The Mixed Martial Art of Self Defence on web3
In the last two post, we learned that web3 isn’t shipped decentralized by default and that you need to take some responsibility for your own affairs. And I promised to take you to the next technical level.
Enter the Mixed Martial Art of Self Defence on web3
One of the first steps when entering the fancy world of web3 is to realize that you need to protect yourself. The dangers are abundant:
- Loss of password or keys
- Social engineering attacks
- Ponzi schemes — obvious and not-so-obvious scams and rug pulls
- Thirst traps
- and plain hacks — the guys at DEFIYIELD have build a database on it.
But a danger foreseen is a danger avoided. Safeguards are readily available and above all, it’s good to get into the habit of a cautious approach.
Enter the Incomplete List of web3 Lifesavers
For brevity, we’ll keep it as a list for today. In some of the next essays I will dive deeper in some of them, so stay tuned!
- Use safe passwords. A safe password is created by a reliable source of randomness — not by yourself! — it has at least 16 — better 32 — characters including upper and lower case, and numbers. Length wins, and because you won’t be able to memorize it anyhow, length should not be the problem.
- Use a password safe. There are plenty good solutions. Better use an open source solution, or in any case, a solution where no central party has access to your keys. In a separate post, we’ll compare the available solutions.
- If possible, use an open source operating system like Linux with a nice UI like Mint. UIs have improved a lot so you don’t need to be a nerd to run Linux. Regain souvereignity on your hardware!
- Study some prominent scams. The time is well spent. Google “hackernoon biggest scams” to get a nice curated list.
- Make DYOR (Do Your Own Research) a habit. It will pay off.
Now that you have donned your armor, you can finally dare to take your first steps in web3.
Wanna know why, what and how? Stay tuned and read my next essay!
This post was created with Typeshare
