Značka: Mobile Wallet

What is a seed phrase and why is it important?

A seed phrase might be confusing and probably you might be wondering how a seed phrase looks and maybe how it is created. The seed phrase is generated by a cryptocurrency wallet and the user has no way of customizing it. The words generated are derived from a list of 2048 words. So, how many words is a seed phrase? A seed phrase is made up of a long string consisting of a group of random words. The words on a seed phrase are simplified so that the user can remember them, unlike if the seed phrase consisted of long numbers or special characters.  The recovery phrase consists of 12 to 24 words like energy, road or open. To avoid errors, these randomly generated words do not include pairs like “man” and “men” in the same seed phrase. Bitcoin improvement proposal-(BIP)-39 in 2013 introduced these types of phrases and established a standard for deterministic wallets. Here is an imaginary 12-word seed phrase: Cry, planet, Loose, Typical, Humankind, Toddler, Anxiety, Difficult, Happy, Never, Alternative, Remorse. A seed phrase controls all the private keys associated with a deterministic wallet. BIP-39 proposal makes major wallets cross-compatible, allowing the users to load the recovery phrase to a new BIP-39-compatible wallet to access the funds when they are lost or if you want to switch wallets.

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FDIC-FTX spat is another reason for investors to self-custody their funds

Searching for more evidence that self-custody of your cryptocurrency holdings beats a centralized manager? Look to the latest action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).The agency sent a letter to FTX Exchange this month — along with four other entities — that included a cease and desist order for “false and misleading statements.” Namely, it accused the exchange of falsely implying that user funds were FDIC-insured.It could have turned into an ugly situation if customers expected — but did not receive — a certain level of protection in the event of catastrophic failure. It’s difficult to ascertain how heavily the guarantee factored into the adoption of FTX services, but the firm enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2021 with revenue growth of more than 1000%.Ultimately, the incident serves as an endorsement of self-custody, because it reminds us that exchanges can only protect user funds as far as their pockets allow them. Empowering consumers to hold their own funds on ideally cold wallets significantly reduces the chance their funds will be lost to a company’s insolvency, like in the case of Celsius, or even to a hacker gaining access to wallets held by a central entity.Self-Custody isn’t perfect, but it can be better than the alternativeThose who say self-custody is fraught with danger would be right. Retail investors cannot be expected on a widespread scale to properly manage and protect their funds in a wallet owned solely by them, and many in fact prefer the oversight from a seemingly too-big-to-fail central exchange.Even experienced crypto investors and holders can send tokens to the wrong address by mistake, or even in some cases face issues with technical glitches on self-custody wallets. If mainstream adoption is the goal, this isn’t even close to being a safe way to exchange value.Related: Deposits at non-bank entities, including crypto firms, are not insured — FDICIt’s a catch-22 situation. Money isn’t inherently safe when it’s held by scarcely regulated central entities known for suffering hacks and always being vulnerable to the possibility of executives running away with user funds. Cryptocurrencies, at their very core, are about independence and moving away from the financial establishment that has influenced monetary policy for a very long time. So, the industry is crying out for a solid self-custody solution that resolves the associated dangers. Last month @Brett_FTX tweeted that you can deposit your paycheck into FTX, and that they were FDIC insured.I called BS and said they are either lying or holding clients money externally at other banks.Brett said I was wrong.FDIC just answered it… and Brett deleted tweets. https://t.co/QuiXQ8rDiA pic.twitter.com/xkgxP5r4Ez— Stephen Geiger (@Stephen_Geiger) August 19, 2022There are crypto enthusiasts who do not wish to hold their funds exclusively on a central exchange. For them, the whole point is to move away from traditional finance (TradFi) and overt centralization.This is a valid choice and should be respected. It should also be understood that mainstream adoption will likely only be plausible thanks to centralized entities able to provide security and guarantees on the funds held by their platforms.The independence/security tradeoffWe have seen European Union regulators attempt to tie in self-custody with verifiable identities. This misses the point to some degree. Blockchain technologies are designed to bring elements of decentralization to the financial world and allow unfettered access to people around the globe. Making it easy and user-friendly to set up a wallet within a wider network of self-custody wallets clearly brings the potential for a worldwide revolution in how we treat money. Those living in developing nations, and more specifically the more than one billion unbanked, can retain complete control over their funds without being at the mercy of a (CeFi) centralized financial institution.Good, safe self-custody is the key to unlocking such possibilities with the result of significant real-world impact. This entirely depends on the needs decided by users. It feels safer for many to trust their crypto funds with the custody of a centralized exchange (CEX). While independence can be worth the precautions of risk diversification — through hardware wallets, open-source software and multi-signature setups — the majority of regular people are probably vastly safer on Binance, FTX and other CEXs. Related: FTX revenue reportedly grew 1000% in one year, leaked documents revealCentralized finance (CeFi) may be slowly turning into de facto TradFi. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If centralized exchanges can be insured like their traditional counterparts, then this massively reduces the risk of transacting with them. Meanwhile, engaging with decentralized exchanges and smart contracts can also be a risky endeavor. Decentralized finance (DeFi) supporters hope it will become less so in time as the industry matures. Increased focus on user experience and safety should swiftly follow this maturation.A great upside to DeFi is that adopters do not have to trust vague messaging from entities such as FTX. They’re free from the risk of most centralized failures that could result in the loss of their funds.The power to decide rests with the consumers and whether they trust regulators to protect them while they utilize a CeFi entity — which emulates TradFi — or decide to wait for a better, sorely needed self-custody solution.Ultimately, there will be a demand for both DeFi and CeFi amid the rich tapestry of blockchain and crypto offerings. Rather than being forced to choose between two sub-optimal offerings, investors will have a panoply of options to consider.Tom Tirman is the CEO of IQ Protocol, an NFT renting solution that allows games and other platforms to wrap digital assets and lend them out to users looking to play and earn. Before crypto, Tim graduated from a top technological university in Eastern Europe with a law degree and continued his studies at the Stockholm School of Economics. In his free time, he also spearheads PARSIQ, a web3 data aggregator.The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Warning: Smartphone text prediction guesses crypto hodler’s seed phrase

