Look inside my upcoming book, Defending Bitcoin: Industrial-Grade Cybersecurity for the Monetary Grid 👇 First, the Foreword by Mikko Hyppönen. One of the most widely-respected figures in cybersecurity with his own take on Bitcoin. I'm grateful that he agreed to contribute his view to the Defending Bitcoin! Next the Introduction. My story of how I started in the Industrial Controls sector, then found Bitcoin, and merged the two worlds. Also goes over the format of Defending Bitcoin. Part I is the introduction to Bitcoin and Cybersecurity, forming a basis of vocabulary for readers familiar with either or neither subject. Chapter 1. Bitcoin — The Decentralized Protocol All about Bitcoin the technology, written for technically-minded readers who don't know about how Bitcoin works. Chapter 2. Bitcoin — The Hardest Money Ever Made All about Bitcoin the money. What makes Bitcoin's monetary properties different from every other money in history. Chapter 3. Cybersecurity Fundamentals — The Universal Shield The vocabulary of cybersecurity based on industry best practices. What is risk, what are threats, vulnerabilities, controls. Everything we need for the rest of the book. Chapter 4. Industrial Control Systems and Securing Critical Infrastructure How critical infrastructure is defended differently from traditional cybersecurity. Includes a primer on industrial control systems and critical infrastructure so my the comparison to Bitcoin makes sense. Chapter 5. Bitcoin as Critical Infrastructure — The Monetary Grid The core thesis, that Bitcoin is the first decentralized critical infrastructure for money and should be defended the same way we protect power grids, pipelines, and factories. Part II is the Bitcoin Threat Landscape. 10 chapters of threats on an individual and network level, and what we can do about them. Chapter 6. Exchange and Custodial Failures From Mt. Gox to FTX, why custodial Bitcoin keeps blowing up, and what that means for your stack. Hint: the answer is to get your Bitcoin off the exchanges and into self-custody. Chapter 7. Securing Your Bitcoin: Personal Defense of the Private Key The full personal custody chapter, covering hardware wallets, multisig, seed phrase handling, and inheritance. You have the responsibility to secure your Bitcoin. Learn how here. Chapter 8. Privacy, Physical Security, and Staying Safe Privacy on-chain, OPSEC off-chain, and maintaining your physical security when people know you own Bitcoin. Huge shoutout to the excellent Praxeology of Privacy by @Max , read that after this chapter. Chapter 9. 51% Attacks and the Decentralization of Mining What a 51% attack would actually look like, why mining concentration is important, and how decentralized the hashrate really is. Includes practical steps to do something about it, as always. Chapter 10. Node-Level Threats and Client-Side Defenses Everything to do with the security of your node, including all the work being done to secure Bitcoin node software, and what they defend against. Run a node, stay secure while you do. Chapter 11. Arbitrary Data and Witness Abuse An overview of ordinals, inscriptions, and arbitrary data. You may not think these are a problem. I lay out why it's a cybersecurity issue and makes Bitcoin worse as money. Chapter 12. Governance Risks. An honest examination of the risks Bitcoin faces from development centralization, and what can be done about it. It's not one-sided, though. I also cover the risk of changing Bitcoin, especially without wide consensus. Chapter 13. Political and Regulatory Threats Bans, surveillance, KYC, and mining restrictions, plus the realistic ways Bitcoin survives state-level pressure. Chapter 14. Grid and Network Failures: Keeping Bitcoin Alive Offline What happens when the grid goes down or the internet gets cut, and how Bitcoin stays alive offline through mesh networks, radio, and satellite. Chapter 15. Emerging Threats: Quantum and AI Full coverage of the latest developments of Bitcoin and Quantum. No FUD, but it's not something we should ignore. Also includes coverage of AI as it affects everyone more and more these days. Conclusion We end summarizing everything together, and it's optimistic! Defending Bitcoin isn't about doom and gloom. It's about knowing what's out there, and finding out what you can do about it. There's always something you can do. Always. Appendices Included in the print book are glossaries of cybersecurity and Bitcoin terms, and a section of recommended reading across all topics. Further resources are available on defendingbitcoin.com, including a threat model worksheet where you can find out how the threats in Defending Bitcoin apply to you. No data collection, I promise! You can see more about the book at the Look Inside page, including the full foreword, introduction, and previews from two chapters.

Look inside: Defending Bitcoin

Full table of contents, with foreword, personal introduction, and openings of Chapter 5 and Chapter 7 expandable in place.

Reminder, Defending Bitcoin will be available on Amazon and bitcoininfinitystore.com from June 15th, and the first physical copies will be available at @BTC Prague - come see me there and get a signed copy!

GM Nostr!

I've been a bit absent from Nostr for the last little while, but that's about to change. For the past few months, I started focusing on a new project, and I'm finally ready to announce what I've been up to. I've written a book. Defending Bitcoin: Industrial-Grade Cybersecurity for the Monetary Grid. 6 months ago, I realized how I could apply my cybersecurity background to Bitcoin, with a perspective grounded in the world of critical infrastructure and industrial control systems. In Defending Bitcoin, I make the case that Bitcoin is critical infrastructure, and I mean that technically. Critical infrastructure is everything essential for the modern world to run the way it does, and I assert that Bitcoin meets the threshold of that definition. Defending Bitcoin is grounded in the industrial cybersecurity principles that I use on a daily basis. The framework I've built is based on ISA/IEC 62443, the most widespread industry standard for industrial cybersecurity, and applies universal cybersecurity principles such as defense-in-depth, risk management, and threat modeling. And in all cases, there's always something you can do to improve your security or that of the network as a whole. I wrote the book for two audiences at once. The first is bitcoiners who want to improve their security posture. The second is technical professionals who may be skeptical about Bitcoin and want to understand it better. I build a base of vocabulary for both sides to understand each other, then cover the threat landscape over the course of 10 chapters. Launching today is the accompanying website,

Defending Bitcoin

Defending Bitcoin — Luke de Wolf

Industrial-grade cybersecurity for the world’s first decentralized monetary network. A book by Luke de Wolf, with a foreword by Mikko Hyppönen.

where you can get a preview of the book, read endorsements from Mikko Hyppönen (the foreword writer), @Jeff Booth , @Lyn Alden , @npub1d3f4...r4xv , @Max , and @Tony | thebitcoinway.com ⚡️ . I've also built a threat modeling tool where you can check how the book applies to you (fully local, we don't collect any data except your email address, if you want updates). Defending Bitcoin will be available for purchase online on June 15th, right after @BTC Prague where I'll be debuting the book physically. Use code DEFENDINGBITCOIN for your ticket, and come see me in Prague to get your signed copy! I'm thrilled to be releasing this book because it's truly the best possible contribution to the space that I can make. I managed to find a way to bridge the two worlds I live in, those of my day job in cybersecurity and Bitcoin. I hope you find the book to be a helpful guide to improving your security, and that it makes a positive impact for Bitcoin as a whole. I'll be posting more often about the Bitcoin cybersecurity topic, and hopefully that's valuable as well. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think!