Breaking down the Coldcard exploit & ramifications for self-custody

Episode 23 of The Starting Block was broadcasted live with The Block's Head of Research Gareth Jenkinson, Casa CTO Jameson Lopp, and Foundation CTO Zach Herbert.



Casa CTO Jameson Lopp joins Gareth Jenkinson on The Starting Block to discuss how the Coldcard entropy exploit unfolded, why multi-vendor multisig is the gold standard for self-custody, and why Bitcoin self-custody is still worth pursuing despite the risks. Foundation CTO Zach Herbert also joined Gareth for the day's Market Pulse, where he discussed the role of AI in discovering the Coldcard bug and what the industry needs to do to rebuild trust in self-custody.

Outline

00:06 - Welcome & Show Intro
01:47 - Block Briefing: Strategy Sells BTC
03:17 - Trump Media, SEC/CFTC Turf War & More
09:35 - Zach Herbert: Coldcard Exploit Explained
15:17 - AI's Role in Finding the Bug
20:23 - Open Source vs. Closed Source Debate
23:15 - Self-Custody Trust & Don't Trust Verify
27:13 - Hardware Wallet UX & Market Options
34:28 - Jameson Lopp: First Reports of the Hack
40:51 - AI, LLMs & the Changing Attack Landscape
46:23 - Self-Custody: Who It's Really For
55:57 - Casa's Multi-Vendor Multisig Case

Guest links:
Jameson Lopp - https://x.com/lopp
Casa - https://x.com/CasaHODL
Zach Herbert - https://x.com/zherbert
Foundation - https://x.com/FoundationHQ

Host links:
Gareth Jenkinson - https://x.com/gazza_jenks
The Block - https://x.com/TheBlockCo
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