Bitcoin Forum

I heard a little about Bitcoin years ago and stayed away from it. I was still cautious about Bitcoin early in 2017, but realised that it was rising fast in value. Rather than try and understand Bitcoin fully I just excepted that it was rising fast and it looked like it could go much further, so I invested a small but substantial sum.

We all know what happened next, apart from a scare in August, WOW!!
When I actually put my money into it my research began properly, yes I know that's daft, but I just listened to the clever people that loved Bitcoin rather than the grey suits in the banking industry who had every reason to hate it and just did not seem all that clued up on it to be honest.

I also now think Bitcoin is ethical, genius and a potential to be a massive force for good, but most importantly and selfishly for me a brilliant slightly risky investment.

Now here is my question and concern and I would love some advice good or bad. My small but substantial investment is now grown into a very nice sum in my ONE [Suspicious link removed] wallet, and that scares me a little to be now bordering on a little paranoia. I have never spent Bitcoin, I have never exchanged it back to £ pounds and the biggest worry for me that all that money is sat in one wallet in a company that is in another country.

I need now to start thinking security, for example how much should you have in one wallet, should I be using an online wallet, are [Suspicious link removed] ever reputable?

a wallet such as Armory, a password that has been randomly generated to the full encryption capability, don't advertise your bitcoin wealth to potential scammers. Paper backup (except engraved on metal) and kept in a secure location; example: the same place you would store something like gold. Good luck.

Worrying of the security of your BTC or of your life which one do you refer.
For me I've been more curious on my life if I happen to get 3.0BTC I probably not entering some open hotspot here on our local country there's so much to evade for other than the coffee  shop, internet shop and so on. it could probably hacked your private keys through entering the vulnerabilities of the router that you are using.

My simple advise is if you are impatient, withdraw u r partial profits or u r investment or whatever required for your personal needs and let the rest run reaping you profits. I also advise have multiple wallets so that the insecurity is removed from u r mind. The game is all about patience and withdrawing and buying at the rite time. I would have held 50% and rest i would withdrawn and cleared some of my liabilities.

Use some kind of physical wallet (paper wallet, as mentioned above, or hardware wallet).
Create backup, don't create only one paper wallet, but some, and put it into trusted a safe locations.
Or, if you want to move your bitcoins (or part of them) sometime in the future easily, you can buy a hardware wallet (Trezor, Ledger Nano S), make sure the device has an own screen to verify the addresses and to be able to securely write down the seed (12-24 words, a kind of backup for your hardware wallet). What you really need is the seed, not the device itself, because if the hardware wallet e.g. crashes, you can buy another one and set up with your seed, you will see all your coins on the new device again.
Place your seed in a really safe place, in local and remote locations. If you haven't got someone you trust 100%, you can divide your seed into two parts and give half of them to 2 people (preferably, they should not know each other),  to store it safely, because they can do nothing with the half of your seed.
Don't worry, but think about the possible risks and take the necessary steps to handle them.

What you should do is determined by how long before you cash out, if at all.

If its very long term (for a Bitcoin holder) 2-5 years then definitely draw it down into a cold wallet on your desktop, ensure the wallet is password protected, make a few copies of your wallet.dat file then dump your private key and have it laser engraved on a lump of steel / wood /tattooed QR code/ written down, create a text file and burn a cd copy or 3 and stick it into a safe. Ultimately its your private / spend key is what controls your coins.

I have done this myself. Am a holder since 2012/13.

I only keep coins on exchanges for daily use, lunch and coffee etc. yes i actually spend my bitcoin.

Me personally i do not trust electronics for these kinds of things, as in the Trezor / Ledger wallets, but thats just me.

HTH

If you have more bitcoins, you will definitely need more than one wallet, and the hardware wallet is of course the safest. Remember to back up your key. Of course, if you do business often, it's better to use a paper wallet. This will be convenient, and you don't have to go to your hardware wallet every time.