Recently I was called by someone pretending to be Coinbase support, trying to steal bitcoin.
I decided to turn the tables on him and ask him about being a scammer (Junseth style) - and he opened up in a big way.
Presenting: To Catch a Scammer 🕵️♂️
11/20/2024, 42 engagements
The best way to ensure that all bitcoin doesn't get captured in legacy financial system vehicles is to ensure that people want to use bitcoin as more than a store of value.
Number go up thanks to tradfi adoption is fun, but we can't lose sight of the bigger picture.
Thinking about this in context of the ETF options and the Saif/Saylor discussion from last week.
9/23/2024, 2 engagements
HOW TO SPOT PHISHING IN THE WILD
Our team has noticed a significant uptick recently in phishing attempts on Casa members, friends, and even us.
Phishing is when a scammer contacts you in an attempt to get you to give up precious information, such as login credentials or even a seed phrase. These messages can come via email, DM, or even phone call.
These attacks can sometimes be sneaky good at spoofing legitimate brands you trust. Here’s a breakdown of some emails I received and how you can detect phishing under the hood.
A practiced eye will catch this phishing email, but someone less aware might not. And of course you want to click immediately to see the "Huge Risk of Stablecoins!"
The biggest sign is that the attachment looks weird in the Superhuman email client. When I hovered over the attachment, it turned out to be an external link!
This one is harder to catch in Gmail. The attachment looks pretty normal. So you look for other signs:
Once you get a whiff of phishy: PAUSE, don't click things.
Here's the trick most people don't know about, and how you can verify whether an email is risky. Go to the Gmail side menu on the email itself, click on "Show Original."
Then check the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC fields. If any of them say "FAIL," run away.
Some companies haven't set this up yet but it's still a good test for most emails, especially if you don't know the sender.
And in all scenarios, even if those things all PASS — if something seems a bit off or you don't know the sender, don't download attachments or click links.
Here's another example I got this week. All 3 fields were PASS, but I don't know who this is and it looks phishy so: BOOM, REPORTED.
Stay safe out there — there are a lot of people getting targeted for their bitcoin right now. Here are a few other handy tips to avoid taking the bait:
If you have more questions or want help protecting against this stuff, our team at Casa can help.
is not just about Bitcoin Security.
We're about Security for Bitcoiners.
#security #nostr
GM 🌅
What are the hardest parts of Nostr to use (for you specifically)?
#asknostr #nostr
We are seeing a huge uptick in phishing attempts on teammates, customers, friends...shift to max skepticism mode to protect yourself
8/29/2024, 8 engagements
Keepin’ the Casa referral train rolling
8/28/2024, 3 engagements
Technical #nostr question - I frequently see weird loading bugs in the Primal UI where it won't fully load something like followers, responses, likes, etc. Or it will show me "new" notifications or messages that I've already seen.
Is this a front end problem (Primal), or a backend problem (dealing with relays)? Like how architecturally deep does this problem go? cc
or any other technical people I've followed recently
GM 🌞
I've been watching the
videos and definitely getting more Nostr pilled
#nostr
Second week in a row of all time high new signups for Casa Standard membership 🔥
People are realizing Casa Standard is ridiculously great value:
8/23/2024, 3 engagements
If you've been wanting to check out the Casa + Yubikey integration, here's your chance -
For the next 24 hours if you sign up for a Casa Standard membership with the code COOLKEYS we'll send you a free Yubikey!
8/21/2024, 2 engagements
OH from a Casa Advisor:
"There are two moments that are pure magic when working with clients.
1️⃣ The first is the moment they first move #bitcoin to self custody from an exchange.
2️⃣ The second is when we set up Sparrow wallet as a Sovereign Recovery wallet, and they see all of their Casa transactions and balances show up. They are blown away by the fact that they can see and access their bitcoin completely without Casa."
This is perhaps the most powerful part of Casa. It's why private keys are freedom tech. You hold the keys, you control what they secure.
