Lessons from the Hack: Powerdowns can be great Protection!

I'm going to be Captain of the Obvious in this post - but sometimes, the obvious is SO obvious, that we fail to recognize the BEAUTY of it. You would DO WELL to take the time to read - AND APPLY. (Don't just read - please. APPLY!!!)

1. Hackers are inherently lazy.
2. Diversity helps to protect.
3. Keep your shit locked up. LOL sorry, that one made me seriously laugh out loud.

The first thing I want to say is human beings tend to generally take things for granted UNTIL we are at risk of losing something dear to us. We do not LIKE losing things, but if you can have the fear of losing them CHANGE your behavior to a more protective stance - awesome!

Often, we actually DO have to LOSE them in order to appreciate them more in the future.

For me, today I realize how beautiful it is to have a platform built on a blockchain - and why do I realize that today? Because when Uptrennd finally died, I had to spend 9+ hours archiving posts from a blogging site that was NOT built on a blockchain. Not a fun way to spend my day! But that's actually a story for another post.

So why did I bring that up here?
What does that experience have to do with this post?

Well, because I didn't fully appreciate the value of blockchain posts until I saw WHY it was SO important. @coininstant (from Hive - and possibly Blurt too??) and I were talking about this in the comment section of another post, since we have both been hacked and KNOW the value of the powerdown in ways that others might not. I'll be honest, the powerdown USED to be a big inconvenience to me - UNTIL....

I was hacked.

Now? I LOVE that it takes a while to powerdown.

Why? Because stealing happens fast and...

Oh no, dreemsteem! They work really hard to take your money away! You should see how hard they have to work... blah blah blah. Of course they don't. lol I worked hard for a year, to have them come and take away 50 ETH from me and 6 other people in one hour. That's lazy work right there, my friends. Profitable? Sure. But as lazy-minded as they come. Proof that they are super lazy? They had MORE money that was available to them in my wallet as liquidity tokens. But they didn't take the time to convert it and exchange it. (Their lazy worked out well for me there!)

So - lesson from point 1: Make extra work for them, and they will most likely be too lazy to steal more from you. They want to get in, get out, and move on. Put up roadblocks, and they just might sleaze their way to another, more easily- accessible wallet!

Of course it is. I said I'm stating the obvious, right? LOL But the night that I was hacked, all I could think about was all that I lost. IN MY MIND at the time was - "I lost it all. I lost everything!!!" But then... when the fog cleared a few days later, I remembered. That was ONE wallet. I still had some money in my Steem wallet (that I actually forgot about) and I had money in my HIVE wallet and a few other wallets too!

So - lesson from point 2: It's VERY UNLIKELY (but not altogether impossible) that they will hack multiple wallets at once. So - diversify. Not just your tokens - but your wallets! I had actually been thinking about buying more crypto with my ETH at the time, and of course - now, I'm kicking myself for obvious reasons!

LOLOL (still really laughing at that. I think I'm over-tired haha)

Staking isn't just a way to earn money passively. It's protection. It locks up money in ways that lazy hackers are often deterred from. They want the easy money, the exposed money, the wallet that is in your back pocket on a subway.

Lesson from point 3: There is convenience in having liquid funds -but they are also MUCH more vulnerable. I have come to value the aspect of:

1. supporting a token long term
2. earning passive income, and
3. protecting my assets

by STAKING (and LEARNING TO ENJOY the long powerdown as a haven)

Hope this helps!!! Find what works for you and thrive!

Captain Obvious gif from giphy.com

Posted previously using LeoFinance ^Beta but shared with this Blurt audience because I believe good content is not platform-specific! :) Enjoy!