I’ve created some really cool, security-enhancing dragon challenge coins to give away to people who are furthering the cause of privacy and security. My first set of 100 coins debuted in 2021. I gave them to my patrons who are supporting my mission to help people secure their devices and data, and to people who I felt where making significant contributions in this arena.
The coins were extremely popular and supplies of the original set were running low. I decided it was time to mint a new set of coins… the Dragon Challenge Coin 2.0! I’m running a promotion for my patrons from now till the end of 2022 – I’m giving out coins to patrons who sign up for an annual membership, along with some other cool Firewalls swag! Patrons will have the option to select the rare v1.0 coins (while supplies last) or the new v2.0 coins.
These coins are hefty (2 oz) and big (2″ diameter). I tried to take good pictures, but honestly they look way better in person. It’s really hard to capture the rich metal tone. If you become a patron during December, you can get your very own Dragon Challenge Coin!
Security-Enhancing Device
But how can this coin be used to enhance your security, you ask? Well, you may have noticed a couple nteresting features about the coin design that come into play here. First, around the edge of the front you’ll see numbers, ranging from 1 to 20, in random order. And if you look carefully at the back, you’ll notice that in the middle is a slightly raised nub. This coin is actually a spinning top… or what you could call a “dice coin”! If you place the coin on a flat surface, you can spin the coin and stop it with your finger. In this way, you can “roll” a 20-sided die (a “d20” in Dungeons & Dragons parlance) to generate random numbers between 1 and 20.
Okay… so that’s cool, but how can I use that to be more secure? Well, you can use these randomly generated numbers to create a secure passphrase! I’ve created a dedicated website to help you: d20key.com! On this site, you (or anyone) can roll virtual d20 dice to generate a secure passphrase of between 3 and 7 words long. But, if you want to be truly secure (any sufficiently paranoid security person would refuse to trust a virtual die roll), you can roll your own dice and enter the values manually to look up the corresponding word in the list. Just select the “Manual” option for the dice style. And of course, this is the perfect use for the new challenge coin!
Get Your Own Coin
So the only question left to answer is: HOW DO I GET ONE?? On November 28, 2022, I launched a promotion campaign for my patrons on Patreon. If you join at the Castle Guard level, I will send you a dragon challenge coin along with some other cool swag – you can choose the color and the version (subject to availability for the v1.0 coins)! If you sign up for the Knight-Errant level, I will send you two coins with your swag pack!
There are other great benefits to being a patron, including bonus podcast content and access to the patron Discord server (see the Patreon link for full info). Patrons will also have access to a few behind-the-scenes stuff, including a detailed “making of the challenge coin” video for the v1.0 coins, so you can see how I got the idea, designed the coin, and got it manufactured!
Click the rig red button below to get your very own Dragon Challenge Coin!
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