Topic: Bitcoin and it's holders in our society (Read 985 times)

people don't even care again whether it is legal or not people will continue to invest and if you look at if not that anyone is using Bitcoin illegally no one will arrest you because you are investing in bitcoin, I don't think have seen such news anywhere,  even with an IP ban and the rest people will still find ways to access their assets so there is still limited to the government stopping investors from investing in bitcoin, and instead of the government encouraging people since it acts as a method of payment it might help in recovering the value for countries that are having currency devaluation, this are things that can bring revival to the economy.  people who had bitcoin banned still invest and why will I hide because am investing in bitcoin? do you think the way it is comfortable for you in your country? the goal is to hold for a long time and nothing more profiting than that.

Actually it is very exciting because if our country does not limit bitcoin as an investment asset, then we have the opportunity to reach the level of profit from the investment and trading that we do. The problem is when the country where we live prohibits Bitcoin completely, so we have to try to be more careful about getting involved in it because the worry is that if we get caught, we will get into trouble. The awareness of young people in your country is actually much stronger than some young people who live in countries that don't ban Bitcoin completely, because they will be more careful and not open up to anyone.

But in my country there are many young people who are very open about their involvement in Crypto and they even dare to share the profits they get on social media. The aim is to show how great it is that they have money from investments and trading, but in my opinion it is not a wise decision to share our involvement in crypto.

There is also no reason to be flashing your money on everyone's faces as well, like it just doesn't make sense you are making some extra effort to do that when not doing it takes no time. Humble is just literally doing nothing, you do not talk about it, you do not take a screenshot of it, you do absolutely nothing about it, so it is a great way to be lazy whereas if you want to show off you need to convince people that you have the money for it and that's really not making any sense to my brain at all.

I personally would rather just stay humble and keep holding it. I am in no means rich, so me trying to show off wouldn't even work at this moment but I guarantee you that if I have tens of thousands of dollars one day, I would still be like this.

Being careful and then fighting back, are both acts that proves you did something. It is a must because we don't want to lose our possessions or get harmed. If we are afraid to fight back on our own, we can always ask a help from the authorities. There are only bad guys who are skilled enough to get away with their bad doings. It sucks, but let us only hope that they will be caught next time. To be a low-key person is nice.

It is the same as being humble. Not only that it makes you a less target of the thieves but you will also be a less target of those haters, and it is impressive if people around you find out that you know a lot of the topic once they ask a help about it.

There are countries where laws and regulations are observed less responsibly, and there is also a gradation of sanctions for violation of laws, depending on the status and capabilities of a particular person. This greatly complicates the situation in which everyone has to do something for a common goal and the common good. We cannot compare countries where public consciousness is used to the fact that the law works and it applies equally to everyone, with those where the law can be interpreted depending on one's authority.

But, is there any country where laws and orders doesn't work? I think there isn't any, although there is what we called discrimination and corruption which could affect how some of the laws and orders work. This is sad and this should be given an action as soon as possible, so that all are now equal and can now experience a better way of living.

Whatever the case it is, whether it is opposite from what you said there, safety must always be ensure first by everybody, so that all will run well smoothly. We shouldn't or we don't want to interfere someone else, especially in privacy matters but except only if it was ordered by us and then those people are breaking the law.

Yes we should think that many people in society cannot tolerate the improvement of others ‍and also think about what they can say and do. So we should be aware of this and ignore their negative talk so that there is no disruption in our daily activities. Although we who work in outsourcing have not violated any law some people will talk negatively about us even if we do other government or private jobs it is very normal to them. So we should ignore all the talk about the progress of our lives and go ahead and invest in Bitcoin as per our ability to brighten the future.

It seems to be true that basically everyone who has started wanting to invest in Bitcoin, no matter what country they are in, will continue to invest even though Bitcoin is not yet legal in that country. The important thing is that they can maintain their privacy well and must not open up or tell anyone who could potentially leak information. In fact, in countries that do not yet have clear regulations, it could be said that the people will still have freedom to decide. Because there are no clear prohibitions or regulations yet. But for countries that have made clear regulations regarding crypto, the complications will actually begin. Because if the regulations created prohibit people from getting involved in bitcoin then it will really make investors in that country have to stop or hide their involvement in bitcoin investment. But for countries that have implemented regulations and allow their citizens to invest in crypto, that is a good thing, even though sometimes high tax fees start to apply.

That's the trouble, when you are facing a situation where things look like they are all ok, we tend to have a situation that is a bit different, because we do not really understand how we need to protect ourselves since we never need it. Imagine a government being ok with it, so you would be feeling a lot more relax about it, and then suddenly they decide to not be ok with it, that would make you lose it all because you were not ready for it.

But, when you live in a nation that's grey about it, not ok but not against it, always on your toes, then you get ready for it and when something goes wrong you are not going to get hurt. This is why I like my nation, we are not 100% on board with it, but it is not illegal neither.

Your story hits hard. It shows that security is the only way to play this crypto game. You're right to lock things down so you can survive. The idea that we must even consider this is problematic. Imagine not having to hide our crypto engagement like a secret shame

Bitcoin challenges authority. The old guard, who manage money centrally, is alarmed. They want to demonize it. But we know better. Bitcoin's about decentralization and giving people financial control. That threatens those who benefit from the status quo

We defend and attack. Not simply hunker down. We must shout about Bitcoin's promise for a fairer economy and a more sustainable financial system. We need education and regulations that protect crypto holders, not criminalize us. Because Bitcoin is inevitable and legal in many areas. The smarter, better approach is to disregard scare tactics and look at the facts

There are many countries in the world where Bitcoin is illegal but still a large number of people from those countries invest in Bitcoin and keep their investment for a long time. Many countries have IP bans of various exchanges, yet users continue to use those exchanges in alternative ways. I think investors who don't care much about whether bitcoin is legal or illegal in their country focus entirely on their investment.  Maybe an investor can openly discuss his investments in countries where Bitcoin is officially sanctioned, but people in countries where Bitcoin is not sanctioned may invest in Bitcoin very secretly and hold it for a long time. Our focus is investing and holding investments so investors stay focused on their investments.

