🌐 Is the web right for crypto? — Issue No. 6
/🗞 News
Popular Ethereum web wallet MyCrypto.com has announced they're deprecating the ability to authenticate the wallet by providing your private keys. Instead, users will be pushed to use hardware wallets, browser extensions, or a desktop app. Link.Part of MyCrypto's motivation was a recent, sophisticated attack on competitor MyEtherWallet.com. Hackers actually took control of Amazon's DNS servers in order to phish private keys from MEW's users. Link.
Even secure browser extensions, like MetaMask, are vulnerable to these types of attacks. A recent phishing attack impersonated the extension and tricked users into providing their seed phrase. Link.
All these issues bring up a deeper question: Is the web the right platform for blockchain apps? Part of why web apps are great is because they allow code injection and reloading across the network. But when priceless private keys are on the line-- is that a feature or a bug? Might signed, local binaries installed from a known source actually be a better solution?