Seed phrases, a random combination of words from the Bitcoin Improvement Protocol (BIP) 39 list of 2048 words, act as one of the primary layers of security against unauthorized access to a user’s crypto holdings. But, what happens when your “smart” phone’s predictive typing remembers and suggests the words next time you try to access your digital wallet?Andre, a 33-year-old IT professional from Germany, recently posted on the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit after discovering his mobile phone’s ability to predict the entire recovery seed phrase as soon as he typed down the first word. As a fair warning to fellow Redditors and crypto enthusiasts, Andre’s post highlighted the ease with which hackers can use the feature to drain a user’s funds just by being able to type the first word out of the BIP 39 list:“This makes it easy to attack, get your hands on a phone, start any chat app, and start typing any words off the BIP39 list, and see what the phone suggests.”Speaking to Cointelegraph, Andre, otherwise known as u/Divinux on Reddit, shared his shock when he first experienced his phone literally guessing the 12-24 word seed phrase. “First, I was stunned. The first couple words could be a coincidence, right?”As a tech-savvy individual, the German crypto investor was able to reproduce the scenario wherein his mobile phone could accurately predict the seed phrases. After realizing the possible impact of this information if it went out to the wrong hands, “I thought I should tell people about it. I’m sure there are others who also have typed seeds into their phone.”Andre’s experiments confirmed that Google’s GBoard was the least vulnerable as the software did not predict every word in the correct order. However, Microsoft’s Swiftkey keyboard was able to predict the seed phrase right out of the box. The Samsung keyboard, too, can predict the words if “Auto replace” and “Suggest text corrections” have been manually turned on. Andre’s initial stint with crypto dates back to 2015 when he momentarily lost interest until he realized he could buy goods and services using Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. His investment strategy involves purchasing and staking BTC and altcoins such as Terra (LUNA), Algorand (ALGO) and Tezos (XTZ) and “then dollar-cost averaging out into BTC when/if they moon.” The IT professional also develops his own coins and tokens as a hobby.A safety measure against possible hacks, according to Andre, is to store significant and long-term holdings in a hardware wallet. To Redditors across the world, OP’s advises “not your keys not your coins, do your own research, don’t FOMO, never invest more than you are willing to lose, always double-check the address you are sending to, always send a small amount beforehand and disable your PMs in settings,” concluding:“Do yourself a solid and prevent that from happening by clearing your predictive type cache.”Related: STEPN impersonators stealing users’ seed phrases, warn security expertsBlockchain security firm PeckShield warned the crypto community about a large number of phishing websites targeting users of the Web3 lifestyle app STEPN.#PeckShieldAlert #phishing PeckShield has detected a bath of @Stepnofficial phishing sites. They insert a false Metamask browser extension leading to stealing your seed phrase or prompt you to connect your wallets or “Claim” giveaway. @Metamask @Coinbase @WalletConnect @phantom pic.twitter.com/cmWUcprMAN— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) April 25, 2022As Cointelegraph recently reported, based on PechShield’s findings, hackers insert a forged MetaMask browser plugin through which they can steal seed phrases from unsuspecting STEPN users.Access to seed phrase guarantees complete control over the user’s crypto funds via the STEPN dashboard.

