Bitcoin Forum

Every newbies first investment plan is buying coins and tokens but imagine how better things will be if they can change that to buying hardware wallet first, Ledger nano s is 40$ while nano X is 149$, I know some will say it's too pricey, how pricey can it be when you lose all your BTC or other coins? Consider hardware wallet as your first crypto investment step.

Newbies' first step should be to actually learn what the hell they're buying.

It really depends. Buying the coins first isn't necessarily bad, because it's recommended for people to try things out first and get a good grasp on how things work before actually going heavy into investing. I mean, I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone to invest a good amount of money into bitcoin if he/she hasn't even tried doing an on-chain transaction first; and you'd obviously need to have coins first before making a transaction.

I remember myself. I decided to create or get myself a wallet as a first step. I was sure that it was necessary because now I will be rich. But over time, I realized that wealth does not happen so quickly. To get something in your wallet, you need to understand the intricacies of storing your wallet, as well as understand what you want to put there, and how to manage it all further. The result of my story was such that I lost my phrase and thereby lost interest in further acquiring a real cold wallet.
Rookies are all hot guys in the right way. Everyone is in a hurry. It seems that everyone naively believes the news, which in every way urges them to invest their money in various projects. And, as a rule, many people make similar mistakes, losing their first investment.
Therefore, you always need to understand where you are investing. Don't be hasty. You need to know all the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies. In general, be in common sense that you can lose everything. And only after realizing all the little things, you can go and buy yourself a vault for your capital.

If a newbies just do not want to go beyond $100 worth of bitcoin holding, he may consider hardware not necessary.

It also still depends on what newbie is exposed to from the start, he may be lucky to have someone that knows a lot about bitcoin, wallet and about cryptocurrencies in general. He may decide to set up Electrum cold storage or go for 2-of-3 multisig. It all depends.

Hardware wallet may also not be necessary if the newbie want to hold, he can decide to go for a paper wallet. He may even have huge amount of coins on paper wallet and have just little on an online wallet.

Hardware wallet is good but there are still reasons newbie may not go for it at first, but going for it is not also bad but may not be  necessary.

If you are planning to hold a significant amount of crypto, storing the private keys offline on an airgapped system or a hardware wallet are two of the best choices you can make. On the other hand, if you only have $10, $20 worth of BTC and you aren't planning to increase that stash, it makes very little sense to invest in a HW that costs more than your assets.

But as BlackHatCoiner mentioned, know what you are investing in. You talked about Ledger hardware wallets. I own one as well and they have been around for a long time. But they are closed-source. Their reputation has been severally hit when private data of millions of customers was leaked and posted online. Also the Nano X that you mentioned has issues with its battery which makes many devices malfunction. Ledger is releasing a new gadget - the Nano S Plus which will be sold for around €80. Those are some of the things you need to know about Ledger.

Other hardware wallet manufacturers have their own problems. Ledger's biggest rival is Trezor. Trezor is open-source in contrast to Ledger. But Trezor doesn't have a secure element like Ledger wallets have. Trezor also has an unfixable hardware vulnerability that allows those who know what they are doing to extract the seed phrase relatively cheaply. Using a strong passphrase is a good way to mitigate this problem.

No solution is perfect. You need to consider what works best for you by comparing the positives to the negatives.       

If they ever stumble upon the forum, I think they would have an easy step-by-step type of thing to follow because I know that's how I learned when I was still a newbie in crypto. The Beginners & Help stickied topics are enough already IMO when starting.

Newbies - Read before posting (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1689727.0)
[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0)
[General] How to earn Bitcoins (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1629118.0)

Earning BTC or any crypto to buy a hardware wallet is a step IMO.

As a newbie before buying any crypto currency you need to ask you self a question" why are you doing it", "are you ready to face anything that comes out of it but the risk", after answering the questions then you make research about what you are going into, make sure you understand every bit of it and also research more on security and privacy to secure your device from scammers then you can start.

Here are some good Topics about security and privacy
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5239098.0

1. The first step should be learning about crypto.
2. The second step should be how to keep crypto assets safe.
3. The third should be what gives crypto assets their value.
4. The fourth should be choosing your assets of choice.

