You WILL lose all your BTCs in Ripple.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

With Bitcoin, 1 BTC is 1 BTC. They're accepted in every BTC accepting site.

With USD, 1 USD is 1 USD. They're accepted in every USD accepting site.

With Ripple, 1 BTC-Bitstamp is 1 BTC-Bitstamp. You lose them when Bitstamp [gets hacked | by owners | raided by DHS].

You will lose your BTC-Bitstamp, because no site lasts forever. Eventually, it will get shut down, hacked, etc.

[Boelens]

Wait what? I got 2.7BTC in my BitStamp (which is quite a lot to me), will it be gone?

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Wait what? I got 2.7BTC in my BitStamp (which is quite a lot to me), will it be gone?

Over a long enough of time it will be. Better to store BTCs in your wallet.

[zero3112]

Yup true unless you actually have the coins in your wallet then you don't own them or have them.  All you have is a claim on bitcoins on that exchange that they promises to give you at a later date. Works the same way as a bank only the exchange don't insure your deposits.  

So if they default or get hacked they're gone.  At least if you hold your own bitcoins you don't have to worry about losing them. Just make sure you secure them good, have a backup too just in case your copy gets lost, and have them encrypted with a password.  Make sure you don't forget the password either or you will not have access to your bitcoin keys stored in the wallet which would mean your coins are good as gone.

I heard the best and safest way to store your bitcoins private keys is on paper.  Yes, on paper actually print out the private and public keys that give you access to your bitcoins.  Or just use a paper bitcoin address generator which helps you create a new bitcoin address that you can print out.  You can then send the coins to that bitcoin account that you have stored on paper.  Its best that your private keys that give you access to your bitcoins are never stored on a computer.

[Boelens]

Wait what? I got 2.7BTC in my BitStamp (which is quite a lot to me), will it be gone?

Over a long enough of time it will be. Better to store BTCs in your wallet.

How come? I'm a bit afraid to keep them in my wallet, incase my hard drive fails or I get hacked ( I got it encrypted though), what would be the safest way to store them?

[Hyperbolical]

Wait what? I got 2.7BTC in my BitStamp (which is quite a lot to me), will it be gone?

Over a long enough of time it will be. Better to store BTCs in your wallet.

How come? I'm a bit afraid to keep them in my wallet, incase my hard drive fails or I get hacked ( I got it encrypted though), what would be the safest way to store them?

You can avoid the risk of hard drive failure by backing up the wallet.

[Boelens]

Wait what? I got 2.7BTC in my BitStamp (which is quite a lot to me), will it be gone?

Over a long enough of time it will be. Better to store BTCs in your wallet.

How come? I'm a bit afraid to keep them in my wallet, incase my hard drive fails or I get hacked ( I got it encrypted though), what would be the safest way to store them?

You can avoid the risk of hard drive failure by backing up the wallet.

Hrm - alright, but how do I use the backup if it ever goes wrong? And do I need to backup aftere very new amount I receive? I really don't want to lose anything :/

[perhan007]

Wait what? I got 2.7BTC in my BitStamp (which is quite a lot to me), will it be gone?

Over a long enough of time it will be. Better to store BTCs in your wallet.

How come? I'm a bit afraid to keep them in my wallet, incase my hard drive fails or I get hacked ( I got it encrypted though), what would be the safest way to store them?

You can avoid the risk of hard drive failure by backing up the wallet.

Hrm - alright, but how do I use the backup if it ever goes wrong? And do I need to backup aftere very new amount I receive? I really don't want to lose anything :/

just press "start", type %appdata%, confirm "roaming", go to bitcoin and save your (encrypted) wallet.dat to a stick and store it somewhere save...