Whether we are in a country that has legalized Bitcoin and crypto or we are in a country that prohibits both. then the same steps need to be done. That is, we don't need to be too open about the digital assets we own. We need to guard our privacy well when it comes to an asset that has value that we own. Because even if we are in a country that is very crypto-friendly then another threat is from people who could target our assets. So it would be better if we could still maintain our privacy properly, especially when storing valuable assets. In my country, crypto has become a commodity asset. So that residents are free to have it here. It's just that I always take care of myself so that people don't know that I own crypto assets. Because the more people know that we have a lot of assets in crypto, the more vulnerable our position is in terms of security. But still, some of my closest people and friends still know about me as much as I know about them.

I think, such attitude you can only see it from undeveloped countries where Bitcoin is not yet legalize because once Bitcoin is legalized in a country nobody will come and ask you why are you holding such huge amount of Bitcoin in your wallet. But the country that is not well develop, you can find things like this easily because they made their money through the Bitcoin they found in people wallets, and it is  only government can have such huge money of money in their account. The best thing is to remove anything that will make them to know you have such app in your phone or laptop, because once they found Bitcoin in your wallet, I think they will make your case different from other people that they found fiat money in their bank account.

Bitcoin helped radically redefine money and trust. On the blockchain, Bitcoin offered an entirely new type of financial asset. It was more secure and direct than any traditional banking option, elevating how we considered the financial sector as a society.

In other words,bitcoin increases and bitcoin has inspired a revolution like no other, rapidly transforming various aspects of the global economy.The traditional financial systems give governments the absolute powers to control how people manage their wealth and finances.
Governments will literally use supremacy  power as their tool  and authority to control and track people spending.

Yes that is very correct , in country where laws and order work no body is allowed to kue in on your privacy until warrant is shown to you in most case you need involved your lawyer, because you can acuse them of going against your privacy also stilling which they can't escape.

 But where the opposite is the case one most first work with safety even where freedom is safety first applying all measure that could bring interference of second party to one privacy is the most important in any environment one is operating on.

Whatever the reality around us, we need to adjust to it, so if a person is living in an environment in which their rights and freedoms are respected by their governments, then they can get away with being more easy-going when keeping their coins on their smartphone.

But if we live in an environment in which we find the opposite, we should save ourselves the dreams of trading bitcoin freely for a later date, until that happens we need to deal with the situation at hand, and this will mean being way more cautious with the way we store our coins, as we do not know when an unauthorized person may try to gain access to our coins.

Sometimes it depends on the country as a police officer they always leave their duty to search on young people device especially those with a smart device such Iphone and Samsung, they always felt anyone with such device is always classified as an internet fraudster which they suspect anyone using such expensive phone.

For about devices I will suggest people have external drive to store their important things inside it, or they could have them printed to avoid losing their asset and device completely then they store it a safe place where only them can access to it.

Not only while on the move, but also while in your home, these devices (and the information in them) can't be 100% safe, therefore, precautions should be taken to make it very difficult for unauthorized persons (whoever they may be) to gain access.

Was it enough in your case to simply remove application shortcuts on the desktop? On the street, conducting a deep analysis of applications installed on the phone is very inconvenient.

Unlocking and subsequent searches of phones were clearly not legal in this case, because what legal grounds could there be if this is applied to random people they meet on the street. Of course, the level of “legality” of law enforcement actions varies greatly from country to country, but one should have stood up for one’s rights.

Once your cryptoassets are taken away from you, you will not think about the legality status of the bitcoin. Therefore, it is better not for anyone to know about this.

A smartphone is an easily lost and taken away device, therefore, you should only store information on this device that you are willing to lose.

Generally, the place of security and safety is a very serious factor we've not taken seriously to a very large extent. If you're living in a country where every youth that's seen living an expensive lifestyle or seen with a huge amount of money in his wallet or bank app is termed a criminal, it becomes hard to even go out with your bank app or wallet actively visible in your device.

In a sane society, as long as you know that you can defend the source of your fund, it would have been easier to carry your phone anywhere and anyhow you want to but that's not  the reality of things, even when your source of income is legit, they will still want to extort money from you and that's one reason it's necessary to lay safe and freeze all your apps so you don't end up not explaining and paying for things you ought not to.

everyone hopes it's like that, but unfortunately it's not. the government has the authority to restrict people from accessing and trading bitcoin, for example in china, bangladesh and several other countries, the government there prohibits its citizens from being able to own and trade bitcoin and citizens have no choice but to comply with this.

this is quite sad, considering that everyone should have the same opportunity to access cryptocurrency. however, for economic reasons and to maintain fiat stability, the government can prohibit people from accessing it. hopefully in the future more governments will be aware of this problem and immediately allow bitcoin trading in their countries.

Likewise, in my country there is still no official regulation of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies so people can freely use and trade. But the lack of regulation also has certain obstacles, if we get scammed involving cryptocurrency, law enforcement agencies will not come to our defense.

Also, I would like to know which countries are legalizing bitcoin and allowing people to use it legally. Do bitcoin investors voluntarily pay taxes or will they take advantage of bitcoin to avoid taxes? And that may also be one of the reasons why some governments do not legalize bitcoin.

but for my country crypto is fully supported by the government because they know crypto is a digital asset for the future which is very good for investing, even though it cannot be used as a legal means of payment yet, the government has fully supported crypto users and has made the best possible regulations so that It is not easy to commit fraud, of course this is something every citizen and state apparatus must be aware of.

Everyone should be able to trade cryptocurrencies freely. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are assets that people invest in and can hold for the long term. No one should prevent this. People should be free to choose what and how to invest.

For example, in my country, Bitcoin trading is not legally regulated, but crypto trading is allowed on exchanges.

Does your country never aware of the rising demand in work from home set up and remote jobs? I mean companies around the world are practicing the kind of set up because they can actually benefit from it by cutting budgets from any office and in-house expenses. I think that is gonna be a huge advantage for you and your people who have engaged into cryptocurrency, because when the authority check on you for any suspicious activity, you will be able to protect yourself by showing them you're working remotely with a company who practices remote job.
I mean, there are already a lot of job seeker platform in the internet you can show them that. Most importantly, you need to learn how to secure and hide your cryto related apps.

True, even in my country government doesn't have a say or movement towards crypto currency or bitcoin but of course they dont also have a plan on adopting this stuff, even we are free from trading or holding crypto currency assets we also doesn't have a clear view thta in my country where I reside where going to adopt crypto currency, sad but its better than those country who treat crypto currency as illegal that its people needs to hide their activity that they are doing in crypto currency spcae, it is uncomfortable for an investor to invest illegally but they have no cho8ce but to stay hidden and lowkey to avoid those authority who might sanction them. So for us who is free to do so should be thankful that we are in a free country and we have our own freedom in terms of financial.

