BTC Sessions - How the ULTRA RICH protect themselves: Bitcoiner Lessons from Private Security

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Mentor Sessions Ep.005: In this must-watch episode, we explore Bitcoin security with a deep dive into personal protection for hodlers. As Bitcoin’s value soars, physical threats—like the infamous “$5 wrench attack” and the chilling kidnapping and torture of Ledger co-founder David Ballard—highlight the stakes. How do you safeguard your Bitcoin wealth? We’re joined by Wayne DeCoste, CEO of Rescor Group, a seasoned executive protection expert with over 15 years protecting Fortune 500 leaders and high-net-worth individuals. Wayne unveils his five-point security framework—prepare, detect, deter, delay, and defend—alongside strategies to shrink your digital footprint, lower your risk profile, and counter organized crime. Get actionable advice for home, travel, and everyday safety.Video Highlights:• Bitcoiners as targets: Why physical security matters• The Ledger co-founder incident• Wayne DeCoste’s protection expertise• Five-point security framework• Digital footprint minimization• Travel and residential safetyChapters:00:00:00 - Introduction: The rising value of Bitcoin and the growing physical risks for holders. 00:04:30 - Real-World Threats: Ledger Co-Founder Kidnapping and Beyond00:09:15 - Wayne DeCoste: 15+ Years in Executive Protection 00:14:00 - Five-Point Security Framework: Prepare, Detect, Deter, Delay, Defend00:25:45 - Minimizing Your Digital Footprint: Stay Off the Radar00:36:20 - Travel and Residential Security: Protect Your Home and Journeys00:47:10 - Q&A: Mistakes to Avoid and Success StoriesConnect with Wayne DeCoste and Rescor Group:• Website: https://www.rescorgroup.com • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynedecosteSchedule a Free Discovery Session with Nathan to learn more about how Bitcoin Mentor can Fast-Track your Bitcoin Education and Level Up your Self-Custody Security: https://bitcoinmentor.io/?fluent-booking=calendar&host=nathan-1712797202&event=30minStruggling to explain Bitcoin to friends and family without losing them to complexity or misinformation? Blockhunters - The Bitcoin Board Game is your solution—a fast-paced, strategic game crafted by Bitcoin enthusiasts to make learning about Bitcoin fun and effortless. Through real-world stories like the García family battling hyperinflation or Omar escaping the CFA franc system, players build a blockchain, protect private keys, and compete for block rewards in just 30 minutes. It’s the ultimate tool for orangepilling at meetups, game nights, or casual gatherings—no preaching required. Visit BlockhuntersGame.com and use code BTCMENTOR for 10% off to start sparking Bitcoin curiosity today!FREE Bitcoin Book Giveaway:New to Bitcoin? Get Magic Internet Money by Jesse Berger FREE! Click here: bitcoinmentororange.com/magic-internet-money BOOK private one-on-one sessions with BITCOIN MENTOR! Learn self custody, hardware, multisig, lightning, privacy, running a node, and plenty more - all from a team of top notch educators that I've personally vetted.https://bitcoinmentor.io/Subscribe to Mentor Sessions:Don’t miss out—subscribe and follow us: BTC Sessions: x.com/BTCsessionsNathan: x.com/theBTCmentorGary: x.com/GaryLeeNYC#BitcoinSecurity #PersonalProtection #CryptoSafety #ExecutiveProtection #DigitalFootprint #BitcoinEducation #Bitcoin #HODL #btc #Cryptocurrency #Podcast #BitcoinPodcast #BTCSessions

If I was to target somebody in the crypto space, A, I would go to the conventions first. Who's talking about this stuff? Who has the most wealth? I mean, you can go online and find out who holds what in crypto. A lot of it's open source, but... And then you start going into that dark web avenue. Who's going to be the softest target for me? You've secured your Bitcoin from threats in the digital realm, but what about the risk of physical attacks? Earlier this year, Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife were kidnapped and held for ransom.

David was also subject to torture. How can you better protect? yourself and your stack. We sat down with Wayne DeCost, veteran and CEO of ResCorp Group, an executive protection firm specializing in corporate and ultra high net worth private security. With over 15 years experience in over 30 countries, Wayne has protected Fortune 500 executives, global leaders, and, most importantly, celebrities. We discussed threats from organized crime, his five-point framework for personal security, as well as minimizing your digital footprint and risk profile. Going beyond Bitcoin to give you the insight.

and skills to escape the Fiat matrix. This is Mentor Sessions. You're in the business, man. You are in the business of personal security. Rescor group is your company. And, you know, we live in an age where a lot of people in our business, Bitcoin, are worried about personal security. A lot of folks have their Bitcoin secure digitally,

but people are worried about the possibility of the old $5 wrench attack. And for those who don't know what it means, You buy a $5 rent from Home Depot, go to somebody's house, hold it over their head or their family member's head. Hey, give me your money or else. What can people do to protect themselves in this day and age? Yeah, right. It's something that as crypto becomes more familiar across, you know, the world, this is something that's going to continue to happen. Right.

And you're right. The digital security portion of crypto is secure in a lot of ways. but with the way things are going now, it's just much easier. It's much easier for those $5 wrench attacks, right? There's a lot of things you can do, but you really need to focus on your personal security and not just your digital components.

You want to go from... Even when just unpacking that a little bit, when you talk about personal security with people too, what is kind of encompassed in your framework? What are you thinking of is the elements, the categories within for personal security? Yeah, so there's five different characteristics when it comes to personal security. It's prepare, detect, deter, delay, and defense, right?

