After talking with multiple NFT artists, one thing I realised is that most of the artists are using a single wallet to manage all transactions.

But using a single wallet will increase the chance of getting rugged or scammed.

So how can we prevent it?

A Three-layer Wallet System

From a security standpoint, I recommend all artists should maintain a three-layer wallet system.

• Layer 1: Burner Wallet
• Layer 2: Main Wallet
• Layer 3: Cold Wallet

Layer 1: Burner Wallet

Burner wallet is pretty popular among degens players, where you don't keep your valuables. Instead, you just load it with the tokens that are required to cover the gas fees.

There are a lot of phishing scams out there in the form of free mints and giveaways, which by default have an "all approve" permission.

If you are using a single wallet to interact with such contracts, then all your assets and valuables get drained in a matter of clicks.

Not only phishing, you can also expect social engineering attacks.

Where people get in touch with you in the name of collaboration and work their way up to building trust. Later, they ask you to connect your wallet to a website and boom.

So the thumb rule is to never ever connect your wallet to an unverified source.

But your gut feeling is telling you to connect, then use the burner wallet.

Layer 2: Main Wallet

This is the wallet that you use to connect to verified sources like platforms, protocols, and exchanges.

One rule you can attach to the wallet is that, I will only connect this wallet to the official links from my bookmarks, never from any other sources.

It's good practise to bookmark the official links of platforms, protocols, and exchanges that you frequently use, so that you can avoid clicking on spam and phishing links.

Compared with the burner, the main wallet is limited to interacting only with contracts that you trust.

Layer 3: Cold Wallet

This is your safe vault, where you don't interact with any contracts at all.

Sometimes people refer to hardware wallets as "cold wallets," but that's not true. Cold wallets are defined based on how you use them.

A cold wallet can be any wallet that you never use to interact with contracts and keep it offline.

Just move your assets to and from the main wallet, and keep it offline. It's more like a freeze on your assets.

I pretty much covered the aspects of the three-layer wallet system.

As a revision:

• Use a burner wallet to ape into any contract.
• If anyone asks you to interact with a contract, use the burner.
• Beware of phishing, scams, and social engineering attacks.
• Keep your main wallet interaction limited to a set of trusted contracts.
• Always bookmark the official link to avoid phishing and scams.
• For long term plays, use a cold wallet and freeze your assets.

Security is all about patience and discipline.