Relevant in these crypto days – $5 wrench attack

AKA [Rubber-hose cryptanalysis][1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-hose_cryptanalysis

This is one element that fascinates me about a crypto based monetary system. Crypto wallets are essentially bearer assets. Modern finance moved away from bearer assets for very specific reasons related to theft, fraud, and other forms of criminality. In theory a thief could break in and force you to wire out your Fidelity balance to a third party account, but in reality there is a lot of friction and risk involved in that process. With crypto, there is much less friction and much less risk. I read the article about Bulgaria having $3 billion in Bitcoin and at the end was just wondering who in the Bulgarian Government has the passphrase for that wallet, and what is going through their head watching the price rise.

Good justification for a lockout triggering mechanism built into a protocol:

Spitballing, but this could give a user a 1-month or 1-year or any kind of lockout condition by attempting to access it with a lockout-designated private key, along with a way to provide "proof of lockout" to deter attackers from continuing the wrench beating.

Aren't passwords still superior to biometrics, in this regard?

You can bludgeon someone with a wrench but they can choose not to give you the password. Or you can bludgeon someone until their unconscious and use their fingerprint.

Frankly the same thing applies to your ATM card. All the more reason not to broadcast your net worth to the world.