Welcome to Slate Sundays, we present new weekly features from Cryptoslate, with in-depth interviews, expert analysis, and thought-provoking enlightenment beyond headlines to explore the ideas and voices that will shape the future of code.
You don’t often meet someone as integral as Jameson Ropp. Whether online or in Meet Space (who knows him under the pseudonym), it will rub you off and make you want to be a better bitcoiner. I’m a better person about that.
Few people have done more to advance the realm of Bitcoin and crypto security than Jameson. Despite not pitching messages no one wants to hear (until they lose access to their private key), he remains unhindered, making his life’s job to educate people about the potential dangers surrounding the Bitcoin network.
His particular brand of products are not sexy. You won’t be seduced by the promises of Lambos or NGU. Bitcoin security is a topic that doesn’t surprise you as you realise Jameson bumped from the main stage at a massive event. The rise in wrench attacks is so “Debbie Downer” that he was forced into the developer stage.
“Large, non-technical conferences generally don’t even want the engineers on the stage to talk about issues specific to the system,” he says. “Giving a rational and practical discussion of the issue of space contradicts the many stories people want to push out there and push out there to increase adoptions.”
As co-founder and chief security officer of Bitcoin Security Provider Casa, creator of the Bitcoin real-time node monitoring platform Statoshi, this is an additional project aimed at raising awareness, and confesses that over half a million followers of X are “Inundated” and somewhat “overwhelming.”
I caught up with the living legend and industry OG, discussing his extraordinary life, valuable work, an increase in physical Bitcoin attacks, and everything in between.
Master the art of Jameson Ropp and Lost of
What do you know about Jameson Lopp? It’s been years since Bitcoin. Think again and store that information yourself. As Jameson posted and reposted on X:
“The first rule for a 21 million club is not to talk about joining a 21 million club.”
He was subjected to a tough swatting attack in 2017, and after receiving fraudulent calls from attackers claiming police were him, he went straight through the trauma that Bitcoiner was inflicted on his home when he was attacked.
The caller told police that he had shot someone 15 times with an attack rifle, held others hostage, and equipped the front door with explosives.
It was like a movie, the kind of film that would have caused most people to take a white flag and retire from the industry completely.
But Jameson Ropp is not most people.
He not only kept his head high and remained rebellious, but he set out to make it impossible to find himself while educating others to erase his data trail. From using an ad blocker and VPN online to establishing a second home as a decoy address, Jameson’s footprints lie in invisible ink.
Even his family doesn’t know where he lives.
“The easier and safer thing I’ve done is to completely disappear,” he admits. “But I felt that would succumb to the pressures of bad actors.
One night, I remember inventing a pseudonym at a party and creating a whole new life. It was fun at first, until I couldn’t maintain the plausible Spanish accent and kept contradicting myself until the jig rose. I can’t even imagine the mental and physical logistics involved in living in this way in the long term. That’s pretty extreme:
“The hardest part is that it’s a lifestyle change. When I started, I was creating different pseudonyms that I used with different people in the Meat Space.
Then, of course, I have a real identity that I use only to interact with people remotely, like myself, my former government identity… If you are pulling more people into your situation like family and children, it becomes more complicated. ”
I bet. However, Jameson has a distinctive appearance. For immediate recognition, his unmistakable beard is striped with silver, like the mystical hairy hair of a seasoned wizard. Have you ever had his cover blown away?
“It’s very rare,” he replies, “But it’s one of my tricky things and the kind of balanced act I’m trying to navigate. That’s why I don’t want to broadcast my face to millions of people. I don’t do smaller podcasts or anything like that.
So far, 200 known wrench attacks against bitcoiners
I saw one of Jameson’s latest posts on X, warning about an increase in the number of wrench attacks and pointing to a well-maintained log of known physical Bitcoin attacks, I knew I had to reach out. But given his ability to disappear before his eyes, I didn’t expect him to answer. I was delighted and surprised. He may not be able to physically find him, but he can use it by clicking the mouse for anyone who wants to talk about Bitcoin.
