Be Careful Where You Store Your Coins

[acoindr]

Bitcoin has a way to go for easy security. At this point most everyone involved with cryptocurrency is an early adopter. That can come with obvious rewards, but can also mean inconvenience and outright loss while bumps are smoothed out.

There are stickies about coin safety and many threads on storage options, but I feel there is still room for coin security mishaps.

As Bitcoin adoption expands from those who like getting their hands dirty under the hood, users will become much less knowledgeable about safe usage common sense.

Ultimately each user is responsible for their own actions. I consider a good rule of thumb to be keeping the majority of your coins stored yourself in cold storage. I think it's fine to use services like blockchain.info, MtGox, BTC-e, etc., but don't get lazy. Get in the habit of draining your online third party account balances often. Don't leave them sitting. You never know what can happen to a service, and with Bitcoin a lot can happen.

Next, be extremely careful with your private keys. I think it's a bad idea to put 100% trust in using an online site like BitAddress.org to generate your private keys, for example. There are then two points for leaking your keys instead of only one. To have any high level of trust in generating private keys you should use very trusted software, like the Bitcoin-Qt client, which you download locally so the software can't change without you being aware.

To recap:

1. Only trust yourself with the bulk of your coin security
2. Minimize loss from events beyond your control by draining balances held by third parties often
3. When generating private keys do it as securely as possible; this includes using a local machine free from malware and trusted software which can't easily change without you being aware

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[kodo]

Bitcoin has a way to go for easy security. At this point most everyone involved with cryptocurrency is an early adopter. That can come with obvious rewards, but can also mean inconvenience and outright loss while bumps are smoothed out.

There are stickies about coin safety and many threads on storage options, but I feel there is still room for coin security mishaps.

As Bitcoin adoption expands from those who like getting their hands dirty under the hood, users will become much less knowledgeable about safe usage common sense.

Ultimately each user is responsible for their own actions. I consider a good rule of thumb to be keeping the majority of your coins stored yourself in cold storage. I think it's fine to use services like blockchain.info, MtGox, BTC-e, etc., but don't get lazy. Get in the habit of draining your online third party account balances often. Don't leave them sitting. You never know what can happen to a service, and with Bitcoin a lot can happen.

Next, be extremely careful with your private keys. I think it's a bad idea to put 100% trust in using an online site like BitAddress.org to generate your private keys, for example. There are then two points for leaking your keys instead of only one. To have any high level of trust in generating private keys you should use very trusted software, like the Bitcoin-Qt client, which you download locally so the software can't change without you being aware.

To recap:

1. Only trust yourself with the bulk of your coin security
2. Minimize loss from events beyond your control by draining balances held by third parties often
3. When generating private keys do it as securely as possible; this includes using a local machine free from malware and trusted software which can't easily change without you being aware

This really helped me, thanks a lot.

[yaya91]

Is it bad to go with a broker? People have told me thats the best/safest option...

[Verde_Mantis]

Is it bad to go with a broker? People have told me thats the best/safest option...

The problem is that these days there are a lot of people who say they are "professional broker" about cryptocurrencies, but the reality is there are very few people who know what to do in this field. Make your own experience.

[NyLymZbl]

Bitcoin has a way to go for easy security. At this point most everyone involved with cryptocurrency is an early adopter. That can come with obvious rewards, but can also mean inconvenience and outright loss while bumps are smoothed out.

There are stickies about coin safety and many threads on storage options, but I feel there is still room for coin security mishaps.

As Bitcoin adoption expands from those who like getting their hands dirty under the hood, users will become much less knowledgeable about safe usage common sense.

Ultimately each user is responsible for their own actions. I consider a good rule of thumb to be keeping the majority of your coins stored yourself in cold storage. I think it's fine to use services like blockchain.info, MtGox, BTC-e, etc., but don't get lazy. Get in the habit of draining your online third party account balances often. Don't leave them sitting. You never know what can happen to a service, and with Bitcoin a lot can happen.

Next, be extremely careful with your private keys. I think it's a bad idea to put 100% trust in using an online site like BitAddress.org to generate your private keys, for example. There are then two points for leaking your keys instead of only one. To have any high level of trust in generating private keys you should use very trusted software, like the Bitcoin-Qt client, which you download locally so the software can't change without you being aware.

To recap:

1. Only trust yourself with the bulk of your coin security
2. Minimize loss from events beyond your control by draining balances held by third parties often
3. When generating private keys do it as securely as possible; this includes using a local machine free from malware and trusted software which can't easily change without you being aware

Saving a private key to an online site are too risky. Some people can hack your account and get all the money you have or even your tokens. Many people are very more civilized in access the sites that you put your wallet or your private key in. So better to put or write your private key to a hardcopy or any files that can be safe to write in. Well, thank you for this kind of a thread, i get some idea on it.

[tukiMiN]

yeah, everybody should do it Because unwanted things can happen to anyone and the consequences will also be borne alone. then everyone should always be careful in doing an action, let alone related to using private key. because it is very vulnerable to undesirable things.
learn from experiences that have happened before.

[bitart]

Is it bad to go with a broker? People have told me thats the best/safest option...

Rule of the thumb: If you don't have the private key (safely), the bitcoins are not yours, but that person owns them who owns the private key itself.
So if you want to go with a broker, think twice before you act. If you send your coins to the broker, there's a chance that they will run away with your coins and noone will be able to get them back to you. If you want to use an exchange to exchange e.g. bitcoin to altcoins or vice versa, do it really quickly and transfer your coins out from the exchange (withdraw) quickly and store it in cold storage. Google (or search this forum) about cryptocurrency security advices, because this is a kind of lesson everyone have to learn.

