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> We’ve received some small donations here and there, in hindsight we should have secured these funds much earlier[1], but the relatively large recent donation

> We’ve received some small donations here and there, in hindsight we should have secured these funds much earlier[1], but the relatively large recent donation has spurred us into action. Essentially what we did was move the funds to hardware wallets owned by the core development team. This way we have significantly reduced the risk of the funds being stolen. Bitcoin's coolest feature is perhaps it's biggest weakness. I think virtually all of the people to whom Bitcoin is appealing have had access to a banking system which means we have never had to think about securing our wealth. IMO being able to safely secure the secret that would unlock a wallet from both destruction and theft is not easy. You can avoid the risk of destruction by redundantly storing the secret. Hardware wallets are a great option, probably the best one. Let's hope it's enough. BTW: I did a mini-matching fundraising for a couple of days for Zig, based on some cryptocoins I had that were gathering dust. Conveniently enough there's a broker out there that was able to receive the cryptocurrency, exchange it and forward it to the Zig Foundation. This relieved the Zig team from the hassle of securing or exchanging the funds. See the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28790988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28790988 -- I was able to donate my cryptocurrency to match funds donated using conventional means.

jarcane 5y ago
Yes, physical storage is so much more secure. That's why I bury all my gold in the backyard.
- arcticbull 5y ago
  I'd recommend keeping it at the COMEX gold warehouse.
- cinntaile 5y ago
  Using a hardware wallet doesn't mean you're physically storing it. It's just a user interface to make storing it a little easier and a little more secure than having it as a file on your computer or on a piece of paper.
TacticalCoder 5y ago
> You can avoid the risk of destruction by redundantly storing the secret. Not disagreeing with you but then there are two places (or more) where the secret can be found and your funds stolen. As to having, in addition to that, a hardware wallet makes for yet another potential attack vector: is the hardware wallet unlocked by your fingerprint? Is the fingerprint reader secure? Is it protected by a PIN? How safe is your PIN? Is the HSM in the hardware wallet really unbreakable and really erasing everything after three tries and no attacker can bypass that?
- gh55 5y ago
  You're quite right, there are risks with everything in life. I believe a hardware wallet to be far more secure than online banking. I think you'll find this interesting: https://trezor.io/shamir/ https://trezor.io/shamir/
wyldfire 5y ago
hijacking my top comment to mention that I'm matching donations from HNers to Nim for the next 48 hours, up to $500. https://twitter.com/nim_lang/status/1452773004417585154?s=20 https://twitter.com/nim_lang/status/1452773004417585154?s=20

jarcane 5y ago

Yes, physical storage is so much more secure. That's why I bury all my gold in the backyard.

arcticbull 5y ago
I'd recommend keeping it at the COMEX gold warehouse.
cinntaile 5y ago
Using a hardware wallet doesn't mean you're physically storing it. It's just a user interface to make storing it a little easier and a little more secure than having it as a file on your computer or on a piece of paper.

TacticalCoder 5y ago

> You can avoid the risk of destruction by redundantly storing the secret. Not disagreeing with you but then there are two places (or more) where the secret can be found and your funds stolen. As to having, in addition to that, a hardware wallet makes for yet another potential attack vector: is the hardware wallet unlocked by your fingerprint? Is the fingerprint reader secure? Is it protected by a PIN? How safe is your PIN? Is the HSM in the hardware wallet really unbreakable and really erasing everything after three tries and no attacker can bypass that?

gh55 5y ago
You're quite right, there are risks with everything in life. I believe a hardware wallet to be far more secure than online banking. I think you'll find this interesting: https://trezor.io/shamir/ https://trezor.io/shamir/

wyldfire 5y ago

hijacking my top comment to mention that I'm matching donations from HNers to Nim for the next 48 hours, up to $500. https://twitter.com/nim_lang/status/1452773004417585154?s=20 https://twitter.com/nim_lang/status/1452773004417585154?s=20