Prioritize Self-Custodial, privacy and safety as a Bitcoiner

[logfiles]

Unfortunately, very few people know the beauty and power about holding your own Bitcoins, being able to spend it at any time and lower fees. They would rather rush to invest in BTC ETFs because they think that they can trust the institutions involved rather than their own selves.

Also, some people are so stupid and attention seeking to the extent that they want to reveal how much crypto is in their wallets to some random internet strangers. I can not even count how many times such people have either been targeted through robbery or hacking.

[EL MOHA]

So my point is that, kyc is very dangerous. Even if access to kyc information in these services is strictly limited to a handful of employees, there is still a chance of insider attacks. There is still a chance that your personal information would be sold in the dark market. That is the danger of kyc.

Haven’t we heard of big centralized exchanges getting hacked and the information that they got are usually from the insiders working on that exchanges if they can be this heartless to do go this down imagine what they can do with information like ones KYC which was given out freely by the users. I have said this that if we consider hot wallets as unsafe for bitcoin or cryptocurrency storage then centralized exchanges or custodial wallets are no go zones,

For me if anyone is actually trusting centralized exchanges like this then they are better off with traditional banks because I even regard them more secure in terms of withholding information than even centralized exchanges whi can both give out your information to government and also sell them off to scammers

[finaleshot2016]

I like the point, but let's not forget the differences between the two, ETF's are for high-net worth individuals not for a small fish like us so we don't need to worry to the kind of thing. There are people like those who are big fish in finance really like to include crypto to their net worth, sometimes is to show that they highly support crypto, embracing the future. But a true investor, of course we don't need that kind of thing, especially for a small fish, it's better to hold your own crypto than rely to institutions. We are thankful that global adaptation began to BTC, utilities and use cases are widen, we simply choose what's the best for us and of course if you're intro crypto, you know your purposes, owning what you bought is a must.

[MusaMohamed]

Haven’t we heard of big centralized exchanges getting hacked and the information that they got are usually from the insiders working on that exchanges if they can be this heartless to do go this down imagine what they can do with information like ones KYC which was given out freely by the users. I have said this that if we consider hot wallets as unsafe for bitcoin or cryptocurrency storage then centralized exchanges or custodial wallets are no go zones,

Exchanges can be hacked and there are money stolen by hackers but information leak is something else, even does not directly relate to money but it's still very important with users. Sensitive personal information, documents after a big data breach can be sold to more other entities including bad people, and it's time for more severe compromisation.

Big centralized exchanges if having exchange treasury management well, will do full compensation for their users if their exchanges were hacked, because it serves to important purposes: prevent a trigger of death spiral, bank run on their exchanges; maintain and even increase their exchange reputation after a security accident.

[retreat]

And unfortunately, nowadays more people choose to use exchanges for the reason that it is easier for them and considered more practical for them to access, but in this way they sacrifice full control over their assets - they sacrifice the most important thing in owning Bitcoin just because they want it to be easier and less hassle. That's why the mantra "not your keys, not your coins" is not a joke, it is something that is so important and a reminder of true ownership, that if you don't store your assets in a non-custodial wallet, then they are not really yours.

[Darker45]

I've just responded to a discussion about crypto tax data collection in relation to the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. This is going to be implemented by many jurisdictions, certainly including most of ours here.

Having said that, even if you avoid ETFs and choose to be silent about your holdings, if one day you'll get involved with a transaction that's CARF-compliant, your identity and other personal information might be known. These data could be leaked. In addition, there'll be people who have access to them. They could be consumed out of the protocol, shared, sold, whatever. In which case, you could be a target.

[Lorence.xD]

Based on your example, I don't think that self-custodial is the only thing that we should take priority because privacy and total anonymity is also a priority to prevent the possibility of bad elements from trying anything. After all, if they don't know that you own bitcoin, they will never have the intention to steal from you, that's just how easy it is and maybe shutting up about owning bitcoin from time to time could work, you never know who's listening especially if you're not with your close friends, bragging will be your downfall.

[yhiaali3]

Bitcoin and privacy are inextricably linked, therefore privacy is an integral part of Bitcoin security. Anyone who fails to protect their privacy will undoubtedly put themselves and their Bitcoin at risk.

Just as one should carefully safeguard the location where their Bitcoin is stored, including the location of its seed, and other sensitive security matters, they must also maintain their privacy and refrain from discussing their Bitcoin holdings publicly or on social media, as this will undoubtedly expose them to significant risk.

