Why it’s important to avoid telling everyone about your crypto holdings

[xxjumperxx]

Some people make lots of status on their Facebook accounts. So attackers do know they are crypto investors and sure they put themselves under future attacks because of their self disclosures. Careful people do not disclose to the others that they are crypto investors that in turn minimize risks of attacks on their privacy, and their crypto funds.

Now this is crazy, you wouldnt go posting on facebook how much €/$ you have on your bank account?
That is like putting a target on your back...

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[Lucius]

10 years ago when you would tell someone you have 100 BTC they would probably look at you weirdly and wonder what it is and how much it is worth. Then such a statement would go completely unnoticed, no one would care to steal a few dollars from you. If you had repeated the same thing 5 years ago, someone would surely have been interested because 100 BTC times $200 is already a very nice amount of money. Today, the situation is such that even if you have only 10% of that amount, make it public and literally draw a target on your forehead.

There are already many documented cases where people have been robbed and in some cases even killed because they have publicly confessed to have Bitcoin or any crypto. By behaving in this way, you are not only endangering yourself, but also your family, who can become the target of kidnappers, which has also already happened in at least one case.

I think this is a way undervalued concept.
I personally had more than a few people telling me exactely how many satoshi they had in their account and where. Something no one would ever do with their bank account.
This is some weird logic displacement in my mind. A lot of people are still thinking to BTC like they weren't real money.

Really weird logic, and I think the thing is mostly that people like to brag about something out of the ordinary in the sense that they want to look smart because they invested $xxx, and they turned that into a $xxxx amount in a very short time. Bitcoin is still not perceived as money, because if we turn around and look at where we can spend it, we will not see the BTC logo in too many stores (if there are any at all).

[hatshepsut93]

I never told anyone about how many coins I have, but still I regret telling my relatives that I was involved with Bitcoin, because now they assume that I'm some sort of millionaire. And words travel far, they swear they didn't tell anyone, but I don't trust them.

People here often encourage others to spread the word about Bitcoin, get their friends on board, basically be an evangelist, but they don't think about how it will make you look in the eyes of others - when the price rises, every earlier hodler is viewed as a richman. So, not only be careful about telling how much crypto you have, also be careful about talking about crypto in general.

[taufik123]

People who already have a lot of followers, an influencer, a famous person and have a big company certainly will not be able to be anonymous about the ownership of crypto and others.

Being anonymous is only done by people who don't have too many followers, not well-known or ordinary people like me.
Being anonymous is certainly a good choice, with the reason that it is safer to be anonymous, rather than having to tell others about ownership of crypto and about bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Trying to hide your real identity is certainly very difficult if some people already know about us in this forum.
I really avoid telling my friends about the world of crypto and about this forum, even some people in my family don't know about my work in the online world. I also avoid sharing about bitcoin and crypto on my personal social media so that no one asks and is curious about what work I do in the online world.

[BITCOIN4X]

People who already have a lot of followers, an influencer, a famous person and have a big company certainly will not be able to be anonymous about the ownership of crypto and others.

Sorry, I do not agree with you. Bitcoin is a new financial innovation that allows anyone to hide the identity of ownership of their assets in storage even though they are famous people. Someone here is very likely to buy large amounts of bitcoin only through an ATM or using a master card, then they store it in a secure wallet. Do we know who owns the assets ? I dont think we can, its just that we can track the amount in the storage wallet.

Trying to hide your real identity is certainly very difficult if some people already know about us in this forum.

I never even know how much bitcoin has been bought by most famous users here. Unless they tell us how much of their actual bitcoin storage wallet is and how much is stored.

[AakZaki]

As someone who is closed I'm not too concerned about people who argue about bitcoin but that person doesn't understand and never uses bitcoin. Lay people who do not understand about bitcoin will consider bitcoin as a fictitious currency and only an investment that has no value.

Telling all your friends is not a good idea because it will be considered an expert and has a lot of money from bitcoin, and some friends don't understand what bitcoin is. They will continue to ask what the benefits are.

Maintaining privacy in the online world is very important to maintain our identity. better to be someone who is closed in the online world.