According to Jameson’s records, Bitcoiner has had over 200 documented physical attacks in the first half of 2025, of which there are over 30. Why are the numbers rising?
“The total value and size of the ecosystem is rising, and the overall perception of the ecosystem is rising. So this is just a natural phenomenon. There will always be a small portion of sociopaths who will try to hurt others for their own personal benefit.”
What’s even more interesting is the general trends in cases carried out by organized crime groups specializing in this type of attack.
“We did the east coast of America up and down a few years ago, and recently there were a lot of people in France. In both cases, law enforcement ultimately arrested the people behind it.”
I hear him say before and mention that in many cases wrench attacks are coordinated by people who do not live in the country, but specifically travel there to make the attack. He nods:
“My reach and understanding of all this is limited by what is reported, but I see patterns of foreigners in Southeast Asia.
For example, I’ve seen a lot of attacks. For example, Russian citizens who take time off or live in Southeast Asia are suffering from organized Russian crime. They are coming to the country, attacking wrenches, trying to get out as quickly as possible, and perhaps trying to capitalize on jurisdictional rulings. ”
I ask if wrench attacks almost happen to prominent people and he shruggs.
“It’s hard to say because you don’t know who these people are. I know the ‘highly known’ people in X. But if they’re attracting attention on Instagram, I have no idea and I don’t use Tiktok.
He says he knows several victims who are “basically showing off his wealth” Instagram influencers and boast about expensive cars, wristwatches and a luxurious lifestyle. He shook his head:
“If you’re in all sorts of public networks and you’re showing off your wealth, that’s one of the more dangerous things you can do.”
What is the best advice to protect yourself? Never kyc
With most jurisdictions plagued by the struggle against money laundering and counter-terrorism finances, it is almost impossible to operate in this field without giving away a mound of private data. But unfortunately for many of us, this often becomes doxxed online, like the 2020 ledger violation or Coinbase just a few weeks ago.
Without going through the extreme measures of buying a proxy home, or not being able to track it down even by the most highly skilled private investigators, what can we do to protect ourselves in the KYC era?
“The safest thing to do is never use KYC and only use non-KYC services. They are not always convenient. They are not user-friendly and there aren’t that many out there.
He acknowledges that this can be tricky as most providers require a location in your residence, but you can reduce the risk by considering which documents you want to upload.
“Personally, when I’m doing KYC, I prefer to use my passport as a document because I don’t have an address there. Then I always try to give them the private mailbox address I have. It works sometimes.
When this happens, Jameson reluctantly defeats and passes the address of his legal residence.
“Of course, it’s out of reach because most people have another address that they don’t actually use,” he admits.
And how about providing utility bills? There is no workaround for that:
“That’s really hard for me because there’s no utility bill in my name in the design.”
A proud libertarian and authentic Bitconner
As a self-proclaimed libertarian, I ask Jameson if he’s ever voted or is it still possible. He smoothed his beard, pondered my words and said he stopped voting when he realized that “Libertarians will not become president,” or that he had won a high-level office.
“The bi-party system is too entrenched. But no, I’m not going to register to vote again for the ROI of my vote, like the ROI of my vote and the actual impact of my vote, and the actual impact of all politicians, their platform, and whether I trust it or not, whether I trust it or not.
And with so many hoop jumps and painstaking plans behind every move he made, whether online or in the physical realm, is this really worth it? Has he ever thought about quitting forever? He pauses for a while and reflects:
“This cybersecurity can say. The safest way to use a computer is to turn it on, not touch it, not use it… computers, especially the advent of the Internet, are two-way devices, but with one hand, you can access the sum of human knowledge essentially. On top.”
I say it reminds me of a similar refrain: the ship is safe at the port, but that is not the purpose of the ship. He smiles and agrees. Let’s face it, there is no world where Jameson leaves a computer untouched.
“The most important thing you can do for Bitcoin is to talk about it. It was one of the more important aspects of my life. I didn’t want to give up on it.”