[Nheer]

Nevertheless, if you have the privilege and opportunities to hold at least 1 or more BTC in this current market, it normal for excitement to kicks in due to the future benefits of it, and this is happened this is when a Bitcoiner needs to be very careful of the company s/he keep, prioritize privacy more, and be careful about the information s/he share, especially online.

This reminds me of the story of what happened to  Kaitlyn Siragusa, aka Amouranth, who's a streamer and OnlyFans content creator. She holds 211 BTC, which is worth $20 Million at the time of the incident last year, and reveals her crypto portfolio online.

A lot of people take privacy for granted especially when it comes to owning Bitcoin. Bitcoin is now a very valuable asset so you expect to be targeted when you own quite a lot of it but people often make the mistake of revealing their crypto possessions online and not thinking about the dangers of doing so. I don't know why they do it but a lot of people have lost their money and even lives as a result of exposing their assets online.
She is really lucky that things didn't end badly for her but I believe she must have learned her mistakes and won't expose are crypto assets online again. Privacy is really important when it comes to cryptocurrency that's why bitcoin encourage pseudonymity so that users can control their privacy. So this means everything about it is meant to be kept private to yourself.

[Rustam Meraj]

Although ease of use is reason why many people invest in Bitcoin ETFs but it is dangerous move since it returns your money into banking system where it can be frozen or leaked, making it list of targets for robbers. With more than 95 percent of Bitcoin already mined, even having 0.1 BTC makes you one of 1-2 percent of world people, which makes it very important to ensure that your wealth remains secret. To be safe, you must follow rule of Stealth Wealth. Do not post your balance online, use fake name to discuss cryptocurrencies, and create multi sig wallet, which will require multiple keys to be stored in different locations to move money so that home invader cannot pressure you into sending all your money at once.

[suzanne5223]

Bitcoin is on the verge of a new era we have never seen or experienced before, with 95.10% BTC mined, which makes this time the moment we have to prioritize self-custodial, privacy, and safety more.
Sadly, the rate of BTC ETF investors are increasing.

Centralized exchanges, custodial wallets, close source wallets, and Bitcoin Spot ETFs are not good for storing bitcoins. It's very a classic warning against risk and many people did many reminders in the past like my initiative.
Events made you scare about custodial wallets, centralized exchanges.

Warnings are like nothing and meaningless for those people until they lost money, and cried.

You have a point, but one thing about this reminder is that, it will draw the attention of some people and also open the eyes of others to the fact, while some will simply ignore it until they learn the hard way.

Used this incident as an example, and as a reminder, because in the future, when the eyes of some people, organizations opened to the benefit of BTC alot of BTC holder maybe the next target, and there's no guarantee that the workers of the firm you bought their BTC ETF from who know your ETF worth wont be after your life or family in the future.

[snip]
Honestly, it feels less risky for me to say I have 20 million in a bank account than saying I hold Bitcoin. With banks, there are proper procedures, KYC, and safeguards before money can be withdrawn. With Bitcoin, once someone gets access to your wallet, it’s gone. Sure it can be traced on the blockchain, but that doesn’t prevent the crime from happening.

Even if my holdings are small, I’d never reveal them. Better to stay low key, be like Satoshi, even if none of us can really live like that.

It may feel less risky to publicly say the amount of funds you have in the bank, but it can also lead to the same attack the influencer i used as an example experienced despite the safeguards you said about the banking system.

and there's no guarantee that the workers of the firm you bought their BTC ETF from who know your ETF worth wont be after your life or family in the future.

Sometime last year, cybercriminals bribed a few coinbase customer support agents to steal sensitive customer data, which they did. And the scammers blackmailed Coinbase for $20m in order not to release and sell the information they were able to harvest through the rogue employees.

So my point is that, kyc is very dangerous. Even if access to kyc information in these services is strictly limited to a handful of employees, there is still a chance of insider attacks. There is still a chance that your personal information would be sold in the dark market. That is the danger of kyc.

I never heard about this before until now.
I provided the information in the OP because the concept is to never trust any third parties.
Can you, by any chance, provide any information about the cybercriminals who bribed Coinbase agents?

Bitcoin is on the verge of a new era we have never seen or experienced before, with 95.10% BTC mined, which makes this time the moment we have to prioritize self-custodial, privacy, and safety more.