And a lot of people will skip the first four steps, right? That's being proactive with your personal security, and it just comes down to defense, right, and take a couple of jiu-jitsu classes and now you're good to go. But no, personal securities, it's a vital consideration for very aspects of life. So it encompasses everything. It encompasses your digital security, your physical security, and your emotional security, right? Just having that emotional support that these things are in place and you have plans and being proactive about everything, you know, makes you strive better in life in all aspects. No, fair enough.

And that makes perfect sense. And too, for people that might not be familiar with you as well, too, could you give me a little bit of like, what are you currently doing at Rescor Group? who are you guys? What's your relationship with the company? And then also, what was it that led you to get into this industry in the first place? See, Nathan has the good question. I should to let him start it. No, that's good. No, I appreciate it. And I appreciate you guys having me on today. Rescor Group is a risk consultant and executive protection company. We're based out of Silicon Valley. We also have field offices in Texas and New York. But we basically, we basically, Basically, we take care of executive protection for high net worth people, high risk people,

all the above. We don't do a lot of the celebrity bodyguard work, but everything that we do is customized in boutique to individuals. And how I kind of got started in that. Long story, was in the military, was in the Army for a while, got out, started working as a contractor for the State Department overseas. I moved to Baghdad, Iraq, was working for the ambassador out there. Really kind of fell in love with the personal security game.

Yep, yeah. From there, was there something about it that they really spoke to you? Like, what was it about that this was a difference? Like, oh, no, this is where I got to be. Yeah, you know, honestly, I was, I got out of the military. I didn't want to know what to do. Yep. And you got paid a lot of money to contract overseas, right?

So for me, it was the finances out of the gate, right? I could make the bills. This is great. Right. Yeah. You know, and I can make money and invest in crypto. So, no, it was one of those things. It was one of those things where I always thought I wanted to be in the law enforcement

field, criminal justice. I got my degree in that. But no, I fell in love with kind of preparing and planning, right? So everything from route selection to meetings to the customer service to that white glove service that you provide executives to kind of, you know, make their lives go as seamlessly as possible so they can focus on. the things they do, whether you're an ambassador or the CEO of a major tech firm. And then it's really just interesting being in the room with these people, right?

Some of the smartest and brightest minds out there, if you can facilitate and keep them safe and help them, you know, achieve their goals and their mission and then kind of be a fly on the wall for a lot of stuff that's going on. It's really interesting. So I switched gears a little bit from that criminal justice route and came here. and I've been doing executive protection initially up in Seattle, and then I started a team down here, and I've managed programs for the executives at Facebook,

the executives at TikTok, and then I started ResCorp group, so I founded it about four years ago, and it's been awesome ever since. That's fantastic. That's really good to hear. I'm wondering if maybe, don't disclose any names,

if maybe you can walk me through, you can think of an example of somebody that maybe you worked with in the past, too. But like you mentioned before, I think when people think of like private security, even like home security and residential security, the really kind of the initial focus is on the reaction side of it, like what to do in the event where I think like health and nutrition, like prevention is so much more effective and we should really put the bulk of the effort there too. So when you're working with somebody, could you maybe

take us through like the day or the initial planning? Like what kinds of things or examples could you share to illustrate like what's going into that preventative, those first four categories? Yeah. It's honestly, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, triage in every day, right? Which makes it interesting, right? You come in and you look at, um, every person has a different risk based profile, right?

So you look at their risk profile and you say, what kind of things would be in that profile? Like what is you look at? I, I have no, no experience in this field whatsoever, but I am fascinated. Right.

So if you're in politics and, and you, you're on social media or you say something that could spark some interest from the other side of politics, right? or if you're, you know, if you're a Bitcoiner and you do podcasts on all the, on the wealth and stuff you have in Bitcoin, right? That could be, you could be making yourself a target in that sense, right?

And on that note, Gary and I have none, just to remind everybody. We have no big. We're passionate, but we have none. Yeah. Right? So, no, you got to look at everything. You got to look at their lifestyle, right? Maybe they're, maybe they're not a public figure, but they enjoy doing extreme sports, right?

Or, yeah, or they enjoy parties. party in, right, in L.A. and Beverly Hills night scene. Right. So you look at what, what are the, what are the things that I could face that day, right? And then you put, you start putting in preventive measures, right? And a lot of that is understanding the person you're working with or understanding that and understanding the risks that are associated with that person. And then not trying to change their lifestyle or I was going to say, do you get some pushback from guys every now and then? They don't want to, you know, maybe necessarily take the advice or everyone's pretty receptive at this point.

they're already coming to you. Yeah, right? And it takes time, right? So the first three months are working with somebody, you're going to have Rocky points. The first three years, things are going to be flowing, are going to be flowing pretty smoothly, right? So our job in executive protection and risk management is to never change anybody's lifestyle,

right? It's to put measures around them to help protect them and continue doing what they're doing, right? Because they're successful doing what they're doing. That's why we're here. We don't want to change that up. But there's ways to mitigate. risk and be proactive about your security.

No, that's fantastic. That's fascinating. Gary, did you have a question there? Yeah, you know, with that in mind, it's easy when we're in these situations and we see, you know, health care CEO get shot. You know, we see somebody gets subject to a possible $5 wrench attack in the Bitcoin space. And of course, the ledger kidnapping, right? Ledger kidnapping. I was tortured. Yeah. Yep. And everybody, of course, thinks, oh, my goodness, this is happening every day, sort of like, you know, with the milk carton phenomenon in the 70s and 80s. I can't leave my kid alone. because my kids are going to be kidnapped.

