About to buy my 1st Bitcoin

[joe101]

Finally!  I have found an easy way to buy bitcoin.

Someone introduced me to coinbase.  I signed up to it and i entered my banking details.

I uploaded 400 dollars to my usd account, and now i am finally going to purchase my first bitcoin.

I am very happy about this.  It's about time i can easily buy bitcoin from my bank,


So my question is:   Once i buy my first bitcoin, what exactly do i do with it?


Do i leave it in my coinbase account?  Is it safe there?

Or do i transfer it to my desktop computer?


I'm not familiar with this yet.   I plan to always keep a balance of 1 bitcoin in my account for 5 years to 10 years,

the rest of the bitcoin i buy i will spend online.



What is everyone's advice?   

[redsn0w]

It's your 'money' and you can do whatever you want... why are you asking here what should you do with your BTC?

[FruitsBasket]

Finally!  I have found an easy way to buy bitcoin.

Someone introduced me to coinbase.  I signed up to it and i entered my banking details.

I uploaded 400 dollars to my usd account, and now i am finally going to purchase my first bitcoin.

I am very happy about this.  It's about time i can easily buy bitcoin from my bank,


So my question is:   Once i buy my first bitcoin, what exactly do i do with it?


Do i leave it in my coinbase account?  Is it safe there?

Or do i transfer it to my desktop computer?


I'm not familiar with this yet.   I plan to always keep a balance of 1 bitcoin in my account for 5 years to 10 years,

the rest of the bitcoin i buy i will spend online.




What is everyone's advice?   

Download a bitcoin wallet and transfer it to that wallet, also print out the private key of that address(do not share your private key).
If your computer crashes and u have your private key, u will be able to get your coins back

Also backup your wallet.dat and your private key on a usb stick. So u safe

[MissionPhailed]

Safest way is to preserve your Bitcoin offline, with password. Don't lose your password, it would really ruin your day  

I wouldn't engage in activities like gambling and trading yet if I were you. The first method can wipe out your Bitcoin in a matter of seconds, the second requires experience, knowledge and a bit of luck also. You could scout the Service section of this forum and see if you can increase your amount of crypto by paid work/tasks.

[ajareselde]

I wouldn't say it's unsafe, but i would still advise you to transfer it away from exchange account, especially since you plan to hold it for that long.
First you have to make sure your system is clean, and then take a look at available clients https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Clients
I would recommend that you make a paper wallet and place it on a safe place, in my mind it's still the safest thing to do.
Congrats on getting your first bitcoin.

[niallo27]

Get an electrum wallet, i used it for the first time few days ago and its easy set up and easy to transfer funds.

[notaek]

First of all it's not a good time to buy Bitcoins at a higher rate ($400) but it's alright since you've already bought it.

So my question is:   Once i buy my first bitcoin, what exactly do i do with it? Do i leave it in my coinbase account?  Is it safe there? Or do i transfer it to my desktop computer?

Well, as of now you can pretty much leave it there or if you are paranoid enough, then you may store it in Coinbase's vault which is much safer than your primary wallet due to activation of several authentications. (Email, 2FA etc.)

I plan to always keep a balance of 1 bitcoin in my account for 5 years to 10 years,    

Then I would advice you to buy a Ledger Wallet which is the most secure way to hold Bitcoins. You can have a look into their setup videos in order to know more about it and how secure it is.

And if you really want to store it somewhere safe and don't want to touch it, then you may buy one of these physical coins, print out a private key from your offline computer and preserve it under the coin with a tamper-evident hologram sticker. You can contact Mitchełł and buy one of these coins from him.

Hope this helps you out.

[RodeoX]

You are asking the right questions.

Choosing the right wallet is an important decision. With most of the options you are trading between convenience and security. The safest way is to download the whole blockchain and run a full wallet like bitcoin core. Then do an offline transfer to a cold paper wallet. But is that overkill for $400? It would mean constantly syncing the wallet and it would be a bit of a hassle to spend.
For a spending wallet I like to use my smartphone and I keep no more than the value of the phone on it. It is less secure, but super easy to spend. Just scan the QR code and hit send! For any wallet the key concept is WHO HAS ACCESS TO THE PRIVATE KEYS?. It could be shared, or out of your control, or totally under your control. If you do not have control of the private keys then you do not have bitcoin. Make sure you have this with your wallet choice (IMO).

As far as what to do with bitcoin... For me it is the ONLY money I now use online. I can find almost anything for sale in BTC. For the rest I use the Gyft app and just quickly buy a gift code. You might be surprised how many places now take them.

[Moneyburner]

Congrats. I started recently too, same thing with coinbase (i found it simpliest). I use electrum wallet and the coinbase vault. I try to avoid keeping to much in the vault tho.

I've tried a few things and noted the following...