Also I've never own any hardware wallet before and I'm doing fine with crypto mobile wallets.

That's why I included 'first investment plan' this is buying plans afters learning,  not learning what crypto is dude

I've never buy a hardware wallet before and that's since 6 years now, my first BTC wallet was copay and then coinomi wallet, I used them for years with no issues or loss of funds at all, I've stored up to 25,000$ worth of crypto on these two wallets no hack nothing, if you buy a hardware wallet you are still going to do the same old thing 'keep your private keys safe' so I don't see big difference.

Yes, you can never be too early with buying a hardware wallet, however, I would say that the first step should be knowledge. No investment can begin without a sufficient knowledge base, because without it, it's just lottery (even worse, it's gambling with a high chance of losing). So rather than rushing in into an investment because someone is selling you a narrative, or because it's the latest trend and Warren Buffed said so, better to even skip a good opportunity in order to properly educate yourself.

After Reading around quite a bit on the forum when I started here, that is actually the first thing I did, without having much of an idea about the amount of crypto I would buy at the time. It seemed wiser to start with a sound storage system than anything else (especially after reading some spooky stories back then).

Of course the price is something to consider, and even more so in countries where the price is steep in relation to people’s income, but it did seem like something to do to me before making my first purchases (obviously I had in mind the idea to move it off Exchanges, after also reading quite a bit on matter).

While I can't disagree hardware wallet is very much important to secure your crypto assets, you must not forget that it's more important to know how you can secure your crypto asset. Having a hardware wallet doesn’t mean you are safe if you don't know how to keep it safe. From that perspective, I believe every newbie should learn the crypto basic & the basic technical stuff; you don't need to be a pro. If you are skipping that, you are likely that you will be in trap in someday later.

You don't need to buy a ledger wallet since you are newbie just use the legit wallet providers around and safekeep your funds by not clicking any unknown links also avoid phising attempts.

Instead of buying a hardware wallet use it on other investment and once you grow your capital and increase your portfolio then by that you are ready to buy and store your asset safely, we know safety is main priority but you don't need this if you are starter since for sure you will spend a small amount just for your test investments.

Of course the first cryptocurrency step for newbies is to learn first then what follows next is practise what of has been learnt to start with a small amount to get a personal experience how cryptocurrency works. Trading is not what comes first , a newbie can have a money to start cryptocurrency and still not be successful,  so learning comes first before any other thing.

Not very important unless you have up to 2BTC available, my mentor that introduced this forum to me have been into crypto investment for years and he has never get a hardware wallet till today, he always use trust wallet and electrum wallet.

I don't think it's good advice. The value of 2 BTC is roughly $ 80,000 at the moment. Would you keep this much money in your home without any security? Especially since you can be well protected for only about $ 40.

Although there are various ways to protect your cold storage wallet, but it is quite likely that many beginners are not technically proficient in this area. For beginners, it is important to make sure that you take the necessary precautions, as it is very easy to accidentally lose your assets. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Every newbie should first learn how cryptocurrency works, after learning how it works, you can then learn how to invest, after you must have invested will you have the urge to learn how to secure your investment.
Hardware Wallets aren't as straightforward as possible, so a newbie going to buy it first may end up wanting people help to configure it and in the process will release sensitive information about the wallet and might be compromised in the future.
It is good to have sufficient knowledge about it to be sure you can handle it yourself before you buy.

Hard ware wallet is not a must or a first step to do when you join crypto.

A must step is knowing what are custodial, non-custodial wallets, differences between them and what is sort of wallet should be used. Non-custodial wallet is a wallet type to go.

Next must step is knowing how to back up a wallet (in private key, mnemonic seed, JSON, etc. - depends on each wallet) and practice to recover that wallet from a backup.
It is an important step because if you back up a wallet and don't know how to recover it, don't test your backup usability, you might get trouble later.

Next should step is don't tell anyone that you have cryptocurrency. If you tell them or reveal that on social media, you will self-expose your device, accounts, cryptocurrency and wallets to more greedy eyes.

