Crypto does a great deal for offering users control over their finances, but as is the case with any platform, both physical and digital, it isn’t risk-free. You’re also entirely on your own with this type of currency: unlike a traditional bank, you can’t simply call a customer support hotline for help or head down to your local branch. This makes crypto inherently higher risk, and anyone who uses it must be wary of scams.
Thankfully, several tools have been developed over the years to make platforms more secure, and getting into crypto now is much safer than it was in the past. Today, we’re going to look at ten tools that help you stay protected and what sort of infrastructure is in place to mitigate the risk.
1. Lookup Services
One of the most important tools everyone should use are look up services. These platforms enable you to avoid the common scam of address impersonation, which aims to mislead with fake names and look-alike domains.
To give one popular example, there’s Blockscout’s Ethereum wallet lookup service, which allows users to inspect ENS names and addresses directly on-chain, meaning you can verify who owns an ENS name and which wallet or address it belongs to, as well as any historical changes.
2. Wallet Guard
Wallet Guard is a type of browser extension that sits in the background and protects users at the time they’re most vulnerable. It’ll warn you about fraudulent or malicious websites and flag suspicious approvals, helping people prevent a scam just before it occurs.
Very few individuals truly understand enough about crypto to spot all the signs, even if they’re well clued up, so Wallet Guard is there to catch things when you don’t.
3. Scam Sniffer
Scam Sniffer is a great tool for identifying phishing scams.
It has a broad database of well-known scam websites and alerts the user if they happen across one. A major strength is that it’s community-driven, meaning that people are constantly reporting new threats so that the platform is able to evolve organically.
4. OpenSea and NFT Marketplace Warnings
If you’re interested in NFTs, you should know that the marketplaces associated with them are somewhat of a haven for scammers.
Thankfully, there’s been a lot of pushback. For example, OpenSea – one of the biggest NFT exchange websites – implements robust security to screen listings that seem suspicious and alert users, and most marketplaces have similar protocols in place.
It doesn’t mean you’re completely safe, but these days, modern platforms do all they can to prevent scammers from ever infiltrating sites in the first place.
5. Hardware Wallets
Naturally, hardware wallets are an extremely effective way to defend yourself against crypto scams. Rather than storing your crypto within an online platform, these types of wallets allow you to remove it from the web entirely, making it impossible for hackers and scammers to gain access to it.
You have the benefit of isolating private keys offline, and the majority of high-quality devices require users to physically confirm a transaction on the hardware itself before it goes through, drastically lessening their risk of traditional wallet-draining attempts.
6. Chainalysis
Chainalysis is one of the most robust tools for deep-system analysis when it comes to crypto, which is why governments use it to ensure optimum security.
While regular users won’t be using it, many of the platforms you’ll use on a daily basis do. Chainalysis is likely at work when you’re alerted to wallets that have been associated with scams in the past, and when you experience blocks on addresses associated with fraudulent activity.
This is a piece of infrastructure that’s responsible for greatly improving the security profile of crypto interactions worldwide.
7. Dune Analytics
Dune is a powerful analysis tool for tracking on-chain behaviour. It serves to make complex pieces of data simple by boiling information down into more readable formats that anyone can understand.
It’s considered one of the most powerful tools on the market for crypto research, offering users the ability to query anything they like and be presented with an easy-to-understand result. The platform also allows you to track known scam wallets and get a bird’s-eye view of what’s going on.
8. MetaMask Security Alerts
MetaMask is one of the most popular wallets available, and that’s in part due to its built-in security features that provide users with nearly everything they need to avoid scams.
The wallet offers warnings for known suspicious signatures and alerts users immediately if they come into contact with accounts that are understood to be suspicious. It’s an excellent wallet to choose for those who want to be as forward-thinking as possible when it comes to security, helping to nip scams in the bud before they have the chance to go anywhere.
9. CertiK Skynet
CertiK Skynet is unique in that it operates in real-time to protect users from scammers.
It continuously scans any smart contracts you’re involved with to alert at a moment’s notice if something’s amiss, and through automated signalling and high-level threat detection, it remains one of the most important tools for staying safe.
10. Revoke.cash
Many scams aren’t the sort of in-your-face wallet-drains you’ve heard about. A great deal goes unnoticed, with some occurring from token approvals that users have completely forgotten about by the time they’ve been scammed.
Tools like Revoke help you negate this problem by offering the ability to see any smart contracts that have spending permissions over your wallet, and then giving the opportunity to revoke these approvals if they’re deemed to be a threat.
It’s easy for approvals to slip by, and Revoke ensures everything remains above board, even if you forget about something.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, you now have a clearer idea of what tools can help you stay safe in the world of cryptocurrency. You’ll always need to have your wits about you, as no tool can replace a foundation of common sense, but no one’s perfect, and these tools are there to catch you should something falter.