[plvbob0070]

I think it's just the same with fiat, you don't just tell or brag the amount of money you have. Things like this, especially money should remain private because sharing it with everyone can attract people even those opportunists. It's more prone to scammers and opportunists sharing private information on social media, so we should really be careful sharing information with others.

There's nothing wrong with sharing your knowledge about crypto and bitcoin, but of course, there's also a limitation because you can't just share every information. Know who to trust and can be trusted before sharing such information. My friends are also into crypto and bitcoin so it's okay for us to talk about crypto, but not to the point we tell each other the amount of bitcoin we have.

[Lucius]

I think it's just the same with fiat, you don't just tell or brag the amount of money you have.

It is not only about fact that you may share some info about how rich you are (in fiat or crypto), but how much you show it with your lifestyle. For example, if you drive a $100 000 car or have a $10 000 watch on hand, you don't have to say anything - those things speak for themselves. There are people who observe such things, gather information and assess whether they can in any way derive material benefit from it. Physical robbery, blackmail or kidnapping are just some of the most common methods used to achieve their goals.

When it comes to crypto, a completely new vector of attack opens up, which will always follow the line of less resistance and risk. Social engineering that includes phishing is certainly something that thieves will try first, but also the infection of your computer by inserting a USB stick into your mailbox with the note play me. They say curiosity killed the cat, but it is similar with humans - thieves always play on the two strongest cards, greed and curiosity.

[Saisher]

It's not good to tell people about your Crypto holding it's like exposing you wealth and how much you are making, friends will ask for a loan,bad elements will target you and the government may impose additional taxes for your holding, all they will see are the profits but not the risk,once you are expose you are targeted rich people have banks but since you only have your information you are going to be in trouble.

[famososMuertos]

Actually, the big problem is not saying someone, although in a certain way many rightly see it that way, it is a part, but you have to have a little common sense, the same as you have with your assets and liabilities in your offline world.

The real danger or another real danger is lived by those who change to their local currency, not everyone can do hodl and at some point they need their BTC, but they make the mistake of giving their data to receive their deposits, via local transfer, not all countries They use dollars, obviously, that is, you go an exchange like binance you change to dollars and send to your bank account.

In practice you can have your btc and change them to dollars or euros and then take them in various ways to your local currency, but many do not know the process, instead they go to places like LCBT and give more valuable information than a simple KYC. And in their minds they not suspect that this user with 10,000 transactions and 100% confidence, can sell your information, not today or tomorrow, but in the future when you have forgotten that exchange.

So maybe you do not lose bitcoin, but have arrived in your offline world, where perhaps losing a bitcoin has no comparison with what can happen to you in your real life, just for the simple fact of having made a transaction with many errors.

That is the most critical mistake that many have when they do not need to talk to friends or strangers, to be giving away privileged information.

[ShowOff]

It's not good to tell people about your Crypto holding it's like exposing you wealth and how much you are making, friends will ask for a loan,bad elements will target you and the government may impose additional taxes for your holding, all they will see are the profits but not the risk,once you are expose you are targeted rich people have banks but since you only have your information you are going to be in trouble.

In certain circumstances a person must also be a little arrogant with his assets with the aim of killing the arrogance of others with arrogance but not for the purpose of showing off. Of course human nature will not be underestimated especially if we have a lot of wealth. In real life you have to throw an ace to show that you are in front of it. But in crypto, you might not need to do it because you will be the target of cyber criminals.

[GDragon]

I never told anyone about how many coins I have, but still I regret telling my relatives that I was involved with Bitcoin, because now they assume that I'm some sort of millionaire. And words travel far, they swear they didn't tell anyone, but I don't trust them.

People here often encourage others to spread the word about Bitcoin, get their friends on board, basically be an evangelist, but they don't think about how it will make you look in the eyes of others - when the price rises, every earlier hodler is viewed as a richman. So, not only be careful about telling how much crypto you have, also be careful about talking about crypto in general.

I guess I'm lucky with my family knowing I'm in btc but still doesn't expect much about it. I never tell anyone about my coins too, what I tell my family is that I am into btc and is trying to earn with it. They understand that it doesn't mean I would get it right away.  In ma case, whenever I tell a friend about btc, I always clarify that I am interested about this technology but I am no way a huge earner. I trust my friends so I always tell them about btc but not about my keys or my holdings and so on. I just want them to be interested in it. But yep, will never tell it to anyone I don't trust.