It is difficult indeed when a country that does not really expect crypto, especially bitcoin, exists then it is certain that it will be sought because after all it is like violating the regulations they enforce so that it will be considered an irregularity so caution is clearly very important in this case.

Fortunately in my country it is still quite comfortable even though until now bitcoin is still considered a commodity but no bans have occurred and even the government is currently starting to facilitate traders or investors in bitcoin which shows that my country is still welcoming this.
But indeed caution is very necessary because after all we do not know the dangers that will occur around us so that a simple way by hiding applications or those related to your assets can be a good way to make yourself comfortable.

It seems like what you feel is much more difficult and maybe your country has made Bitcoin an illegal act that people there should avoid. I am not faced with this problem because in our country bitcoin can still be used as an investment asset. The highly exaggerated suspicion of your country's government and internet fraud should not only involve people who are in bitcoin because there are many other people who will also commit similar fraud without being involved in bitcoin.

If that's what it sounds like then I think you and anyone else out there should be more careful about hiding investments in bitcoin. Because security is much more important than talking about investment in your country. I want to know what is meant by the risk of losing bitcoin assets, is it related to hacking or were we arrested and then the assets were taken over by the security forces there?

This is for me very alarming if it will happen here in my country but as of this moment we are still having the best experiences hodling Bitcoin though the authorities are currently taking strict actions against unregistered foreign and local crypto exchanges. So far no harassment being committed here in my country since we are living in a crypto friendly country.

Maybe that attack was because of the government of Nigeria putting restrictions on p2p transactions or maybe blord violated the crypto ban but if he has no violation himself and then got harassed that is not fair

But this is currently what is happening in Nigeria:

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/nigerian-crypto-fee-hike-spurs-vc-interest-amid-p2p-regulatory-hurdles

Its very interesting because I am living in a country where things are never been as government wants usually peoples give strong reaction about policies which prevent them from having benefits so in crypto case same things happening like they are not allowing trade and use of the crypto officially, but we have too much use with many are doing things openly and nothing wrong happening to them.
I personally know too many peoples those are having crypto specially bitcoin for their own stuff because this brings good changes into their lives which is good so they are having positive mindset about this and day by day we are increasing numbers of users in this crypto community which is also big success for this and peoples those are understanding and joining this all.

Really? Why are the youth harassed then for having crypto apps on their phones? The Anambra born BLord was arrested just like some other crypto OGs in Nigeria because there were allegations of fraud against them but those allegations couldn't be proved at the time. From the way it's looking now, it's obvious that the government is anetema to the growth of cryptos. Don't forget that anything that gets people independent of the government is seen as anti-government all over the world. It's not just a Nigeria thing. This is what cryptos do. There are so many Nigerians who depend solely on cryptos to earn a living and careless of whatever government does with unemployment. By the way, why is the Nigeria government asking Binance to release names of its Nigerian customers?

Is that true? Nigeria is too much for that kind of thing; imagine they are attacking crypto traders for that kind of thing. I don't see anything wrong with doing trading activity,
honestly speaking.

As a matter of fact, trading here in crypo or bitcoin is helpful because, of course, once the traders have a profit, their government will get them taxes for every prime commodity they buy,
and then they will do the same.

When someone can have an income without working for a government or private agency, of course now it has become commonplace because everyone will be able to earn income from the internet by creating content creators and many others and also in this forum we will also be able to have income when we take part in campaigns and can get paid and if there are still people who suspect something that is not good for us of course we don't have to think about that if we haven't committed any violations we have to stay focused on what we do and what we don't do. we need to think about people who think badly of us.
And I have never found someone who is able to work every day at home, of course this will make them bored and they will choose to leave the house and choose a comfortable place for us to work.

I will say this is misplaced priority by the policemen, they do even what there not suppose to do in their line of duty. Their work is to keep the country safe from criminals, anything that has to do with money that is been obtained or used illegally shouldn’t be their work to do but the work of the Economic and Financial Crime Commissions (EFCC) which they also gave to get a warrant before searching you. But since many don’t know their basic rights and are scared out of their pants of not wanting to be penalized for what they know nothing about, they allow them to search them and they end up paying for what is rightfully lawful for them to use or operate at anytime.

If you’re an holder of bitcoin or any cryptocurrency and you can confidently back up how you’ve made those money, I don’t think you should be sacred when approached by policemen on how you got those coins in your wallet. Sometime your boldness to them scare them off as they know you can’t be so bold to them and talk to their face directly on how you can cover for that source of money. We live in a place where there’s freedom of speech but no freedom after the speech. I don’t blame those that can’t speak up for themselves sometimes, because the repercussions sometimes is not nice to see. In whatever we do, we should take action wisely that will not implicate us further.

In my country when a person earns money without doing any government or private job that person is looked upon with suspicion by the people around him. And a lot of their violent attitude can be observed. It is also possible that someone who harbored hostility may have informed the police of his activities. In such a situation the police will definitely look at him suspiciously and may check the phone he is carrying.
We may not be able to work from home all the time as we need to go out. And since the phone is an easy method of transportation, even if we work outside the home it is not convenient to use all these cryptocurrency-related apps on a laptop.

While physical security like separate devices for storage and daily use is crucial, it's just one piece of the puzzle.  Imagine losing your phone with your Bitcoin wallet app, regardless of whether you're a target of street harassment.

The anecdote about the police questioning individuals about their Bitcoin holdings raises additional concerns.  In many jurisdictions, police require warrants for phone searches.  Imagine being stopped and pressured into revealing your financial information without legal justification.  This underscores the importance of knowing your rights.

A holistic approach to Bitcoin security is essential.  Physical separation of devices, strong passwords, and awareness of cyber threats are all important.  Additionally, understanding your rights regarding phone searches and data privacy is crucial, especially in areas with uncertain legal frameworks around cryptocurrency.

