When you create a crypto wallet online, how do you know that the password, phrases, etc are NOT being intercepted as you create the wallet?

this ^

That reminds me of Dominion election cheating machines.

Those stickers are not secure at all. They can be removed and put back into place. That is how the hackers do it is they get ahold of the USB sticks and they open them up and solder on a tiny little board and then they put them all back together and sell them to you. You end up buying the hacked device from a 3rd person seller and then when you put any crypto on it they can just steal it at any time they want.

I saw a hacker symposium that was talking about this and they showed that the stickers are not secure at all.

It's good their code was audited.
But a person working to manufacture these hardware wallets could program them to steal passwords when in the assembly line at the factory. Someone working late night shift, with fewer supervisors watching them.

Or an employee of the manufacturer that happens to be a thief, who makes that modification. Then even hardware wallets you buy directly from the manufacturer could be hacked malicious software in them.

It's pretty secure. The only way it could be compromised if you had malware on your device during registration. All that traffic is encrypted assuming you worked with a reputable broker and wallet app.

The only times I know of people losing their crypto is during major breaches where your currency was being held for you or someone has lost their wallet and restoration words.

With all that said, and as much as hate the big banks at fiat currency, it is federally backed. There are options when losing your fiat electronic US dollars but if you lose your crypto you're never getting it back.

Great summary, thanks.

Does anyone have an opinion on the official THETA wallet?



Last Edited by Butch DeFeo on 11/26/2021 03:04 PM

You don’t need a wallet for a small amount of crypto.

Then where is it stored / accessed?
(I'm sure this is a super newbie question)

I use Windows 10. Would that be an undesirable OS to work with crypto wallets?

He probably means if you just have a small amount of crypto you can just keep it on the Exchange.

Lots of people take their crypto off exchange tho and self custody their coins because there have been inside job "hacks" of exchanges before and people have lost all their crypto that way too.

you don't need a hardware wallet.

there are ways to make a usb drive act as one, cheap, easier, no risk of a hardware wallet that has been hacked through the shipping process.

I got it from a broker..........NOOB!

Oh, so when you leave it on the exchange, you still use a wallet....but the wallet is just hosted by the exchange??

And he was talking about transferring it to a more secure, offline wallet.

The crypto I got you have to get from a broker. THETA

The only way to be sure is if the crypto wallet source code is public and you can read it, compile it and use it.

Now THIS would be a learning curve for sure.

It’s stored in an account maintained by your exchange.

So if you use Coinbase and you buy $500 dollars worth of crypto, Coinbase is storing it for you.

The wallet is an extra layer of security.

Wallets are more secure than a bank account but if you forget the passphrase you are screwed.

And then hackers could post fake public source codes for you to download. That steal your crypto.

Okay, I think I get it. When your crypto is in Coinbase, it is NOT considered to be in a wallet at ALL. Thanks.

I'm gonna start a coinbase account - sounds like fun.

Exactly

It acts just like a bank account in that case.

BUT make sure you turn on multi-factor

Exchanges basically hold your crypto for you in their wallet system. But if you want to self custody your coins you need to setup your own wallet.

We often say: "Not your keys, not your crypto"

Exchanges hold the keys for you if you leave your coins with them. And when you self custody you have the seed phrase and private keys to the wallet yourself.

If they have spyware on your router or any device on your network could use meltdown or speculation attacks to get encrypted keys. Idk if the encrypted keys are in plain text in the CPU but they could slip malicious code in and get easy keylogging running on just about any x86 or arm processor.

The only value that crypto has outside of the retarded minds of deficient monkeys, is the negative value of lost processing power and electricity.

Anyone who invests anything into crypto deserves to lose it all as they will.

multi-factor

thanks!

Exactly.

I could be wrong, but my sense is that ANYTHING that goes out to the internet CAN BE HACKED.

Sorry, cannot see how this crypto stuff can be 'secure' enough to prevent hacking/stealing. Because, an UNCONNECTED (to the internet) computer cannot perform transactions done online and a connected computer is always susceptible to prying eyes.

Last Edited by DNoMo Michele B on 11/26/2021 03:42 PM

You don't know!!!

You don't know if someone is keylogging, spying through a camera, etc.

When you create crypto wallets, you automatically assume that everything has been hacked.

I recommend getting a Coldcard and generating the seed phrase with dice rolls. And just to make sure its firmware hasn't been intercepted, buy two, and run one as a test with an older firmware version. If the same series of dice rolls produces the same phrase on both devices, and that wallet generates the same series of receive addresses on both devices, then it's a reasonably safe bet that the devices are faithfully generating seeds and real deterministic addresses from those seeds.

Again, though, make sure you're in a room without cameras or microphones when you do it, and try to avoid saying the numbers or seed words out loud just to be safe. It's a good habit to get into to just assume someone is listening and looking over your shoulder. And then seal up the seed phrase backup and never let it see daylight unless you've scrubbed the room of cameras (in the unlikely event you'll need to recover it).

You can also use a Ledger, but it's nowhere near as secure, though it is a lot less complicated and more user friendly. Same thing applies, though, just pretend like the stasi have wired your house. Like assume that the NSA is trying to steal your crypto and you'll likely thwart the average hacker.

Every time you sign up for an online account there is a chance that it's being intercepted. You should meticulously research every company that you create an account at to avoid fraud.