I used to think a hardware wallet was enough. After all, when the private key is in your hands, it feels the most solid. For small amounts, put them on a hot wallet; for slightly larger ones, move them to a hardware wallet. Keep things simple—less hassle, more staying power.

Later, I realized that once the assets add up, the risk ends up being more of a “people” problem: you lose it, you get sick, or you accidentally sign the wrong thing—you make a slip of the hand. A hardware wallet can’t save you from that.

At that point, multi-signature setups are more like insurance—not necessarily more complex, but spreading a single point of failure across multiple parties. The trade-off is that day-to-day operations are a bit more troublesome, so it’s a fit for people who truly don’t want to “go all-in” on their own state of mind.

I’ve tried social recovery too. It’s for people who don’t want to deal with multi-signature and are worried that one day they’ll forget something or have a hardware issue. But, to be blunt, choosing “friends/guardians” is something you should be even more cautious about than choosing coins.

Recently, the wave of AI Agents and automated trading has been pretty hot—the hype has been flying. But it wants you to interact on-chain frequently and approve a bunch of contracts. I’d rather tighten permissions. I’d prefer to earn a bit less than hand the keys over to scripts and luck.