at risk of making expensive mistakes due to lack of knowledge. Although I’ve covered best practices at length, I want to write about the most common misconceptions beginners have regarding cold storage. If you’re new around here, this post might save you hundreds of thousands down the line. 1) …

I keep getting questions whether it’s worth it to buy BitBox02 or Keystone 3 Pro if they already use MetaMask/Exodus/TrustWallet and have written the seed phrase on paper. Yes, it’s absolutely worth it. In this post, I’ll explain a few benefits and protections you gain with hardware wallets that hot wallets don’t offer. But first, …

Although I regularly cover hardware wallets and the seed phrase management on my blog, there is one concern that I’m often asked about. I’d paraphrase/summarize it as: “If my hardware wallet malfunctions after the company goes bankrupt, will I lose my money?” And the answer to that question is: no. As long as you have your …

As most of you know, hardware wallets are devices that give users total control over their digital assets. I cover this in detail in my security posts and in the self custody manual for beginners. So let’s start with a quick recap: What is a Hardware Wallet? In an oversimplified summary, a hardware wallet is …

I write about self custody and security a lot on this blog. The holy grail of securing digital assets is using a hardware wallet. And I’ve compared most with each other: Trezor, BitBox02, Ledger, Coldcard or the Keystone 3 Pro review. In this post, I’ll give my summary and recommendations: BitBox02 & Keystone 3 Pro …

Understanding seed phrases is essential for protection of your digital assets. I already covered best practices of seed phrase protection and today I’ll explain exactly what we’re protecting. Private Keys vs Seed Phrase The ownership of a crypto wallet boils down to having the private keys that control it. A private key is a string of alphanumeric characters that …

Choosing a hardware wallet is a serious and extremely responsible decision. A user has to do dedicated homework instead of picking the cheapest or the first available option. When I was evaluating which hardware wallets to buy, I relied on the following list of requirements. Read on and see the reasoning behind each. 1) Has to …

A couple of days ago, the CEO of Keystone stumbled upon my post “Is Ledger a Hot Wallet?“. This initiated a discussion and he offered to send me a Keystone 3 Pro device to try their Bitcoin-only firmware. I’m exceptionally selective in accepting gifts to avoid reciprocity bias, so I explicitly asked if there is anything …

With crypto summer emerging, the scammers are back with their old bag of tricks. This post is a n00b-friendly introduction to the most common crypto scams you should be aware of. Note: even if you self-custody, that’s not protection against lack of common sense. Having control of your coins makes you your own bank, i.e. …

The Byzantine generals problem is a distributed computing problem introduced in 1982, in a paper of the same name. In this post, I’ll give a simplified summary of a formulation of the problem. Then, I’ll explain how the Bitcoin blockchain and its use of Proof of Work solves it in practice. The Byzantine Generals Problem: …

Having control over your seed phrase is equivalent to having control over your crypto. I already covered the importance of self-custody before, so if you’re reading this post, make sure to know the basics. With that being said, let’s dive into how you can protect your seed phrase and increase the security of your crypto assets. …