To Anon, Or Not To Anon

That is the question...

In my world, everyone is talking about leverage. There is a strong consensus that, in order to build leverage and the wealth that leverage creates, you need to be actively spinning the flywheels on social media platforms that are relevant to the people you want to reach. Be good to the algorithm, and the algorithm will be good to you. By and large, I believe this is done most effectively by letting people get you know you - not just your opinions on what you're working on, but also things about your life - your family, your hobbies, whatever.

Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage. Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018

In crypto this poses a unique problem. For a serious user, self sovereignty comes with a considerable set of responsibilities, chief amongst which is protecting your private keys from falling into the wrong hands. With bitcoin, this is a manageable problem - you can put them in cold storage, send them to yourself at some future block (essentially time-locking them) or split up your private key into fragments and store each fragment in a bank vault, like the Winklevoss brothers.

In the fast moving world of defi, the opportunity cost of Horcrux'ing yourself in this manner is considerably higher. Ethereum (/insert your favourite L1 coin here) flows around far faster than bitcoin, and in order to stay ahead of the game (or even really in the game at all), it's likely you're going to need to keep at least a significant fraction of your funds in a hot wallet. Criminals know this as well as practitioners, so if you're posting publicly about crypto, you need to consider the possibility that you have to defend yourself against a wrench attack. Remember: your private key represents unequivocal access to your funds. Once they're gone, they're gone, and there's no one to complain to, no refunds, no take-backs, nothing. While there are some practical steps you can take to reduce the likelihood that low-budget wrench attacks fail, security through obscurity provides the best method for whales (and would-be whales) to protect themselves and their bags. It's for this reason that a rapidly growing proportion of (particularly crypto Twitter) accounts are now operated anonymously, with nothing more than a moniker and a pfp NFT by way of an identity.

While the crypto world has largely started to embrace this reality, it's not without its drawbacks. The recent Wonderland 'funds are sifu' scandal highlights this - where else in the world could a felon (convicted of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, burglary, grand larceny AND computer fraud) take single-handed control of 9 figures of other people's money?

One of the reasons I put off starting this blog as long as I did was because I agonised over the decision of whether to post my thoughts about crypto under my own name or via an anon. Ultimately, while it pains me to make a decision rooted in fear, I decided that it was too easy to trace my online persona to my real world address. Starting again from 0 followers will be a tough grind, but hopefully over a long enough timeframe the benefits will outweigh the headaches. You can't put a price on a good nights' sleep after all.

GL out there!