And the actual statistics are you could probably leave your kid out on the street corner for a thousand years straight. That's going to happen to him because nobody wants your stupid kids. So, you know, to. I've tried. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. I'm going to move to the neighborhood you live in.

That's not you. It sounds good. I'm out here in the Oakland, the Oakland Hills now. And I don't know if I'd leave my kid out on the street. Well, it's fair. I'm in like, you know, the Jersey suburb Shangri-La. There you go. So, you know.

But what's, is this an exact analogy? I mean, to what degree do people need to go out of their way to make sure I'm crossing all my T's and dotting my eyes? And to what degree can somebody say, listen, I'm doing the best I can here, but at some point, I just got to live life. I'm not going to be able to try to patch every single possible hole here. How paranoid should people be, I guess is my question. Yeah, I wouldn't be paranoid, right? You can't live your life in a state of paranoia, right? But you do need to start, you know, kind of understand,

especially as you start gaining more and more wealth and becoming more and more on radar, you got to be, you know, aware of your own risk profile, right? And it's the same thing, right? Like you talked about, you know, the ledger attack and stuff like you. You watch the news now and every day there seems to be an issue with an airline or that like possibly, you know, crash. Right. It's like it's just because it's what's in the news right now and it's what's being reported. But I would say that you should definitely be aware because some of this is bigger than just you, right?

If you're the CEO of a major crypto firm or you're a CEO of a company and you hold a lot of crypto assets, like there's other people that would be affected. There's other stakeholders involved. And although you want to continue to live your life normally, you do have to have that understanding that there's other people, you know, that rely on you, right? And yeah, no, I would say, you know, I think there's been, there's a lot of different, you know, I think right now on record, there's 200 physical attacks of personal, of personal, of personal attempts at a robbery on Bitcoin cryptos, you know.

So you got, you got that for the people that hold a lot. And then there's been over $114 million in scams just reported from, Bitcoin ATMs, right? So there's certain people that, you know, might be at the bar talking about their crypto too much and could be targeted by a small group. And then it goes from senior citizens or new TikTok, social media influencers that have all this wealth all of a sudden and are putting it somewhere and then posting videos on it to somebody who holds a lot of crypto and could technically be, you know, the victim of

an organized crime group. Because, you know, out of those 200 reports, most of them aren't just somebody who knew somebody who went and bought a wrench at a hardware store, right? It's been something that's been planned out. There's numerous people in play. There's organized crime groups involved. And it is serious. So, no, everyday home life, you know, you don't necessarily need to think about it as much as other people. But as you start to travel, as you start to go to crypto conveys.

as you start to do A, B, and C, you should have security in the back of your mind. There's steps you can take that won't interfere with your life completely, but will help be proactive in mini-gating these things. If you're enjoying today's podcast with Wayne DeCost, please do us a favor. Hit that like button. It really does help out. And now, quick message from this episode's sponsor. Bitcoin gives you back your time, so why not spend it having a blast orange-pilling your family

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So what are you waiting for? Grab your copy of BlockHudders today and become the unstoppable Bitcoin evangelist. No preaching required. Head to Blockhuntersgame.com by simply scanning the QR code or click the links below. Use promo code BTC Mentor for 10% off. No, that makes sense. I'm kind of curious because you mentioned travel there as well, too. Is travel a particularly higher risk time than just like the everyday habits?

Yeah, and I was, you know, I was going through some case studies on some of these attacks, right? And, you know, a lot of it is happening in, you know, France and in Belgium and Southeast Asia, right? That was a really, the Philippines was a real big hotspot and, you know, some of these places. it goes came in hand with the gaming industry, right? So if you're traveling to, you know, Thailand or, you know, Macau and some of these places where there's a lot of money laundering happening, and then there's, you also have a lot of crypto and governments involved, right? There are definitely things you want to have on your radar.

But with that being said, there's been a tax in D.C. There's been tax in Vancouver, like, you know, It doesn't necessarily matter where you are geographically in the world. It matters what your risk profile is. And a lot of people are unaware of their risk profile, which is the first step. We talk about your digital security. But you should absolutely be aware of what PII, what personal information there is about you and your family online. That's your first step to preventive measures and not being a victim of one of these attacks, right?

because if there's data leaks or there's information out there of you on the dark web or whatever, and there's knowledge out there that you hold X amount of money in crypto or money in general and this is your home address and this is where you live and this is where your parents live, is where your kids go to school. You know, that makes it a lot easier for you to be a target to somebody, right? That's very interesting. So on that note, too, like if, and I'm not sure if, if this would be something that we need to come to you guys to deal with or what the best way to go about it.

