TL;DR

• Vitalik just made a lengthy post on Reddit, explaining his thoughts around crypto wallet 'guardians' - specifically, how to choose them.

• Vitalik goes in depth about two key questions: (i) who do you choose as guardians, and (ii) what instructions do you give them?

• As prices start to rise and more money floods back into the crypto industry, security becomes even more important than ever.

Full Story

Sometimes we scroll through Reddit and Twitter thinking to ourselves:

"How does someone like Vitalik Buterin (creator of Ethereum) have time to write entire essays while also leading the vision for Ethereum?"

This is one of those times.

Vitalik just made a lengthy post on Reddit, explaining his thoughts around crypto wallet 'guardians' - specifically, how to choose them.

But first, what are these 'guardians' he speaks of?

This is a morbid thought, but in the case that someone is hacked, coerced, paralyzed, or dies, it can lead to their wallet access getting in the wrong hands, or worse, access to the wallet may become impossible.

One solution to this is the 'multi-sig' approach whereby multiple people have access to a portion of the key, and only when X of Y people provide that portion of the key can the wallet be accessed.

For example, 6 (or as Vitalik calls it, 'N') people may have access and at least 4 (or 'M') of them may be required to approve the operation.

Vitalik goes in depth about two key questions: (i) who do you choose as guardians, and (ii) what instructions do you give them?

Here are his thoughts, summarized:

• You should control at least one guardian, and at most N-M (i.e. 6-4) guardians.

• Choose guardians who do not often talk to each other or ideally do not know each other.

• Guardians should ask a security question before approving an operation.

• If you're doing "degen" stuff, make sure to have guardians who can respond quickly.

• Make a test operation for each guardian at least once per year (kind of like a fire evacuation drill).

We may not know how he has the time to write these essays, but boy are we glad he does.

As prices start to rise and more money floods back into the crypto industry, security becomes even more important than ever.

Stay safe out there!