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Comment by sebmellen | Hacker News Reader

Self-custody crypto wallets are such a horrible idea for your average user that it’s cruel to even provide this service. (Especially for people who may not have access to reliable devices.)

I would seriously reconsider this part of your value add.

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Would love to hear more from you on this — why do you feel self-custody is a concern? For context, we're using Privy (https://docs.privy.io/guide/security/), which encrypts (and never stores) the private keys, and users simply log in with email/phone etc. auth (so no need for key management).

Keep in mind any centralized authority is subject to disclosure laws like the patriot act.

i.e. people can jack your phone/sms line for around $23, or access any email server on US soil for free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyu7NB7W6Y

This is why 2FA is actually more dangerous in some situations.

We're planning on enabling passkeys! Agreed that phone 2FA is not ideal, just the current setup.

Unless people are using a public key system like Kyber hardened gpg public keys its mostly security theater.

i.e. people may feel safe in the complexity, but are open to the same shenanigans of any unregulated exchange.

Children in Japan figured out magazine faces worked on cigarette machines too.

Have a nice day =)

To me this is a centralized take.

The alternative is just trusting someone in the space. With that you have stuff like FTX, MtGox, and even ones that haven’t failed where there are plenty of stories of KYC trouble on Reddit.

> people who may not have access to reliable devices

A very good point but that’s where education comes in. I’m glad Karsa seems to be teaching people to fish rather than just giving people fish.

Hi, Can you elaborate on this.I am new to crypto

Crypto is a dollar backed fiat currency substitute, or outright scrip.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip

Precious metals like gold are also a terrible investment, but do offer liquidity when currencies fail. For a single person, no more than 1.7% of your portfolio should contain such leaky holdings.

In terms of investment, wait till the market crashes and buy freehold residential real-estate in larger growth cities with cash. This is the safest investment for amateurs. =3

>Precious metals like gold are also a terrible investment

Both gold and silver have appreciated more in value than the S&P 500 since the start of this millennium.

Typically, it tracks around inflation... but some people have cultural traditions around bullionism.

Keep in mind I heavily invested in ubiquiti at $12/share after their early legal trouble, so am probably not the type of investor you'd want to study. lol =)

Uh. Gold and silver were near 20 year lows at the start of the millennium.

Indeed, met a few bears from the silver futures market over the years too.

I would lol... but some people lost everything, and that's never funny =3

Yes, this is an example of different asset classes performing differently over different periods. The S&P 500 performed extremely well in the 1990s, and while the S&P 500 has performed very well since, it has not kept up the same level of returns as were seen in the 1990s, nor did it usually perform as well before the 1990s. I similarly didn't say that gold and silver always outperformed the S&P 500, nor that the performance of gold and silver vs the S&P 500 over the last 25 years is predictive of future periods. All that I referenced was that over the mentioned stretch of the last 25 years, gold and silver have been a sound investment. The story is obviously a little different since the start of post-GFC quantitative easing.

Most index funds tend to have relatively stable growth... it is kind of the point.

Personally not bullish on bullion, but good luck =3

"Self-custody [...] wallets are such a horrible idea..."

And yet, billions of people do this everyday with (non-crypto) wallets holding banknotes in their pants pockets. And for the most part, it's fine. A crypto wallet on your phone in your other pants pockets is similar. It's actually superior because at least you can make a backup to protect from loss/destruction.

Self-custody wallets are fine.

I bet the guy who can't dig in the dump to find his Bitcoin would say otherwise

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