Physical safety and BTC influencers

[Becassine]

The issue of physical safety for BTC or cryptocurrency hodlers  has been debated many times on the forum, and following several kidnappings of crypto influencers' relatives in France (but these kidnappings obviously also occur in other countries), how can btc influencers ensure their safety and that of their loved ones?

How can they both have visibility AND ensure their safety?

[Ambatman]

You can't eat your cake and still have it
Publicity comes with its risk and one of them is the public knowing about you.
Even if you show and state you have no Bitcoin, many won't still believe you
Hence putting your loved ones and self at risk.


The best you can do is hope for the best and improve your security IRL.
And for someone planning on venturing stay under the radar
become an influencer whose information or pictures doesn't have to be showcased.

[Helena Yu]

By not revealing their own identity and try to as private as possible.

Let's get the definition of influencer.

someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave:

There are many influencers in this forum and they never reveal their identity, although theymos likely have their IP address. Still, I don't know who're them, their face and so on.

o_e_l_e_o is one example of Bitcoin influencer, he taught me many thing about decentralization and non custodial, he influence me to use non custodial wallet in order to support decentralization.

[OmegaStarScream]

Things might be different for CEOs of crypto companies (exchanges, hardware wallet providers, etc) but for social media influencers out there it's best to be as private as possible as mentioned above. Avoid sharing unnecessary information, like where you're going (especially not in real-time), to not be flashy, and also avoid talking about your holdings.

[_act_]

By not revealing their own identity and try to as private as possible.

Let's get the definition of influencer.

someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave:

There are many influencers in this forum and they never reveal their identity, although theymos likely have their IP address. Still, I don't know who're them, their face and so on.

o_e_l_e_o is one example of Bitcoin influencer, he taught me many thing about decentralization and non custodial, he influence me to use non custodial wallet in order to support decentralization.

You are right, but what about people that are well known. In France, Ledger co-founder father was kidnapped two or three months ago. The hardware wallet company, Ledger Nano is located in France. So people there know the person and kidnapped his father for a ransom which should have been in crypto payment if not that they were found and arrested by the police.

[OcTradism]

The issue of physical safety for BTC or cryptocurrency hodlers  has been debated many times on the forum, and following several kidnappings of crypto influencers' relatives in France (but these kidnappings obviously also occur in other countries), how can btc influencers ensure their safety and that of their loved ones?

How can they both have visibility AND ensure their safety?

Stay humble in your life style and keep your wealth secretly.
Don't make noise and let everyone around you and online knowing that you have bitcoins and more dangerous knowing that you got rich by bitcoin.

Don't do things like this.
[BTC POP] another way to show people you are a bitcoiner is to live by example.

https://github.com/jlopp/physical-bitcoin-attacks

[Cekikafa]

If you are exposed, not have power to  full anonymity as Satoshi, you have no physical safety. Everybody can be reachable, enforceable.
And if you are in crypto work  business, do not scam, or sanction other people's money if he had done some job for you. Nobody is  invincible.
The blockchain doesn’t forget. And neither do people.

[m2017]

The issue of physical safety for BTC or cryptocurrency hodlers  has been debated many times on the forum, and following several kidnappings of crypto influencers' relatives in France (but these kidnappings obviously also occur in other countries), how can btc influencers ensure their safety and that of their loved ones?

Such people should 1st of all not advertise their relatives and friends in the public sphere (media, social networks, etc.). The less is known about them (ideally, so that strangers don't know about them at all), the safer they will be.

For example, if we take the personality of the founder of telegram. He is not poor either. How much is known about his relatives? Influencers should do approximately the same, i.e. not advertise their personal life.

How can they both have visibility AND ensure their safety?

Probably in the same way as when ensuring the safety of any other people (wealthy ones), such as having security.

In general, it seems to me that such crypto influencers should always be on their guard. Due to the hype of this niche.

[sheenshane]

You can still be an influencer without revealing your wealth, right?
Of course, yes!
You can be influential by providing consistent, informative, or educational content without exposing yourself to unnecessary risks or turning your wealth into a public spectacle.
Revealing your wealth publicly can attract scammers or kidnappers.

However, the incident involving kidnapping and ransom in France was a different story.
It seems the kidnappers were well aware of the influencers and their wealth.

[cryptoaddictchie]

The issue of physical safety for BTC or cryptocurrency hodlers  has been debated many times on the forum, and following several kidnappings of crypto influencers' relatives in France (but these kidnappings obviously also occur in other countries), how can btc influencers ensure their safety and that of their loved ones?

How can they both have visibility AND ensure their safety?

Stay in a safe country? Where crime has low rate. If they continue to post about their wealth specifically btc asset then its gonna be an eye catch to anyone who see it and got some interest. Its hard to say whose gonna be victimized by these kind of approach so the best way is to let those influencers dont brag their asset openly on public.

[criptoevangelista]

Here in Brazil, there's a very popular YouTube channel called "Bitcoinheiros", and on it there's an influencer who uses a pseudonym and a bear image as a kind of avatar. I think that's the only way to maintain privacy and security, especially for family members who have no idea what Bitcoin is and don't understand the risks they face just by being related to someone who is supposedly wealthy...

Here's an example of what their videos are like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtSyea7MkFY

[Plaguedeath]

Here in Brazil, there's a very popular YouTube channel called "Bitcoinheiros", and on it there's an influencer who uses a pseudonym and a bear image as a kind of avatar. I think that's the only way to maintain privacy and security, especially for family members who have no idea what Bitcoin is and don't understand the risks they face just by being related to someone who is supposedly wealthy...

Here's an example of what their videos are like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtSyea7MkFY

Unfortunately the downside of being pseudonymous when you become influencer is, you might not get the best results.