Casa doesn't control your bitcoin, so if we disappear, your bitcoin doesn't. https://m.primal.net/KEfg.jpg
GM 🌅
Been getting DMs on X about the Casa referral program all weekend. Time to bring this train over to the Nostr crew
New referral program is ridiculously good:
DM me for my ref code + a dose of peace of mind 🧘♂️
8/19/2024, 3 engagements
GM 😎
Asked Grok to make a picture of someone "moving to the brave new world of nostr and away from X" and here's what I got.
Nothing to do with either platform but it's a nice pic.
8/17/2024, 5 engagements
I AM A NOSTR NOOB, TEACH ME WISE ONES
I want to love Nostr and use it more. My problem is discoverability - it’s very hard to recreate a social graph + algo that beats Twitter. I see less content here and people see my posts less, so I have fewer conversations. How do I bootstrap the nostr graph without so much drudgery?
Help
and anyone else I know in this place
8/16/2024, 158 engagements
YubiKeys have quickly become a very popular hardware device for Casa users.
Since we released it 3 weeks ago, 25% of new users are using a YubiKey as one key in their vault. Already the third most popular hardware device.
And the top 3 are very close - number 1 is 33% of users. YubiKey could easily be number 1 in short order.
Cool keys are cool 😎
8/16/2024, 8 engagements
There is one reason people decide to use Casa more than any other: someone they trust told them Casa was the best.
So we recently evaluated our marketing spend and decided to cancel all paid digital advertising, and redirect all that effort to making our referral reward ridiculously awesome.
Now, when you refer a friend to Casa, they get a full 3 months (😱) off their first year of membership, and you’ll get a credit on your next renewal.
When we talked to Casa members who had referred other people to use Casa, they always said the same thing. “I don’t really care about getting rewards myself, I just wanted my friend to have the best security.”
So we kept the reward for you (because obviously you do want a lil something), and really jacked up the benefit for your friend.
Now you can give the gift of bitcoin self-custody that is simple and safe, and solves major problems in bitcoin security for your friends and family.
With the new Casa Inheritance, the ability to use a Yubikey as the simplest key in your multisig, global availability, and no KYC, we’ve finally made self-custody easy and safe at Casa. And as the next bull run builds, there’s no better time to get more bitcoin into self-custody.
To get your personal referral code and share with friends, just grab it from your Settings in the Casa app.
If you want to try Casa and don’t know any current Casa members, shoot me a DM. I’ll hook you up with my own code (no complaints here getting some renewal credit and stacking more sats 😉).https://m.primal.net/KAXb.jpg
8/15/2024, 1 engagement
Casa Announcement Nakamoto Stage, 10:20 am, July 26
Gonna be a good one - game changer for private key UX.
Come Witness History 👀
Blackrock CEO has done a 180 on #bitcoin. But he says something here that I think is completely wrong.
He says bitcoin is a tool for expressing the viewpoint of being "more frightened of the world, more frightened of your existence" - and that bitcoin is not a tool for optimism.
This couldn't be further from the truth, and shows that Larry has a couple more steps to take down the bitcoin rabbit hole.
Bitcoin has many optimistic use cases as Freedom Money.
Savings and money that you can hold yourself, without having to trust a third party to keep it safe for you
A fast, cheap way to move money anywhere in the world ~instantly
A method for activists to fund and run their organizations when they are cut off from the banking system by corrupt dictators, see work being done by
And finally, having money that protects you against hyperinflation by a poor government can be pretty optimistic.
Follow us a few more steps down the rabbit hole here Larry - lots more to see if you're looking for an optimistic case for bitcoin.
Most people think of bitcoin as a protection against inflation risk.
But just as importantly, it protects against systemic risk - IF you hold your own keys.
7/9/2024, 1 engagement
Happy 4th 🇺🇸
7/4/2024, 7 engagements
Liquidity is often a big door on the way in and a small door on the way out.