But A, what would be the best way to kind of assess your digital footprint in that sort of way, to know what information is out there to get access to that? And then number two, if it is out there, is there anything that you can even attempt to do at that point? Yeah. No, that's a great question. Yes, yes and yes. So there is, when we take on a new client to do executive protection or personal security floor, We do what we call a risk assessment. And that's essentially going through and looking at their lifestyle, threats towards them,

you know, their business, right? A lot of this reflects on someone's reputation, right? It's not just a physical attack. Like, you want to protect someone's reputation as well. And then their digital footprint. And the digital footprint's the most important part of that, right? So we also do a risk assessment, not just on your physical lifestyle, but on your digital lifestyle, right? Like if you have a husband or a wife who likes to leave reviews on Yelp about

restaurants and stuff like that, like we want to know that, right? Because if I'm going to target you, I'm going to look at the patterns in your lifestyle, places you go, places you eat, and the people in your closest circle. So we don't eat, we don't just do a digital check on you. We do a digital check on the people in your closest to circle, your executive assistants, your family office, your nannies, right? Everything. Your kids. But no. You can go on and there's people that just go out there and will gather that information. And it's not for them. They'll just store it on the dark web.

So if someone ever does want to target you, they can buy that information on the dark web, have everything they need. You know, your social security, all that. Hey, I've got the package on Gary. It's going for $3.99 US this month. I've got it on sale. If you want to know all of his habits, there's- Yeah, that's expensive, Gary.

Usually it goes deeper than that. If you're buying stuff about me, you're a fucking idiot. You can find everything free of charge. It's all out there. People are just calling Gary. Open source. One second. Yeah.

Open source intelligence. We talk about that all the time. But no, there is companies out there. There's groups that we work with. One of the groups we work closely with and are partnered with is a company called 360 privacy, where they essentially find all this information on you and scrub it, right? And not only do they scrub it, they check daily to see where this information is. And if anything, populates, you know, your social hits the dark web or your address hits somewhere.

Someone, they go in there and they scrub that. So they keep your digital footprint pretty clean. That's not a recommendation that we have with our clients. It's a requirement. Right. And it's a service that doesn't cost a lot of money. And you can kind of. Yeah.

Like I thought about the other way, like that sounds like it might be really expensive and labor intentions. Yeah. I mean, it depends, right? if you're the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, they're going to probably charge you a little more than they charge Gary. But, you know, it's, there's, there's a lot of assets out there to protect your digital footprint. Well, let me ask this. I mean, for somebody like Nathan and myself, I'm an actor part-time, I have so much information out on the web.

You can see what I look like, see what I've done. And now we have this show where we talk about Bitcoin. And we have our social media, where we talk about Bitcoin. And when I've purchased Bitcoin, I don't officially have Bitcoin. But let's say that I did. And it could be anywhere from like a dollar worth of Bitcoin to $100 worth of Bitcoin. I purchased on KYC, know your customer website. So they have my personal information, which means if the state, the IRS wants to review,

they have my personal information. To me, and I heard you talk about this in another podcast, I don't know how you put the toothpaste back in the tube at this point. you know, and maybe there's a way I'm just not aware of. So doesn't all this just fundamentally come down to me just owning a gun and just knowing how to use it should something ever go wrong? Am I over simplifying this? No, I mean, that's good, right?

You should have a gun, right? But like, what happens when you go and talk at the crypto convention in Hong Kong? You're going to bring that gun with you over there, you know, or at least the different state. They use swords over there, right? Right. So, exactly. They use swords. And we have great guys with swords on payroll in Hong Kong.

that can take you to the convention, right? So, no, that's something you've got to consider, right? Like, if you're going to travel and you're going to go to a high-risk area, you know, you might not need personal security in your everyday life. But if you are, if you do own a lot of crypto assets and you're going to it, if I was to target somebody in the crypto space, I would look at, A, I would go to the conventions first. I would figure out who's going to these conventions,

who's talking about this stuff, who has the most wealth. I mean, you can go online and find out who holds what in crypto. It's a lot of it's open source. And then you start going into that dark web avenue where you start seeing, okay, who's going to be the softest target for me, right? What would make somebody a soft target? Yeah. So if someone that's a soft target, I would say, as you look into it,

is somebody who flaunts their wealth, right? They talk about it a lot. They show them what they're buying. They show them where they're going. They're showing where they're traveling. They get stuck in routines. They do the same thing every day. They go to the same coffee shop every morning or run the same streets every day.

There's someone who doesn't really have two-factor authorization on things, doesn't take their travel security, doesn't use VPNs. I would say, you know, everything, right? And I would say someone who keeps all of their assets in one space, right? So if you have a Coinbase account and you keep, you know, all $10 million of your assets on that coinbase account. That's not smart, right? Yeah.

You should spread your assets. That is bad for a number of reasons. Yes. We knew that one, Wayne. Yes. And that's just the one off the top of my hand, right? But if you do hold a lot of assets, you want to spread that out, right? And you want to make sure.

Yeah, you want to do all. And there's other things too, right? Especially for you're in the more dominant high wealth place, having, you know, certain things, structures in place like trusts. and LLCs and these things that can help protect your privacy and your assets is another level. But it's easy to go to the convention and spot out who the soft targets are going to be and who I would go after. Well, I did tent push-ups this morning. So anything to worry about.

Thank you very much. That's it. Beautiful, beautiful. You see that guy that was one of the case studies that I was looking at was that guy, Tim Heath, that Australian billionaire, who was robin, Estonia. Oh, I remember hearing about this. I'm not very familiar with it. Please do tell me. Yeah, so this guy, he's worth, he's an Australian billionaire.

I think his net worth was around a little over $2 billion. He was open, he was open in a casino in Estonia. And an organized crime group, right, came in, and they rented an Airbnb about 30 minutes away. And they rented this Airbnb for two days. And their plan was to go into the building he lived in. dressed as painters doing construction. They had the vests on everything, right? Really?