[cryptoperkele]

I've been focusing really hard not to link any of my crypto activity to real life id. I have handful of friends i talk with and compare different projects with, also i am helping out one friend who is new to this stuff. None of us usually talk about this with anyone in real life and i am so paranoid i don't even comment any crypto related news on facebook.

Naturally i mess this up from time to time if i get drunk and someone start to talk about cryptos. Drunk me thinks it's a good idea to join in. And paying my beer with wirex card is a hint too. I'll avoid talking how much i have and right now i don't have too much, but i know from the past that can change very much and next bull run people will do the math.

Maybe i'll just say i have lost mine.

[asianguy845]

Just a side note.
If you tell your friends you have a lot of money in some coin, they can find out your wallet (maybe).
Since you know them well, they might be able to guess your password (if you use a wallet like Coinbase and not a hardware wallet).
And since crypto is nonrefundable, you will be screwed 

[KrisAlex18]

Very well said, in terms of cryptocurrency we should be careful, let us keep the privacy on our selves because there would be many instances like scamming and hacking of accounts in this virtual world so we should always be careful when doing some actions here. We should never tell anyone the amount of money we have in our wallet because once they have known the amount of the money and they find it so big they may become interested in it and do something bad even though you are considering them as your friend.

There would be no person that you should trust except your friends, even your friends can do bad things on you when you talk about money because money is power there are many people who do unpleasant things just to have money.

Do not also give some of your important details to anyone, or to show it in public, that is really dangerous once they get all of your important information they can use it for some bad things. That is why being anonymous is very important in cryptocurrency.

[libert19]

The first point is way too relatable. Wish I could change it.

Regarding kyc, it's kinda necessary, since it's only gateway to fiat-crypto and vice versa, if you avoid these exchanges, there is only p2p available which puts you at even bigger risk imo

Also, I was stupid enough to do kyc for airdrop, which I deeply regret.

[xxjumperxx]

Just a side note.
If you tell your friends you have a lot of money in some coin, they can find out your wallet (maybe).
Since you know them well, they might be able to guess your password (if you use a wallet like Coinbase and not a hardware wallet).
And since crypto is nonrefundable, you will be screwed 

How will they able to find out my wallet? Say as a beginner I do have an wallet at coinbase, they would still have to physically login into my coinbase.
Coinbase also has a security function, to make sure to confirm my login.
So they would have to know my coinbase password, know my email account password to access it.

No friends or family should know your passwords, regardless of crypto or not...

[fillippone]

Not telling everyone about you crypto holding is important.
But what if you fail in that?
It is important to have a plan B, a scheme on how to operate on an occasion where you might be forced to disclose your holding amount.
Bear in mind that this could happen both in a legal or an illegal way.

So it is important to setup a "plausible deniability" scheme.

Just to start the spark of toughts, read this pearl I just found on the WO thread.
 

[Lucius]

So it is important to setup a "plausible deniability" scheme.

Plan B is something necessary in most things we do in life, and when it comes to crypto anyone who relies on just one solution has a great chance of losing their coins at any moment. Plausible deniability is definitely something to look out for, and if we are already in a situation where we are forced to give someone confidential information (seed/private keys), then let’s make sure it’s only a small percentage of what we really have.


Some may have seen this video before, but it shows us in a very clear way that we should always be careful. Sometimes even those people we trust turn against us at some point.

Schloss Bitcoin (2020) - deutscher Kurzfilm - Crime Black Comedy Subtitles in English, French & more

[xxjumperxx]

Plausible deniability is definitely something to look out for, and if we are already in a situation where we are forced to give someone confidential information (seed/private keys), then let’s make sure it’s only a small percentage of what we really have.

This is exactly my idea.
To have a cold storage that contains most of my Portfolio and have a Plan B Wallet (Hot Wallet) that I use for casual use.
I always use a multiple wallets in between to make sure that there isnt a 1 to 1 connection from my Hot Wallet to my "safe Wallet".

Im still trying to make myself be safer but there arent any bitcoin atms around.
P2P is just too much of a risk for me.