Aset Kripto Akankah Jadi Pilihan Aman di Masa Depan? | OBROLANBISNIS.com — Konsep “jadul” dompet aset kripto yang mementingkan private key dikendalikan langsung oleh pengguna, mungkin kelak ditinggalkan. Ada banyak hal yang lebih penting tanpa menghilangkan rasa aman. Inilah adagium dunia kripto yang cukup terkenal: “Not your keys, not your coins”, atau dapat diterjemahkan sebagai “bukan koinmu kalau tak memegang kuncinya”.
Makna secara teknisnya adalah, seorang pemilik koin (aset kripto seperti Bitcoin) mesti memastikan bahwa ia memiliki kunci privat (private key) yang memegang kendali penuh atas aset kripto tersebut. Namun konsep itu relatif tidak dipahami, khususnya mereka kaum “newbie“. Frasa ini ikut dipopularkan oleh Andreas Antonopoulos, seorang penulis buku yang masyur berkat karyanya, Mastering Bitcoin. Frasa “Not your keys, not your coins” muncul ke permukaan karena kegelisahan atas banyaknya bursa aset kripto sentralistik yang mencurangi para penggunanya.
Bursa-bursa jahat ini memainkan saldo aset kripto yang ada pada dompet mereka, sehingga terdapat selisih kurang antara saldo yang tercatat pada pengguna dengan saldo aset kripto yang sebenarnya mereka pegang. Kejadian ini bisa terjadi, misalnya karena bursa tersebut “memainkan” aset kripto menggunakan perangkat finansial yang berisiko tinggi untuk mendapatkan margin yang besar.
Sayangnya, hasil tak selalu seperti yang diharapkan, sehingga kehilangan aset jadi hal yang tak dapat dihindari. Parahnya, aset-aset yang hilang tadi bukan milik si bursa, melainkan milik para pengguna. Atau, ada pula risiko seperti yang terjadi pada Quadriga, bursa aset kripto sentralistik di Kanada.
Para pelanggan kehilangan aset sebanyak US$145 juta dalam bentuk Bitcoin dan aset lainnya, karena kunci privat yang mengontrol aset kripto dibawa mati oleh CEO-nya, Gerald Cotten. Tak kurang dari 100 ribu pengguna telah dirugikan karena kejadian ini. Dampak sistemik dari kasus itu mendorong Netflix membuat film dokumenternya, akan tayang pada tahun 2022. Intinya, tak ada jaminan bahwa aset kripto yang didepositkan ke bursa aset kripto tidak diselewengkan. Ide desentralistik dari teknologi blockchain yang diusung oleh aset kripto memerlukan partisipasi aktif dari para pengguna itu sendiri.
Dengan tiadanya pihak perantara antara pengguna dan sistem seperti peran perbankan dalam sistem uang fiat, maka sang penggunalah yang harus bertindak sebagai bank untuk dirinya sendiri. Sisi positifnya, peran ini memberikan “empowerment” bagi pengguna. Artinya, sang pengguna bebas melakukan apapun, mengelola aset kripto dengan cara apapun, mentransaksikannya, atau yang lebih ekstrim, membagi-bagikannya ke orang lain yang tak dikenal.
Semua fitur ini diberikan secara cuma-cuma oleh teknologi blockchain kepada semua pengguna, tanpa dikenakan premium apalagi biaya berlangganan. Namun, di sisi lain, pengelolaan kunci privat sama sekali tidak mudah. Berbagai proteksi harus dilakukan. Mereka yang memiliki aset kripto dalam jumlah signifikan misalnya, tak boleh hanya mengandalkan ponsel sebagai wallet.
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Ponsel cukup rentan terhadap hacking atau kebocoran data yang membahayakan. Selain itu, masa pakai ponsel yang hanya tiga-empat tahun (atau malah tiap tahun, mengingat iPhone selalu merilis versi baru tiap dua belas bulan sekali) pastinya memperberat si pengguna bila harus me-recovery akun wallet setiap kali berganti ponsel baru.
