2nd September 2023 > > Don't!

tl;dr

A couple of things not to do in the crypto world.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Crypto prices continue to slip and slide. Conviction in the potential defeat of the SEC must be low, and probably correct, despite prominent Bloomberg analysts suggesting otherwise. In the absence of concrete good news (and that is at least a month away) September’s price action is lining up to be disappointing.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Ledger scam alert!

If you own a Ledger Nano, you can expect to receive this scam email anytime now:

I guess if you click on the link, it will tell you to input your private key to activate 2FA.

DO NOT do anything of the sort.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Don’t do this either

Next time you find yourself presenting a livestream on cryptos and crypto gaming (I know, it happens to all of us at some point in our lives) don’t show your private keys on screen:

With only 70 viewers at the time, our chap was unfortunate that one of them moved more quickly than he did and transferred 86,000 MATIC to a few other wallets, worth around $50,000, plus some ETH and several NFTs.

The thief (for this is theft, regardless of what some maxis will tell you – knowing private keys does not give you ownership over the contents of the wallet) appears to have had a change of heart and returned the MATIC to its rightful owner.

This story does highlight the thorny issue of safely storing private keys, one of the key stumbling blocks to wholesale adoption of cryptos by retail.

There is one product I know of that does not rely on safe storage of private keys by the owner, and that is the Tangem wallet (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/3rd-august-2023-worldcoin-con-and-tangem-reassessment). The core problem here is that for us non-techies, we must take the maths as read, putting our trust in a centralised organisation with whom we have no personal contact. But the same could be said of Ledger.

Centralised custodial solutions regulated by the appropriate regulator is the only long-term, sustainable solution to this problem. But do not tell the maxis, for they will have a hissy fit.