It sounds like a movie. Yeah, it sounds like it has a heist movie. Gary, you could play a role in this in the future, you know? But it's, no, they came in. They went in that building and they came face to face with the, and Tim fought them off. He fought them off. And the guys ended up taking off. And they were planning on kidnapping and I'm taking them at Airbnb and getting the information

they needed to out of him. He was scheduled to open a casino that day in Estonia. And since they didn't end up getting anything, he got off okay. But he moved. He relocated. He's kind of off the grid now. No one really knows where he is. He had to re-up and restructure his whole life.

So even though he did his 10 push-ups that morning was able to fight off the bad guys, now his whole life is changed. Yeah, it's uprooted. It's uprooted, right? So, no, that's, that's, it's the mental well-being and, and, you know, you can, you can work out every day and you can plan and deter, but you got to have that situational awareness. You got to understand where you are. You're going to understand the people around you. You know, a lot of people like, we, one of the biggest issues is over-the-counter transactions, right? And you see this a lot in the contracting industry that I was in. You see it a lot in the arts space. high value vehicles and stuff, right? Because you're going to deal with, if you're going to come back fly to America,

you've got $10,000 in cash. You've got more you've got to claim it, right? So you people will go to these and do high-end business trades or they'll buy an art piece or they'll sell an art piece in, you know, Dubai or something like that. And they're going to these hotel rooms and they're doing these over-the-counter transactions to try and trade, you know, their currency. for Bitcoin or whatever so they don't have to worry about it.

Or they'll move to places like Costa Rica and think that they're still kind of within the United States limits. And it's like, no, man, these, these are not things you should be doing, right? I know this is a new space for everybody, but if you are going to conduct an over-the-counter trade like that, it's something you want to do in an established area, in a bank or somewhere where There's a lot of cameras and security, right? Don't be doing it on someone's yacht. Don't be doing it in a hotel room somewhere. Don't be doing it in the back room of a casino in Macau.

If it feels like a shady deal, it might be a bad idea. And you know what? You feel like you shouldn't have to say that, but people trust people, right? And people work with people for a long time. And it's interesting. There's even groups. I think, you know, everybody has their own groups where they talk crypto, right? where it's like, hey, I might have missed the headlines this week.

What should we invest in? What should we drop in, right? Be careful of the groups you associate yourself with. I could go into a group, a friend's group, or I could join something online where we mentor each other and give each other. And I can find my soft targets there just as well, right? So even in your close circles, you want to be careful about the information you're putting out and saying, especially about the assets you hold.

It's very interesting. You mentioned earlier just this idea of situational awareness, which again, almost like bringing up, like common sense, but I'm actually kind of curious. Is there anything that people, is there, one, is there bad habits that people have? Is there any small, actionable things that they could do to improve, improve their situational awareness, whether it be reading, changing some habits, anything along those lines that can, you know, have a good ROI on that? Yeah. The biggest thing is, I would say, definitely getting a routine of working out, right? Because then it just helps

your mental clarity a little bit. If you get up in the morning, you get some fresh air, you know, avoid the routines. Don't do the same thing every day, but just working out just opens up your mental clarity on a lot of things, right? And then when you're in places like the city or you're doing the day-to-day things, just try not to keep your head and your phone all the time, right? Not being aware of what's around you. You know, just trust your intuition, right?

Your intuition is a tool that God gave you to if something's off, you feel it, and you should trust it always, right? As an ancient ancient, ancient circuitry, right? Like, it's there for a reason. It's there to help you. It's there to help you. It's right. Back when, you know, lions and stuff were attacking people in Africa, right?

Like, you should know when something's there, right? But no, and I would also extend that out and kind of, you know, bring it with your children, too, right? Start instilling that in them in a younger age, you know? I would say kids that grow up, like my son grows up in Alaska, that's where I was stationed in the military. Kids that grow up in Alaska and Florida and, you know, some of these places, right, they have a little bit more situational awareness than a kid from, you know, Kansas. But it's one of those things you can, as you're out with your kids, you should be telling them too to be like, hey, you know, what will, you know, how many people were in that room, you know, have them start

thinking about these things. What did you learn? You know, just so they subconsciously start being aware of their surroundings and looking around, you know, people on the street when you're walking, you know, there's little things you can do to start and still lamenting your kids, but there's things you can do in your everyday life to just just be a little bit more aware. No, it's very interesting. I think you're bringing up a good point about the phone there as well, too. Gary, it looks like you have a question there. Yeah, no, I mean, we've had rich people for millennia. There's always been rich people, and that's nothing new. Do you think that Bitcoiners are any more vulnerable to being attacked

than just your average rich person and if so, why? Yeah, 100%. And I would say a lot of it is with the current exchanges, right? Like you've got things like your normal person, they got their bank accounts, they got their PayPal's and their Venmo's and stuff like. Those things have limits on them, right? You have a daily limit, right? Where it's like you can't, you can't spend more than, you know, $50,000 or $100,000, right?

