Holding Bitcoin? Upgrade Your Opsec

The Bitcoin price is performing well this week and the general sentiment in the market is that we might be headed somewhere quite explosive. If the recent flight to gold is any indicator of what’s to come for Bitcoin, then perhaps this bull market has only just begun…

We generally try to steer clear of making price predictions, but if we truly are on the brink of an historic bull run, then we feel obligated to remind you that crazy bull runs often coincide with an increase in hacks, thefts and fatal mistakes.

We don’t say this to try and dampen the mood, we know nobody likes a turd in the punch bowl. We just want to remind people that amid all the excitement, hype and heavy doses of dopamine, it pays to keep a cool head. Rollercoasters are fun, but they are best enjoyed when your arms and legs remain safely inside the carriage.

A Bitcoin bull run is only enjoyable if you can keep hold of your stack.

One of the best ways to ensure you keep hold of yours is to improve your operational security (Opsec).

Despite how it may sound, Opsec isn’t something reserved only for intelligence agencies or expert hackers. You might not have the same requirements as these types of people, but if you’re holding Bitcoin, you do need to develop at least a basic strategy to keep yourself safe from scammers, thieves and snoops.

Thankfully, there are plenty of simple ways you can improve your Opsec without needing to consult ‘Q’ from the James Bond movies. By just being diligent, learning the right tools, and keeping your house in order, you can dramatically improve your defences.

So, let’s make sure we all have an enjoyable bull run by exploring why Opsec is important if you’re a Bitcoiner, and steps we can take to improve it.

‍

Why Bitcoiners Should Take Opsec Seriously

‍
Bitcoin is a far superior form of money to the government printed coupons most of the world relies on, and it empowers you with total financial freedom and autonomy.

But nothing worth having comes easy.

Holding Bitcoin is completely different to keeping your money in a traditional bank account. In the fiat system, you get to outsource almost all your security concerns. Card stolen? The bank freezes your account. Scammed? Fraud teams will often refund you. There are lots of safety nets, so you can get away with being a little careless.

Bitcoin however offers no such crutches.

If you want to escape the shackles of a banking system built to extort and control you, then you have to accept you will also forgo a lot of the ‘protections’ these institutions afforded you as well. Bitcoin gives you full control and autonomy over your money, but by doing so, it also raises the stakes.

When you take full control of your money, you alone become head of security. You are the last line of defence, and if you make a silly mistake, there’s no customer service department that can put things right. YOU have to be the one to invest time and effort into your operational security, because no one else is going to do it for you.

And this far from hyperbole. If you don’t give your Opsec the attention it deserves then you expose yourself to a wide range of very real threats:

In 2024 phishing scams targeting Bitcoiners ran rampant and became a major driver of over $2.31 billion in losses. In 2025 these types of attacks are projected to rise by up to 30%. Being careless with poor passwords and clicking dodgy links can invite all sorts of trouble.

Sim swap attacks are also reportedly on the rise, with scammers increasingly targeting Bitcoin holders. Attackers convince your phone carrier to port your number to a new device allowing them to bypass SMS based two-factor authentication and access your accounts. Again this style of attack has cost Bitcoin holders millions.

And then there are the slew of hacks on centralised exchanges and hardware suppliers. By stealing customer’s KYC data from these companies, hackers have been targeting Bitcoiners with scam calls pretending to be customer support agents and, in some cases, even physical attacks have been linked to these data breaches.

Thankfully, a lot of these potential catastrophes can be easily avoided by paying a little more attention to your Opsec.

Even if you do still rely on third party custodians, if someone steals your data and can adequately impersonate you, then there’s still a chance they could access your accounts and swipe your funds.

Your Opsec is important no matter how you choose to custody your Bitcoin, but it will be significantly improved if you choose full self-custody.

‍

Simple Opsec Upgrades for Bitcoiners

Before you start looking at ways to upgrade your Opsec first realise that there is no such thing as ‘perfect Opsec’. The best approach you can take is to make small improvements to your setup and your habits over time to gradually harden your defences. If you try to create a ‘perfect’ setup there is every chance you get caught in ‘analysis paralysis’ and end up doing nothing.

So let’s look at some simple steps you can take and habits you can form to start making small improvements to your Opsec straight away:

Stop Talking About Your Bitcoin Stack

This is by far the easiest step you can take toward better Opsec. It’s frankly astonishing how many people to this day still post screenshots of their latest Bitcoin purchase. This is not smart. The more information you reveal the easier it becomes to either identify you or start investigating how much Bitcoin you have.

Sure, in a bull run everyone wants to flex that they ‘bought the dip at $74k’. But are the likes from anon accounts really worth it? Loose lips sink ships, and besides, it’s never classy to flaunt your wealth.

‍

Use Strong Passwords & Open-Source Password Managers‍

Using simple passwords or re-using old ones in 2025 is a cardinal sin. You simply can’t afford to be doing this. Not when such simple solutions are available to help you.

Password managers can help you create strong passwords that are long and contain a mixture of numbers, letters, and special characters and will also help you organise, store and use them.

The important point to note is that you must use the right tools. Make sure you stick to open-source tools like Bitwarden or Keepass because closed-source centralised services like Lastpass have a history of being compromised. 

Bitwarden is the very first thing we help our clients properly configure and install before venturing into learning self-custody.