For an asset like where systemic risk events are part of the investment thesis, what does that mean for bitcoin held in an ETF? Making good on that thesis will be difficult.
Because U.S. spot ETFs deal in cash, you’re boxed out of transacting directly with bitcoin through ETFs. There is no exiting with your bitcoin. When you sell your shares, that transaction will be settled in cash.
Selling for cash has its restrictions as well. ETFs primarily trade during market hours (ex. 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST in the U.S.). Meanwhile, bitcoin trades 24/7 globally. Traditional stock markets are open 20% of that time when you factor in holidays and weekends.
Imagine this scenario. Major news breaks after the market close on a Friday. The BTC price reacts sharply. You watch the candle move Saturday and Sunday. Monday is a holiday and markets are closed. By the time Tuesday opens, you’ve waited 89.5 hours.
Even when the market is open, significant volatility can trip circuit breakers and halt trading on securities exchanges. They can be triggered by declines of as little as 7%. That volatility melts brains in TradFi but doesn’t faze most long-time HODLers.
A 20% move could trigger a Level 3 breach on the NYSE, which halts trading for the rest of the day. All the while, the bitcoin market continues to trade undeterred worldwide. Granted, crypto exchanges have been known to go down too in times of high traffic, but going offline should be considered a bug vs. a feature in the old system.
A primary narrative around bitcoin is its optionality and the ability to exit the legacy financial system. During a recent market rally, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink described investors acquiring crypto as a “flight to quality” amid geopolitical risk. With an ETF, you should expect that flight to be in a holding pattern when markets are closed or disrupted. Furthermore, this dynamic begs the question: do you really own your asset if you can’t use it anytime you need it?
Your BTC ETF "ownership" comes with an asterisk (*). Exceptions apply, read the fine print for details. Unfortunately, lots of typical retail investors may not think this far. They just see number go up, and they buy into bitcoin via the ETF. Sharing the benefits of truly owning your BTC is critical as ownership grows and bitcoin becomes money.
ETFs help provide liquidity to the overall BTC market, but they lack bitcoin's depth of utility. Self-custody remains the best way to keep bitcoin in your control 24/7. By holding your keys, you realize the full benefits of BTC and aren’t hamstrung in tail-risk events. The door remains wide open.
This is why we're focused on building the safest, simplest self-custody possible at Casa. We have to make it easy for as many people as possible to hold their own keys and realize the full value of bitcoin.
7/3/2024, 2 engagements
One of the most important features of Casa is Sovereign Recovery - the ability to access your #bitcoin even if Casa disappears overnight.
We just added wallet descriptors to Casa to make Sovereign Recovery even easier. Huge improvement in simplicity.
Wallet descriptors let you copy/paste one string into Sparrow and load up your wallet. Compare this to connecting each key, typing in derivation paths, etc.
Casa is all about removing single points of failure in your security - including Casa.
This is why individuals and institutions across a huge range of assets protected trust Casa to help them secure their bitcoin.
Because otherwise your assets could be stuck in bankruptcy proceedings for a decade.
The most under-appreciated part of Casa's offering by non-customers is our Advisor team. And this is pretty hard to convey in traditional "marketing"; you have to experience it to understand it.
Casa was the first self-custody company to offer hands on, high touch advisory. Competitors have tried to copy this over the years, but the level of quality just doesn't come close.
We've had many clients who have used both Casa and our competitors tell us that Casa's Advisors are by far the most helpful, knowledgable, and trustworthy.
Casa Advisors are the ones you want in your court when you're trying to figure out something weird with your keys or your vault, which can be an incredibly high stakes interaction. They do everything from answering basic bitcoin questions, to helping recover assets from old paper wallets, to just being your bitcoin therapist when you don't have anyone else in your life to talk to about it.
Don't settle for the cargo-cult when it comes to security advice; Casa Advisors are second to none, and you want them on your team.