Just like the channel you mention above, he having 100K subscribers and his video only get 5K views in average. Nowadays, people are prefer to watch the creator instead of the content, even better if the Youtuber have a personality which liked by people and he's passionate to create high quality content.

I think when someone want to be influencer without show their identity, they can, but make sure to not achieve money as the goal. But, use it for popularity, increase your relation with new people etc.

[criptoevangelista]

Here in Brazil, there's a very popular YouTube channel called "Bitcoinheiros", and on it there's an influencer who uses a pseudonym and a bear image as a kind of avatar. I think that's the only way to maintain privacy and security, especially for family members who have no idea what Bitcoin is and don't understand the risks they face just by being related to someone who is supposedly wealthy...

Here's an example of what their videos are like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtSyea7MkFY

Unfortunately the downside of being pseudonymous when you become influencer is, you might not get the best results.

Just like the channel you mention above, he having 100K subscribers and his video only get 5K views in average. Nowadays, people are prefer to watch the creator instead of the content, even better if the Youtuber have a personality which liked by people and he's passionate to create high quality content.

I think when someone want to be influencer without show their identity, they can, but make sure to not achieve money as the goal. But, use it for popularity, increase your relation with new people etc.

Exactly, using a pseudonym weakens the connection with the audience a bit, most people won't stop to watch a bear talking lol... Well, the harsh reality of crypto influencers is that the audience wants to get rich quickly, not to learn or educate themselves. The "Bitcoinheiros" channel is focused on education, so I believe the bear avatar is more of a protective measure, since he’s probably already quite wealthy with Bitcoin and doesn’t need the channel to monetize or anything like that... unlike the overwhelming majority of influencers, who are actually just regular people trying to make money by selling courses about Bitcoin and altcoins.

[The Cryptovator]

This is one of the worst things for crypto holders. For various reasons we might need to disclose that we are crypto users, such as crypto influencers. Because everyone knows about him, he is holding crypto, and something wrong would happen. Even we have seen that there was a kidnapping that happened during a face-to-face crypto deal. Though we can't prevent such incidents, we can try to minimise them at least.

We shouldn't disclose our holdings and where we are holding funds. We have to maintain different wallets, like one regular and another for storing funds. Shouldn't hold a big amount of funds with us on regular wallet; storing wallet should be secure in some secret places. General crypto users like us shouldn't disclose ourselves as crypto holders. As much as you share the risk of increase for kidnapping or extortion. For influencers, they should move carefully and manage their safety.

[xvacator]

Don't tell all of your daily activities, or where you want to go this day and if necessary, you can hide yourself using jacket or others to undercover when you are in public.

That help you to stay away from someone who know that you are an influencer and have Bitcoin. If you can hide yourself perfectly, you will safe from them.

[CryptSafe]

Inasmuch as bitcoin is concerned, anyone who deals in bitcoin is assumed to be wealthy and rich, which sometimes is not the reality. Most of these influencers are just hustling for their daily bread online there and they too do not take their safety seriously when it comes to publicity; their family and friends are always at risk because of their public display, and sometimes having them kidnapped for ransom.

In my country, once a person is seen or heard talking about bitcoin, they just conclude you are wealthy and that's the orientation here which is wrong it is only those who are into crypto that would understand but others wouldn't and sometimes they kidnapp relatives and family members for ransom which has happened several times with them being caught. With this occurrence, people have started taking their safety seriously, avoiding public events that would attract publicity to them. No disclosure of your assets publicly, and where they are kept, to avoid attacks and unwanted harassment from the streets.

Only public figures who move about with security that we can say are a bit safe, but outside that, anyone who goes public about Bitcoin without security tends to face danger because they would be attacked and this has been the challenges faced here which has made lots of crypto enthusiasts to go solo and not come out publicly anymore.

[bitzizzix]

A real criminal will always do anything to a Bitcoin influencer, I mean, no matter how secretive a criminal is, he will always do anything to find out the truth, and if the criminal has a very high curiosity, he will continue to take steps to find out the truth about Bitcoin ownership, and those things can happen, unless you have good overall security, external security and also internal security that allows
those things still have a chance to stay safe.

And if you do have a very large amount of Bitcoin and want to stay safe, there's nothing wrong with being an ordinary person and leaving good things like being an influencer if it's for the sake of security I think there's no problem and the most important security is not Bitcoin but your own safety is much more important.

[Ucy]

The so called Bitcoin influencers should be anonymous in public if they deal with Bitcoin publicly in such a way that people know they own it.
If you must use your real names, don't use them for Bitcoin in manner described above unless you are sure about your security.
This is one of the reasons your bitcoin address rather than real name is tied to your bitcoin assets on a transparent/public Bitcoin ledger.
It's part of Bitcoin standard that should be practiced

[l3pox]

I think the best way is to study how to protect yourself from wrench attacks
don't have full signing capabilities at home
use a passphrase
split funds in several wallets and don't keep your seed all in one place
ultimately have a good security system (alarm? gun? martial arts skills? personal body guard?)

it all depends on how much money you have too
folks with low 4 or 5 digits probably don't have so much to worry about
maybe

the world is crazy out there
stay safe

[Tungbulu]

There’s a good reason why Bitcoin as a decentralized currency highly encourages promotes its user’s anonymity and privacy. The world is a very unsafe place, especially for crypto enthusiasts and users as they can be an easy target for hackers, thieves, kidnappers and other malicious actors. So the best way to stay safe as an influencer is to stay more anonymous and take their privacy more seriously, because when their privacy is compromised, they can be easily targeted. For those who are influencers, trying as much as possible not to disclose their personal data and relationships can be a good way to stay safe in this space.