I help people find facts faster. Dept of War R&E Director of Industry Engagement. Scalable® Business Advisor. ₿itcoin. Marine. Ideas mine ≠ DoW.
Washington, DC
Joined April 2008
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Prescott Paulin retweeted
If you keep your Bitcoin on an exchange there are two doors that need to be guarded to keep your funds safe: your account login and the exchange custody system.
Multi-factor authentication, device verification, withdrawal restrictions like ForceField, etc. are great features to prevent an attacker from compromising your account.
However, none of these protections help you if the custody system backing the exchange is compromised, which is what just happened at Binance.
Here is how River manages securing your coins internally:
Hot wallet:
Coins in a hot wallet are the most at risk. These coins are on systems connected to the public internet to process demand withdrawals for clients. The strategy is to keep enough coins in here to allow everyone to withdraw on-demand, but never too much that a hack could be financially devastating. River maintains a very low hot wallet balance, and on top of this we have strict internal manual approval policies if withdrawals exceed certain rate limits. Even if an attacker got through every single line of network defense and completely compromised our systems, they wouldn't be able to walk away with much BTC before being shut out.
In order to ensure we always have sufficient coins hot, we have a staging "warm" wallet that is not accessible to process demand withdrawals, but can send funds to top up the hot wallet with sufficient internal approvals.
However, the ultimate layer of defense is cold storage:
Cold storage is a custody system where the signing keys are held offline, such that a full compromise of all computer systems could still not lead to a theft of funds.
At River, we prove every month that we have more coins cold than we have in client BTC liabilities. You can verify this yourself at river.com/reserves. Our multi-sig cold storage system is designed for Bitcoin and Bitcoin alone. We are not exposed to any of the smart contract complexity that was exploited in the Binance hack. We will be sharing more in depth about our cold storage in the coming months.
Some exchanges outsource custody, which effectively removes their ability to make any direct claim to you about the integrity and security of their systems. Choose your exchanges carefully. Ask yourself: “are the people running my exchange the most qualified to build a highly secure custody system?”
Prescott Paulin retweeted
How a risk professional reads a government "stock food and water" warning.
Not the way the panic accounts read it, and not the way the "it's just routine" accounts read it either. Both of them are guessing. Here is the actual process:
1. Base rate first. In any given year, how likely is a real disruption to your household? Low. Always start there.
2. Then the change. Has anything moved the number? A dozen governments pushing the same message in the same month moves it. Not far. But up.
3. Increased risk does not mean probable. Probable is 51 percent. We are nowhere near that. But this could be the highest risk we have seen in our lifetimes, and a man weighs that. Low is not zero.
4. Then the cost of being wrong. Prepared and nothing happens: you lose nothing, you ate your pantry. Unprepared and something happens: your kids go without water. Those are not equal.
5. Then act in proportion. If you have thirty days already, add sixty, then ninety, bought quietly over months. If you have nothing, thirty days happens now. This week. Your father should have taught you that before you left his house. If he did not, it stops with you. Your sons leave your house knowing it.
That is the whole method. The feeling is not in it anywhere.
Proverbs 22:3: "The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it."
Daily Action: water. One gallon per person per day, thirty days, for everyone under your roof. Count what you have tonight. Then buy the difference this weekend: food-grade containers for storage, and filters for everything after that. Filter straws, gravity filters, pump filters. They are cheap and they are legion. Food comes next week.
Stand firm.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
The War Department is officially launching the Chaplain In-Service Procurement Program.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
My biggest concern is that if there is a clean sweep by Democrats of the House, Senate and Presidency in 2028, they will:
1. Make DC and Puerto Rico states to gain a strong majority in the Senate.
2. Open the borders and legalize everyone living in America illegally to cement a permanent majority.
3. Increase the size of the Supreme Court to gain an immediate majority.
This would result in America becoming a permanent one-party state and the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word.
All that is needed to ensure this doesn’t happen is 51 Republican senators in 2029. That is why you should vote for Republican senators this election. Other reasons are irrelevant compared to this one.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
I checked off a bucket list item tonight. There is a speakeasy near gate 38 at DIA. I’ve walked passed it for so many years saying, “one day”. Today was the day and it was meant to be. It’s the coolest airport bar I’ve ever been to. The staff treats you like royalty. I sat down and was surrounded by happy go lucky, like minded travelers. The lady next to me paid for my drink which rarely happens. Long story short kids, don’t sit at home wondering what if? Try something new and different, if you don’t like it.. just go back to where you came from.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
BREAKING: Binance has been hacked with wallets across the Ethereum, Bitcoin, and TRON networks seeing outflows of -$5.7 billion.
The hack includes $1.45 billion worth of Bitcoin and $875 million worth of ETH.
If confirmed, this would mark the biggest hack in crypto history.
We expect more information shortly.
Looking forward to our kinetic response.
