I accidentally compromised my hot wallet
What a great read. I really enjoyed the author&#x27;s writing style and candor.<p>As someone who lost 8 figures in crypto in 2017 - and someone who is still a huge advocate for defi in general - I can deeply empathize with the narrative. This quote stands out to me in particular:<p>&quot;... in many ways the sense of violation and helplessness I felt on Thursday was matched by the excitement and empowerment I felt at being able to recover my remaining assets.&quot;<p>Reminds me of the first time I had a corrupted header on an encrypted drive back in 2012. I spent dozens of hours learning things I would have never learned, and while I wasn&#x27;t able to recover that drive, I&#x27;ve kept header backups for every encrypted device I&#x27;ve had since.<p>Mistakes in crypto are mercilessly punished, sure. But in an era where every major company database (Facebook, Equifax are front of mind) has been leaked and government organizations are frequently compromised (SolarWinds most notable) I can&#x27;t help but find some solace that hardened blockchains and clients, and developers who follow stringent procedures, will lead us to more widespread technological stability.<p>Maybe you haven&#x27;t committed a <i>cryptocurrency wallet</i> private key to a repo, but I suspect many may have included vulnerable environmental variables like an <i>API</i> key before. An attacker using that could quickly rack up cloud bills that far exceed losses from the average hot wallet balance.<p>FWIW I consider 80%+ of NFT transactions to be wash trading &#x2F; &#x27;creative accounting&#x27; and most of this recent growth in crypto prices to be a byproduct of hyperinflation. A major correction is coming within 18 months (if not much sooner).<p>Nonetheless I&#x27;m still quite optimistic about the future :)