Yes, things fucking suck right now. Something that should’ve never happened has happened, and is still happening as I’m typing these lines. The consequence? Innocent, hard-working people are getting rekt. Life savings gone. No recourse, no undo button, no number to call. Just an empty balance and utter disbelief. Hard to think of something that’s more devastating.

The draining of funds won’t stop any time soon either. Yes, it’s not a full systemic failure and things could always be worse, but a LOT of people have used and are still using coldcards. People are on holidays right now, or in hospitals, or on a different continent, having no access to the key material that’s potentially compromised. Unable to sleep, unable to do much other than pray, panic, or drive to the next airport. If they know about the current catastrophe at all, that is.

I was barely able to sleep the last 3 nights. Not because I’m personally affected by said catastrophe (which I might be, I don’t know yet, stepping into airplane tomorrow), but because I could’ve done more. I wrote about entropy and this particular failure mode in the past. I tried my best to educate people on randomness, and what a private key is, and how to use bitcoin without getting rekt. But I stopped, and a lot of the newer people are unaware of these issues and I feel like I failed them. As a bitcoiner, as an educator, and also as a regular person. As someone who has some technical understanding of how the various moving parts fit together. I’ve always felt a strong duty to educate others and help them understand, and I failed to fulfill that duty. I decided to stop writing and educating. I deeply regret that decision.

It’s hard to overstate the damage done. To me, bitcoin has always been about the separation of money and state, or more precisely: the separation of money creation and man. If humanity has a way to print money, it will always find reasons to print money, period. Gold was seen as the tears of the Gods since men can’t make more of it. Without a natural money like gold, society collapses. Always, like clockwork. Bitcoin has civilizational-level importance because of this. It represents a return to a natural money that lies outside of human influence, corruption, and fallibility. A lot of bitcoiners understand this, either implicitly or explicitly, and thus every time bitcoin fails in big ways or small, their soul hurts.

It fucking sucks.

My hope is that bitcoin will be stronger for it in the end. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” is something my dad used to say often. I’m not sure if it’s true for people, but I’m pretty sure that it’s true for bitcoin.

We should all be more humble going forward, or at least I hope that we will be. And more kind, that would be good too.

If you have any capacity to reach out to people and help them get through this mess, please do. People are scared, and confused, and panicked, and don’t know what to do. A helping hand and a calm voice will go a long way.

And regarding the civilizational-level importance I’ve mentioned above: bitcoin will only be able to fulfill its promise if people hold their own keys. If that’s not the case, bitcoin will just be another tool in the money printer’s toolbox. That’s why it all sucks so fucking much. A gaping wound in bitcoin’s very soul, and the bleeding hasn’t stopped yet.