Crypto Safety Essentials

Before starting your crypto journey with Umee, there are a few things every newcomer needs to know. Since the Umee blockchain is permissionless, no single person’s transactions can be blocked or censored without a network wide consensus being reached. While this decentralized and trustless system makes it more easily accessible for people all over the world, it also attracts bad actors who will attempt to scam newcomers and take advantage of these irreversible and permissionless transactions.

Before setting up an Umee blockchain compatible wallet, every new user needs to know the following:

• Never share your seed phrase or mnemonic with anyone for any reason
• Never enter your seed phrase or mnemonic anywhere
• Never engage with unknown links that are shared with you
• Never screen share with a stranger
• Never sign unknown transactions
• Use a hardware wallet for extra security

Seed Phrases

When setting up a crypto wallet users are instructed to write down a 12 or 24 word “seed phrase.” Users should think of their seed phrase as the private key to their vault that cannot be replaced if lost. It’s highly recommended that users manually write down their seed phrase, and store it somewhere safe.

Many people will compare a seed phrase to a secret password, though this is a poor analogy because as we know people can be quite careless with their passwords. When a password is lost, users simply go through the “reset password” process and are back into their account in seconds.

A seed phrase, on the other hand, cannot simply be reset if lost. Only you have the seed phrase to your own wallet — this is what guarantees the self-sovereignty associated with crypto. Since only you have the key to your vault, only you can allow assets to be transferred out of your vault. If you lose the key to your vault, you will be locked out and unable to reopen it.

If anyone ever asks for your seed phrase or mnemonic, assume they are a scammer. In crypto, it’s common for scammers to impersonate technical support or core team members and target users reporting issues within community channels. There is no reason any sort of technical support person will ever need your seed phrase to assist you with any sort of issue you may be having. If you need assistance with anything Umee related, please take a look at Umee’s official documentation or seek help in the #ask-community channel on the Umee Discord and disregard any suspicious dm’s claiming to be able to provide assistance. They will only assist you in draining your wallet. If you believe you are being contacted by an admin, go to the Umee Discord server and verify that they have the exact same username and number, and the appropriate role assigned.

It’s also important that users never enter their seed phrase or mnemonic anywhere. Scammers will often create phishing sites that may look near identical to a regular web app. Once you have installed a wallet on your device, there is no need for you to EVER enter your seed phrase on that same device again. If a web app asks you to enter your seed phrase to continue, or you are randomly instructed to enter your seed phrase within your wallet’s browser extension, you are most likely on a phishing site and should leave immediately.

To ensure you are not on a phishing site, double check that you are interacting with app.umee.cc

The only instance in which a user will EVER need to enter their seed phrase ANYWHERE is if they are restoring an existing wallet on a new device. So to reiterate, if you have access to your wallet then there is NO REASON to enter your seed phrase ANYWHERE.

Precautions

There are several precautions crypto users can and should take to further protect their seed phrase and the funds associated with it.

1. Never engage with strangers who message you first. Always verify the identity of anyone who contacts you before responding. It is more than likely they are trying to steal your assets.
2. Never screen share with a stranger. This should go without saying after #1, but it’s important for new users to know that scammers will attempt to get them to reveal their seed phrase or mnemonic while screen sharing.
3. Never click on random links, regardless of who sends them to you. If you do not recognize a link you should assume it is a scam or a malicious attachment and avoid it altogether.
4. Never approve unknown transactions within your crypto wallet. If you are not sure why you are being asked to confirm a transaction, simply reject it. By signing you may be agreeing to transfer funds to a bad actor.
5. Use a hardware wallet. Hardware wallets store your private keys offline, which means attackers will only be able to steal your funds if you give them your seed phrase. Don’t do that.

If you only take away one thing from this post, let it be this: never share your seed phrase or enter it anywhere. Always be skeptical; if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.