Bitcoin Forum

If you have any brains as a crypto holder you either store your crypto on in a hardware wallet or you use 2 factor authentication, (2fa). If you don't, you are crazy. HOWEVER. Once you do, you run a greater risk of losing all of your holdings than a hacker getting them. As a beginner using any 2FA, you NEED to understand the value of the initial code that is given to you as a backup code for any new account that you add. Each one has a backup code associated with it. It will only be shown once and you will never see it again. You need to write it down and put it in a safe place OTHER than your phone and be careful keeping it on your PC. If you lose your phone or if it gets broken and you don't have the backup code, it's gone and you are locked out. So if you don't have it, login to whatever wallet or account it is and remove it and immediately add a new one and save that initial code. I just saved you some crypto believe me! 

Or don't even use online services. A two-factor authentication may protect you from hackers specifically targeting your account but If the target is the exchange hot wallet, the servers or If its an inside job, It won't be much useful.

The 2FA service is created to minimize hacking or other losses caused by the system. And otherwise if the user performs carelessness or unintentionally the user who makes them lose the asset is out of control of the system. It's stupid, if someone keeps a security code or authentication in only one device.
And I think they do not really lose in this case, just can not access their assets except doing things that can make their wallets open again

Following yours, the best option is write it down on paper.  :-*

But for most sites, for example cryptocurrency exchanges, you can recover your 2FA by using ID or passport.

But that paper can be lost or ca be burned (extreme circumstances). Is it not safe to store them on mail or some cloud with proper encryption of course? I personally write them on notepad, encrypt it and then email it to myself.

If you write down, you'd better write twice, just in case. I'd rather copy to Word, and print out 2 copy, then I keep 1 at home and the other at office. How's that?

Don't you think by keeping one copy at office, you are taking a risk? I mean, what if someone gets hold of that print out and makes a copy of it and you're not even aware of that? Just a possibility but anything can happen. So better be safe than sorry.

I have a better suggestion. Download some app like evernote, save all your passwords and keys there. Now create an email ID and don't use it for any other purposes. Sign in in evernote using that email ID and encrypt the app. There. Now you can access your keys anywhere, on any device with no chances of losing them. Also safe and secure.

Please tell me which program to use for encryption? A program that is easy to download and use for a beginner. Thank you

You can encrypt text inside Evernote app. You select the text, right click mouse and press Encrypt selected text. That's all.

I agree. There are always more ways to protect your crytos. We all should do what is available out there to protect our funds.

Encrypted or not, once you start storing your 2FA code in the cloud to be able to access it from anywhere you are kinda killing the purpose of 2FA. Or to be more precise -- once the same device that you use to enter your password can also be used to access your 2FA key, you lose the "2 Factor" part of 2FA. Just a heads up.

How many times you had to access your 2FA backup codes? Because in like 4 years, I never had to use my 2FA backup codes. You'll store your codes encrypted in the cloud, with email registered specifically for this purpose. And obviously, if you'll lose your phone or whatever, you don't try to connect from every device possible to your cloud where backup codes are. I don't know, but for me, it looks to store backup codes like that as safe as to store them on the paper.