Wasim Ahmad

So pleased to announce the publication of my first book: Who holds the key? An Everyday Guide to Cryptography, Passwords, Crypto Wallets, and navigating the technology that protects your privacy in the modern world. You used cryptography fifty times before breakfast. Isn't it time you understood the locks your life depends on? You unlocked your phone with your face. Paid for coffee with a tap. Sent a message that says it's "end-to-end encrypted." Checked your bank without typing a password. Every one of those moments ran on cryptography — working so silently you never saw it. This book is about what happens when you finally look. No math. No jargon. No paranoia. Just clear answers to the questions everyone quietly wonders about: Can WhatsApp really not read my messages? (Mostly true — with four asterisks that matter.) Where does my Face ID data go — and is it safe? Isn't keeping every password in one app insane? What am I agreeing to when my wallet says "Sign"? Will quantum computers break everything? When should I worry? What happens to my crypto, accounts, and photos when I die? This book answers the questions that help you decide amongst the bewildering array of options that are forced upon everyday people all the time — primarily by platforms. Which messaging app to use, should you use a passkey or a password, which encryption options to turn on, back up your data to the cloud or not. Most often the defaults don’t protect your privacy, but rather leave your data open to harvesting. By understanding some key concepts drawn from the world of cryptography, you will make better decisions for you and your family. I hope you enjoy this exploration. The whole book rests on four plain ideas — keys, who holds them, signing, and where keys live — and one master question you'll use for the rest of your life: who holds the key? By the last page you'll judge any app, gadget, or frightening headline for yourself, and you'll know exactly which handful of switches to flip tonight, sorted Good / Better / Paranoid, so you can protect what matters and relax about the rest. Written for the everyday reader — the one who taps, swipes, messages, banks, and wonders. If you can lock a front door, you can understand the locks that now guard your money, your memories, and your voice. In a world increasingly run by locks you cannot see, knowing even a little about how they work puts the power back where it belongs: with you. Available now on Amazon, Apple and at independent bookstores around the world. whoholdsthekey.com Please write a review!

This advance is so significant that I updated my book as I was publishing it - if you are trying to make sense of security, privacy and cryptography and what will drive it forward go check out whoholdsthekey.com

This advance is so significant that I updated my book as I was publishing it - if you are trying to make sense of security, privacy and cryptography and what will drive it forward go check out whoholdsthekey.com

Many of the anecdotes surfacing in the wake of these Coldcard attacks show that people do not have back ups of their seed phrases and therefore no way to rapidly respond and move their coins. Here’s a reminder of the different ways to back up your seed phrase - paper and brain wallets are the worst ideas. vault12.com/learn/cryptocu…

The people who pushed self custody and the “it’s easy - it’s just 12 words” mentality deserve some blame. This is why many are in cope mode and trying to figure out an excuse or justification. Many won’t admit that they were simple wrong and that self custody is a massive risk. They also can’t easily simply throw one company under the bus because almost none of them ever warned about this risk or saw it coming. It’s not a good situation. Best course is honesty and humility. Self custody I is horrible and fraught with risk. Centralized custody is also horrible and fraught with risk. We as an industry must work hard to improve both.

Crypto still feels young to me, which is both the opportunity and the risk. I prefer boring discipline over loud conviction. The market rarely rewards certainty for long. #Crypto #Investing #Risk

So pleased to announce the publication of my first book: Who holds the key? An Everyday Guide to Cryptography, Passwords, Crypto Wallets, and navigating the technology that protects your privacy in the modern world. Available now on Amazon, Apple. whoholdsthekey.com

Coinbase is always going to be the safest place to store cryptocurrency for nearly 100% of people, not any hardware wallet.

🚨BREAKING: OpenAI says their unreleased model called 'Astra' cracked 10 math problems no human could solve for decades. The problems span quantum complexity, post-quantum cryptography and group theory. All ten proofs were formally verified and cost roughly $2,000 in tokens.

In case you are wondering what BIP39 is and why it’s important vault12.com/learn/crypto-s…

sec chairman paul atkins toasting departing commissioner hester peirce, followed by patrick witt talking about the CLARITY act @PubKey

