I can give the benefit of the doubt to most people who promoted Coldcard to other users, such as podcasters and online influencers and other Coldcard users. When I was brand new to Bitcoin in 2020/2021, Coldcard was pushed by EVERYONE as best in class for secure Bitcoin storage, and being new to anything you simply have no choice but to trust people while you find your way through it all. I’m a creative who happens to be technically-inclined, not a coder/dev, so personally auditing source code is never an option for me anyway. I imagine most Bitcoin podcasters/influencers are in a similar position as me. When essentially every reputable voice around said to use Coldcard because it’s the best, why would you doubt them? They’re the experts, right? I don’t think it’s fair to hold anyone accountable who promoted Coldcard in that regard. But NVK and Coinkite employees who were involved in their devices’ security do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. They deserve the highest levels of scrutiny and accountability at this point.

Truth is neither kind nor cruel. Truth is information, and when it exposes someone’s lies and incompetence it can be a bitch.

“We delete customer info in 90 days” and yet 5 years after my purchase I just an email from Coinkite about this 🤡

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Just wait until the civil lawsuits against Coinkite and NVK.

One of the hardest things is realizing that someone you like or look up to or even consider a friend is actually responsible for doing something terrible to others. This is the struggle anyone defending NVK is going through. Sorry guys, your buddy NVK is a bad dude. The sooner you face it and hold him accountable, the better for your own reputation.

Considering what is known at this point, anyone berating victims because they didn’t roll dice is essentially defending Coinkite and NVK’s obvious negligence.

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Be careful not to discount or minimize the real suffering people are experiencing as a result of this incident. “Kindness” and “grace” do not negate the need for accountability where accountability is warranted. This represents for some a loss of their entire life savings. If it was the result of negligence or carelessness by the defacto hardware wallet manufacturer, as it appears it was from initial information, then their pain is real and their anger is justified.

This whole thing completely sank the self-custody ship. View quoted note →

Normal people aren’t going to roll a dice. They’re just going to store their bitcoin on exchange from this point forward.