In brief
- Use multisig wallets or other techniques to create time delays.
- Practice a script you’d use under coercion (“The wallet is stored at my lawyer’s office and takes 72 hours to unlock.”)
- Keep a decoy wallet on your phone or hot wallet with a few thousand dollars.
- Cover your tracks. Never disclose your holdings or wallet structure in public or online.
In 2009, the webcomic xkcd published a strip that laid out one of the most chillingly simple concepts in cybersecurity: the “$5 wrench attack.” In the comic, a stick figure explains how to bypass sophisticated encryption—not with code or brute force, but by threatening someone with a $5 wrench until they give up their password.
Sadly, the $5 wrench attack is no longer a…
May 25 2025