Pilihan paper wallet sebagai cold storage juga menyimpan risiko, misalnya hilang, terselip, lupa password (misalnya karena terenkripsi), atau malah luntur karena dicetak menggunakan tinta dan kertas kualitas rendah. Memang, ada pilihan dompet fisik atau hardware wallet seperti Ledger. Bukan berarti dompet fisik punya perlindungan sempurna, karena tahun lalu peneliti berhasil menemukan celah keamanan dompet fisik.
Belum lagi, sistem dompet fisik yang ternyata rentan pula terhadap pencurian informasi, yang menyebabkan pengguna kehilangan dana dalam jumlah tak sedikit. Dengan kata lain, setiap jenis dompet mengandung risikonya masing-masing.
Selain risiko-risiko keamanan yang telah disebutkan, ada pula risiko atas perubahan teknologi. Perubahan ini terjadi karena sifat pengembangan perangkat lunak teknologi blockchain yang terbuka, sehingga banyak ide baru yang terimplementasikan namun tak memiliki kompatibilitas yang baik dengan sistem lama. Hal ini tejadi, misalnya pada IOTA dan Cardano. IOTA mengubah panjang kunci privat dari 69 karakter menjadi 81 karakter. Sementara itu, Cardano mengubah panjang seed phrase dari 12 kata menjadi 15 kata.
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Staking juga memperberat tugas pengguna, terutama mereka yang mengelola aset berbeda. Staking memerlukan waktu dan tenaga untuk selalu update dengan berita terkini atas semua aset yang dikelola. Bila tidak, maka profit bisa hilang. Contohnya, Zilliqa yang beberapa waktu lalu membagi-bagikan token gZil.
Token ini harus diklaim hingga batas waktu tertentu, atau hak tersebut hilang. Contoh lainnya Polkadot, di mana keuntungan atas bounded stake harus diklaim sebelum deadline. Dan barangkali, pilihan paling rasional saat ini adalah menggunakan jasa pihak ketiga dalam pengelolaan aset kripto yang beragam.
Kustodian, dalam hal ini, adalah perusahaan yang memfasilitasi penyimpanan aset kripto milik pengguna. Mirip seperti bursa aset kripto, misalnya Binance. Namun, untuk memastikan bahwa aset kripto yang disimpan tersebut mendapatkan perlindungan prima, asuransi harus diterapkan. Asuransi ini melindungi pengguna dari risiko kehilangan aset karena hacking misalnya.
Selain itu, kustodian juga bisa menyediakan jasa staking atas berbagai aset kripto. Adanya layanan satu pintu yang mendukung banyak aset kripto akan mempermudah pengguna dalam mengelola asetnya sekaligus mendapatkan manfaat optimal dari aset kripto yang disimpan tersebut, misalnya atas staking. ***
Will Crypto Assets Be a Safe Choice in the Future? | OBROLANBISNIS.com -- The "old school" concept of a crypto asset wallet that emphasizes the private key being controlled directly by the user, may be abandoned in the future. There are many more important things without losing a sense of security. This is a well-known crypto world adage: "Not your keys, not your coins", or can be translated as "not your coins if you don't hold the keys".
The technical meaning is, an owner of a coin (a crypto asset such as Bitcoin) must ensure that he has a private key that has full control over the crypto asset. But the concept is relatively not understood, especially those "newbies". This phrase was also popularized by Andreas Antonopoulos, a book author who is famous for his work, Mastering Bitcoin. The phrase “Not your keys, not your coins” came to the fore because of anxiety over the many centralized crypto asset exchanges that rigged their users.
These rogue exchanges play with the existing crypto asset balances in their wallets, so there is less difference between the balances recorded on users and the crypto asset balances they actually hold. This can happen, for example, because the exchange “plays” crypto assets using high-risk financial tools to earn large margins.
Unfortunately, the results are not always as expected, so losing assets is unavoidable. Worse, the assets that were lost did not belong to the exchange, but to the users. Alternatively, there are risks as is the case with Quadriga, Canada's centralized cryptocurrency exchange.