What is the point of buying a hardware wallet, if you dont have cryptocurrency yet or dont know what it is? Buying hard wallet is definitely not the first thing to do when you enter cryptocurrency world. Learning basics, gaining knowledge, playing with demo account are the first things to be done. Newbie should not rush to spend money on cryptocurrency, devices, subscriptions. They have plenty of time to spend or lose money.

Bought a hardware wallet but barely storing major of my coins. It just proves that you can be safe without it. Just completely avoid such malicious links online and always be careful when dealing with website. You might fall on some fake ones if you didnt checked carefully. Hardware wallets are good but of course it much safer if you would understand the safety rules on handling crypto.

For a newcomer, getting a hardware wallet is not a possibility. The first step is to understand how the system operates. You can't get a deeper knowledge of something until you've learned about it and given it some thought. There is no purpose in having a hardware wallet if you don't know how to safeguard your wallet using a wallet that is connected to the internet. A newbie's goal should be to learn the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

The first thing a newbie should do is not necessarily to buy a hardware wallet address, a newbie that don't know anything about cryptocurrency, how do you expect someone like that to understand how to use a hardware wallet, seriously not everybody really knows how to use a hardware wallet, but it's better everybody learn how to use it because is more secure. The first things a newbie should do is understand what wallet security is all about, how you can secure your coin after buying and they should also understand what custial wallet and non custodial wallet is all about and the most secure one.

I disagree. Learning to use a hardware wallet isn't that challenging. You could say it's much simpler than using today's average smartphone, yet we all use them. So that can't be an excuse.

With that said, it may not be the first thing you'd want to learn as a crypto beginner, but if you have a serious bitcoin investment, that's where you need to start. Some sort of secure storage is critical in order to safeguard the majority of your portfolio.

Newbies first step should be enhance their knowledge in crypto. Learn how the blockchain works, learn what are the technical and fundamental analysis, explore their trading plan, risk management and many more. I highly suggest that they should have their own mentor in trading. This will surely help them a lot because someone will guide their crypto journey. If they can't afford having a mentor, they will take a lot of time to enhance and sharpen their skills because they will hone their own skills without copying other techniques.

Newbie starts his crypto journey with buying a hardware wallet? That is ridicilous. Why not start with a mining rig then? I bet you did not get protractor and dividers for your first day at school. Or did not start first studying periodic table instead of multiplication table lol. There are even people, who are quite experienced in crypto and been in it for ages, but did not have a hardware wallet. Newbies first step in crypto should be a desire to learn and discover.

I want you to understand that cryptocurrency trading is not for everybody, not everybody can trade cryptocurrency, so If am teaching any newbie how to trade I always make sure they invest just little money just to see if they can do it, so I won't advise newbie that those not know anything about trading to go and buy hardware wallet first, most of them are always having mindset of making and they don't believe they can lose money, so whenever their money reduce after buying coin they always lose interest and some might endup not trading again.

Let me ask you a question after buying a hardware wallet and the person lose interest what do you expect the person to do with the wallet?

Technical analysis is referred to the technicalities of trading, I think you are trying to say that  technical part of Bitcoin which of course is a mandatory part everyone may want to learn.
Hardware wallet used hasn't been long as compared to the wallet on PC and mobile, so if you don't have the power to purchase hardware, you can download Electrum wallet on your PC, it's not that hard to setup but the security is at your own palm. Make sure it's signature verified version of Electrum you are using to avoid stories that are heavy for the heart.

You seem to be discussing a very specific case here. I did not refer exclusively to traders. And to my knowledge, most coiners are not regular traders.

Well, not really. Every newbie's plan is to own Bitcoin. Of course, it means they already know about the basics of Bitcoin. But depending on their amount of investment, they could do away with a hardware wallet at the start. After all, there are open-source non-custodial wallets out there that could give them enough security. Not all newbies have more than $100 to buy their first Bitcoin. If that's the starting amount, I don't think it is worth keeping in a $40-wallet.

Hardware wallet as a first investment? No, that is absolutely wrong and this is only the least priority. What we should have to do first is all about learning, to fully understand how the market works and its uses, these gonna our ticket to survive.

- Learning ( reading, watching tutorials)
- Investment plan (short-term, long-term)
- Preferred coins
- capital
- wallet [ offline(hardware wallet), on-line wallet]