The Pentagon is treating a rash of freezer malfunctions that affected refrigeration and freezer units at commissaries at several U.S. military bases in August as a suspected cyberattack, according to four officials familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters. The Pentagon said a Cyber Command unit is “working in close coordination with interagency and law enforcement partners” in the ongoing investigation.
At least six on base commissaries were affected in late August, per Reuters’ review of base social media posts. In at least one case, the cooling units’ temperatures were raised overnight, resulting in spoiled food. Fort Huachuca, Arizona, posted that its freezer “went into defrost mode where it heated up all the food.”
One official said investigators have been in touch with French counterparts about a similar attack that hit more than 350 French supermarkets earlier this month.
Source: reuters.com/technology/penta…
Prescott Paulin retweeted
France before and after is a warning. The chaos, looting, and destruction we’re watching is exactly the future radical Democrats are pushing for America.
Is this the future you want?
Prescott Paulin retweeted
AMERICA ONSHORE 🇺🇸
AT&T just announced that they’re bringing customer service call center jobs back to the U.S.
This is a win for American jobs and for every customer who gets frustrated speaking with overseas operators.
AT&T: “By the end of next year, all AT&T home internet, home phone, and post-paid wireless consumers will be served by Care experts located in the United States.”
Thank you, AT&T.
Americans get frustrated when they call a U.S. business and end up speaking with someone at a call center located in a foreign country.
Language & communications barriers only make it harder for callers to get the results they want.
So the FCC is seeking comment on several ideas that could help, including
✅ Facilitating the onshoring of foreign call centers
✅ Requiring operators at call centers to be proficient in American Standard English
✅ Further cracking down on illegal robocalls from abroad through the use of targeted tariffs or bonds.
The FCC’s proposals focus on the call centers run by the communications providers regulated by the FCC. And could represent steps for the government to build on more broadly.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
.@SECWAR “Earlier this year, at the Shangri-La Dialogue, I described a vision on behalf of President Trump of a more stable, secure, and prosperous Pacific.
It’s a vision based on STRENGTH—built not on wishful thinking, but on the backs of strong, self-reliant nations.
Nations capable of defending their own sovereignty and contributing to a favorable balance of power that benefits us all.
The approach we are taking can be described as strong, quiet, and clear.”
Prescott Paulin retweeted
DIU has selected Fort Benning and Fort Hood as pilot locations for the next phase of the Robotic Operations for Autonomous Delivery and Sustainment (ROADS) prize challenge.
Five companies are advancing to Phase III: @ForterraDefense / @May_Mobility , @AppliedInt, @perronerobotics, @Overland_AI_X / @Gatik_AI and @BotAutoAV were selected for further development and on base evaluations.
ROADS will help establish the operational, safety, and installation processes required to move commercial autonomy from isolated demonstrations toward repeatable deployment across the @DeptofWar.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
JUST IN: Maryland officials unanimously approve a $1.4 billion Sphere entertainment venue near Washington, D.C., with plans to open by 2030.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
Probably the wildest app success story of 2026:
This solo founder is making $2M MRR just 10 months after launch
His app? TikTok but for scrolling the Bible
🤖 Made with AI
Prescott Paulin retweeted
The @deptofwar’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) announced today a $150 million conditional loan commitment with @stoke_space, a U.S.-based space launch company developing fully reusable rockets, to provide low-cost, high-cadence access to orbit. The proposed loan from OSC, alongside private capital, would support the buildout of the company’s second launchpad at its existing launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The OSC commitment to Stoke Space more broadly supports the expansion of U.S. launch capacity, which is required to meet the rising demand for commercial and national security space launch by the United States Space Force. Space launch is a designated critical technology category that is vital to national security and economic resilience.
Read the full press release here: war.gov/News/Releases/Releas…
Prescott Paulin retweeted
What does a Super Intelligence-enabled scientific facility look like?
Two new Genesis Mission Phase II projects offer a glimpse: @BerkeleyLab will advance SI for particle accelerators, while @Northeastern will develop an intelligent assistant for the FRIB rare isotope separator.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
America will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated. 🇺🇸
Hark @hark_labs just saved me $7,098 a year after analyzing my domain name portfolio and offering to help me switch to @Cloudflare. I look forward to cancelling everything from @GoDaddy, which used to have great rates in their Discount Domain Club. I never moved away because it was a pain to manage 500+ domains in transition. Hark just handles everything. And Hark Pro is only $100/mo. No brainer to use Hark to cut costs across my life's investment portfolio, and optimize everywhere. Thanks @adcock_brett.
Prescott Paulin retweeted
Effective Immediately, all organizations using PHP for their systems are advised to be prepared for an update addressing two critical vulnerabilities. PHP is widely used for web applications. These vulnerabilities often provide a direct path to the server's file system or database. If an immediate update is not feasible, it is recommend that organizations take the system offline until it can be fully mitigated. NSA will follow up shortly with more specific guidance.