Hello forum, I've read and read, and studied and learned.. for about 2 weeks... but now I gotta ask a few very beginner questions
Hello bitcointalk!
My story, I have some BTC / ETH and ETC on QuadrigaCX (Vancouver based, Canadian exchange)
It was a great option for a crypto noob, to lose my crypto virginity. After some study, I had finally been convinced I want some of the action. I got in about a week or two before the Ethereum HardFork, and actually didn't even know it was coming. I got confused trying to figure out what exactly happened/what the dao was, and in fact am still kinda a lil confused about it all, but I have read enough articles to somewhat have a basic understanding of the current situation. Luckily for me, QuadCX provided us with ETC's, as I heard some exchanges didn't handout any ETC to people who had ETH. Without getting to side tracked, let me get to some ?'s.
There is an issue with the fork where moving one coin, say ETH, could also move the other fork, ETC. So if you do withdraw your ETH and ETC, you have to be careful to not accidentally send both ETH and ETC to someone. I don't know how the exchange will handle that though. They could be sending you post fork coins or pre-fork coins. If it is pre-fork coins, then you will have to be aware that this issue will probably affect you.
Now, I'm considering taking my coins off QuadCX and moving them into a wallet. I read about some horror stories/scams on here, of exchanges going down or never paying out when people ask for withdraws. It this a smart move? I'm concerned, if I move my crypto into a wallet can that software get hacked as well? I'd like to move to 2sV (2 step verification) wallet, as I think that'd have better security.
If this is dumb, and I should just leave my coins on the exchange, pls let me know.
Yes, you should definitely move your coins off of the exchange. Exchanges are not really meant to be wallets. You should also use a desktop wallets. Desktop wallets do not have any sort of 2 factor authentication, but they also mean that you do not have to trust any other service with your money. Desktop wallets put you in control of your own money, so you must be careful and attentive if you have a desktop wallets. They cannot be hacked; the only way you can get any of your coins stolen is by somehow getting malware on your computer. You should have a modern and up to date antivirus, making sure that your computer is always clean.
Another reason I wanna get familiar with crypto wallets is I wanna purchase Ripple. I'm thinking either with fiat, or ETC. TBH, if I knew how to move my ETC to Poloniex, I'd already have spent 25% of my ETC on buying XRP, then sent the XRP to a XRP wallet... but I'm not that crypto savy yet. As far as I know, this wouldn't affect my current ETH in anyway. True?
Learning about Ripple, I learned a little bit about the outdated Ripple Trade, then about GateHub, and how Ripple Trade accounts, were moved to GateHub.. So GateHub is a wallet+exchange? Also, I read this..
http://blog.gatehub.net/post/147641039422/gatehub-fifth-handling-of-the-ethereum-hard-forkWhich really questions my desire to do business with them at all. ( Did they choose a "winning chain" yet? Has this resolved yet? Isn't this scammy?)
I don't know much about Ripple, so I can't help you there.
Terminoligy ?'s
HODLer = someone who never sells, like a crypto hoarder?
To hodl is to hold your coins without ever spending them in the hopes that the price increases substantially. Basically hoarding.
FUD = ? No clue.
Fear Uncertainty, and Doubt. It usually means misinformation, and lies spread by people in order to push a certain agenda. You will see a lot of this in the block size debates.
KYC = something to do with a transaction, that has ID built into it?
It has nothing to do with transactions and everything to do with an exchange. Exchanges usually have to follow Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) laws. This means that they will have to collect your personal information in order to verify your identity and make sure that you are not money laundering or doing anything shady.