2023 is the year of Trust No One

Beyond the bear market, which doesn’t look like will let up for at lest another year, things that were taken for granted are getting the rug pulled from under them.

Here’s at least 3 things that were okay just a couple of years ago, but are not a good idea now.

1 - Crypto exchanges. There have always been some people who professed to keep your crypto in cold storage, but for the most part, central exchanges were seen as a on-ramp for quicker adoption of crypto worldwide. The thinking was if the common person, who didn’t want to get into the details of how crypto works and just wanted to invest some money casually, crypto exchanges would serve as an easy way to go about this. This would allow crypto to become more easily acceptable since it would take much of the technical workings out and give a nice interface for the general person.

After the string of crypto exchange implosions last year, that whole idea has been punctured. And it doesn’t help that exchanges are putting in their fine print that they can freeze your assets or use it if they need to in an emergency.

2 - Hot wallets. If you didn’t entirely trust central exchanges but didn’t want to put your crypto in cold wallets, this was the happy medium. Of course the perpetual fake links, email phishing and hacking Meta Mask has made this a more dangerous path to go on.

3 - Cold wallets. The final option, the most secure one, this is the what everyone and their auntie recommended. “Not your keys, not your coins”, all the cool kids would say. Now we find out Ledger’s new update will allow them to access your seed and if you refuse to update Ledger, well access to your crypto would no longer be possible. Your account would become obsolete.

It seems no one is here to safeguard your money. Whether it’s central exchanges who will literally just take your crypto if need be, hot wallets that will lure you into giving them your keys, or cold wallets that will update their policy so they can take your seed, no one is here to protect you.

This is the Wild Wild West. Land of thieves and hackers. Of few regulations and very deceptive characters. Nothing can be taken for granted and every corporation in this space is in it to see if they can profit from you.

Good luck to you all!