Hackers don’t need your keys anymore. They just need your calendar invite. Hackers don’t need your keys anymore. They just need your calendar invite. It didn’t happen on-chain. It didn’t happen in code. It happened on a call. Alexander Choi, founder of Fortune Collective, a private trading group and Cornell alum, joined what seemed like routine Google Meet chats with community leaders from $SPARK. No sketchy links. No permissions granted. Just friendly chatter about partnerships. Alexander Choi Fortune Collective Days later, $996,000 vanished from 150 wallets. And he’s not alone. In the first half of 2025, crypto scams and hacks drained nearly $2.5 billion from investors, with wallet compromises and AI-enabled phishing behind the majority of losses. crypto scams and hacks drained nearly $2.5 billion from investors This wasn’t a rug pull, a phishing DM, or a fake site. It was something far more dangerous: a remote exploit slipped into the human OS. ⚔️ Welcome to the Browser Battlefield ⚔️ Welcome to the Browser Battlefield Choi’s case isn’t isolated. Zoom bait: Hypersphere partner Mehdi Farooq got drained mid-call by deepfaked “LPs,” losing years of savings in a scam linked to North Korean hackers. Zoom bait: Hypersphere partner Mehdi Farooq got drained mid-call by deepfaked “LPs,” losing years of savings in a scam linked to North Korean hackers. Zoom bait: got drained mid-call by deepfaked “LPs,” Calendly pivots: A fake Hyperliquid rep gutted NFT_Dreww through a malware “audio fix” disguised in a Zoom pivot. Calendly pivots: A fake Hyperliquid rep gutted NFT_Dreww through a malware “audio fix” disguised in a Zoom pivot. Calendly pivots: malware “audio fix” disguised in a Zoom pivot Telegram traps: Security researchers flagged call-activated wallet drains, no clicks needed, often tied to North Korean campaigns using fake video conferencing to deploy malware. Telegram traps: Security researchers flagged call-activated wallet drains, no clicks needed, often tied to North Korean campaigns using fake video conferencing to deploy malware. Telegram traps: call-activated wallet drains, no clicks needed A 2025 MIT Technology Review warned of incoming AI-enabled cyberattacks, including phishing agents exploiting vulnerabilities in tools like Zoom. Bugcrowd’s analysis of crypto hacks highlights how blockchain vulnerabilities often stem from age-old exploits applied to new tech, with remote access playing a key role in many breaches. A 2025 MIT Technology Review warned of incoming AI-enabled cyberattacks Bugcrowd’s analysis In short: your video call is no longer a meeting. It’s an attack surface. 🚨 Why “Trustless” Isn’t Trust-Free 🚨 Why “Trustless” Isn’t Trust-Free Web3 loves to preach about decentralization, immutability, and trustless rails. But most founders still run their ops through centralized choke points: Google Meet, Zoom, Telegram. These aren’t neutral tools. They’re liabilities. If one Chrome zero-day can nuke your treasury, your “trustless” stack isn’t trustless at all. It’s just outsourcing risk to someone else’s server. 🧭 The Ronnie Huss POV 🧭 The Ronnie Huss POV I’ve advised token projects, architected RWA rails, and built SaaS systems that run under pressure. And here’s the hard truth: The biggest vulnerability in Web3 isn’t code. It’s coordination. The biggest vulnerability in Web3 isn’t code. It’s coordination. We design Byzantine-resistant consensus while scheduling investor calls on Google Calendar. We build zero-knowledge proofs for anonymity while storing seed phrases in Google Drive. That’s not decentralization. That’s delegation. And attackers know it. If state actors like DPRK can turn fake job offers into multi-million-dollar crypto thefts, what chance does your seed-stage startup have on a compromised Meet link? The real protocol isn’t Solidity. It’s paranoia. 🔒 How Builders Should Respond 🔒 How Builders Should Respond Here’s the minimum stack shift every founder needs: Host your own comms: Move calls to sovereign layers (Telegram native, encrypted P2P, or self-hosted infra).Segregate risk: Hardware wallets for vaults, hot wallets for ops, strict revoke hygiene.Identity hardening: Verify every “investor” or “partner” through secondary, on-chain proof.AI sentinels: Deploy agents to analyze voiceprints, meeting metadata, and exploit signals before humans fall for them.Never trust the cloud with keys: Seed phrases, private notes, and API creds don’t belong in Google Drive or synced notes. Host your own comms: Move calls to sovereign layers (Telegram native, encrypted P2P, or self-hosted infra). Host your own comms: Segregate risk: Hardware wallets for vaults, hot wallets for ops, strict revoke hygiene. Segregate risk: Identity hardening: Verify every “investor” or “partner” through secondary, on-chain proof. Identity hardening: AI sentinels: Deploy agents to analyze voiceprints, meeting metadata, and exploit signals before humans fall for them. AI sentinels: Never trust the cloud with keys: Seed phrases, private notes, and API creds don’t belong in Google Drive or synced notes. Never trust the cloud with keys: In short: stop assuming Zoom is neutral. Design comms the same way you design custody - zero-trust by default. 🔮 Final Thought: Every Ping Is a Payload 🔮 Final Thought: Every Ping Is a Payload Choi’s final warning was simple: stay paranoid, protect your size. stay paranoid, protect your size. The lesson is bigger than one founder. If calls are now exploits, the next phase of Web3 isn’t about faster L2s or new memecoins. It’s about sovereign stacks that harden human coordination as much as cryptographic consensus. Because if a Google Meet can vaporize a million dollars overnight, the future of decentralized economies won’t be decided by TPS. It’ll be decided by who controls the mic. And here’s the kicker: AI-driven crypto scams have surged 456% in under a year, fueled by deepfakes, voice cloning, and impersonation. The threat isn’t theoretical. It’s exponential. AI-driven crypto scams have surged 456% in under a year 💬 Let’s Stay Connected - Signal Over Noise Let’s Stay Connected - Signal Over Noise If this sparked something for you  -  a new insight, a deeper question, or a clearer signal, I’d love to keep the conversation going. 👉 Follow me across platforms for essays, frameworks, and raw frontier thinking: hackernoon.com/@ronnie_huss Follow me hackernoon.com/@ronnie_huss

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