Hello! Happy Friday!
First of all, my wallet wasn’t drained and I never got hacked or scammed in my 2 years in the NFT art / crypto space, even if I still consider myself a newbie. So, no worries!
Let’s start this article with a question: would you invest your money in an exchange or bank that was hacked… and what if it was hacked more than once? Some art collectors wouldn’t also like to invest in artists who have their accounts / wallets compromised, especially if it happens often.
So, in this article I bring you a couple of tips that helped me (a newbie) to prevent being hacked / scammed in the NFT art space / crypto. I’m completing 2 years in this space and can say I was targeted by scammers multiple times, and the barriers I used protected me all the times.
Let’s get started!
Outline
Tweet of the week
Protect yourself by following these simple tips
3 Artists to meet today
Tweet of the week
Protect yourself by following these simple tips
By compromising your safety you also compromises your reputation. Your safety shall be also your priority, and a high priority one.
✴️ Use a hardware wallet.
A hardware wallet is a physical device that stores your private keys offline. Since it's not connected to the internet during normal use, it greatly reduces the risk of your private keys being compromised by hackers or malware.
With traditional software wallets or exchanges, there's a higher risk of falling victim to phishing attacks or malware that can steal your private keys. Hardware wallets provide an extra layer of protection against such threats as they require physical confirmation for transactions.
Some well-known hardware wallets to acquire are Trezor and Ledger. If you can, have different wallets for different purposes (ex: for your contracts, for your crypto, for buying/selling arts, for vault, etc).
✴️ Don’t click links
Unless you REALLY know what you are about to do and you have confirmed the link is 100% correct, DON’T CLICK ANY LINK. Instead, prefer to have bookmarked all your favorite links (to exchanges, marketplaces, social networks, etc), and write the link every time you wanna access that webpage. See if it matches the link bookmarked. If it doesn’t, check what’s wrong! Sometimes your bookmarked links may be compromised!
✴️ Read before to sign anything
Read what you sign in your wallets! If something is asking you to sign for an “Approve for all” permission, make sure to check if it is what you want. Approve for all means that contract will be able to transfer ALL your crypto and NFTs from your wallet, without need any permission. In other words, they have access to everything in your wallet and can do whatever they want. Usually some wallets (like Metamask) displays a message warning that you are about to sign such kind of permission.
✴️ Take care with FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
If you feel FOMO, the best what you can do is to do nothing. For me, it is always more important to let an opportunity to go than to lose what I have earned. Yes, sometimes you may feel the most stupid person for not taking an opportunity, but you release that there will always have new opportunities, without a risk of being compromised.
✴️ Don’t trust anyone (literally)
Do you know your friends’ accounts may be compromised and the hacker can use their accounts to engage with you and demand money or send links that will compromise your accounts too? Well, that’s one of the most common scams that I see happening. So, the first thing is to doubt of anything that demands you to do something, especially if it is something that sounds urgent. Do a little research to confirm that everything is true before to proceed.
✴️ Protect your seed-phrase
Don’t enter or share your seed-phrase anywhere, except if you are restoring your wallet.
Save your seed-phrase in a safe place, physically, never in a file. Never ever write your seed-phrase on an electronic equipment that can be connected to Internet, nor take photos, nor save on the cloud.
If you can, inscribe your seed-phrase in a metal, or write several copies of it in papers that you can have on different locations. Have a copy of it in a different physical location, if possible, some KM away from the place where you live, or if in the same place, in a very hidden and protected place from fire, water, animals.
✴️ Enable 2FA (2-factor authentication)
Use 2FA on your emails, social networks, etc. For that, DON’T use SMS authentication! Instead, prefer to use app authentication or something that demands an interaction with a physical thing.
✴️ Take care with airdrops
Take care with tokens airdropped to your wallet. Do a little research about what is being airdropped, before to interact with that token by any means (accepting offer, transferring, listing, etc). Majority of airdrops are scams, where the contract behind it will ask you to approve for all, letting the creators of that contract have access to all your crypto / NFTs.
A common scam is someone airdrop a NFT to your wallet and it comes with an offer (usually a high offer), so that you happily will go to accept that offer. The trick is that the offer can’t be accepted and when you go to accept that offer, you give access to the creator of that contract to all your crypto / NFTs stored in your wallet.
✴️ Use Linux / MacOS
If you can, use a good (safe) operational system in your computer where you interact with your wallets. Linux and MacOS are the top ones related to security.
In addition, if you can, use a different computer to interact with your wallet, and just use that computer for it! I currently use two computers: one for everything except things related to crypto and another just for things related to crypto. The computer I use just for crypto I also use Linux.
✴️ Follow the real accounts of marketplaces, wallets, projects
Following the real accounts of the people and companies you engage the most is essential to avoid falling on simple scams of others impersonating such people and companies. For example, follow the real Foundation account, real BAYC account, etc.
✴️ Use a burn wallet
If you going to mint a free-mint NFT or anything that can be suspicious, use a burn wallet and then transfer the minted NFT to your real wallets. Make sure to understand what that NFT is about because sooner or later you may interact with that NFT using your real wallet and then that’s when you can get into troubles.
PS: if you can, use a burn wallet for whatever new NFT you will interact with or website you will connect your wallet!
✴️ Mint your NFT arts under your own contract
If you are an artist, this is a bonus tip. When you mint your NFT arts under your own contract, it means you have full control over it. That’s different than when you mint your NFT arts under the shared contract by OpenSea, for example! When you mint unders the shared contract by OpenSea, they have the control over the contract and they can not only ban you from the marketplace but also freeze all the NFTs you minted under that contract. If you mint under your own contract, they can still ban you from the marketplace, but you can always sell your arts from the same contract in other marketplaces.
If you like this content, before to continue to read, remember to share it. It is free for you and it helps me a lot.
3 NFT artists to meet today
In this section I bring you 3 artists that worth to follow and check their arts. They all have been actively building their presence in the space.
1. @greenisginger (Green Ginger)
Yo, folks! It’s Green Ginger! We are two siblings from Bandung, Indonesia, who share passions on pixel art. Our real names are Haska (left) and Yusuf (right). Haska, having almost 5 years of experience in software engineering, and Yusuf, who just graduated from college studying English Language, took an opportunity in the NFT space in 2022.
Our passions of pixel art came from our memories of playing Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Genesis, and Nintendo Gameboy Advance. During 1.5 years getting into the world of art and NFTs, while bringing the sweet memories of playing retro games, our pixel art styles consist of perspectives and abstractions with limited colors. We do some animations of our pieces as well which you guys can explore in our Linktree site below!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/greenisginger
Portfolio: https://linktr.ee/greenginger
2. @sbtwolf (bcrandall805.eth - Bobby)
Hi! I'm bcrandall805.eth or Bobby. I'm a self-taught AI-artist near Monterey, California. I take a lot of my inspiration from the beautiful forest around me, and the gorgeous waves of the Pacific Ocean is nearby.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbtwolf
Portfolio: https://bcrandall805.eth.co/
3. @AnjeVela (Anje Vela)
Anje Vela is a versatile artist who fearlessly embraces a multitude of mediums to create her works of art. From photography and expressive paintings to drawings, collages, and innovative digital art, she allows her creations to evolve, mirroring the ever-changing chapters of her life. Each piece becomes a unique reflection of her artistic journey, capturing the essence of her creative spirit.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnjeVela
Portfolio: http://anjevela.com