I haven't seen anybody post about what would be my biggest worry if I were trying out alternative block chains. I realize this may be perceived as "Gavin is FUD'ding anything that isn't bitcoin!" (FUD == Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) But I think some of you might be forgetting some basic computer security fundamentals in the excitement to be early adopters.
When I first heard about bitcoin, my questions were:
1) Can it possibly work (do the ideas for how it works make sense)?
2) Is it a scam?
3) If it is not a scam, could it open my computer up to viruses/trojans if I run it?
I answered those questions by:
1) Reading and understanding Satoshi's whitepaper. Then thinking about it for a day or two and reading it again.
2) Finding out everything I could about the project. I read every forum thread here (there were probably under a hundred threads back then) and read Satoshi's initial postings on the crypto mailing list.
3) Downloaded and skimmed the source code to see if it looked vulnerable to buffer overflow or other remotely exploitable attacks.
If I were going to experiment with an alternative block-chain, I'd go through the same process again. But I'm an old conservative fuddy-duddy.
If you want to take a risk on a brand-new alternative block-chain, I'd strongly suggest that you:
1) Run the software in a virtual machine or on a machine that doesn't contain anything valuable.
2) Don't invest more money or time than you can afford to lose.
3) Use a different passphrase at every exchange site.
This is great advice and should be used for every investment , potential investment.
Now there is a lot more to buy coins, tokens, meme(erc-20), and on new chains.
I was recently hit hard by a disperse app scammer. They launch with the first 60 transactions 10 million all at the same time.
Once the token is pumped they sell off. I made a huge mistake and purchased a small amount .5 eth made $500 . Was really difficult as there was a fail on swap and finally I made it. I backed a way for a few minutes and started its pump. I tried again this tim for .9 eth . I was not as lucky though started falling so I buy a little more . 7 eth it rises up again. I had reviewed this meme and was new to this type of trading. I Sent a sale thru using Cow Swap and never completed expired. I patiently waited and my value was looking like form 1.7 eth to 1.55 eth . At this point I had Uniswap and cow swap open and trying to swap.At 10:00 am tired and biting for hours for a small recovery to dump the token. I made a hug mistake. I decided to try and pump the token to then sell and make a small profit or recover a small lose. .4/.5 eth. I buy 2.7 Eh I was dumped on by 4-5 sells. Someone else bought 1 eth back in and I did same 1 eth then Another .9 Eth. All of a sudden as im ready to swap all and be done with this token my intent cuts out, laptop and phone. I made a huge mistake and went to sleep, passed out after internet went out. I realize now I should have drove to starbuck immediately and sold . When I woke up I could not believe there was a sell off and the team, dev had dumped all the tokens (most of their tokens) I did not check the first transactions of this newly launched token(shit coin). I checked everything else , socials token sniffer ,honeypot ,goplus , quick Intel (every audit I could before being). I really did not know how important it is to check the first 100 transactions.
Here is my Eth address if you want to help Address
0x1Fe6ddB0996D38f650b32cf31ab11e2cD09907F0.
I am not expecting anything and just an honest person trying to help someone from losing any or a large amount of Eth , Crypto from these type of scammers.There are so many of them .I was able to track the token scammers and they had moved all the Eth off to 2 wallets containing 160, 165 Eth that's over 1 million total.
I had been scammed before in a pump and dump ( had locked liquidity for 1 month so looked legit project even name was good Oracle Dao. The rug pull BitBonk (I know I was Bonked). The other scam I was hit by was a fake air drop they use Dapp to drain my wallet. I even fell for the coinbase support phone call and the real coinbase had sent me a message to confirm. SO I was just not think correctly and opened a new coinbase wallet and the scammer stole all my Monkas I transferred and my Eth. Crypto has been a huge learning lesson and lots of loses, some from my own lack of knowledge. I have always supported crypto and especially Bitcoin #1.I now am very alert and not buying any newly created memes or crypto( Eth is not available currently.)
I am not giving up I and working (laptop refurbishing) and selling some usb asic miners bit fury I have collected.
I have been studying and learned how to create erc-20 tokens and experimented with v2 v3 providing liquidity. I hope to one day move from this experience and create some positive crypto currency.
Cheers, Jonathon A