Myetherwallet.com / mycrypto.com drama - "New" owners FUD
There is some FUD regarding the recent developments of the most popular Ethereum online wallet myetherwallet.com and the newly established mycrypto.com. Here's what I found out.
MYCRYPTO.COM
Although this story is still ongoing it appears that the owners of myetherwallet.com have had a fallout and have parted ways, with one of them starting a competing, almost identical service called mycrypto.com. This is causing much uncertainty among the community about who to trust, and wether or not myetherwallet or mycrypto are trustworthy at all.It appears that a known spokesperson for MEW, has taken her leave and it starting MyCrypto together with 19 of the other developers. MEW is left with just one, which is the other co-founder. What exactly caused this to happen is unclear as both parties are being rather vague about it. In a lengthy post on Medium the owner of MyCrypto.com frames the story as if it were a rebrand and a concious decision.
However, looking closer at the GitHub commit graph that is included in the post it is clear that there is an underlying implication that the remaining owner of MEW had been inactive for months.
On the other hand, the team of MyCrypto.com is accused of stealing the team, hijacking the MyEtherWallet Twitter account and announcing a rebrand while keeping the other co-founder in the dark. Basically a hostile take-over. And that sounds rather weird too.
WHO TO TRUST
When stuff like this happens I quickly lose trust. A while ago when Etherdelta's ownership changed hands I have moved away from it as well. It shows that even in this decentralized blockchain world, if you have to deal with a middleman or party somehow, there's trust involved. I know that using my Ledger Nano S hardware wallet will keep me safe 99.9% of the time, and if I watch the screen and check the addresses closely I should be safe even if the new owners are not trustworthy. But.... when it comes to money do I really need or want this extra risk? No.So I move away. At least for the time being, until the dust settles and it becomes clear where I can place my trust I'm not going to be using myetherwallet nor mycrypto. And since the Ledger Nano S software is undergoing problems too lately, I'm not touching that either unless I have to. I'm still waiting for the official all-in-one Ledger app, that will hopefully set me free again.
For now, if anybody wants to use MEW or MyCrypto, you're probably safe if you use a hardware wallet but do really double check all the send and receive addresses before transferring funds. Stay on the safe side.
just like you said, I guess its best to wait till the dust settles. wisdom is profitable to direct
I'm learning about Meta Mask to hold Etherium and ERC20 tokens. I hear it's a lot safer than using myetherwallet.com. @ironshield
Actually I wouldn't say it's much safer than MEW! MEW can be used in several ways, I believe you can use Metamask to log into MEW as well for example. But you can also use a hardware wallet with MEW, etc. So it really depends on the method to determine how safe it is.
And while Metamask is pretty cool.... it doesn't support hardware wallets as far as I know. That means the private keys are stored somewhere on your pc which means that in theory a hacker or virus can get to it.
Thanks for making us aware of this. I appreciate your posts!
You're welcome and I'm glad you're enjoying my posts!!
wow that's good to know. I use my ledge nano with MEW but I'm still a bit unsure how it all works, or if I'm now at risk.
So question (if you are able/willing to answer) if MEW shuts down entirely while I'm using MEW with the ledger, my eth and erc20 tokens would still be safe because the private keys on on my ledger - is that correct?
haha I still find this stuff confusing.
Yes, your funds aren't stored on MEW but on the ethereum blockchain and MEW is just one of many 'interfaces' you can use to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. So if MEW ever shuts down you will be able to use one of the others, like mycrypto or ledger's own apps or other software that allows you to log in with the Ledger. If all else fails, you can still always use the 24 words you saved to restore your wallets even without the ledger.
So long story short: your funds are safe.
Ledger nano s wallets stop 99.9% of all possible attacks. The only real risk that remains is that whatever software or website or other tool you use, gets compromised. If this happens what they can do is display a different address on your pc screen(a fake address) than is actually used for the transaction (the real one). If you don't pay attention this could mean you could send to a hacker's address. The way to ensure this does not happen, is to always check the address on the physical screen of your device to see if it matches the one displayed on the screen. A hacker can only get to your desktop, but not to your ledger hardware wallet. If the hardware wallet displays a different address, then something is wrong.
So this means if you use MEW or Mycrypto and keep a close eye on your ledger's screen, you should be safe and you can still use either service. Although no guarantees, there could always be an undiscovered bug or otherwise that we don't know about yet. I personally am taking a short break before I use them again until the community decides on which is the most secure option, but I imagine both will remain available and in use . Hope that helps!
That was very helpful thank you. You really broke it down. I was aware that hackers could change the address but not that the ledger displays the address as well. Thats good to know. I just transferred everything onto my ledger last week so I'm really glad I did that. Thanks again :)
You're welcome!
And yes the ledger is still a very safe place to story it. Worst a hacker can try is fool you to sign a transaction that's fake. But the key itself is stored seperate from the desktop pc and so a hacker can never do anything unless the physical buttons are pressed.
Hardware wallets are kind of cool.
What you should do, just for the fun of it, is use your ledger nano s to log into some of the DEXes out there like Radar Relay and Etherdelta. Once you realize how easy it is to connect, you kind of start to realize how things in the future may work! Do note that most people who are new to dexes will make some beginners mistakes and spend more money than they wanted.. so if you want to test things be sure to use small amounts and read up on ethereum gas costs! :)
ok i'll check those out. thanks again
Some more drama in the space :-P That whole inactivity is not a good sign, but the actions taken by the other co-founder are also not very charming. Taking over de Twitter handle and immediately rebrand etc..
Hopefully more clarity about safety will arise soon!
Yes I have the same feelings. I no longer know who to trust. Both parties seem to be acting weird, but both also have a sympathetic story.
For the time being I'll just use something else.. I think Radar Relay lets me send and receive from my wallet as well as trade from there, so maybe I'll use that if I need to transfer something
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