While it's true that the legal status of Bitcoin can vary in different countries, there are no widespread efforts to arrest or prosecute individuals for simply owning or trading Bitcoin. As for protecting your digital assets, using strong passwords and encryption can help maintain the security of your crypto apps.

in this case everyone is careful by seeing this view in holding
currency assets

Crypto is very wise in this case, the level of security must be taken into account

in storing bitcoins with management in readiness and hiding important applications with everything
method

Cryptos are legal in my country, and police don't just stop random people on the street and ask to see their phone apps, even though we literally have martial law, and they can do a lot of stuff. Phones are checked only if there's a reasonable suspicion that this person's working for the enemy and that there's proof of that on the phone. If someone just looks weird to police, they check ID and might ask a couple of questions, but that's it. Overall, there are no questions, no checks, and of course something like a Binance app wouldn't lead to any additional questions because nobody cares about that.
That being said, I have zero crypto apps on my phone, simply because I take my phone will me and I feel like it's safer to keep crypto stuff on PC which always stays home.

I am startled to hear about your experience. As I am related to cryptocurrency so I have many apps including Binance on my phone and laptop. Since cryptocurrencies are not yet legalized in my country as well based on your experience I also need to be very careful and keep all the apps I have on my device protected or safe. Because I have to constantly travel abroad for my work and often encounter police or law enforcement agencies along the way. I feel a lot of benefits from your post.
A few days ago a freelancer brother from my country fell under police harassment and lost his life savings. So we all should handle all these apps with utmost awareness.

You are talked relatively with facts here @Maus0728 because right in the first place, I don't think if there was an emergency situation reported that some individuals committed criminal offences with their mobile devices which would warrant those security personells to do such stop and searching of people's Privacies.

In such situation, I do not think if they were really searching for any crypto related apps or infos rather they could just be some sorts of personells who are fond of exercising their powers against the masses with either false or untold defaults.

In my country, the Inspector General of Police (I.G) publicly said it that non of his men(police) has any right to search anyone unless there is a search warrant.
Meanwhile.... Before the IGP could raise search alarming information, he has heard on several occasions of how his men (police) has been harassing and extorting the masses falsefully and how they were being bullied by these so security agencies.

But the truth remains, there is no second life after a dead one so saying out of what would linger these harassments would always be better for every individuals just as you have said, even if the OPs story was uncalled full with the security operatives, let that serve us with lessions and keep our Bitcoin holdings secretively secured and unidentifiable by a second party even if they are accessible to our devices.

Most times preventions is better than cures.

Really nice of your gut feel coming in clutch when it comes to your crypto stuff, I guess it's some sort of divine intervention from Satoshi that you've saved yourself the headache of having your bitcoins and other crypto stolen from you, I guess some people really don't like the idea of playing fair so they use violence and cheat the system so people that are playing the fair game is being taken advantage by them. It's not the right thing to do but what can we do about it right? Either we do something about it by being careful and vigilant or we fight back against these oppressive forces, as much as I believe that there's other options to deal with this kind of people, maybe it's time that we fight fire with fire? That's just my conclusion to what happen to @Adbitco, it's not fair that these people are doing all of this while at the same time, getting away from this kind of thing. If that's not the right solution now, maybe it's time that we do something about how to be a low profile bitcoin or crypto enthusiast, I can say we can start by shutting up about it when we're not asked about it, that's a good start, not yapping your information to people that you don't know can prevent those muggings at the least and maybe style your look like you're not easily bullied or that you can fight, that way, they'll be hesitant to mess with you.

It has become very common nowadays people just try to dodge you with some tricks in order to get a hand on your mobile. I similarly faced a problem where they tried to scam me through a new feature that WhatsApp has introduced the screen sharing feature. They just call you and Say that your app like binance etc needs to be verified again.

They ask you to send the mail and then share the screen now people who don't know much about the feature will surely go for it because they will not verify you'll lose your assets. So that's very common we have to increase our knowledge and be more aware of these types of people.Try to keep a separate device just for trading if possible.

There are many users and holders of bitcoin in our society but not everyone can control them. The exchange sites for using bitcoin are decentralized and not controlled by anyone. But in many societies bitcoin holders are seen as illegitimate so if someone gives information law enforcement forces investigate and apply strict measures against them. This kind of action is natural for the police to see them outside their society.

This is just proof that you can trust no one with the information that you hold bitcoin. We have other citizens who might harm us just in order to get what you have and we also have police tracking us down. I am sure that as bitcoin increases more, the stricter and tighter the government will be. As much as it is beneficial to us, bitcoin increasing will attract such attention from other people especially the government.

It might be hard as you say for them to pin them all down but once you've been spotted at the right tempo and you're caught off guard. That's when you will realize that you should have been careful at all times. Don't be too showy to everyone that you know and stop talking a lot about investments if you're in that situation that's really going to put you down once you've been caught. It doesn't matter if you're proud or not but the toughest situations has to humble you down and needs to use your brain rightly. It's not just all about enhancing your activities on the crypto market, I'd be against that if you're in that place where cracking down is rampant.

In my country there are different types of law enforcement agents, popularly known as the police. There are those who do their work intelligently and this percentage of people are very low. They try to protect lives and property and ensure that we have a corrupt free economy. But the majority of them are crooks who are looking for slight opportunity to victimize and extort the innocent citizens. When you meet this set of criminal policemen, you will be surprised that they all know the phones that hides applications and the ones that has different interface of operation. They will use their own personal tools to unlock your phone even against your privacy. They do this so that they will charge the victims very high amount of money and let them go. If care is not taken when you give them your phone, after searching and discover that they see nothing they will buy themselves in-plant some exhibit in your phone in order to implicate you.

Ordinarily it is not safe to keep important applications within your device without hiding them, to avoid onlookers that might just tamper with it when they mistakenly get hold of your device. However for those police personnel's that where checking at the phones of those passengers, I think that's against the law as the inspector General (IG) of police has asked police men on check point to desist from doing that. Bitcoin is not illegal in Nigeria, so those people should be able to defend themselves and talk to the policeman that the asset they have in their wallet are all earned legitimately by them.

Yeah, you are right there no single society with no corrupt cops but just that in some it's so glaring when compared to others, and a lot of them do it with so much impunity because the system is so filled with the corrupted than the good cops. Just as someone told me years ago that there's no form of illegal deals and actions going on successfully in any society that the cops aren't aware of or playing a role to it success. And it's the value of bitcoin today that have marshaled some of corrupt cops in the country to divert their disservice of illegality to the uniform they wear to crypto users and holders unlike years back it wasn't about crypto.