New verge era you mean I hope is the ATHs? Also note we can only see this new change when price surpasses the current ATH @ $126K being the previous ATH?

Possibly new ATH price, but I am talking about the chance of the market cycle changing, which could lead to the exit of the market blood bath that always happens after the Bitcoin halving effect market.

We don't have to take excellent responsibilities of our securities and Privacies only due to when we have a huge funds in our wallets, we can always keep the concious ness up and note a silly fragile handling or not making your funds safety a priority can also be as risky of loosing our financial values.

Yes, but the prioritization of privacy and security i am talking about was not only for people holding huge funds.

[LastKiss]

~snip~ and this is happened this is when a Bitcoiner needs to be very careful of the company s/he keep, prioritize privacy more, and be careful about the information s/he share, especially online.

~snip~

If she had respected her own privacy, something like that might not have happened. Unfortunately, people often only understand the important of privacy after it affects them directly. In digital era, maintaining privacy is becoming increasingly difficult, many people enjoying to share personal details online because posts that reveal parts of their private life often receive more views, likes and positive reactions. In her case, her life was already being threatened and the situation could have become much worse if she had refused to hand over her Bitcoin. Luckily, her husband was there to protect her and the situation did not escalate further. Not everyone is that fortunate.

With Bitcoin’s price reaching very high levels, it is no surprise that more people are thinking of different ways to scam, threaten or manipulate others. Criminals may try direct threats, phishing attacks or attempts to hack wallets. As Bitcoin holders, we must accept that oversharing can make us the target next. That is why protecting our privacy is critical. We should never disclose our Bitcoin holdings to other people, even to close family members, unless it is absolutely necessary.

[Webutxo]

Haven’t we heard of big centralized exchanges getting hacked and the information that they got are usually from the insiders working on that exchanges if they can be this heartless to do go this down imagine what they can do with information like ones KYC which was given out freely by the users. I have said this that if we consider hot wallets as unsafe for bitcoin or cryptocurrency storage then centralized exchanges or custodial wallets are no go zones,

For me if anyone is actually trusting centralized exchanges like this then they are better off with traditional banks because I even regard them more secure in terms of withholding information than even centralized exchanges whi can both give out your information to government and also sell them off to scammers

Bybit was hacked last year, billions worth of Bitcoin was stolen and till date it hasn't been fully recovered yet. No body expected it, even the exchange never expected that hack but it happened anyways. If you want to use a centralized exchange, that's a choice but storing coins on the exchange is not a choice, it's an illiteracy and lack of knowledge of security. If you check Bybit balance sheet, it's possible they are still dealing with the debt financially.

I feel like this custodial storage is here to stay and many will never listen even if you tell them about the risk involved, I guess even the exchanges has learned the back to make customers stay on the exhanges and not use a non custodial wallets.

[death69]

There is something about the Amouranth case that you cannot shake from your mind. Not just the violence (though that is horrifying enough) but the casual way in which it happened. She posted her crypto holdings online, likely as people post their vacation photos or what they had for lunch, and then armed men broke into her home.

Bitcoin was meant to liberate us from the need to trust anyone. That was the whole design. No banks, no intermediaries and no third parties who can freeze your account or lose your money or leak your information. But ETFs re-introduce all that. Many now are trusting the fund, trusting their security, trusting that nobody working there will decide your account info is worth selling.

Holding your own keys is hard. It stressful and technical and if you mess up there is no customer service number to call. But it is also that difficulty. It makes you take responsibility seriously.

[suzanne5223]

~snip~ and this is happened this is when a Bitcoiner needs to be very careful of the company s/he keep, prioritize privacy more, and be careful about the information s/he share, especially online.

~snip~

If she had respected her own privacy, something like that might not have happened. Unfortunately, people often only understand the important of privacy after it affects them directly. In digital era, maintaining privacy is becoming increasingly difficult, many people enjoying to share personal details online because posts that reveal parts of their private life often receive more views, likes and positive reactions.

You said yourself that people who are victims of privacy only understand its importance after they are affected by their habit of lack of privacy practise, so I don't see anything that makes it hard to maintain privacy in this digital era if we respect our own privacy as you once stated and be conscious of the information we provide on social media. Besides, this is the reason why I never practise the idea of doing video recording, postin,g or live activities on social media because it gives so much information about people to strangers that can use it as a weapon.

We have heard about a rapper ^{(dont remember the country he's from)} who was shot dead because his location was know by attackers through his girlfriend live video recording on social media.

