After FTX collapse, some call for a return to decentralized roots

[Joshua Farrell]

As questions swirl about how much cryptocurrencies will be worth in the wake of the spectacular collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and other major platforms, a key question has emerged: Who will keep your crypto safe?

In response, some in the crypto community are calling for a return to its decentralized roots.

Among the rallying cries of this latent movement: “Not your keys, not your coins.”

In other words: Trust only yourself.

But doing so requires individuals to maintain their own cryptocurrency wallets through a more complicated — if safer — process that involves generating complex passwords and sometimes buying physical hardware to keep track of crypto, as opposed to entrusting it to an exchange.

"A company like FTX was supposed to hold your assets, but they ended up lending them out," Tracy Wang, deputy managing editor at the crypto news site CoinDesk, told NBC News.

That concept is what undergirds the traditional monetary system and seems to go against the fundamental philosophy of cryptocurrency.

"This is like taking power back and being in charge of your own money," Wang said of decentralization.

So does that mean that Utopia P2P had chosen the right way from the very beginning, being based on its own decentralized blockchain and having own Crypton privacy coin? As for the 5 years of existence it didn't face any data leakage or scamming scandal. Or what else would you offer to pay attention to?

 

[pousinha]

Based on the news in the crypto world since June 2023, I'm worrying no storing method is 100% safe. In the CEX like FTX (only a few days before its collapse, I had seen a YouTube video where an FTX user was stating it was the best exchange in the world and I can't imagine how much he lost) we don't own the private keys and such a mishap is dangerous. In any way, owning the private keys is not a guarantee any more. I came to know the super safe (and obviously decentralized) Atomic Wallet got hacked in June and there were people who lost millions. I got astonished, as Atomic Wallet is a non-custodial in app wallet and we own the private keys! The fault resides in the update of June, as its architecture showed a hole that let users' seed phrases leak out (hoping I'm expressing to be understandable, as this is a too technical theme). Meanwhile, people owning a Ledger complained the firmware of one update showed a hole too, leaving even cold wallets vulnerable. Sincerely, I don't know what to think any more. Nor cold wallet is any more safe (to not talk it's not affordable by people who live among low tier countries, when the amount of our cryptocurrencies isn't worth the purchasing of a Ledger or Trezor).

 

[Passionate-writer]

The collapse of FTS coin raised many questions and I think that this is quite understandable. There were many people who invested quite heavily in the FTX coin. In fact, some people even invested their life savings into this kind of coin. It was so sad and heartbreaking so see this currency collapsing, and I must say that this had a major effect on how people view cryptocurrencies.

Based on the news in the crypto world since June 2023, I'm worrying no storing method is 100% safe. In the CEX like FTX (only a few days before its collapse, I had seen a YouTube video where an FTX user was stating it was the best exchange in the world and I can't imagine how much he lost) we don't own the private keys and such a mishap is dangerous. In any way, owning the private keys is not a guarantee any more. I came to know the super safe (and obviously decentralized) Atomic Wallet got hacked in June and there were people who lost millions. I got astonished, as Atomic Wallet is a non-custodial in app wallet and we own the private keys! The fault resides in the update of June, as its architecture showed a hole that let users' seed phrases leak out (hoping I'm expressing to be understandable, as this is a too technical theme). Meanwhile, people owning a Ledger complained the firmware of one update showed a hole too, leaving even cold wallets vulnerable. Sincerely, I don't know what to think any more. Nor cold wallet is any more safe (to not talk it's not affordable by people who live among low tier countries, when the amount of our cryptocurrencies isn't worth the purchasing of a Ledger or Trezor).

 

[riberet19]

No place is 100% secure, that is clear and everyone should be clear about it, that is why diversifying funds between different trusted wallets is important, you can try paper wallets, hardware wallets, and some decentralized desktop wallets where to manage your funds between all of them, at least that's what I do.

 

[pousinha]

There were many people who invested quite heavily in the FTX coin. In fact, some people even invested their life savings into this kind of coin. It was so sad and heartbreaking so see this currency collapsing, and I must say that this had a major effect on how people view cryptocurrencies.

Obviously! Sincerely, in any way I think it's to strictly avoid investing one's life savings in cryptocurrencies, whether in a CEX like FTX, whether elsewhere. It's a very risky field,much more risky than stocks. In a CEX we don't own the private keys: if a CEX scams or fail, it's over. The same if an app wallet or a cold wallet gets hacked like Atomic Wallet and some Ledgers cause a hole in an update. Paper wallets are probably safer, but in any way, I would never trust cryptocurrencies world at the point to invest a whole life savings.

 

[Passionate-writer]

No place is 100% secure, that is clear and everyone should be clear about it, that is why diversifying funds between different trusted wallets is important, you can try paper wallets, hardware wallets, and some decentralized desktop wallets where to manage your funds between all of them, at least that's what I do.

Well, the only way to make things safe and secure is to make sure that you create a decentralised system that would enable people to store their money in the form of cryptocurrencies in the safest way possible. We must also note that many people also store money in banks and banks are considered safe. However, do you really think that they are actually safe? What do you think?

 

[Carson20t]

Very true as if that was not enough,we also witnessed the fall of one of the most promising coins and which was stable on the market.Now we have even forgotten about it's existance.Then the SBF scandal with his firm FTX.This brought about a lot of sceptism and lose of confidence and triust as to whether crypto really does exist or just runs on speculative.So people beginning to call for traditional banking systems to be reinstated could not be blamed entirely.