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It’s a rare occasion to encounter someone with the profound presence of Jameson Lopp. Spending any significant time with him, whether online or in person, is an inspiring experience that compels you to become a more dedicated Bitcoiner—and frankly, a better individual.
Few have done more to champion the cause of Bitcoin and crypto security than Jameson. Despite delivering a message that many don’t want to hear—until they’ve lost access to their private keys—he remains resolute, dedicating his life to educating people about the inherent dangers to their digital assets and the Bitcoin network itself.
His work isn't glamorous. It doesn't entice with promises of luxury cars or explosive profits. In fact, Bitcoin security is such an unappealing topic that Jameson has been moved from main stages at major conferences. The rise in physical attacks is such a downer that he's often relegated to the developers' track.
"The non-technical, mainstream conferences often don’t want the technical people on stage talking about the problems inherent to the system," he says. "Having frank, practical discussions about the problems in the space conflicts with a lot of the narratives that people want to push out there to pump it up and drive adoption."
As co-founder and Chief Security Officer of Bitcoin security firm Casa, creator of the Bitcoin real-time node monitoring tool statoshi, a slew of other side projects aimed at raising awareness, and with over half a million followers on X, Jameson confesses he’s “pulled in many directions” and somewhat “overwhelmed” trying to stay on top of it all.
I caught up with the living legend and industry OG to discuss his clandestine life, vital work, the alarming rise in physical Bitcoin attacks, and everything in between.
Tell me what you know about Jameson Lopp, and I’ll tell you how many years you’ve been in Bitcoin. On second thought, keep that to yourself. As Jameson has posted and reposted on X:
"The first rule of the 21 million club is you do not talk about joining the 21 million club."
Victim of a grueling swatting attack in 2017, he’s lived through the trauma inflicted on Bitcoiners when his home was raided after police received fraudulent calls from an attacker claiming to be him.
The caller told police that he had shot someone 15 times with an assault rifle, was holding others hostage, and had rigged the front door with explosives, before demanding a ransom of $50,000 in Bitcoin and threatening to shoot any responding officers.
It was the stuff of movies and the kind of ordeal that would have caused most people to raise a white flag and withdraw from the public eye.
But Jameson Lopp is not like most people.
Not only did he hold his head high and continue to be a vocal advocate, but he set about making himself impossible to find—while educating others on how to erase their own digital footprints. From using ad-blockers and VPNs online to establishing a new life under a pseudonym, Jameson's footprints are in invisible ink.
Not even his family knows where he lives.
"The easier and safer thing for me to have done would be to completely disappear," he acknowledges, "but I felt like that would be giving in to the pressure from bad actors. I wanted to continue to leverage the reputation that I had built and be able to reach people and talk about Bitcoin."
I can’t fathom the mental and physical logistics involved in living this way long-term. It’s pretty extreme:
"The hardest part is that it’s a cognitive load. When I started off, I was creating a bunch of different pseudonyms that I was using with different people in the real world, and it quickly became too difficult to keep track of, so I settled on just one name and one identity.
Then, of course, I have my real identity that I only use to interact with people remotely, as myself, my original public identity… It gets more complex if you’re pulling more people into your life, like family and children."
Unmistakably recognizable, his hair is flecked with silver like the bristles of a wise wizard. Has his cover ever been blown?
"It’s extremely rare," he replies, "but that’s one of my difficult things and a sort of balancing act that I’m trying to navigate. I don’t go on mainstream media shows for that reason. I don’t want my face to be broadcast to millions and millions of people. I do small podcasts and events, which are only going to be seen by the people who are already deep into this space."
When I saw one of Jameson’s latest posts on X, warning about the rising number of physical attacks and pointing to a well-maintained index of known incidents, I knew I had to reach out. But given his ability to disappear in plain sight, I didn't expect him to respond. I was pleasantly surprised. He may be impossible to physically locate, but he’s accessible at the click of a mouse to anyone who wants to talk Bitcoin.
According to Jameson's records, there are over 200 documented physical attacks on Bitcoiners, with more than 30 of those occurring in just the first half of this year. Why is the number rising so alarmingly?
"It’s going up because the total value and size of the ecosystem are going up, and the overall awareness of the ecosystem is growing. So, you know, this is just a natural phenomenon… There’s always going to be some small percentage of sociopaths who are willing to hurt other people for their own personal gain."
What’s more concerning, he points out, is the growing trend of incidents carried out by organized crime groups specializing in this type of attack.
"There was a slew of them up and down the East Coast of the US a few years ago, and more recently there’s been a slew of them in the UK, and in both cases, law enforcement eventually arrested the people behind it."
He mentions a pattern of expats in South America being targeted by what appears to be organized crime from their country of origin, who travel to the region, carry out the assault, and then quickly leave, attempting to exploit jurisdictional arbitrage.
I ask if physical attacks mostly happen to high-profile people, and he shrugs.
"It’s hard to say because I never know who these people are. I know ‘high-profile’ people who are on X. But if they’re high-profile on Instagram, I have no idea, and I don’t use TikTok. So, high profile is very relative and fractured."
