A new @brian_armstrong podcast just dropped with @KevinWSHPod.
They went deep:
→ Building through hard times
→ Founder struggles
→ Managing burnout
→ Staying true to the mission
Oh, and being bald.
🚨 BREAKING:
Bybit analysts found that 16 major blockchains allow user funds to be frozen instantly.
Blockchains where freezes are already possible:
$CHZ, $VIC, $XDC, $BNB, $VET, $ONE, $HVH, $APT, $SUPRA, $EOS, $ROSE, $WAXP, $SUI, $LINEA, $WAVES, $HT
Blockchains that could enable it next:
$ARB, $ATOM, $AXL, $BBN, $TIA, $DYDX, $DYM, $EVMOS, $INIT, $KAVA, $LUNA, $OM, $OKB, $RUNE, $SEI, $XION, and others.
They call it “security.” What it really means is control.
PROTECT YOUR BITCOIN AGAINST QUANTUM ATTACKS.
Here's how to easily do that, today:
First, let's realize two things:
1) We can’t fix the math without a softfork or BIP. Bitcoin’s current cryptography (ECDSA/Schnorr) is vulnerable in a post-quantum world.
2) Quantum attacks can reverse the private key from a public key, stealing your wallet funds.
BUT:
we can minimize showing our public keys onchain. That’s the only lever we have, but it’s enough.
=> If we can keep hiding our public key, we can keep hiding our private key.
Here’s HOW:
An unspent P2WSH UTXO (BTC in a segwit wallet) only shows wsh(<script-hash>) on-chain. The actual redeem script (and therefore your public key) is not published YET.
Once you spend that UTXO:
The redeem script (and your public key) is revealed.
THEN a future quantum attacker can say:
“Cool, here’s this pubkey. If coins are ever sent here again, I can break it.”
SO: keep high-value BTC in unspent P2WSH UTXOs whose public keys have never been revealed onchain, and never reuse any key whose pubkey has already appeared.
That’s 100% attainable with CURRENT wallet tooling.
It doesn’t even have to be multisig. Quantum resistance simply means: “No public key on-chain until you spend.”
This can be done with plain segwit (P2WSH) wallets.
Realize this:
If you ever spend from an address (reveal that pubkey) and then reuse that address, you’ve lost quantum resistance for all future BTC sent to it.
If a public key is never published, there’s simply nothing to attack!
So just use a Segwit wallet and never reuse addresses.
Again: Addresses hide public keys UNTIL they are spent from.
Also: an xpub exposes all child public keys so if a quantum attacker gets a hold of it, they can derive every child public key and thus every child private key. So: hide your xpub!
TLDR:
1) Use Segwit wallets (default in most wallets)
2) Don’t send BTC to any address you’ve already spent from.
I hope this mitigates much of the quantum fud we see today. Yes, old addresses are vulnerable but realize YOUR bitcoin can be quantum-proof today if you simply use basic best practices strictly.
Now you also know that "quantum-resistant architecture" by the likes of @Trezor with their new Safe7 wallet is mostly marketing mumbojumbo. Don't fall for it. Quantum safety depends entirely on what’s published onchain, not on what hardware generated the signature. That doesn't mean its a bad device though.