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Seven common mistakes crypto investors and traders make

Investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is now easier than ever before. Online brokers, centralized exchanges and even decentralized exchanges give investors the flexibility to buy and sell tokens without going through a traditional financial institution and the hefty fees and commissions that come along with them.Cryptocurrencies were designed to operate in a decentralized manner. This means that while they’re an innovative avenue for global peer-to-peer value transfers, there are no trusted authorities involved that can guarantee the security of your assets. Your losses are your responsibility once you take your digital assets into custody.Here we’ll explore some of the more common mistakes that cryptocurrency investors and traders make and how you can protect yourself from unnecessary losses.Losing your keysCryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, a form of distributed ledger technology that offers high levels of security for digital assets without the need for a centralized custodian. However, this puts the onus of protection on asset holders, and storing the cryptographic keys to your digital asset wallet safely is an integral part of this. On the blockchain, digital transactions are created and signed using private keys, which act as a unique identifier to prevent unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency wallet. Unlike a password or a PIN, you cannot reset or recover your keys if you lose them. This makes it extremely important to keep your keys safe and secure, as losing them would mean losing access to all digital assets stored in that wallet.Lost keys are among the most common mistakes that crypto investors make. According to a report from Chainalysis, of the 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) mined so far, over 20% has been lost to forgotten or misplaced keys.Storing coins in online walletsCentralized cryptocurrency exchanges are probably the easiest way for investors to get their hands on some cryptocurrencies. However, these exchanges do not give you access to the wallets holding the tokens, instead offering you a service similar to banks. While the user technically owns the coins stored on the platform, they are still held by the exchange, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on the platform and putting them at risk.There have been many documented attacks on high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges that have led to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from these platforms. The most secure option to protect your assets against such risk is to store your cryptocurrencies offline, withdrawing assets to either a software or hardware wallet after purchase.Not keeping a hard copy of your seed phraseTo generate a private key for your crypto wallet, you will be prompted to write down a seed phrase consisting of up to 24 randomly generated words in a specific order. If you ever lose access to your wallet, this seed phrase can be used to generate your private keys and access your cryptocurrencies. Keeping a hard copy record, such as a printed document or a piece of paper with the seed phrase written on it, can help prevent needless losses from damaged hardware wallets, faulty digital storage systems, and more. Just like losing your private keys, traders have lost many a coin to crashed computers and corrupted hard drives.Source: Sciencia58.Fat-finger errorA fat-finger error is when an investor accidentally enters a trade order that isn’t what they intended. One misplaced zero can lead to significant losses, and mistyping even a single decimal place can have considerable ramifications.One instance of this fat-finger error was when the DeversiFi platform erroneously paid out a $24-million fee. Another unforgettable tale was when a highly sought-after Bored Ape nonfungible token was accidentally sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.Sending to the wrong addressInvestors should take extreme care while sending digital assets to another person or wallet, as there is no way to retrieve them if they are sent to the wrong address. This mistake often happens when the sender isn’t paying attention while entering the wallet address. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible, and unlike a bank, there are no customer support lines to help with the situation.This kind of error can be fatal to an investment portfolio. Still, in a positive turn of events, Tether, the firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, recovered and returned $1 million worth of Tether (USDT) to a group of crypto traders who sent the funds to the wrong decentralized finance platform in 2020. However, this story is a drop in the ocean of examples where things don’t work out so well. Hodlers should be careful while dealing with digital asset transactions and take time to enter the details. Once you make a mistake, there’s no going back.Over diversificationDiversification is crucial to building a resilient cryptocurrency portfolio, especially with the high volatility levels in the space. However, with the sheer number of options out there and the predominant thirst for outsized gains, cryptocurrency investors often end up over-diversifying their portfolios, which can have immense consequences.Over-diversification can lead to an investor holding a large number of heavily underperforming assets, leading to significant losses. It’s vital to only diversify into cryptocurrencies where the fundamental value is clear and to have a strong understanding of the different types of assets and how they will likely perform in various market conditions.Not setting up a stop-loss arrangementA stop-loss is an order type that enables investors to sell a security only when the market reaches a specific price. Investors use this to prevent losing more money than they are willing to, ensuring they at least make back their initial investment. In several cases, investors have experienced huge losses because of incorrectly setting up their stop losses before asset prices dropped. However, it’s also important to remember that stop-loss orders aren’t perfect and can sometimes fail to trigger a sale in the event of a large, sudden crash.That being said, the importance of setting up stop losses to protect investments cannot be understated and can significantly help mitigate losses during a market downturn.Crypto investing and trading is a risky business with no guarantees of success. Like any other form of trading, patience, caution and understanding can go a long way. Blockchain places the responsibility on the investor, so it’s crucial to take the time to figure out the various aspects of the market and learn from past mistakes before putting your money at risk.