Which, you know, for a rich person, they don't think, twice about that. But there's a lot of exchanges out there. There's a lot of exchanges. One day, Gary. One day. There's a lot of exchanges out there that don't have any limits on those, right? So there's, you get somebody's past keys or you, you find something like that. You can completely dismantle, you know, somebody in the crypto space a lot easier than you can, then you can dismantle someone who's just every day high net worth, right? Are you still keeping your Bitcoin on the exchange? Are you, confident in your current Bitcoin setup. At Bitcoin Mentor, we've helped hundreds of people

level up their security and fast track their Bitcoin understanding. If you find that you simply don't have time to go through the tutorials, the books, and the guides, you can book a free strategy session with me by simply scanning the QR code or clicking the link in the description down below. Discover how Ben, Gary, myself, the entire expert team at Bitcoin Mentor can help you accelerate your Bitcoin Journey. Simply scan the QR code or head to BitcoinMentor.io to learn more about how we can help you. No, it sounds like a good consideration too. Like we're strong, firm advocates of self-custody, like not even leaving it on exchange.

But regardless if you control your keys or if you're leaving them with a third party, which again, don't recommend. You're right. If someone has your keys, they have everything, which Bitcoiners are necessarily aware of, which I guess because it is a bare instrument in that sort of sense and because there is no, there's no safety net. You get the full self-sovereignty and the full self-responsibility as well, too, that may make you more of a target or at least a more rewarding one of somewhere. to go after it. That's definitely something worth considering. Gary, did you have any more you want to add to that? No. Side question here, Wayne. I have a friend who happens to enjoy watching pornography on his computer. Should my friend be concerned that anything he's watching might lead to people being able to put little programs in his computer to find out personal information from him? I ask for my friend.

who enjoys this sort of thing? Yeah, I would tell them to be smart, right? Use your VPNs, right? Don't be, don't be logging in and, you know, watching what you watch on public Wi-Fi's or even your personal Wi-Fi's, right? I would avoid making accounts, right? I'll tell you this. There's agents that have applied to work for my company, and we run background checks.

Right? And we run background checks. And like if you have an account on some of these websites, it shows in the background check, right? So if I'm going to trust you with a billionaire client, I don't want you to be in the command center watching porn. Right. So it's one of those things. If you have an account on, you know, A, B, and C, you're probably, I'm probably going to pick a candidate that doesn't have an account on that. And I'm going to know about it. And if you're trying to get a federal job, they're going to know about it.

you know, Elon will find you in as Doge team. So, you know, if you've got a high net worth and you don't got to worry about that, then just be smart. Use a VPN. Be aware of your surroundings and make sure you get the security upgrades and the checks on your phone and all that and that stuff when they're available. Thanks, Wade. I'm going to let my friend know this.

I appreciate it. Let them know. Let them know. Let them know. I kind of pivoting just a little bit. I want to touch on more like the residential aspect. So, again, for I think a lot of bit corners in the space, too, they might not necessarily be in this high net worth or ultra high net worth position. But there's, you know, for a lot of us, we have some very, very optimistic views of where the asset class is going to go in the future. So they might transition to those sort of positions over time. I'm wondering specifically on the residential side, what are some personal security considerations, things that you should be investigating, looking at, maybe maybe obtaining for the residential sort of security aspects. And just on a tail of. tail on that question as well too.

Big dogs, big gun, or secret tunnel out of the house? Yeah, I like all three, right? Yeah. No,

safe rooms are a great, a great, you know, start, right? Do you see that a lot? Is that actually like something

that people employ? It's become, it's, no, it's become an extremely popular. Most people in Silicon Valley have it. You don't have to have a ton of high net worth to figure out a safe room.

for your for your house right and i would say invest in 30 40 000 dollars in a safe room if you have millions of dollars you know right like that that that's a good investment but that that's overkill right that goes with the with the cave and everything else but um no dogs are great um you know they're all they're an awesome deterrent there's there's even some dogs in silicon valley now that are robotic that aren't even road dogs you jump a fence and you got you got a robot coming after you you. We can't throw a scrap of meat at those too. And I imagine they're good on the notification side as well too, right?

Just the dog hopefully would alert to anybody in the vicinity as well. Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's good to have good rapport with your neighbors, have the neighbors, you know, everybody, right? So having the cameras up, making sure your doors are locked at night, the simple things, you know, and being aware of things. Like, right, like if you're a high net worth person and you take an Uber home, right, maybe don't necessarily do it to your direct address, right? Do two or three houses.

Leave your neighbor out to dry on that a little bit or something. Drop me off the neighbor's house that I hate. Yeah. Exactly, right? So, no, be aware of that stuff, you know, and a lot of that is be aware of where your address is listed online, right? That goes back to that digital profile, right? Like, you don't want people to look your name up and see what addresses are associated

to your name. you know um so no definitely take the proactive measures there um those are simple things right you can install cameras um you can install alarm systems um you know and then every every case is different right if you're more remote or you're more urban so i don't want to go down the rabbit hole on that too much every everything is different but i would say bring in a consultant you know give us a call give a security firm a call. And it's not a bad idea as you start gaining wealth to start small with a security consultant. Have someone come take a look at your house and give you customized recommendations for that specific spot, right?

Someone's not, someone from our firm's not going to come in and say, hey, you need two guys to be on the grounds 24-7. We'll say, hey, here's the vulnerabilities at your home right now. This is what I recommend to mitigate them. And let's go from there and we'll check back in in six months and see if there's any upgrades, right? So the security world is constantly changing. The things that we push to do to protect yourself now will be different in six months because there's going to be a different threat and there'll be different characters and stuff like that. You know, it's interesting, especially in the Bitcoin world and the crypto world.