Luckily, in my country, the government here provides the widest possible access for people to be able to trade Bitcoin and Altcoins, but with the caveat that traders trade on official exchanges that have been verified by the government, apart from these exchanges, people cannot trade cryptocurrency. But even if there are people trading outside regulated exchanges, the police cannot take action against them because personal devices are a person's privacy, and the police cannot conduct searches unless prosecutors ask them to.
So it is very sad to see how your country treats ordinary citizens who are involved in cryptocurrency trading, because it is their freedom to trade crypto or not, and police actions like that clearly violate human rights.

I would say that is not really unheard of anywhere else neither. Maybe not regards to crypto, it could be about something else, but "corrupt cop" is something as old as time, I have watched maybe like 100 movies where drug dealers end up paying bribery to cops, and cops look the other way and let the drug dealers do their business. This may not be related to crpto, but it is about corrupt cops and it's usually in the USA movies as well, and based on real life in most cases as well.

So as you can see, Nigerian cops could be corrupt and do this related to crypto, and I think that is sad, but every single nation in the world has corrupt cops that will take money from you in one way or another, that is sad but the reality.

Being a bitcoin holder is everyone's dream (who already knows the potential with the time curve) sometimes regret makes people buy today, even though tomorrow could be very pump in this season.
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Incidents like that are very scary sir, fortunately you already have an inkling to maintain your safety and the assets you are defending. Cex is quite strong in defense, even if you uninstall it, you can re-download it after a long trip.

Crypto can make it easier to carry money and the app does not reflect the general financial institution (unique), for ordinary people it will be difficult to withdraw.

Unless the country has been provided with basic knowledge about bitcoin for the community, of course it has the potential. May we all be kept away from all evil. How bitcoin is highly recognized everywhere. and high liquidity.

Think for a moment where we go to the police when we are in danger and if some miscreants try to attack us we seek the police to get some help where we go to if we suffer such harassment through the police. Think for a moment what the common man will do in countries where policemen are directly involved in bribery and extortion. There are policemen in some countries who inspire courage but on the contrary there are policemen in some countries who you have to try to keep your distance. The administration of the country or the government system of the country has not gained reputation due to the kind of work done by the police. We are not only writing about these topics here, many other places may be writing about this topic.

But how is that even possible? I mean the fact that it is illegal but they didn't not arrest them at the spot. If actually what OP narrated is what happened then it is confusing because immediately the police captures anyone who breaks the law (in this case indulge in the use of cryptocurrencies), they are meant to arrest the person irrespective of how the money came. But for his friends they were asking about the source instead of arresting them right away.

Apply our brain and enchancd our activities in the space. There's probabilities of acquiring alot of things but pinning them down to zero is definitely hard to because the market have been programmed in such a way that losses and profits are both inheritedin the market. Everyone is here for the wonderful moments with most of the people we cared ahout. The rumors is true, people have developed the mindset to see every single person that trades crypto as financially stable person, he should mind his business.

They really are cracking down those people that are involved in trading or holding Bitcoin. I guess you guys really have to hide all of those crypto related apps if you go outside or use another device when you have to go outside and just leave that phone that has apps installed for your crypto trades and portfolio managing. You'll never know what the police or anyone will do to you upon knowing or accidentally seen that you're also into crypto investing/trading as they'd always have that mindset that someone who's in, has got a lot of money.

It is precisely because there is such chaos in the country that Nigerians, more than anyone else, need to adapt to harsh conditions, namely, to always be on alert. I know that there are problems with the Internet, with additional gadgets, and with work in general. People are forced to feed their families by earning cryptocurrency, and at the same time, they fear the actions of the authorities. Madness.
But, as they say, what doesn't kill us should make us stronger. Therefore, always remove all the little things that can compromise you. If you have laptops, use TrueCrypt to encrypt your work drive and disguise the rest of the space as a gamer's drive. If you work on the phone, there was a great offer to create a second space. 
Don't tell everyone about the forum. Instead, make up a different story. We often see different types of presentations about someone teaching in school about Bitcoin. Is this always necessary? And won't this play against you?
If the police think they are cunning, you must always be three steps smarter.

These incidents are really very scary. Because many of us are deeply involved with crypto currency.And this related information is very sensitive. We should keep the devices used in these activities with a lot of security. Use separate devices and keep that separate laptop or mobile somewhere safe.Because they can be seized by robbers or police in countries where cryptocurrency is banned.This can lead to loss of invested money and account and jail time.

If you are unjustly harassed or detained by a security operative, you can always seek redress in court. There are cases where individuals sue the police force and these corrupt security operatives are punished severely for such misdoings. The court sometimes compensates the sufferer for this injustice.

Most of these security personnel who harass people are just corrupt and want to steal from the people. The police don't have the right to seize or forcefully access citizens' phones without going through due process. In most cases when they discover that the funds a legitimate they still force citizens to give them bribes before they are released or set free.

As much as possible I maintain privacy. I don't want people to know that I own crypto because it can be misconceived. Unenlightened security agents see crypto owners as criminals, to avoid unwanted questioning, my phones are void of anything which will link me to crypto. My crypto activities are limited to my room because it saves me from unnecessary attacks and embarrassment.

Such untoward incidents have happened in our country too, I am not mentioning the name of our country. In our country such search was going on before our government elections were held. The main problem is that Bitcoin is not legal in our country due to which the police check people's phones if they feel suspicious. Even from our country every year almost many people are arrested by the police in various ways due to Bitcoin related problems and even under punishment.

People in countries where Bitcoin is not legal should carefully manage or keep on their phone apps related to Bitcoin transactions such as Binance and KuCoin and other wallets or exchanges.If the police find these apps by searching or checking the phone, you may also face punishment.

That is the problem we face in our society today, the police leave to do there jobs and search for inrelivant things. The funny part is that the people in question being the internet fraudsters can navigate the axis of the country without no distruption but they always chanel there energy to the innocent bitcoin holder or traders. The society where cryptocurrency is prohibited is always in the veture of having similar issues. I myself has face Same issue but not exactly like yours. Mine was having power bank and a portable WiFi in my travelling Bag when I was travelling. and do to this epileptic power supply of my country I always go out with my power bank and my wifi to enhance quick network in other to access the internet at any given time. So the cap men caught up with me and ask me about the power bank. I said I used it as a backup to my mobile phone because the power system is poor and also the wifi device is for network booster. They told me, somebody who does no do online work does not take this two thing serious, meaning I am an inter fraudster. I told them that what do they think online work is? Or do they think anyone that is into online business is a fraud? I started educating them on what is online business and the types of online business and there functions. so they where excited to listen until I changed the narrative of what they knew about online business and cryptocurrency. What I see is that some cap men need re-orientation because their mind has been currupted with negativity due to speculation .

