Where is it safe to store money?

[universalresonance]

Hi,


Just wondering , is it safer to keep money at an exchange like place poloniex or kraken what not or a wallet like Electrum?

It is very neat to have it all in one place like an exchange, for example, I currently mine and use their address to deposit my earnings for bitcoin I used to give my Electrum address but now I'm thinking it's better to just keep them at one spot?

Pros and cons of one vs another?


TIA

[1714735264]

1714735264

[mocacinno]

Hi,


Just wondering , is it safer to keep money at an exchange like place poloniex or kraken what not or a wallet like Electrum?

It is very neat to have it all in one place like an exchange, for example, I currently mine and use their address to deposit my earnings for bitcoin I used to give my Electrum address but now I'm thinking it's better to just keep them at one spot?

Pros and cons of one vs another?


TIA

the cons of storing your funds in an exchange or online wallet:

• the owners of the exchange have access to your private keys, so they can use your unspent outputs (steal). so you lose everything
• if the exchange gets hacked, you lose everything
• if the exchange goes bancrupt, you lose everything
• if you do something against the exchange's TOS, they can block you (you lose everything)
• you're only able to do the things that were pre-programmed by the exchange's administrators. There's a big chance you won't be able to sign messages with your address, double spend inputs, pick your own fees,...

If you're not (the only one) in controll of your private keys, you're not (the only one) in controll of your funds.

The only "upside" i can imagine by storing all your funds on an exchange is that it's convenient... So you can pick: convenience or security.

[Seansky]

Pros and cons of one vs another?


TIA

You have already said the pros of storing money on an exchange but the cons is that when the exchange decides to shut down without warning and run away with your money. The pros of storing on electrum and the likes are that they are relatively safer because you have control over your funds but the cons is that it is a hassle to move bitcoin out of there when compared to the ease of moving in and out of funds from exchanges.

[universalresonance]

Hi,


Just wondering , is it safer to keep money at an exchange like place poloniex or kraken what not or a wallet like Electrum?

It is very neat to have it all in one place like an exchange, for example, I currently mine and use their address to deposit my earnings for bitcoin I used to give my Electrum address but now I'm thinking it's better to just keep them at one spot?

Pros and cons of one vs another?


TIA

the cons of storing your funds in an exchange or online wallet:

• the owners of the exchange have access to your private keys, so they can use your unspent outputs (steal). so you lose everything
• if the exchange gets hacked, you lose everything
• if the exchange goes bancrupt, you lose everything
• if you do something against the exchange's TOS, they can block you (you lose everything)
• you're only able to do the things that were pre-programmed by the exchange's administrators. There's a big chance you won't be able to sign messages with your address, double spend inputs, pick your own fees,...

If you're not (the only one) in controll of your private keys, you're not (the only one) in controll of your funds.

The only "upside" i can imagine by storing all your funds on an exchange is that it's convenient... So you can pick: convenience or security.

Damn that's a long list.

I thought these exchanges work under the same policy as the brokers did. For example I'm covered upto 500k for securities and 100k for deposits -by brokers I mean stock brokers using their platform. I thought these exchange people would have something similar.

What about wallet companies? Electrum ? what if it fails?

[mocacinno]

Damn that's a long list.

I thought these exchanges work under the same policy as the brokers did. For example I'm covered upto 500k for securities and 100k for deposits -by brokers I mean stock brokers using their platform. I thought these exchange people would have something similar.

What about wallet companies? Electrum ? what if it fails?

I'm not a trader, but in the time i've been involved with BTC, i've seen several exchanges getting hacked, starting to lock a lot of user's accounts and/or just plain run away... It is very rare to see the victims reimbursed.

As for your second question: electrum is an open source wallet (most, but not all, wallets are open source). If ThomasV decides to stop support, somebody else can continue where he left off. If nobody is interested, you can still use your recovery seed to generate your xprv, and derive your private keys/public keys/addresses from this xprv.
In short: in the (very slim) chance electrum ever seizes to exist due to no dev wanting to continue the project, electrum users will still be able to generate a private key to spend all unspent outputs that were spendable by addresses generated by their electrum wallet... However, it would take some technical know-how to do this.

[Cryptopher]

Generally storing a significant sum of coins in an exchange for a prolonged period is a bad idea, however this is what I currently do (while accepting this risk).

Cold storage, if done correctly, is one of the safest (if not the safest) form of storing coins long term.

It's really a trade-off between accessibility and security, though there are physical wallets that offer the pros of both.

[malikusama]

It is not safe to store your currency on exchange for long period of time. Don't put all eggs in one basket, to save all your funds at one place is the worst idea. There are many exchanges which are got hacked in the past, so try to put your coins in different places not on exchange.

[warrior333]

I keep all my bitcoins in an online wallet at different sites. All the sites just will not run. It certainly creates some inconveniences due to the large price transactions, but first I'm not wasting my coins and maybe in the future I'm going to use large transactions, and secondly after August 1 was going to solve the issue. Wait and see.

