Prevention Policies for Individuals

Below is a list of prevention policies for individual cryptocurrency users. Each of these policies is a standard template which can be included in the applicable case studies.

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Store Funds Offline

Store the majority of funds offline. By offline, it means that the private key and/or seed phrase is exclusively held by you and not connected to any networked device. Examples of offline storage include paper wallets (seed phrase or key written down and deleted from all electronic media), hardware wallets, steel wallet devices, etc...

Question Unrealistic Profit

Any time that you are promised any profit or benefit in exchange for an initial payment, smart contract approval, or deposit, pay special care as to whether the entity making that offer is trustworthy, actually who they say they are, and has the means to fulfill what they're promising. There are no magic algorithms providing guaranteed returns from trading or mining. Trading on average will lose money. Mining is expensive and complex. No one is going to immediately send back more than you sent them. NFT projects will rarely announce a surprise mint in only a single location. Are you fully prepared for the event your money is kept and nothing is delivered in return?

Double Check Transactions

Every approval on Web3 is an opportunity to lose all of the funds present in your wallet. Take the time to review the transaction in full. Fully check over the balance, permissions, and entire address which you are interacting with. Do not trust that your clipboard or any website front-end is guaranteed to provide an accurate address or transaction status. Always perform a test transaction prior to the first high-value transaction in any session.

Always Verify Executables

Any time untrusted software is being run is an opportunity for abuse. It is recommended to always interact with cryptocurrency in a fully controlled environment, which is an environment where you have understanding of every piece of software running there. Using a hardware wallet, spare computer with all software wiped, and/or virtual machine with only the needed software greatly reduces your attack surface. Take the time to verify downloaded files come from the correct and expected source and match available hashes if provided. Any time you encounter a new file, always check if it can contain executable code prior to using it.