This is such an unfortunate news. Is this even legal? while reading through it i thought it was gonna turn out that those “cops” were actually just scammers but they are really part of the police force. i did not know how bad it was there wherever you are. in my country, the general opinion is rather neutral which is relieving. it’s not banned but it’s also not advertised. for now, that’s enough for me.

I don't know what country you're coming from but I needed to ask if bitcoin is legal in your 'place at the first place because I don't understand it why the police would mount a road block just in checkmating peoples devices.
But anyhow let's not undermine any form of security measures either on our homes or outside jour homes becasue the anti Cryptos and the crypto thefts would always linger to hunt us.
Hence keeping your seed phrase private isn't enough security actions for you as a bitcoin but also how to stay an unknown from your holdings.
Stay off from any ways that is possible to indict you such as make encrypting your wallets to be unidentifiable even if someone else gets to your phone just as the Op did here. Keep earlier safe and save yourself from doubts and dangers.

Regards to bad apples, if you put it with good apples, it will almost always infect the good ones so one bad cop will almost always influence or corrupt a good cop no matter how you look at it, that's going to be the case, unless they do some real consequences to these abusive cops that literally don't have any kind of importance to the society besides using their power to harass the people that they're supposed to protect with impunity, not to mention that these tradition of buddy buddy within the cops circle is contributing to the ongoing corruption of these groups, a good cop would cover for their bad colleagues and they end up with a corrupt hierarchy.

In my country, trading and investing in Bitcoin is legal, but it's not accepted as a direct form of payment. We have legal platforms for cryptocurrency trading, and generally,  police won't stop us to check if we hold crypto assets. However, we cannot currently use crypto for direct purchases.


You're absolutely right, we need to prioritize securing our investments. Based on your experience, I think it's wise to either avoid installing crypto-related apps on your main phone or have a separate phone dedicated to cryptocurrency management. Minimizing carrying your crypto-holding phone when unnecessary, especially at night, is also a smart move. Honestly, I'm not sure I could stay calm and avoid looking suspicious if stopped and searched either hehe.

All these things are possible in Nigerian countries. Anyone from Nigeria who wants to protest against injustice is killed by the administration or disappeared. Where the police and administration of other countries are recruited to cooperate with people, Nigerian policemen directly extort money from their own citizens. I see many videos where many helpers go to African countries to help and they also have to pay African policemen and then help. Seeing the suffering of African people, many people may go to those countries to help but where the police instead of providing security take bribes or extortion money from them which is really a very bad thing.  This issue has been going on for a long time so it is not usually possible to solve it very easily.

I'm also not sure if it was really illegal in their country or not, because to me its sounds like their country imposed a strict implementations of rules regarding the use and trade of cryptocurrency. There might be no arrest made on the spot maybe because that is part of the police officer's SOP. Them being taken into the police station might be good indicator that they'd most likely going to spend a jailtime for  breaking the laws.
Nevertheless, this is a good reminder for those country who has strict rules against cryptocurrency. Governments are getting wiser now in terms of seizing all crypto assets as they are fully aware that nothing could stop someone from accessing their crypto assets even if they put a ban locally on all of the exchanges and crypto related websites.

Other than the fact the Blord has won a case against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria, I'm not really familiar with it. But I suppose this man isn't small that he can easily be harassed by law enforcers. This is the big difference.

Here in my country, people are saying that if you're not involved in illegal transactions and isn't hiding anything you shouldn't be worried, but the truth is that if you're an ordinary person, you can easily be harassed, deprived of your rights and due process. And even if you aren't involved in illegal transactions, your funds could be easily and arbitrarily seized, accounts locked, and so on.

If you're an ordinary person and has Bitcoin and is confident about it because it didn't come from illegal transactions, the banks can still easily freeze your account and seize your money. But if you're a rich and respected individual who's involved in illegal businesses and mentioned Bitcoin in front of no less than the bank manager, there won't be any problem. You'll remain a valued client, with all the perks and privileges.

A person who does not have any illegal dealings will not be afraid to defend himself against allegations leveled against him by individuals or government. I followed the Blord trial closely, it took about four years for the trial to reach a verdict, the courted ruled that the crypto traded be compensated with a certain amount of money and all his properties returned to him.

The men in the vehicle with OP were too scared to defend themselves, their inability to speak coherently gave the police the impression that they had something to hide. Nigeria can be a tough place especially for men, I never  had to worry about police searches or anything like that.

You are on point with your assertion and I am sure this post is meant to be a reminder for us to be more vigilant in handling our crypto assets both in your country where BTC is legal tender or being regulated and not a crime versus mine where an incident like this may just yet become a daily occurrence for young boys without any legal means of earning but live lavish.
Also even those who earn legally from BTC investments and trades and don't depend on the government for wages or aid are a target by not only the government police or policies but by kidnappers and thieves. Hence why this post is insightful and very valuable.

My country isn't that friendly toward Bitcoin either, but it isn't that antagonistic. Although statements were previously made by the central bank governor, for example, that Bitcoin doesn't have intrinsic value or that it is generally based on the greater fool theory, on the ground, it is quite different. There's no active crackdown on Bitcoin. People don't really care. You can talk about it openly, even to law enforcers, although it might be a different story when it comes to the banks.

Just recently, Binance was also banned from my country for operating without permission, but until now people are still using the platform. If they leave Binance, other centralized exchanges are openly operating so they can just jump to another exchange.

In general, the environment here is lenient with those who want to study, discuss, or even transact with Bitcoin. Our country has a Bitcoin island even.

But it doesn’t sound illegal in your country because if it was, they should arrest you immediately they figure you have crypto assets. But from what I understand, they were asking about the source of the money just to confirm that it isn’t money laundering, etc. Also, you said they suspect a lot of boys to be fraudsters. They are also checking if many the fund’s source is fraudulent. Correct me if I am wrong.

OP, this is very relatable and comes from the same country where cryptocurrency traders and investors are being suspected of doing some kind of online scam. Not just that, since the government is still having some issues with Binance and other CEX, it is not safe outside for us.