Bitcoin’s Corporate Treasury and Saylor’s distinctive advantages
Jameson’s beliefs are uncontroversial, and the length of his defense of Bitcoin deserves a Nobel Prize. He was always hoping that the industry would evolve in this way, with the $10,000 price unit in the White House, Bitcoin’s Corporate Treasury, and the Emperor of AI and Crypto?
“I’ve always been amazed at the level of volatility,” he admits. “When I first entered Bitcoin, I saw it as something like a 30-year generation-level savings account. I didn’t see it as a speculative investment that would rise by number of digits over the next 10 years.”
But I’m not saying he’s happy with everything. Bitcoin in the oval office is far from the peer-to-peer electronic cash system originally presented to the world.
“I certainly have a lot of concern about the current state of the ecosystem, mainly that many of the adoptions that appear to be happening now are happening through Tradfi vehicles that don’t even give people options to become independent.
Michael Saylor pledges to buy Bitcoin until he scoops up 10% of the supply company, and Bitcoin finance companies appear like weeds, which I think is quite a concern…
“If too much bitcoin is concentrated in too little hands, we basically risk replicating a highly centralized system,” he replies.
He confesses that he is “conflict” over the rising phenomenon of Bitcoin finance companies. Because, on the one hand, Bitcoin is for everyone, while on the other hand, the strategy is “before we’ve done and we’re continuing to move forward.” He wants to see a more level playing field, so he decided to invest in David Bailey Nakamoto.
“That’s not because I think the adoption of the corporate Bitcoin Treasury is the best since sliced bread, because I felt it was necessary to compete with Sirol to reduce how much he can continue to accumulate.
Jameson from Quantum Computing (or we’re all “screwed”)
Is centralisation or quantum computing the biggest threat to the Bitcoin network? Jameson has tweeted a lot about the latter recently:
“There are multiple long-term existential issues that I’m worried about. Quantum is a problem that I worry about along with things like ossification and scaling.”
He continues:
“In quantum computing, there are half a dozen issues that are ongoing in parallel, and in order to “solve quantum computing problems,” half a dozen of these must be consensus at the same time.
He compares the problems of quantum computing with climate change. This is a constant threat, but it seems far away when there are more pressing issues.
“I think it’s a similar type of issue within Bitcoin, but it’s exacerbated by the fact that it takes years to get a consensus on the change first, and then it takes years after the rest of that ecosystem has activated the consensus change to implement it.
Additional delays for multiple years as people need to migrate funds. We have never been in that situation before. ”
How far is quantum computing?
He explains that there are many predictions about this. He ranges from those who say they are already here to those who believe they will not arrive because of “quantum physics-level attributes that prevent them from achieving that level of calculation.” What we know for sure is that some governments and standards agencies are counselling people to prepare for it within at least five years.
“If it’s conservative and assumes there are at least five years, then in reality there may be 10 or 15 years, but I hope there are only 10 years. If there’s only five years, I think it’ll take a few years to get a consensus change.
I’m sleeping firmly in a world of uncertainty
Of all the changing narratives and cultural clashes over the past few years, what plagues Jameson the most is the prevalent doctrine of Bitcoin being “inevitable” and “perfect”. In his opinion, this is a dangerous view, often chased by supporters of ossification. He says:
“It leads to what I consider to be the biggest threat to Bitcoin in the long run. This is indifferent. If people are talking about continuing to talk about improving Bitcoin, it becomes weaker and more vulnerable to new threats.”
Between dangerous stories, divine AI, network centralization, and quantum computing that is upon us, the future feels quite bleak. There’s a lot to worry about, I scream.
As the pioneer and advocate of the healthiest money security the world has ever seen, can Jameson get some sleep? He frowns for a moment before replying:
“I try not to keep all these things out of my control at night. As I said before, continuing to talk about Bitcoin and discuss that issue is one of the best ways people can contribute to the space…
It’s about keeping people interested, keeping them interested and thinking about what they can do to deal with the problem before it arises. ”