The reason I got into Bitcoin in the first place was because it was during the fall of Afghanistan in 2020. Really? When the Taliban took over the banks and everything over there, crypto was the only way to make transactions, right? So if you wanted to in areas of chaos like Ukraine and Afghanistan, crypto becomes the main component, right? And then I think Afghan and Ukraine became one of the biggest holders in crypto for a little while. The Taliban made it illegal in 2021 because they got caught on to the fact that

you know, NGOs and yeah, yeah, paramilitary operations were coming in and using crypto to help you know, get people out of there and finish, unfinished mission. So, no, it's, it's an interesting, it's an interest in time to, to be alive in this space. But, um, you want to be careful with everything you do and everything you navigate. No, 100%. I just, uh, quickly want to tag on there as well, too.

The, um, what, so a lot of that we talked about is, is really preventative and it, which seems like, again, that's it, the best place to put your energy as well, too. But I'm actually kind of curious, when, um, what, so, um, so, so, when, um, so, so, so, so, so, so, is it appropriate or in what sort of situations do you want someone physically with you as well too? We've talked about the cameras, dogs. We even mentioned the big guns. We talked about checking your digital footprint. But like, are you guys actually spending a lot of the time on the ground with individual clients?

Or is that like actually more of a rarity these days? No, well, we spent most of our clients we are on the ground with most of the time. So we have everything from clientele that we're with 24-7. We're on their property 24-7. And we're with them everywhere they go, 24-7, to something on a much smaller trail where we, we at a very minimum, will embed a security manager into their family office or their corporation and something like that. And that security manager is kind of that guy. He's kind of like a 24-7 consultant for you, right? Where he's like, hey, and this is, this kind of gets back to the Brian Thompson's, you know, United Healthcare incident, right?

where it could be crypto. If you're going to New York City, you know, during, you know, Christmas tree lightning time and you're speaking at a public event, you know, a security director, a security manager would have come in and said, hey, listen, I know you don't normally have someone with you 24-7. You don't have a full-on executive protection team. But just based off the risk in New York City right now and the fact that you're doing a public event and we have had layoffs this year, I'm going to hire two off-duty officers to be with you 24-7, right? And that's something that a risk manager or a security director or a consultant would do,

where they would come and they would look at your house and be like, you never know. They could be like, you know what? I think it's, I think you've reached a class now where you should have somebody out here 24-7 just to keep an eye on things. You know, we can create a little center form here. And they can just, they can check the random, you know, vendors that are coming on your property and people are coming and going, right?

Or they could be like, now, you're. good. Let's install this camera system, this alarm system. I'm going to make this connection with local law enforcement for you. So you've got a few people on speed dial and we'll go from there. But that person that should be like, hey, you're going to this convention in, you know, Hong Kong or you're going to this convention in Miami. Why don't we just, you know, bring some people they can work either overtly or covertly or at a minimum do an intel package for you. So you've got some resources available. Right. So every case, every person, everything is different. There isn't a one size fits all shoe for this.

And consultant is a small cost to pay to just come in and come in and take a look at things and be able to square you away. No, that makes sense. I'm curious, with a lot of the case studies that you've reviewed, or maybe even some examples from you guys' own experience, were there any very noticeable or notable mistakes that you saw people make that is worth pointing out? Or even on the flip side, too, were there any, like, wonderful successes that you guys have? have had and how those were accomplished. Yeah, so the mistakes, the mistakes, a lot of them that I've looked at is, again, it's the font, right?

It's the generational wealth that like somebody normal, like ourselves would come in and then, you know, over the course of six months or now, a billionaires. A billionaires. They issued Hoc2 a coin. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right.

Hawk to, right? Yeah, exactly. You know, so that's one of those things. you can find yourself going viral overnight and then having a ton of money and not really having the direction of how to safely protect yourself. No skills net coming into it, right? Nobody to mentor or train you beforehand. Exactly.

So it's it's taking a step back. It's it's prioritizing security, right? And it's it's not not be, you know, that influencer that's wanting where they're going and what they're spending on. Right. And if you are going to do that, that's fine. That's the lifestyle. That's the image you want to make for yourself. Perfect.

We're not here to stop you. But if you are going to choose that lifestyle, there's measures that you should put to protect you or it's going to go away. Right. So, yeah, a lot of it is routines. And I would say, you know, mitigation strategies, yes. You know, when we've taken on a couple of clients. The past two years has been.

crazy for us with crypto, with crypto personnel and with AI, right? Yeah. So you've got these people that are, that are, you know, becoming crazy ultra high net worth almost overnight, right? And they're running major AI technology firms and they're still living in an apartment, right, in the city because they're normal and they're a 35 year old kid who doesn't know better. I just want to be a normal guy. It's like, yeah, that's it, right.

But they got a giant target on your back there, buddy. You got a giant target on your back. There's people that are watching you and there's people that rely on you and their stakeholders invested in you. So, you know, you have to take certain measures. And then there's the really, really rich people that, you know, made it in crypto and made their money, you know, starting firms and then invested heavily in crypto. And we come in into their property and we start making, you know, their vendor sign NDAs

where we're scanning ID cards. And we find out that, you know, four out of the 10 landscapers on your property are actually MS-13 gang members. Whoa. What happens? Listen, it happens all the time. It almost happens with every new client we take on. We'll find at least three or four vendors that are related to a gang affiliation or right. So these are things that you need to be aware of because if you're not, like, you think they care.

They're not even a U.S. citizen sometimes, right? So that's good protection for your property then. That's it. That's it, right? Yeah, exactly, right? They want to job security for them. Just don't leave your kids home alone, right? Don't leave them outside.

