Thinking about your threat model

A threat model is just a clear answer to "what am I actually protecting against?" Without one, people waste effort on theatrics and miss the real risks. Here is a realistic one for a market visitor.

The real risks, ranked

1. Phishing. By far the most common way people lose accounts and coins. Defended by verifying addresses.
2. Self-deanonymisation. Reusing a username, leaking details in messages, paying from an exchange. Defended by compartmentalisation.
3. Account takeover. A stolen password. Defended by a unique password and PGP 2FA.
4. Network observation. Handled largely by Tor itself, strengthened by Tails.

Where to spend effort

Notice that the top two risks are behavioural, not technical. No tool fixes a reused username or an unverified address. Spend your effort on habits first and tools second. The following pages give you those habits.

Last reviewed 2026-07-13.