Use Privacy Focussed Web Browsers & VPNs

Popular web browsers from Google, Apple and Microsoft all track your behaviour and web activity mercilessly. They do it primarily for commercial reasons, because they want to sell your data to advertisers and push products in front of you. The problem is, this data can cause you real problems if it falls into the wrong hands. It can be particularly bad news for someone trying to keep their interest in Bitcoin discrete.

The good news is, by switching to privacy focussed browsers and using open-source VPN tools, there are simple steps you can take to prevent a lot of unwanted tracking and keep your hours of Bitcoin research quiet and confidential.

Use Non-KYC Sim Cards & Privacy Phones

Your mobile phone is probably your biggest threat when it comes to your Opsec. It follows you around everywhere, knows everything about you, can connect to wifi and Bluetooth, and is covered in cameras and microphones. If any device is likely to contain sensitive data about you, it’s your mobile.

This is why it’s smart to ditch bloated Operating Systems (OS) like iOS and Android that are teeming with spyware and opt for an open-source OS like GrapheneOS. This will give you far more control over what your mobile can do and will protect your data much better.

Over the past year, we’ve helped numerous individuals degoogle their devices. If you’re interested in acquiring and setting up a privacy-focused phone, don’t hesitate to reach out.

You can even go one step further and fit it with a non-KYC sim card that isn’t connected to your identity.

Don’t Reveal Your Home Address 

If you’re a Bitcoiner, eventually a time is going to come when you need to buy a physical item that you want at your home address that would instantly reveal your interest in Bitcoin.  It could be a Bitcoin hardware wallet, a seed stamping kit, or maybe another Bitcoin t-shirt you can wear the next time your wife invites friends over.

Regardless of what you’re ordering, this presents a bit of a challenge. If you’re buying Bitcoin related merchandise and shipping it to your home address, then you’re leaving little clues on databases all over the place that link your interest in Bitcoin to your home address. Not ideal.

But fear not, there’s quite a simple solution to this. In most places in the world it’s relatively easy to acquire a private P.O Box to have your more sensitive mail sent to. This means if we see a repeat of something like the Ledger Leak where hardware wallet customer’s addresses were exposed, yours wouldn’t be, just your P.O Box address.

Be Careful Revealing Your Location

Get in the habit of being more mindful when sharing your location. If you attend a Bitcoin conference and you’re sharing pictures publicly, maybe don’t also share pictures of your hotel room and allow people to work out where you’re staying.

The same goes for sharing holiday snaps. It doesn’t matter how thirsty you are for likes on your Instagram page. If you’re public about your Bitcoin holdings and people might perceive you as a target, it might not be the best idea to live stream your hitch-hiking adventure around Mexico.

How much you choose to share online is a personal choice for everyone to make, but if you must share those once in a lifetime photos, would it kill you to wait until you got home to do it?

ALWAYS Store Bitcoin Seed Phrases Offline

This one should go without saying, but if you’re protecting Bitcoin seed phrases the last place they should be stored is in a file or a document that lives on an internet connected device. Anyone capable of compromising your computer or network will know exactly what to look for. If they find your seed phrase you can kiss your Bitcoin goodbye.

You must always store your Bitcoin seed-phrase offline and ideally on a medium like metal that’s resistant to fire and water damage.

It’s also very important that you find a balance between hiding this seed phrase so people don’t find it, but that you don’t hide it so well you can’t find it either!

Use Open-Source, Bitcoin-Only Tools

Best practice when it comes to Bitcoin is using open-source and verifiable software and hardware. When you’re protecting generational wealth, you don’t want to be trusting little black boxes that you can’t look inside. Open-source tools give you the confidence that the whole community has verified they are legitimate.

Similarly, use apps and hardware that were designed to be Bitcoin only. Using hardware and software wallets that support cryptos and NFTs just invites needless complexity and potential vulnerabilities into your setup.

If you use the right tools, the chances you make silly mistakes drops massively.

Be Careful Using Block Explorers 

You should also be mindful when using any Bitcoin associated third-party service. For example, if you’re typing a transaction ID into a block explorer to check on the status of one of your transactions, then you might inadvertently link that transaction to your IP address and potentially your identity.

To keep things more private you might want to think carefully about using tools like VPNs before you use them. Better yet, run your own instance of a block explorer on your own hardware. If you have a device like a Start9 for your Bitcoin node, then setting this up should be a breeze. You can then check your transactions locally and privately.

The Bitcoin Way now guides clients to install a block explorer on their own node, ensuring maximum privacy when viewing transactions.

Get Your Head in The Game

Perhaps one of the most important things you can do to improve your Opsec is to improve your mindset around it. Most people don’t want to leak private information everywhere, they just do it without realising.

Taking time to consider your approach to Opsec will put you far out in front of most people and taking even basic steps will ensure you’re not an easy target.

One of the most powerful ways to improve your Opsec is to just start considering it.

‍

Improve Your Opsec The Bitcoin Way

Improving your Opsec is an important thing to do for anyone using the internet in 2025. Even more so if you plan to keep your wealth in Bitcoin.

If you invest in Bitcoin but ignore your Opsec, that’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Any upgrade you make to your setup is a step in the right direction, but it’s important you start to view securing your data and your Bitcoin as seriously as you would view securing your home.

If you’re ready to start taking your Opsec seriously then you should reach out and book a free 30-minute call with one of our experts. We can show you what iron clad Opsec looks like.