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MetaMask rolls out Apple Pay integration and other iOS updates

ConsenSys-owned MetaMask tweeted a thread of updates on Tuesday for iPhone and Apple Pay users. The main feature is the ability to buy cryptocurrency using a debit or credit card through the mobile application, eliminating the need to transfer Ethereum (ETH) from a centralized exchange like Coinbase into the app.  MetaMask Mobile v4.3.1 is LIVE with some exciting updates:Buy crypto on iOS with Apple Pay (@sendwyre), more transparency when interacting with sites, & support for gasless transactions where relevant.Does it get any better? Yes it does! We now have dark mode! 1/— MetaMask (@MetaMask) March 28, 2022MetaMask uses two payment gateways, Wyre and Transak, to support debit card and credit card transactions. Users can now use their Visas and Mastercards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit a daily maximum of $400 into their wallets, thanks to the Wyre API. Gas fees are reportedly lower, and according to MetaMask’s tweets, some transactions may even be gasless if done on a private blockchain or if a project pays for the gas on the user’s behalf. When completing an ETH purchase, MetaMask discloses that it does not profit from gas fess.Via Transak, it’s been possible to buy the stablecoins USDT, USDC and DAI on the Ethereum mainnet in MetaMask for some time now. The latest update allows users to make bank transfers and use credit/debit cards to buy crypto using over 60 global currencies. U.S. users can also buy Fantom and Avalanche native tokens now, according to the comapany. Exact payment methods and fees vary depending on the location. James Beck, Director of Communications and Content at ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that the purpose of the updates is to increase accessibility and reduce friction. “We wanted to expand the way in which users can convert crypto within the app itself and not have to leave it,” he said. He also revealed that more integrations that “maximize” options and “streamline” buying crypto are coming soon.MetaMask tweeted about another “important” security update when it comes to sending tokens. Unlike sending ETH simply to a recipient address, tokens are sent to a contract address and instructions are included to send a specified amount of tokens to the recipient address. Users can now “clearly see which contract is requesting” permission and to label and save that contract. An earlier Twitter thread warned MetaMask users “to be careful when interacting with contracts” and approving a certain address to move those tokens. They claimed that the token approving action could result in assets being stolen and that the only way to be protected is to revoke token allowances. The same applies when you swap/mint/sell/stake/farm on all the fancy stuff built by amazing devs the past few years.When tokens need to be moved by a contract to facilitate an action, you must first *approve* that address to access/move those tokens. This is important.7/ pic.twitter.com/FNZH8Xdl3C— MetaMask (@MetaMask) March 4, 2022

Additionally, MetaMask has introduced the Apple Dark Mode feature as per popular demand.  Beck claimed that “wen dark mode?” and “wen token” have been the most anticipated requests by their users. Dark mode will automatically enable in the app if a user’s iPhone Operating System has dark mode enabled system-wide. The company tweeted that dark mode for the MetaMask Extension “is coming soon.”Related: ConsenSys raises $450M in Series D funding, doubles valuation in four monthsRecently, MetaMask acquired the Ethereum wallet interface provider MyCrypto with the intent of combining technologies and eventually merging MyCrypto with the MetaMask wallet to improve the security of all their products.

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