-Don't gamble unless you are ready to lose it. I did this for a few weeks and thought everything was going good and within 1 minute poof... all gone.
-Investing you have to know what your doing. I bought a few random alt coins just to see if I got lucky and lost money.
-I've done lending as well, and while the return is not great it's enough to be worth doing and you just have to split it around a few sites.

I use poloniex & btcpop.co

[takingthis4]

congratulations about buying it i did that too a few weeks ago and everything went smoothly

[franky1]

because you want to hold for 5-10 years. i would suggest downloading a bitcoin wallet to your computer. make a bitcoin address in the program and send the funds to that address from coinbase.

for just holding 1btc. i dont see any big need for you to run the full bitcoin-core.

but i would suggest you learn what a 'privkey' is, and use a bitcoin wallet that allows you to BACKUP and store that in different locations where you can find them in 10 years. that way if your computer fails(usually happens after a few years) you have the privkey elsewhere.

the reason (which explains privkeys)

is to think of the privkey as the password to control bitcoins transactions of the address..

leaving funds in coinbase means its their privkey, under their control which you dont have access/control to their privkey. you only have a separate database balance saved solely on their website (imagine it like credit/IOU) which ethically they are suppose to give you their bitcoin when you withdraw. but no one can be sure if they remain ethical to honour their balances on their database long term.

so again unless the funds are moved to a address where you have full access to the private key, there are long term risks in trusting third parties to honour their balances of customers.

im sure others will guide you further

[wadii33]

for your situation you should download a bitcoin wallet and transferred in your new Bitcoin adress

[calkob]

It's your 'money' and you can do whatever you want... why are you asking here what should you do with your BTC?

untill its in a wallet over which the op controls the private keys it is not his money.  if someone else has your private key its not your bitcoin.

my advise is research paper wallets and then movr your coin to that address.  its free and only you control it.

[BestWebCreator]

Don't keep your bitcoin on any online site, just hold them in your wallet on your computer. Backup the privatekey and the wallet file on your mail or somewhere safe.

[Jeremycoin]

Once i buy my first bitcoin, what exactly do i do with it?

Well you can spend it to whatever you want, or you can just store it 'til the price increase

Do i leave it in my coinbase account?  Is it safe there?
Or do i transfer it to my desktop computer?

Yeah, I think you have to send them to your desktop computer wallet. It's just like when you withdraw cash from a bank to your wallet.
And if you want to be more safer, you can try Armory. Or if you do not plan to send the Bitcoin often, you can try Paper Wallet.

[tommorisonwebdesign]

OP is an obvious total n00b to Bitcoin. Here are my suggestions: transfer your Bitcoins to a Bitcoin Core wallet. Don't trust Coinbase with your coins. You could easily loose your money to a hacker. Follow the speculation section of this forum. You would learn a lot o when and when not to trade Bitcoin to your local fiat currency. Bitcoin is still under development and is a big investment. I think it will be worth a lot in a few years. I may nor know when, but I do no it is a worthwhile investment.

[calkob]

You are asking the right questions.
 The safest way is to download the whole blockchain and run a full wallet like bitcoin core. Then do an offline transfer to a cold paper wallet.

Why would you bother downloading the whole blockchain to your computer (50GB) to then send your BTC to a paper wallet, what an absolute waste of time and computer resource........

if i you wana be super secure then do this

1. scan your computer for virus and malware
2. then go to www.bitaddress.org, once there disconnect your computer from the internet.  then generate a new wallet this website has been around for years and is well trusted among the bitcoin community and it works client side and offline.
3.  save a screen shot of the new address and private key onto a new USB and print a copy onto paper.  store both in different secure locations.  

now you have one of if not thee most secure bitcoin locations.  and it cost nothing (well mybe a bit of ink and a piece of paper and a couple quid for the smallest usb)
dont waste money on a hardwear wallet which can cost $100's id rather spend that money on more bitcoin.

for day to day use just use a mobile app like bread wallet or blockchain.info app.  only store in it as much as you are comfortable with in a cash wallet.  with these apps even if you lose the mobile device you can still get your bitcoins again.

hope this helps

[Dissonance]

Leaving 1btc in your coinbase is probabaly safer then attempting to store it on a wallet on your home computer unless your an advanced user.  Just a warning if you plan on gambling with it then be sure to transfer it to another wallet first.

[unholycactus]

Just in case you haven't understood with all the posts above, it is not safe to leave your coins on Coinbase.

You should transfer your funds to a wallet where you and you alone control the private keys.

[HarryKPeters]

Just in case you haven't understood with all the posts above, it is not safe to leave your coins on Coinbase.

You should transfer your funds to a wallet where you and you alone control the private keys.

Yes and don't forget to encrypt your wallet with a strong password (a 25 digits hash will do). After that save the wallet.dat offline and offcourse dont, and i mean don't save your encrypted key on the same pc/device.