Newbie here:::
I bought bitcoin from Coinbase back in July haphazardly to play online poker on Betcoin. I couldn’t get it to work on my Mac computer and forgot about it and left it in betcoin. Sense the market is going up I’ve gone back and tried I had good success in doing that I got it back into Coinbase and I actually ended up buying more but I have not been able to find my private key. I’m not sure where that would’ve been given to me by Coinbase. Would that of been back in July when I first bought? I’ve have since taken all my bit coin and transferred it to Brittrex and I also still cannot find any type of private key for my bitcoin where can I start? where can I retrieve this? And should I move out of Brittrex for future?
Thanks in advance.
No, this is normal. Both coinbase and bittrex are exchanges, which for their own security, and convenience for themselves and their users, offer no access to your private key. ( Which means that if they go down, your bitcoins will go down with them, you actually don't control/own your bitcoins if you store them there.
You will either need to use a software wallet,
http://electrum.org , hardware wallet, such as a trezor/ ledger nano S, or ( which i do not recommend), an online wallet, such as
http://blockchain.info < It is still quite hard to get the private keys out of these web wallets, so i would recommend sticking to the other two options i gave.
I’ve have since taken all my bit coin and transferred it to Brittrex and I also still cannot find any type of private key for my bitcoin where can I start? where can I retrieve this? And should I move out of Brittrex for future?
If you do not intend on trading, and want maximum security, then i would absolutely recommend you to do so, Yes.
