As security failures in the digital asset space could result in significant financial losses, Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin described crypto as “the hardest thing” in software history when it comes to threats, vulnerabilities and complexity. 

In an interview with Cointelegraph’s managing editor, Gareth Jenkinson, Lubin underscored the importance of security in the crypto space and compared its current state to the early banking days. Furthermore, the Ethereum co-founder also gave advice on how crypto users can secure their digital assets.

Ethereum co-founder on crypto security

Lubin believes that as the crypto space progresses, industry workers must “do their best and build better implementations of the technology.” The executive compared crypto to the state of banking over a hundred years ago. Lubin said:

“One hundred and something years ago, the bank robbers would point out where the security vulnerabilities are. And there's a sort of a back and forth between how you identify vulnerabilities, which we do very actively, with bounties and our own security audits.”

Lubin said that, similar to how stagecoaches, vaults, safes and banks have improved, crypto security will also evolve as time goes on.

As the crypto space becomes bigger, Lubin urged the space to prepare for bigger threats as its growth might also attract more malicious actors.

“The whole world is going to move on to Web3 rails, decentralized protocol, and internet rails. And so, the threats are going to get bigger and bigger. Attackers are going to get increasingly well-resourced, and we have to be up for it,” he added.

Joseph Lubin offers crypto security advice

On June 6, a developer claimed he lost about $40,000 in crypto just two minutes after accidentally posting secret keys on GitHub. With hackers and scammers constantly waiting on crypto investors to make mistakes, Cointelegraph asked Lubin how people could secure their assets.

According to Lubin, crypto users must not take financial advice from people on social media. In addition, Lubin urged investors not to send anyone any of their assets.

“Do not click on random links in your email, even on websites, it’s potentially dangerous. Keep any sort of self-custody digital assets in cold storage if you’re going to interact with anything,” he added.

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Hardest thing in software history

Lubin also compared crypto’s beginnings to the advent of the web and internet. The executive said that when the internet was built, “nobody was watching” except some technologists. In addition, the internet was not created on top of live financial rails. He added:

“And so we’re doing maybe the hardest thing in software history because in terms of the number of potential threats, vulnerabilities, complexity, etc., it’s massive.”

Lubin also said it’s very difficult to affect a paradigm shift in how the world organizes itself. The executive described the shift as “essentially from top-down command and control through trusted intermediaries to this new decentralized trust paradigm where trust flows bottom up.”

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