The landscapers, apparently. That's it. 100%. Sorry, you mentioned something earlier about, you know, chatting with a friend at a bar about, you know, how much you have. I got to ask this, a buddy of mine, I went out to dinner with him at a local restaurant. about a month and a half ago. And he has, he is a Bitcoin investor. And when we were there,

we knew we were going to chat about it. He took out this like light up B Bitcoin symbol and stuck it like as a place setting in on the table in the middle of the restaurant. And I'm thinking, dude, you might as well just have a big neon sign that says, please rob me on. This is a soft target. Yeah. Is he a soft target we were talking about. Yeah. And he's like, oh, no, I got it, you know, locked up. I got a cold wallet. You know, I make sure. sure I protect myself and everything. But on a scale of one to 10, for like one,

Gary overreacting to 10, your friend is a fucking imbecile. Where does he fall? And I say this with love, he's a great guy, but where does he fall on this chart? Yeah, I'd give him a seven just because he's your friend.

But, you know, it is one of those, like, it's one of those things you thought, if you thought about it at that time, like this guy's an idiot, like, that should tell you something.

Trust your intuition. Trust your intuition. Trust your intuition. in like be smart and it's it's you can talk to people like you trust right like i talk to my friends about about crypto and moos i make and stuff like that but you look at it when when you have bitcoin go from you know 70 000 to 120 000 really really fast right then somebody remembers a story you told them about the fact that you owned a couple of crypto and then it comes up in a conversation that that doesn't even involve you someone one of your friends is talking to oh you know that

that guy Wayne, yeah, he has a couple of, he has a couple of Bitcoin, you know, I'm going to give him a call because Bitcoin went up $40,000 over the last, you know, six months, right? So like, you, you, people, the people you surround yourself and the conversations you have, like, you can be as careful as you want, but just, just have that, have that kind of emotional intelligence to really just kind of keep certain things to yourself, right? Yeah. It's the same thing, like, if you were to win the lottery overnight, right? Like, I don't know if I would tell everybody that I won the lottery overnight. I would try and tell no one. Exactly. I don't even know what I tell you know. Exactly. So it's the same, right? Because you could

win the lottery overnight with some of these crypto coins. Well, I got my little bit X right there. If that thing, it won't. It statistically never will. But if that anything ever solo mines a block, I'm telling no one. Those are just my coins that'll hang on to forever. I'm telling everyone. Do you know how much tail I'm going to get out of that? I mean, never because I'm in a very happy, fulfilled relationship and not looking for that at all. Oh, sir, sir. Gary's going to call Red's core and we'll take care of him and then he can tell whoever he wants. He's going to call, Wade.

Yeah, I found a couple blocks. I'm going to need a little additional security here. Yeah, because I'm definitely going to bring it up. No, it's beautiful. Gary, what else is kind of on your mind on this subject as well, too? No, I mean, I think that covered him, man. I think a lot of it just sounds like, you know, common sense. I listened to you chat before, but how much of this is just protecting yourself in the digital space.

You know, having, not having your information out there can be so much more important than, you know, making sure you happen to know jujitsu or have a gun or have a dog. Because, you know, once you get to that point, you're kind of like at the last leg, so to speak. Like, all right, they've already found you. They know what you have. You don't want it to even get to that point, I assume. So that's your thing, right? attacks, these, these attacks that are happening aren't, you know, we call it the $5 wrench attack, but they're very far from that, right?

There are people that are plotting this and they're, they're people that are very good at it. They're organized crime members, right? They're, they're members of the Sinolaoa cartel. They're members of the Chinese triad. They're members of MS-13. They're members of the Russian and, you know, I won't get into it. They're members of government, right?

And there's, this stuff is very well. thought out and planned, right? And they know whether you're traveling somewhere or they know where you're going to be in a vulnerable space, they're, they plan these attacks, right? It isn't something that you wake up on a Saturday and your electric bills high and you're going to go hit the guy that was talking about Bitcoin at the bar last week, right? Like that's that's not something that's, that's realistic, right? These are these are thought planned attacks and you don't you don't need a, you know, uproot your life and change what you're doing.

But you need to be proactive in managing your risk profile. You need to make sure that if you're going somewhere, you're checking the boxes on these things, right? There's a lot that goes into it. And it's definitely worth just having a consultation from time to time to reassess these things. So if someone calls us tomorrow and we give them a bunch of good information, based off their risk profile and the stuff we find on them, that's going to change in

six months. So give us a call back and let's adjust fire on a few things. And that could happen over a few years before you actually bolster a program in place. But definitely be proactive about your security, have good emotional intelligence, have common sense, and be careful when you're traveling. Because, you know, a lot of places are not like the U.S., right? And the ways of getting information and getting you can be a lot easier than they are here. Awesome.

And with that, too, where should people go to checkout to learn more about you, to learn about your company, all that fun stuff? Where should we direct them to? Yeah, definitely. Check out our website, www.rescoregroup.com. We're very active on LinkedIn. We don't have a ton of social media. We try to kind of stay under that kind of bigger security umbrella, a little. bit more privateer for our clientele, but we're very active on LinkedIn. We post articles

biweekly, whether it's on risk management, consultant, private family offices, driver, security drivers, all of the above, right? So it's educational, quick reads. Feel free to reach out to me directly on the website or on LinkedIn and we can get you squared away. Looking to learn more about Bitcoin self-custody, TribeBin's latest tutorial on Nunchuk wallet up above, and please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.