Stop telling people about your crypto. Especially if they know where you live.

I just saw a popular thread on the r/Bitcoin sub about somebody telling their neighbors that they bought Bitcoin. The whole thread was full of comments about how OP will have the last laugh. Yeah they were all joking but it’s all fun and games until your neighbors are struggling for money and you’re rich for “being lucky”.Being crypto rich is not like being fiat rich. You might have your private keys somewhere in your house and they can be taken from you. There will come a day when people will come looking for those keys. Especially if hyperinflation ever happens. Ten years from now people won’t know if you have $200 in Shitcoin or $2m in Bitcoin. They will assume it’s the latter. People will break in and rob you for a PS5, so do you think they will hesitate for a chance of stealing millions? Even if you keep your crypto on your exchange, burglars don’t know that. Even if you sell your crypto for fiat, they don’t know that. By the time people find out you have nothing, there could already be somebody in your house and they might even be angry that you wasted their time.For those of you that don’t know, there is a called company Ledger, who basically sells fancy USB sticks for you to store and access your crypto (it’s not actually on the stick itself btw). The Ledger database was recently hacked and the details of customers were leaked. This didn’t affect their crypto directly, but it did mark them as owners of crypto. Many of these people received death threats or harassment. I don’t know if anybody was hurt, but you don’t want to be in that situation. I was included in the leak, but fortunately I had already moved house. I can still be a target though. I get people trying to trick me via email and I also had to change my phone number.You do not want to be marked as a crypto owner. Even if you live in the safest neighborhood, how do you know one of your neighbors won’t report you to the IRS as petty revenge? You should pay your taxes btw, but everybody’s situation is different and you don’t want to be investigated for silly reasons.This advice especially applies to those in the USA where people have guns. Your local corrupt policeman might one day like to investigate “rumors” of you selling drugs or something silly. You just don’t know. It’s not worth it.EDIT: My main point is that it's better to avoid drama. Maybe you live in a safe neighborhood. Maybe you have hidden your private keys in the most obscure place. Maybe they're in a safe. There probably aren't any rogue cops out to get you. Maybe you have a gun and know how to use it - but why go through all of that? Why risk having to kill an attacker out of self-defence? Nobody knows your exact situation until they try to get your keys or unless you tell them (plus, criminals aren't always smart). By the time they're in your house it's too late really. Also, you probably won't get robbed. Robberies are not that common, but then neither are crypto holders. I'm just advocating being quiet about your holdings, not living in fear of a death squad out to get you.

Submitted April 29, 2021 at 10:05AM

No comments:

Post a Comment