He says he does know of several victims who were Instagram influencers who were “essentially flaunting their wealth,” boasting about expensive cars, watches, and lavish lifestyles. He shakes his head:
"If you are on any sort of public network and you are flaunting your wealth, that’s one of the more dangerous things that you could be doing."
With most jurisdictions insisting on combating money laundering, it’s nearly impossible to be active in this space without handing over mounds of personal data. Sadly for many, this data often ends up being leaked online, as seen in the Ledger data breach of 2020.
What can we do to protect ourselves in the era of KYC without going to the extreme measures of buying a ghost house?
"The safest thing to do is to never KYC and only use non-KYC services. Those are always going to be less convenient. They’re not as user-friendly, and there are not as many of them out there. If you’re using KYC services, I would say rather you’re not giving them your home address."
He acknowledges this can be difficult since most providers require your address, but you can reduce the risk by being selective about which documents you upload.
"Personally, when I’m doing KYC, I prefer to use my passport as my ID because there’s no address on there. Then I will always initially try giving them a PO box address that I have. Sometimes that works. But if they have stricter and higher levels of KYC, then I often find getting rejected."
When this happens, Jameson reluctantly provides the address of a legal residence he rents but doesn’t live in.
As a self-proclaimed Libertarian, I ask Jameson if he’s ever voted. He says he stopped voting when he realized “no Libertarian was ever going to become president” or win any high-level office.
"The two-party system is too entrenched for that. But no, I definitely have no intention of ever registering to vote again because of the public records that that creates. You know, the ROI of voting, like the actual impact of my votes versus the amount of time I would have to spend evaluating all the politicians... it’s just easier for me to cut politics out as much as possible."
And with so much planning behind every move, is it all worth it? Did he ever consider quitting? He pauses for a while and reflects:
"There’s this cybersecurity saying. Something like the safest way to use a computer is to never turn it on... The computer is a massively powerful tool, but it’s a double-edged sword, right? On one hand, you have access to essentially the entire sum of human knowledge. On the other hand, you’re exposing yourself to billions of potential attackers."
I say that reminds me of a similar maxim: A ship is safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are for. He smiles and agrees. There’s no universe in which Jameson leaves the computer unplugged.
"The most important thing that you can do for Bitcoin is to talk about it. That was one of the more important aspects of my life. I didn’t want to give up on that."
Did he ever anticipate the industry evolving this way, with six-figure Bitcoin prices, corporate treasuries, and an AI and crypto president in the White House?
"I’ve always been amazed by the level of volatility," he admits. "When I initially got into Bitcoin, I was looking at it as sort of a 30-year generational-level savings account. I wasn’t looking at it as a speculative asset that was going to go up several orders of magnitude just over the next decade."
He has concerns with the current state of the ecosystem, mainly that much of the adoption is happening through TradFi vehicles that don’t even give people an option to take self-custody.
"If too much Bitcoin gets concentrated in too few hands, we run the risk of essentially recreating a highly centralized system," he replies.
He’s “conflicted” over the rise of corporate Bitcoin adoption. While on one hand, Bitcoin is for everyone, on the other, one company is "so far ahead and they keep pulling further ahead." This is why he decided to invest in Fidelity's ETF.
"It’s not because I think that corporate Bitcoin treasury adoption is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s because I felt like we needed to have a broader and more diverse group of corporate treasuries to compete with Saylor, to try to slow down how much he can accumulate. What if he got to the point of having like five or 10% of the total supply? That’s reaching systemic risk levels."
I ask what the biggest threat to the Bitcoin network is: complacency or quantum computing?
"There are long-term existential issues that I worry about. Quantum is an issue that I worry about in conjunction with things like consensus and upgrades."
He compares the quantum computing problem to address malleability, in that it’s an ever-present threat, yet seems distant when there are more urgent issues to face.
"I think it’s a similar type of problem within Bitcoin, but it’s exacerbated by the fact that, first, it takes years to get consensus on an upgrade. Then it takes many more years after the consensus upgrade is activated for the rest of the ecosystem to adopt it, and, in this case, there’s an additional delay of years because people will have to move their funds."
And how far away is quantum computing?
"Assuming that’s conservative and we have at least five years, then, you know, maybe we actually have 10 or 15 years… I certainly hope that we have 10 years. If we only have five years, I think we’re screwed because it will take several years to get the consensus upgrade, and then several more years for it to mature and everyone to move."
The one narrative that bothers Jameson the most is the belief that Bitcoin is “prophetic” and “perfect” as it is. This is a dangerous view, in his opinion—and one often purveyed by proponents of maximalism.
"That leads to what I consider to be the biggest danger to Bitcoin over the long term, which is complacency. If people are complacent about continuing to talk about improving Bitcoin, that’s when it becomes fragile and more vulnerable to future threats that can emerge."
Does he manage to get any rest at all? He frowns for a moment before replying:
"I try not to let all of these things that are outside of my control keep me up at night. Like I said before, continuing to talk about Bitcoin and address its problems is one of the best ways that people can contribute to the space… It’s about keeping people interested and engaged and thinking about what we can do to solve problems before they happen."
