23rd May 2023 > > Hotbit and Web3 protection.

tl;dr

Hotbit ceases operations, and another browser extension to increase security for your Web3 interaction.

Market Snap (at time of writing)

Market Wrap

The politicisation of cryptos is now embraced by none other than Joe Biden:

“I’m not going to agree to a deal that protects wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders while putting food assistance at risk for nearly a million Americans.”

I take umbrage that as a crypto investor, and occasional trader, Biden publicly conflates me personally with wealthy tax cheats despite having no evidence to do so. My libel lawyers are looking into this. I will let you know how I get on.

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It’s fair to point out that not all Democrats concur. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a different take on the reach of government:

“As president, your right to own Bitcoin shall be inviolable. The government has no right to be inside your wallet”.

He referenced that Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, seized personal bank accounts from those involved in the Canadian Trucker Convoy protesting Trudeau’s totalitarian instincts, desires, and actions.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Hotbit

Hotbit, a centralised cryptocurrency exchange announced yesterday it was immediately ceasing operations with a request for all users to withdraw their assets by June 21st:

https://hotbit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/14750194236823-It-s-time-to-take-a-bow

Hotbit is an exchange I have occasionally used. I have never stored cryptos there though I have a residual amount of BTC. In the interests of journalistic integrity I tried to withdraw this residual BTC, and this is what I found:

The withdrawal option for USDT, BTC, and ETH is no longer available.

If you have any cryptos on Hotbit, take ‘em out now if you can.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Web3 protection for degens

On the 8th of April we looked at the Fire extension offering degens extra security when interacting with Web3 (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/8th-april-2023-degens).

I have come across another useful extension for Chrome, or better still, your Brave browser:

https://web3antivirus.io/

The free version (the only one currently available) claims to have this functionality:

“Phishing websites validation

Smart contract analysis

Token analysis

Transaction simulation

Risks and vulnerabilities detection”

Loading up on a variety of extensions can only help make your use of DeFi (decentralised finance) safer.

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Just one word of warning.

There will no doubt be scammers copying this idea. If an extension that claims to improve security ever asks for passwords, secret phrases, or tries to initiate a transaction, it is most certainly fake, and must be immediately deleted.

It is sensible to first install using a profile within your browser which has access to a MetaMask wallet with only a very small amount of crypto, the wallet you use when first interacting with high risk Web3 applications.