Operational Security: Habits for Long-Term Safety
The day-to-day practices that keep crypto safe over years — exchange selection, account security, threat models, and inheritance planning.
10 min · intermediate · part of Security Mastery: Protecting Your Assets
What you'll learn
- Threat Modeling: What Are You Defending Against?
- Exchange Selection and Account Hygiene
- Inheritance Planning: The Most Overlooked Security Issue
- Ongoing Monitoring and Periodic Review
- For Deeper Reading
Key terms
- Threat model
- A specific picture of what attacks you need to defend against, calibrated to your circumstances. Effective security defends against likely threats, not all conceivable threats.
- Whitelisted withdrawal addresses
- An exchange security feature restricting withdrawals to pre-approved addresses, often with a 24-hour cooling period for new additions. Limits damage if account is compromised.
- Coinbase Vault
- A Coinbase product requiring multiple signers and time delays for withdrawals. Designed for long-term holdings on the platform.
- Casa Inheritance
- A multisig custody service with built-in inheritance protocols. Holds one key in a multisig setup and releases it to designated beneficiaries upon proof of death.
- Sarcophagus
- A decentralized dead-man's-switch protocol on Ethereum, designed to release secrets to designated parties if the user fails to "renew" within a deadline.
- Dead man's switch
- An automated release of information or assets if a user fails to demonstrate continued life within a defined window. Used in inheritance planning.
- Bearer property
- Property whose ownership transfers by physical possession of an instrument (cash, gold, cryptocurrency seed phrases). No registration of ownership; whoever holds it owns it.
- YubiKey / U2F hardware token
- A physical USB security key for phishing-resistant 2FA. Verifies the actual domain it is communicating with, so cannot be tricked by phishing sites.
- TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password)
- The standard for authenticator apps (Google Authenticator, Authy). Generates 6-digit codes that change every 30 seconds. Stronger than SMS but weaker than hardware tokens.
- Mt. Gox
- Once the largest Bitcoin exchange (~70% of global volume); collapsed February 2014 with ~850,000 BTC stolen. Trustee began creditor repayments July 2024 with deadline now October 2026.
- Bybit hack 2025
- Theft of ~400,000 ETH (~$1.5B) from Bybit exchange on February 21, 2025. Largest crypto heist in history. Attributed to Lazarus Group/DPRK by FBI on February 26, 2025.
- Hal Finney
- The second person ever to run Bitcoin (after Satoshi); recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction in January 2009. Died in 2014. Documented inheritance carefully — exemplary planning.
Read the full lesson in the CryptoBipto app.
Open lessonEducational only — not financial advice.