It’s time to ditch seed phrases for something that actually works

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Happy New Year everyone,

It’s around this time every year I start thinking that this is the year I get real about security. The obvious place to start: passwords.

But let’s face it – passwords suck. While almost every aspect of technology has jumped forward in leaps and bounds, every time we need to access our documents, we still need to key in a password like some caveman developer from the 1960s.

The only reason that password security has evolved at all is because thieves, who have proven themselves at least as innovative as programmers, are constantly finding new ways to break into our accounts. Just how bad things have gotten was – again – highlighted this week.

NFT collector CryptoNovo revealed that his wallet was hacked and 10 tokens, including three CryptoPunks and a Bored Ape, were taken.

Nikhil Gopalani, chief operating officer at RTFKT – an NFT project owned by Nike – was also hit. His wallet had over 80 tokens taken from it.

Luke Dashjr, one of the early developers for Bitcoin, said he lost hundreds of BTC from his accounts late last year.

While it’s unclear how CryptoNovo and Gopalani were hacked, Dashjr said his “seed phrases” were compromised. Seed phrases are those long strings of random words a user is given – and repeatedly told to keep safe – when they create crypto wallets. If hackers are finding a way to access that, it could mean trouble for ‌crypto holders.

In this week’s premium story, Deepti Sri ‌takes a hard look at what crypto developers are doing to move beyond seed phrases and keep wallets secure. In what has to be one of the most millennial-specific advances in password security yet, one developer says their strategy is similar to Voldemort’s use of horcruxes in the Harry Potter series. If that has your attention, keep reading.

— Scott

THE BIG STORY

How crypto is killing seed phrases to usher in mass adoption

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Non-custodial wallets have been increasing in demand following the collapse of FTX.

⭐ TO THE STARS

🌙 TO THE MOON

🌏 BACK TO EARTH

STILL A PONZI SCHEME

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