“God himself could not sink this ship!”
Truths the bitcoin community needs to embrace if they want bitcoin to be adopted (and survive):
- Bitcoin is not a currency, it's digital gold.
- It's the private neo mint houses/crypto banks the ones which will decentralize bitcoin, not the people.
- People will use liable bank accounts and coins supported by bitcoin for transactions, not bitcoin.
- Those who can understand how to manage bitcoin themselves, will do it themselves. Trying to evangelize every single one on having a personal node is naive and futile.
Should today's incident had happened on a niche community of die-hard bitcoiners who stubbornly insist on personally managing their bitcoin accounts, it would have been seen as the kind of incident waiting to happen to those who insist on manufacturing their own car fuel.
But no, this happened to clueless normies who were convinced they were being diligent and responsible, hyped by the community in that this was "the purest way".
I'm not saying people should not pursue self management if they want to, nor that coldcards should not exist, but that the religious hype placed on such approaches as being the true one path to utopia is harmful to the future of bitcoin.
You can't sell hardware wallets to normies as the ultimate solution and when they get rekt answer "no but you should have checked your RNG method and...".
That's my 2 cents on this: that this is a wake-up call on how bitcoiners should present bitcoin to people and what compromises on their utopic cypherpunk vision they will have to accept in order for bitcoin to survive and thrive.
Disclaimer:
- I'm not saying this out of spite, because I have not been affected by this incident.
- I'm not saying this because I resent the fact the price may fall, because I'm actually expecting a dip.
- I'm not saying this because I have fear, as I'm following my own advice.
- I'm just genuinely sorry for those who did they homework and still got rekt the worst way imaginable.
Kicking people while they are down eh
I have had this rant since very long ago. The obsessive focus on highly technical approaches as "the one true way towards adoption" will get most people rekt simply because they will fuck up at some point without them ever realizing. Most if not all of the affected users have no clue what "entropy" even means.
True but that doesn’t mean we throw in the towel. With anything new some will get hurt and others will prosper. Take it from someone who’s been led to the slaughter house in this space. In times like this it’s easy to say woulda coulda shouldas but we should try the solve the problem so folks don’t have this happen to them in the future
My argument is that whatever the solution, if it's to be effective, it will unavoidably add a layer of abstraction between the user and bitcoin which many in the community strongly refuse, and actively advise against. My point is that they shouldn't.
For instance, the solution to this problem existed already: coldcard included in their instructions that for full safety a source of entropy external to the device should be used in order for the generated keys to be safe. That's something known from day one. Yet, most people is averse to that kind of complexity and if faced with it most will inevitably drift towards shortcuts. Thus, this was bound to happen.
Yeah good point indeed! But solutions like Block’s Bitkey is a good product. But we are trusting block to generate good entropy for the keys it generates for their set up
Exactly! You see? You can't escape that layer of abstraction if the solution is to be an actual product for the masses. This is just the principle of work division in action.
Actually that's why I don't push very hard for people to buy bitcoin. I push very hard to help them understand why I support bitcoin, but I don't tell them they should buy it.
The honest truth is, the risk and responsibility is too great for most people. I don't want to be the person responsible for telling them to buy bitcoin, only for them to lose it somehow.
I agree 100%. I learned that a time ago the hard way.
This is what really stings here. I can't tell you the number of times I have heard coldcards being touted as the gold standard of HWs.
Me too. You know what's funny? I never liked the idea of buying a HW because I always distrusted the idea. I have always been more a fan of making my own with an ESP32.
I’ve always had the same distrust
Interesting post, I agree with your point. They did their homework and in the end it was a hardware problem; nobody could have foreseen that!
Yes this is the understanding that people need it's finally starting to set in for everyone. this isn't a get rich quick scheme it is a way to keep your head above water when things really go south!!