Although the problem we face is not just outside,. Even in my compound, where I stay, the looks from people show that they do not know the type of job i do, and they tell their kids to stay away from me. People ignore me like i am a terrorist, robber, or someone who is involved in one or more illegal activities. I do not care anymore so i just neglect whatever they think about me. This is why I will not teach anyone about bitcoin or how to invest in it.

I thought as much, but that's bull shit. How on earth can the police even harass people publicly in such manners? First, they do an open search, like you said, and if the person is caught with some crypto in their wallet, they will be taken to the police station, and lastly, they will have to convert the individual's assets into theirs without any proper investigation to confirm that an individual is a scammer. The police are not supposed to convert the person's asset into theirs; the right thing to do is cease the individual's asset and properly investigate the matter, and once the person is found guilty, he should be handed over to the fraudulent department. 

The antifreeze app is good. It can help hide apps you don't want people to see on your screen, but if a policeman sees it and knows how it works, he can launch the app, force you to do it or force stop and wipe the data, thus revealing your crypto apps.  

A more cooler feature to protect you from police or law enforcement agencies is second space. It's like using a phone on an existing phone or should I say using 2 phones in 1 phone. It's password protected and can found in high end android phones like Samsung, Xaomi, Oppo, Miui etc.

To know about second space and how it works.

At this moment the Nigerian government are not against bitcoin or cryptocurrency as the ban against crypto in 2021 by the former administration has been lifted by this current administration, the problem is just with those corrupt law enforcement officers (the police) that are using their uniform to intimidate, harass and extort crypto hodlers and traders of their assets if they notice you are  dealing in the currency or peradventure they do an illegal stop and search and finds a crypto related app on your gadget then you're screwed as they will coerce and intimidate you into releasing your coins to them. And  they make sure all evidence to their trace are whipped off.

As crypto users finding yourself in this milieu it's imperative you take your privacy to any trace of cryptocurrency seriously, if it's by freezing your phone when going out or having a different gadget that's not about your crypto business/trading/holding etc. I am sure with time the government will take cases like this seriously so as to fish out such corrupt officers from the streets.

Hiding crypto related apps aren't enough, you need to make sure you didn't leave any trace e.g. delete your browsing history, image related to crypto etc. Just think your cellphone must not have any trace with crypto.

Many people call it a bad apple, the problem is there are too many bad apples and we don't even know which one is bad apple and which one is not, so we judge every of them are bad apples.

Privacy is nothing in developing country, even a teacher or employer did that.

The environment on each country is different, there are countries where the police has to follow very strict rules and any violation to those rules could get the police officers investigated or fired, but there are other countries in which the police is under no such constrictions and they can commit all kind of crimes and get away with them.

And if you live in one of those countries then you need to take this into consideration when protecting your coins, so keeping banking or exchange apps on the smartphone you use for your everyday activities is a very bad idea, which could lead you to lose your coins or the money you have in your bank account.

I don't think that's something that anyone should be experiencing because that's crime no matter how you look at it, they did some illegal searches on your phone which is considered a personal stuff so even if they're a police, there's no way that they're allowed to do that without a warrant. This kind of thing just makes me hate even more the profession of a police, there's no way that you'll have to overexert your power to the people that you're supposed to be protecting, makes me respect them less when they do this kind of thing. Now that I've seen this happen to someone, I guess it's time for me to find a phone that hides my important apps in the case that this might happen to me although I wish it doesn't but with all this stuff happening to someone, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

Before we fund our wallets with money, we must make back ups. We can fund it to our exchange account or non custodial wallets.

With exchange accounts, in applications, we can not control our fund because we don't have private key, it is a first big risk.
Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts

Now if we use non custodial wallet, we must consider to use open source one.
And we need to back up the wallet, use the backup to recover that wallet. If we recover it successfully from our wallet backup, we can start funding it.

How to backup a seed phrase.

I don't understand causes of your application freeze. What are reasons actually?

Having your important apps freeze doesn't make one safe from the embarrassment of the Nigerian police because they can somehow do the undo check your freeze app for those who have the idea of someone freezing their important apps in their phones or laptops.

I think the best way to escape all these unnecessary embarrassing moments of Nigeria police stopping you unexpectedly and going through your phone is to have a second phone that you will be going out with, that won't contain your important apps(If you can't afford another phone, make sure you log out your crypto account from all your important apps).

You can't have your account log in to your important and think that you are on the safe side(whereby you are not) because your important apps are been frozen.

First time I hear about this situation but yes it really helps to be more vigilant in asset management. I don't know what it's like in other countries, but such sudden inspection behavior in the place where I live can only be implicitly understood as thieves, and if one cannot resist, the decision OP mentioned is a violation careful.

Yep, in life there are countless unexpected situations and being prepared to face everything always helps us not to be surprised, but frankly, if I were in such a situation, I would not have any resistance.

When I read through the post I know this can only be possible in africa country where police men disturbing and harassing her citizen and wanting to extort them since couple of them don't know their rights in the society today, I can also flash back to police brutality and what happened to leki thougate. It was this same people and same government that are causing the problem maybe if there were to be sound government I don't think anyone would like to venture any illegal business or becoming an internet fraudster. As a trader or crypto investor the rightful thing to do is to moved your funds to wallet that you don't regularly moved out with let say you have a laptop and store them over there instead of having them on your phone whatever happens to your phone you lose complete access to your investment.

It is not to equate cryptocurrency ownership with fraud. This approach is biased and serves ulterior motives. There's a concern that authorities might be seeking this information to exploit individuals.  While protecting our portfolios from such practices is crucial, we also need to be mindful of general security measures. True money launderers are likely within the system, not low-income cryptocurrency traders. The government's focus should be on identifying them, as with the Binance case. Disrupting legitimate peer-to-peer trade only harms ordinary citizens.

The security situation in different places is different but it is generally important to keep a security conscious mind because regardless of where you are or how peculiar situation will be your Bitcoin can still be in danger if you walk around with the device where it is stored. This is why it is usually advised to have a separate device for storing your bitcoins and a separate device for moving around. If you have separate devices, that way you could always keep safe the device that you have your bitcoins stored at home and avoid any situation where the device gets stolen or you get harassed by individuals along the way who have knowledge about bitcoins.

It is illegal for Police Officers to demand to search your private phone without a warrant. The police officers acted outside the law, and it is as an act of intimidation. 