[swogerino]

I keep my bitcoins in my wallet , Electrum and so far I have not encountered any problem with it. If you leave your coins in online wallets or exchanges there is always a risk to them, exchanges may get hacked while online wallets maybe attacked and flooded with DDOS.

[mindrust]

The most safest ways are the offline wallets. This might be a hardware wallet, a piece of paper, memorizing etc. Whatever works for you. Personally, I am fine with paper wallets.

The relatively safe ways are desktop wallets wallets like electrum, core client etc. Those are only as safe as your computer. If your computer is infected, and you don't have any password protection on your wallets you are unprotected. Even if you set passwords, there are copy/paste viruses. Most people didn't even realize that they were sending their bitcoins to the hacker's address. Unless you are a cautious person, you are still unprotected.

The most unsafe way is holding your coins on exchanges. Avoid. Not joking. Some exchanges may even lock your account if you stay inactive for a long time.

[ImHash]

Keeping them on exchanges for what? they're not banks to keep your coins safe forever, I always deposit do my trades and withdraw when I'm done, keeping coins as a wallet in online services is the most idiotic thing one can do IMO.

[skyline247]

Store your Bitcoins on a paper wallet always. Alternatively, if you don't want to have them on paper, but more liquid so you can spend them, then download a client like MultiBT where you will be able to store them safely (as long as your computer doesn't have viruses).

[Noore Najjar]

Store on a exchanger ? Definitely big no , too much risk my personal opinion is getting hardware wallet such a ledger nano and trezor , both are reputable hardware wallet put there i think its safest because you store it securely on your own and you can bring it anywhere anytime  

[Wendigo]

The safest are Trezor and Ledger hardware wallets. If you don't mind the fees, you could store the bulk of your coins on the hardware wallet and continue to use Electrum to send back and forth coins to be sold on the exchanges. But you will be trading safety for convenience though. It's all up to you 

[batang_bitcoin]

Hi,


Just wondering , is it safer to keep money at an exchange like place poloniex or kraken what not or a wallet like Electrum?

I want also to put it all on an exchange but on a local ones. But it's advisable to keep your bitcoin before this fork on an offline wallet.

It is very neat to have it all in one place like an exchange, for example, I currently mine and use their address to deposit my earnings for bitcoin I used to give my Electrum address but now I'm thinking it's better to just keep them at one spot?

Pros and cons of one vs another?


TIA

I know what you are trying to explain, if your bitcoin is in the exchange you can use it immediately but the only bad thing about it, is that you don't hold private keys or seed. And if the exchange collapses you can't recover your coins that's why offline/desktop wallet is better.

[Paid Piper]

It is not safe to store your currency on exchange for long period of time. Don't put all eggs in one basket, to save all your funds at one place is the worst idea. There are many exchanges which are got hacked in the past, so try to put your coins in different places not on exchange.

i think you do not remember that what happen to bitfinex when it hacked and alot of the people money was lost to me i think it good to nvest your money in blockchain wher eyou can get additional security to your bitcoins.

[xderek]

Of course a hardware wallet is advised or why not store on your pc offline, if that is the case. 

[darkangel11]

The safest are Trezor and Ledger hardware wallets. If you don't mind the fees, you could store the bulk of your coins on the hardware wallet and continue to use Electrum to send back and forth coins to be sold on the exchanges. But you will be trading safety for convenience though. It's all up to you 

It's not only about the fees. Hardware wallets don't grow on trees, you know
Anyway, I agree that it's a good idea to buy one if you move your coins often. If you just want to store and are prepared to be doing it for a year or more, don't buy a hardware wallet. You'll pay money for a gadget that you don't need and by the time you start using your coins there will be new, better versions available.

[ArnoldChippy]

I keep my bitcoins in my wallet , Electrum and so far I have not encountered any problem with it. If you leave your coins in online wallets or exchanges there is always a risk to them, exchanges may get hacked while online wallets maybe attacked and flooded with DDOS.

that is what i also have the same case. i am also using onlne wallet for my bitcoins and for every time i really found it reliable and never feel any risk there. therefore i will like to continue with the same point.

[universalresonance]

I just had DGB BTC Zec Monero -some of them I've never even heard of to stay at Poloniex.

I'm a newbie at mining and I am not earning 100k yet but just enough to get my RIG pay for itself. To my wonder everything started falling in downward trajectory since I started mining lol , so I thought if I keep it on the exchange at the least I'd be able to get a idea of the value every day and eventually when they rise I can change them into BTC or USD


I am not using that money, just a place to park until value bounces up.

You guys talk about exchange falling like it's nothing, I'm not doubting it but this whole world is very new to me and even the possibility of that happening makes me doubt everything. In Stock trading (nasdaq and all) if a broker had even a remote possibility of crashing, it would have zero clients. Here I thought Poloniex and Kraken were the top dawgs.

I guess, I'll make individual wallets for DGB ZEC and already have BTC

btw if I install Electrum on a different computer I won't be able to access my BTC right? so anytime I need btc I'd have to open electrum from my home based desktop?