[Drunkenhorse]

I agree , the only person you can trust is yourself, not friends , family but yourself . !!! Easy as that!

[marjil]

The key is to always maintain full control of your private keys. This is regardless of whether you use cold storage or hot. Even with hot wallets you should not use wallets that keep a record of your private keys without encryption that you also control. If you allow a wallet to have access to your private keys you might as well give them your bitcoin! This is not because the wallet is dodgy but because it's more easy for it to get hacked, and that's what causes people to lose their coins.

[Coin12]

Is it bad to go with a broker? People have told me thats the best/safest option...

Its not really bad and its not the safest one. Who told you store yoir asset in broker or exchanger is the safest one?
There are many good reputable exchanger to trade and include store bitcoin. You can feel safe during you you trade and store ot there but please remember,  its not the safest way to store.
I would suggest you to store in hardware wallet for safer.

[squatz1]

Always a good thing to keep in peoples minds, the fact that they could lose all of their coins at any moment if they don't treat the coins as there's. It's kinda sad that we've hit a point in the world today that people would rather value convenience over the security of actually having the coins that they worked for, but I guess that is with anything.

Buy an HW wallet and ensure to have a backup, make sure everything related to your private key is safe. It's simple when you say it, but in practice who knows who's going to listen.

[pushups44]

I agree that there are dangers with hacking and fraud, so for cryptocurrencies to truly become mainstream there will be a need for better security for the less tech-savvy. The same protections that exist with credit cards will need to be applied to cryptocurrencies.

[Tanu10]

Bitcoin has a way to go for easy security. And The same protections that exist with credit cards will need to be applied to crypto currencies.

[rybakov]

3. When generating private keys do it as securely as possible; this includes using a local machine free from malware and trusted software which can't easily change without you being aware

I was not aware about this aspect. Does have a good anti virus sufficient to handle this?

[midaslordes]

Is it bad to go with a broker? People have told me thats the best/safest option...

The problem is that these days there are a lot of people who say they are "professional broker" about cryptocurrencies, but the reality is there are very few people who know what to do in this field. Make your own experience.

yeah! don't trust anyone surround you.nowadays  there's a lot of scammer be careful and you think first before give your trust to anyone.

[jayco25]

Many people are victims and lose their coins because they are not cautious of entering websites. For private key users, do not hide it from social media accounts or email. It is better to write or print. If you use the browser wallet you are more likely to bookmark it so you can not enter into fake sites.


#Datarius

[pooya87]

I think it's a bad idea to put 100% trust in using an online site like BitAddress.org to generate your private keys, for example. There are then two points for leaking your keys instead of only one. To have any high level of trust in generating private keys you should use very trusted software, like the Bitcoin-Qt client, which you download locally so the software can't change without you being aware.

the first rule of securing your bitcoin is to understand what it means to secure your coin, and understand how each tool works.
in that sense there is no difference between bitaddress.org and bitcoin-QT (which has been called bitcoin core for years) when it comes to generating private keys. both use good random generation technique to create your private keys and if you use them offline you can call it safe and if it is online then you are not safe.
and by the way bitaddress.org is the online (with web interface) preview of the source code you MUST use instead https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

[uchiikina14]

Bitcoin has a way to go for easy security. At this point most everyone involved with cryptocurrency is an early adopter. That can come with obvious rewards, but can also mean inconvenience and outright loss while bumps are smoothed out.

There are stickies about coin safety and many threads on storage options, but I feel there is still room for coin security mishaps.

As Bitcoin adoption expands from those who like getting their hands dirty under the hood, users will become much less knowledgeable about safe usage common sense.

Ultimately each user is responsible for their own actions. I consider a good rule of thumb to be keeping the majority of your coins stored yourself in cold storage. I think it's fine to use services like blockchain.info, MtGox, BTC-e, etc., but don't get lazy. Get in the habit of draining your online third party account balances often. Don't leave them sitting. You never know what can happen to a service, and with Bitcoin a lot can happen.

Next, be extremely careful with your private keys. I think it's a bad idea to put 100% trust in using an online site like BitAddress.org to generate your private keys, for example. There are then two points for leaking your keys instead of only one. To have any high level of trust in generating private keys you should use very trusted software, like the Bitcoin-Qt client, which you download locally so the software can't change without you being aware.

To recap:

1. Only trust yourself with the bulk of your coin security
2. Minimize loss from events beyond your control by draining balances held by third parties often
3. When generating private keys do it as securely as possible; this includes using a local machine free from malware and trusted software which can't easily change without you being aware

Yes you should be careful where you store your coins because there are so many hackers that can hacked your coins and don't ever give your keys to anyone, just keep it to yourself so that no one can hacked your coins and be careful with the site where you input or check your coins because there are phishing site that can hacked your coins.

[Morjana17]

I agree because we cannot determine it easily one way to know is to gather information first where is the right way to store your coins. Aside from that bitcoin has particular wallet where they can say it is really secured in that case you can go for it. Storing of coins is very inportant because that can be as your ATM where you can get and save your money. There are different way where to store and you are free to check the comments and go for positive.

[jhezmark]

I agree we need to be carefull store of your bitcoin or any coins gathered information first before you put your money in no secure wallet .Create a safety and secure wallet because this is your ATM that you can get and save money check the wallet you can store your coin and think positive and comment  if positive comment it safe if not positive dont put your money.