From my experience so far with such incident were policemen keep harassing people when they see such money and they want to take you to the station what they could do is to ask you to move those fund and convert them to Nigerian Naira and then send to them, with this if you don't know your right you will just be fooled and they can share your hard earned money with you.

Just like a case of police people invading into yahoo boys compound and when they entered inside his house they found about 100m stocked inside his waldrop and some inside ceiling it was during the interrogation he then opened up where he stocked those money.

But what happened is that he knows his right whereby he took the case to court claiming that the money was a contract money that he wants to use for a project that was awarded to him, after which those people men was asked to refund those money and there sack from being a NPF if I could recall correctly.

Aside from having investments in other areas, the first thing that he was charged with was internet fraud. His allegations were not entirely because of crypto.
 
He was charged with fraud because they didn't know his source of income, but his court case with them was a breakthrough for him, as most of his hidden investments were brought to the public, and he also used that fame to acquire more wealth by going into tech fully, and there was a lot of traffic and wealth that was obtained from them.
 
If we are to start counting 10 popular millionaires or billionaires who made it through crypto, at least for the ones who made it public, he will not be among the top 5. People like Ifeanyi Eze_nwaogene and the rest of them are known for their massive investments in crypto trading and how they have acquired good wealth as a result of that.

Well, OP, I have just a few questions to ask if you'd mind. In your country, if there are situations like the one you just described, and upon the police investigations, they discovered that the convicts, through illegal means, had acquired the coins they had in their wallets. What do they (the policemen) do with the funds? 

I believe there's no country that is corruption-free or free from scammers, and neither is my country. Occasionally,  there are usually scammers who get caught by the fraudulent department, but if the victims are being investigated on and are not tied to any scam activity, the police or fraud department will not cease their crypto asset because crypto is not banned in the country. Although for some security reasons too, when I am going out, I sometimes switch my phone to a guest window that doesn't have any apps related to crypto currency. At times, if not all the time, prevention is better than cure. 

My suggestion is, If you can afford two devices, a phone and a laptop, or two phones, it's better if you just have all your crypto information and apps on one device, which will constantly remain in the house, and any time you are leaving a public place, just go along with the other device, which doesn't have any crypto information. Such practice will save you in some situations, like open robbery, theft, accidents that can lead to total damage to the device, etc. 

That rise is very instrumental in developing countries as well. In numerous situations having the opportunity to transact under the radar when the government wants to restrict other means of sending money gives individuals an escape route and it is an alternative to the local currencies which are mostly suffering from inflation.

However, at the end of the day, all countries are thc same when it comes down to the need to control the flow of money. Canada recently sanctioned wallets due to a protest.

I will also credit Blord’s win in court to the hype it got on social media and not to mention the person in question wasn’t only making his money through cryptocurrency alone he invested in some other business and that’s where his extra earnings are coming from.

If the EFCC wants to go chasing after cryptocurrency investors or traders I tell you that most politicians will be the biggest hit. We all know how they like to have their savings or laundered money in foreign currencies and cryptocurrency is the easiest means they use now. Even when I heard the report of the government threatening binance for information of its users I was saying it will affect them more than us.

Some of those are previously unable to access regular banks, and the harassment causes serious hardship. People who live in places with better conditions are fortunate to be part of the rise of BTC in the modern world. 

That is a popular case which got lots of attention and the individual in this case was able to afford a very good legal team. Many individuals who have been harrased by the authorities for their involvement in crypto related activities never actually made it to the internet.

"As trader or holder is bitcoin legal in your country..."

I am in the USA and BTC itself is currently legal, but the ecosystem is severely damaged by many popular companies refusing to do/continue business with Americans. It is pretty sad the number of places which - along with AML/KYC - completely ban the USA.

I have not seen a situation whereby government attack traders in nigeria, theirs one popular Nigerian bitcoin trader called blord,  government have tried to severally to arrest B.lord and they could not arrest him,even when economic financial crimes commission  [Efcc] filed case against b.lord, the b.lord won them in court of law, nigeria government is not against whosoever that is into cryptocurrency trading, even some of the politicians is even saving their funds with cryptocurrency especially bitcoin

I think the best is to have a personal computer or laptop where they can do their trading because I know it's not easy to control two phones where you would need to check your outside and you didn't go out with your phone, sometimes we can be carried away and go out with our phone at this point we might forget that we should leave that phone at home. The best way if they can't afford a personal como or laptop is to have their phone down some applications that could hide their sensitive documents be it app or whatsoever to remain peaceful otherwise police might get into them just like what happened.

Nigeria police and their misdirected search. They won't go after the big politicians who launder money by pretending they're trading these cryptos or who've boys who trade them on their behalf and leave helpless and unconnected youths alone. Wasn't it during the #endears protest that we saw Kucoin app on the PC of a minister in Nigeria and he was even on VPN at a time Twitter and cryptos were banned in the country. What came out of that exposure, nothing. It was swept under the carpet. Anyway, my advice to the youth is for them to know how not to expose their trading apps. If they've more than a phone, they can convert one to crypto phone and kept at home.

As a fast rising digital currency and the number one most cherished and valuable coin people within it's environment has been using it greatly to help spread the max adoption which many people goes into trading, holding or investment. We have to also understand that our device aren't safe while moving with either our phone or laptop.

It all happened yester-night; this happened yesterday night while going back to a place of work with my device as I was leaving something in me keeps telling me to freeze my important apps which includes my Binance app, Okx app, Electrum app and other digital asset app within my device was freezed and removed from my phone menu.

Along the way going a black cap men stopped us and wanting to search us after which they asked to unlock our device and so luckily I already hide my important app as my instinct leads me, but people around me that entered same vehicle(taxi) with me didn't do that and I noticed they have similar app on their iPhone so the policemen called to asked them about the Binance and other apps in their phone when they opened it they started questioning them about the funds inside and how did they manage to raise those funds although those young men weren't able to speak boldly and to defend themselves correctly and that was how they asked us to leave took them to station for further questioning.

As trader or holder is bitcoin legal in your country how environmental friendly bitcoin is over there, this is for those country that are facing difficulty with bitcoin and cryptocurrency at large. While leaving at home it's advisable to set an important app hidden if you think trading bitcoin or having them will lead you to great danger especially within my country where they suspect lots of boys to be internet fraudster.

What i experience last night made me to raised this topic so we can learn to secure our investment or be very mindful while moving with our smartphone at night it's very risky to lose one valuable asset at this point.