Guides that assume nothing

Why we write guides this way

A lot of crypto instruction reads as though the hard part were technical. It isn't. The cryptography behind a wallet has never been broken in the wild, and the secure elements in modern devices are the same class of silicon that protects passports and payment cards. What fails is the loop around all of that: a phrase typed into a page that looked like support, an approval nobody read, a backup that was never tested, a device bought second-hand from a marketplace listing.

So these guides are weighted toward process rather than theory. Where a step exists, it exists because skipping it is how somebody lost money — the wipe-and-restore test before funding, the small test transaction before a large transfer, the second backup copy in a different building. Where we describe an attack, we describe the specific defence rather than telling you to be careful.

The New Zealand material follows the same principle. It would be easy to write generally about crypto regulation; it is more useful to say that Inland Revenue treats cryptoassets as property, that transfers between your own wallets are not disposals, that CARF reporting has applied since 1 April 2026 with the first reports due by 30 June 2027, that the Department of Internal Affairs becomes the single AML/CFT supervisor from 1 July 2026, and that Customs has charged a NZ$2.21 low-value goods levy on air-freighted consignments since 1 April 2026. Those are checkable facts with practical consequences, and every one is linked to its source on the relevant page.

Where a fact cannot be verified, we say so rather than filling the gap. Inland Revenue has published no guidance specific to staking rewards, so our staking page labels the prevailing professional view as an inference rather than a ruling. Sources disagree about whether Trezor is stocked by any New Zealand reseller, so our buying guide reports both claims and tells you to check current stock. Our methodology page sets out the whole approach.