Customers lost $145 million in Bitcoin and other assets, as the private keys controlling crypto assets were taken to death by its CEO, Gerald Cotten. No less than 100 thousand users have been harmed because of this incident. The systemic impact of the case prompted Netflix to produce a documentary, set to premiere in 2022. In essence, there is no guarantee that crypto assets deposited on cryptocurrency exchanges are not misappropriated. The decentralized idea of blockchain technology promoted by crypto assets requires the active participation of the users themselves.
In the absence of an intermediary between the user and the system such as the role of banking in the fiat money system, it is the user who has to act as a bank for himself. On the positive side, this role provides “empowerment” for users. This means that the user is free to do anything, manage crypto assets in any way, transact them, or even more extreme, share them with unknown people.
All these features are provided free of charge by blockchain technology to all users, without being charged a premium or subscription fee. However, on the other hand, private key management is by no means easy. Various protections must be done. Those who have significant crypto assets, for example, should not rely solely on their cellphones as wallets.
Phones are quite vulnerable to hacking or malicious data leaks. In addition, the life of the cellphone which is only three to four years (or even every year, considering that the iPhone always releases a new version every twelve months) must make it difficult for the user to recover the wallet account every time they change to a new cellphone.
The choice of paper wallet as cold storage also carries risks, for example lost, tucked away, forgetting the password (for example because it is encrypted), or even fading because it is printed using low quality ink and paper. Indeed, there is a choice of physical wallets or hardware wallets such as Ledger. This does not mean that physical wallets have perfect protection, because last year researchers managed to find a physical wallet security hole.
Not to mention, the physical wallet system is also vulnerable to information theft, which causes users to lose large amounts of funds. In other words, each type of wallet carries its own risks.
In addition to the security risks already mentioned, there are also risks from technological change. This change occurred due to the open nature of blockchain technology software development, so that many new ideas were implemented but did not have good compatibility with old systems. This happens, for example in IOTA and Cardano. IOTA changed the private key length from 69 characters to 81 characters. Meanwhile, Cardano changed the length of the seed phrase from 12 words to 15 words.
Imagine the confusion faced by a user using a paper wallet, who kept his private keys for years and discovered a significant change that made his crypto assets inaccessible! Not to mention if there are very significant changes in the blockchain system, such as changing the platform from a token to a coin with its own blockchain (for example, TRX changing from an Ethereum token to an independent Tron blockchain), which of course requires a special wallet device and a claim mechanism that must be implemented. by the owner of the asset itself.
Jobs like this are not easy to do because they require patience in reading instructions and good technical skills. The large selection of crypto assets adds to the hassle of users in managing their portfolios. Not only coins, but also tokens that must be researched and stored one by one. Indeed, there are already multiwallet products such as Trust Wallet or Ledger that now support not only Bitcoin, but also other crypto assets.
However, there is no guarantee that the multiwallet provides perfect support for crypto assets owned by the user, considering that various features can be embedded in these crypto assets. The most logical choice is to use a different and specific wallet for each crypto asset so that various features can be used, rather than using a more compact but feature-cutting multiwallet product.
Staking also makes it difficult for users, especially those who manage different assets. Staking requires time and effort to always be updated with the latest news on all assets under management. If not, then the profit can be lost. For example, Zilliqa who recently distributed gZil tokens.
These tokens must be claimed up to a certain time limit, or the rights are lost. Another example is Polkadot, where profits on bounded stakes must be claimed before the deadline. And perhaps, the most rational choice today is to use the services of a third party in the management of various crypto assets.
A custodian, in this case, is a company that facilitates the storage of users' crypto assets. Similar to crypto asset exchanges, for example Binance. However, to ensure that the crypto assets that are stored get prime protection, insurance must be applied. This insurance protects users from the risk of losing assets due to hacking, for example.
In addition, custodians can also provide staking services for various crypto assets. The existence of a one-stop service that supports many crypto assets will make it easier for users to manage their assets while getting optimal benefits from the stored crypto assets, for example for staking. ***
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