This is a fantastic thread!  I really wish that I had taken more time as newbie on this site to learn the basics.  I've lost BTC in to the "abyss", and I still don't know exactly what I did wrong because at the time..I had no clue what I was doing!  


Couple wallet tips that really need to be driven home-

Exchanges /Hot-wallet sites/apps .. ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS HERE.  They don't care about you they care about your BTC!  Keeping BTC on a hot wallet goes against what BTC stands for (decentralization)  and in all reality makes your coins more so theirs than yours (you don't own a private key).   Move to cold storage! Listen to Lauda and staff here trying to help you.  They don't have ulterior motives.   They are here to truly help you.  I didn't understand that when I first arrived.  Use paper-wallets and set them up correctly. Take your time!
  
Cold storage hardware- BUY FROM MANUFACTURER ONLY!  This is HUGE.  There are now reports of Ledger Hardware wallets having been compromised and people loosing all of their coins out of no where seeminly.  If you think about it..A Chinese factory that fakes everything (and they do damn good jobs of it) can easily buy up a bunch of wallets, take them out , hack them somehow and put them back in and seal them up perfectly and you'd never know.  Or simply make their own that is 100% identical looking.  Then off to Ebay, Amazon etc.  You would never know the difference.  

https://www.ledger.fr/2018/02/05/man-middle-attack-risk/