[Perfectbaby]

and there's no guarantee that the workers of the firm you bought their BTC ETF from who know your ETF worth wont be after your life or family in the future.

Sometime last year, cybercriminals bribed a few coinbase customer support agents to steal sensitive customer data, which they did. And the scammers blackmailed Coinbase for $20m in order not to release and sell the information they were able to harvest through the rogue employees.

So my point is that, kyc is very dangerous. Even if access to kyc information in these services is strictly limited to a handful of employees, there is still a chance of insider attacks. There is still a chance that your personal information would be sold in the dark market. That is the danger of kyc.

Sometimes it is good to also make use of none kyc exchange to help curb and protect how they steal and sold out our personal information to people who doesn't deserve it, of course that is very risky as we won't know what they are using person information or documentation to do outside our knowledge. Prioritizing a none kyc exchange could help us in maintaining solidity in respect to how the exchange is mostly valuable as those who doesn't want to reveal their personal information due to how they could be selling them at dark moment for more profits and gains.

[Achalugo BTC]

And unfortunately, nowadays more people choose to use exchanges for the reason that it is easier for them and considered more practical for them to access, but in this way they sacrifice full control over their assets - they sacrifice the most important thing in owning Bitcoin just because they want it to be easier and less hassle. That's why the mantra "not your keys, not your coins" is not a joke, it is something that is so important and a reminder of true ownership, that if you don't store your assets in a non-custodial wallet, then they are not really yours.

Having the mindset that it's important for one to be cautious about their assets is very good, as it will help them to do what to do by applying the right tool for it.
This will also help them to prevent from being scammed, which is essential for people not to neglect the power or the role of research in this journey because it will help them to detect when it's fake and when its real or to know when to invest and when not to invest and the right wallet to use for their investment, which is why it doesn't matter when you start but what does matter is how well one can do.

[tbct_mt2]

Sometimes it is good to also make use of none kyc exchange to help curb and protect how they steal and sold out our personal information to people who doesn't deserve it, of course that is very risky as we won't know what they are using person information or documentation to do outside our knowledge. Prioritizing a none kyc exchange could help us in maintaining solidity in respect to how the exchange is mostly valuable as those who doesn't want to reveal their personal information due to how they could be selling them at dark moment for more profits and gains.

The first reason to avoid Centralized Exchanges is risk of losing your coins when they don't allow you withdraw your coins. There are other risks like they have bankruptcy, scam exit and any reasons that they can pull out as cards to disapprove your withdrawal request. It should be a biggest reason with anyone, as privacy or not, it's not first important thing for consideration.

You have money, and the first task is how to keep it secure and safe, that you can not have with centralized exchanges.

Next is privacy, and if you care about privacy, it's another big reason to avoid centralized exchanges which can ask KYC at start or anytime later.

[Findingnemo]

When we become rich, it is necessary to know what details should be kept private and for those who can't do such as people make money with their face or public presence need to invest money in their personal security, be it a camera to the armed guard around them 24/7 which all depends on how much money is in their possession.

Being rich always comes with certain risks.

[Cookdata]

That’s exactly why bank secrecy laws exist. Employees aren’t allowed to disclose customer records, even to their own family, because that’s already a crime. But can we really trust everyone to follow that. Some might still leak information and feed it to criminals, which can lead to robbery or even kidnapping for people with large balances.

That’s why it’s never really safe to openly store or talk about money in banks either. Bitcoin is actually safer if you keep your information private, but it completely defeats the purpose if you go public and tell everyone how much you hold. Even exaggerating it, whether true or not, already puts your life at risk.

You made me remember the 2020 catastrophe, I can say it with my full chest that Banks are among the reason why the government has refuse to allow crypto strive in Nigeria. During thag crazy era of Defi when the market went boom, bankers were stealing money from customers account to buy coins and because you know during a crazy bull run, you can get back your money within a week, they were risking it using customers funds for shitcoins. It was later discovered that contract staffs were the ones doing all that and they were all sack.

The bank has to issue a warning to all of their staffs not to engage in crypto even with their money, the government was aware of this and at the end, they banned Bitcoin and other coins. As it's today, if they tell me that Bitcoin is legal in Nigeria, I wouldn't argue but I can't say it's true, you can't fight for your right if a law enforcement harass you for possession of Bitcoin because the government is doing seek and hide game, very useless people.