I’m just going to write, this won’t be polished. If you have/use a coldcard MK3 without a passphrase, that wasn’t setup with 100+ dice rolls, you need to move your funds out of that coldcard as soon as possible to safe harbour. If you have/use a coldcard MK4/5/Q without a passphrase, that wasn’t setup with 100+ dice rolls, you need to move your funds out of that coldcard sooner then latter to safe harbour. If you have/use a coldcard MK3/MK4/5/Q with a passphrase and/or that was setup with 100+ dice rolls, you have more time. It could very well be safe for the long term too, but you’d be wise to migrate to safer harbour eventually. If you use any of these devices and forget what your setup is, you need to move to safe harbour as soon as possible. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is safe harbour at this point in time? For MK3’s with no passphrase/no dice – literally anything else. Hot wallets are better in this moment in time (blue wallet, sparrow wallet). Exchanges are also an option. Adding a 16 chracter passphrase on top of your Mk3 wallet is also an option and helps. Another hardware wallet from a different vendor is better too. Anything else is better at this moment. Your funds are at severe risk in a mk3 here. But none of these safe harbours are long term solutions, they’re short term safety nets for an extreme situation. Consider your safe harbour options carefully and pick the strongest one for your situation. Safe harbour for the MK4/5/Q’s with no dice/no passphrase is the same situation to be honest. Get it off somewhere else, anywhere else. Before moving to hot wallets/exchanges please consider if you have other more secure options available. A spare hardware wallet from another vendor, trezor, ledger etc might be better in this moment too. Ideally for everyone else not in the extreme conditions, migrating away from coldcard eventually is probably wise here for several reasons I won’t get into yet, but are probably obvious. A 2/3 Multisig setup from multiple different hardware wallet brands is ideal long term, and guards against this attack/bug. Seedsigner, Krux, Trezor Model 5 Bitcoin only version, are good options to consider for such a multsig arrangement at this point in time. I don’t believe it wise to reuse coldcards for long term storage even if updated at this point in time. This article (link below) is a good follow up on entropy generation offline with analog methods. This guards against this coldcard attack/bug. btcmaxis.com/article.html?i…

And when you realise this doesn’t work check out @Vault12Guard

Please treat this as urgent. Follow the advisory for your model, upgrade your device, generate a new seed, and carefully move your funds. Help spread the word, especially to people who are less online and may not see this update.

Last Wednesday saw the second edition of Roundtable Wednesdays at The Beaumont Mayfair curated by The Digital Commonwealth Institute. I was delighted to host what turned out to be an exceptional gathering of industry leaders, regulators, lawmakers and capital allocators from across the Digital Assets and Science & Technology sectors. I’m extremely grateful for the wonderful speakers who gave their time to share valuable insights throughout the evening:- Jason Cohen (Specialist Risk Group), Filip Talac (Quantum Fort), Jacqueline Winstanley FRSA (Universal AI), Aaron Evencio Sanchez (MiCA Crypto Alliance), Adam Jackson (Innovate Finance), Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki (Concordium), Christian Walker (Bank Frick), Wasim Ahmad (Vault12) and Sam Mudie (Savea) Thank you to our partners Samara Asset Group, Specialist Risk Group, Quantum Fort, AskGaius & GenTwo Big shout out too for Alison Proctor, my team Eric Williamson, Phillip Snelling, Jennifer Summers FCIM and the team at The Beaumont Mayfair led by Stuart Procter The next edition of Roundtable Wednesdays is taking place after the summer break on 16th September - if you wish to apply you need to be a member of The Digital Commonwealth via the link 🔗below: thedigitalcommonwealth.com/members/signup @TheDCW_X @RoundtableWeds @TheDCW_EW @cityoflondon @StandWCrypto_UK @Flight3official @CML_LDN @DrLisaCameron @Datavault_ai @TokenClearing @Bitwise_Europe @worldmobilers @airnodealliance @Minutes_Network @SMTRcontracts @CUDOS_ @TeamTaurusBot @palmeconomy @coinbureau @NewsAsset @scottmelker @LexSokolin

Senate Democrats: you can’t call for compromise then not vote for it. You can’t complain there isn’t regulation but have the deal on the table to do so then vote NO. The US deserves to lead. Vote YES on CLARITY.

JUST IN: Coinbase Head of Strategy calls the CLARITY Act opposition "the desperate final throes of an opposition that realizes it's against history."

Here’s another way vault12.com/learn/cryptocu…

@CyberScrilla Thank you - we tried to write guides on how to set up popular hardware wallets - they were so long I still haven’t scrolled to the end vault12.com/learn/crypto-w…

“You weren’t using a passphrase?” “You didn’t roll your own dice 100 times?” “You weren’t using multi-sig?” SHUT UP Most people don’t even know how to setup a hardware wallet. Now we expect people to add all these complexities, introducing user error that results in the same thing? If the industry cant make secure and SIMPLE products, it will fail to exist. All of that stuff is heading backward not forward. We don’t need more security features. We just need shit to work and be secure. That shouldn’t all be put on the user. The product should do most of the heavy lifting. Whoever figures out the next wave of crypto security will win big.

JUST IN: A second Coldcard hack has been reported. A total of 1,158.81 BTC has been stolen from 2,673 addresses so far, according to Galaxy Research. Users are urged to review the company's official security guidance as soon as possible‼

I wrote this for lawyers - as both my brothers are Barristers and often have questions about the technicalities of security on modern devices and platforms. If you know a curious lawyer this is a great primer https//whoholdsthekey.com