The Next Marginal Buyer of Bitcoin w/ Lyn Alden

Let's start with the cold card incident.

Obviously, this is top of mind.

We don't have to spend too much time, and we also have no real need to rehash it, apart from maybe just some basics.

But does this... change your mind on anything with regards to Bitcoin, self-custody, maybe some of the messaging that we have as a community put forth and are like maybe rethinking now? I don't know.

What are your like overarching thoughts on this like recent cold card incident?

Yeah, good question.

Thanks for having me.

I think there's a handful of things here.

I think that the one question about does it change my view on Bitcoin custody? I mean, the answer to that one is no.

I think that has to be kind of a long term usable and at least optional thing in the Bitcoin space.

I do think it changes some of the kind of practices, which I think is natural.

You know, there's been occasional ecosystem shifts throughout Bitcoin's now 17 plus year history.

I think this is another one.

It's one of the big, like large ones, I think, comparable to kind of prior shifts.

Even going back as far as kind of the introduction of the concept of a hardware wallet, a dedicated device for this.

I think that, you know, with the rise of AI, especially now that open weight models have kind of gotten to the point where they're very good when it comes to cybersecurity exploits.

I think we're in a rapid era where all existing code bases have to be checked with AI and hardened against this.

I think this is going to be a process.

This was a mistake that was blatant enough that it could have been exploited without AI.

And it was found one way or another.

I think one of the heuristics that failed here was the Lindy effect, which is that the longer something's around, generally speaking, the more kind of robust it is.

That's kind of a general rule of thumb.

I think the adjusted one is longevity and size.

And so, I mean, products like Trezor, products like Ledger, they have a much larger track record of product shipping, more employees.

There's just kind of more capital in the space interested in auditing those code bases and things like that.

Let's start with the cold card incident.

Obviously, this is top of mind.

We don't have to spend too much time, and we also have no real need to rehash it, apart from maybe just some basics.

But does this... change your mind on anything with regards to Bitcoin, self-custody, maybe some of the messaging that we have as a community put forth and are like maybe rethinking now? I don't know.

What are your like overarching thoughts on this like recent cold card incident?

Yeah, good question.

Thanks for having me.

I think there's a handful of things here.

I think that the one question about does it change my view on Bitcoin custody? I mean, the answer to that one is no.

I think that has to be kind of a long term usable and at least optional thing in the Bitcoin space.

I do think it changes some of the kind of practices, which I think is natural.

You know, there's been occasional ecosystem shifts throughout Bitcoin's now 17 plus year history.

I think this is another one.

It's one of the big, like large ones, I think, comparable to kind of prior shifts.

Even going back as far as kind of the introduction of the concept of a hardware wallet, a dedicated device for this.

I think that, you know, with the rise of AI, especially now that open weight models have kind of gotten to the point where they're very good when it comes to cybersecurity exploits.

I think we're in a rapid era where all existing code bases have to be checked with AI and hardened against this.

I think this is going to be a process.

This was a mistake that was blatant enough that it could have been exploited without AI.

And it was found one way or another.

I think one of the heuristics that failed here was the Lindy effect, which is that the longer something's around, generally speaking, the more kind of robust it is.

That's kind of a general rule of thumb.

I think the adjusted one is longevity and size.

And so, I mean, products like Trezor, products like Ledger, they have a much larger track record of product shipping, more employees.

There's just kind of more capital in the space interested in auditing those code bases and things like that.