Newbie help please

[Python86]

Hi guys just looking for some educated advice, I'll try keep this short. I heard about BitCoin in 2011 when the surge started to begin, I didn't buy any due to fear of how to protect them. I missed out, now I want in. I want to invest in some BitCoins, LiteCoins, Ripple and Etherum. I've read about how to cold store coins on USB's and even paper, my fear is that this would be a complicated process to do and I may end up losing/damaging the USB/paper. So, my question is how safe would you guys say CoinBase is to store coins? Now, I understand you guys can only give opinions and it's my choice in the end, but educated advice would be much appreciated here, especially people who have used the company for a long time. Im aware CoinBase is an online storage so it's vulnerable to attacks. I'm only looking to invest say £200/£300 so nothing major but I suppose if the investment soars that would still be worth a lot and hackers will try get whatever they can. I read that they have a storage vault for long term investors which is done offline and you are actually insured should any loss occur? Is this very reliable knowing that BitCoin is an unregulated currency? One last quick question, am I right in saying I can't buy all three coins I mentioned off CoinBase and will need to go to other companies to get LiteCoins, Ripple and Etherum? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

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[mk4]

"if you don't control your private keys, you don't have any bitcoin"

Coinbase is a centralized wallet, meaning, if they wanted to lock up your account for some random reason, they can. If you're only going to invest like £200, then use Exodus wallet[1] instead, so you can hold most of your coins on a single wallet. If you're going to add up some funds in the future though, I suggest purchasing a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S[2] and Trezor[3]. I can't stress this enough, a hardware wallet is an essential in terms of securing your investments.

You can only buy bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum through Coinbase. To purchase ripple, send some BTC/ETH to an exchange like Bittrex[4] and or Binance[5] and exchange those coins for some Ripple.

[1] https://exodus.io
[2] https://ledgerwallet.com
[3] https://trezor.io
[4] https://bittrex.com
[5] https://binance.com

[Neurogress]

my fear is that this would be a complicated process to do and I may end up losing/damaging the USB/paper.

If you lost or damaged your hardware wallet, you still can recover your funds with your seed phrase that the wallet generates for you randomly. When you set up a wallet, write down your seed phrase on a paper and put in a safe place

[tonnyyleong]

Hello all, I am new too in crypto and hope to get more guidance. May I ask for google authentication we do need to jot down the seed code as well? Thanks in advance for the help.

[Python86]

"if you don't control your private keys, you don't have any bitcoin"

Coinbase is a centralized wallet, meaning, if they wanted to lock up your account for some random reason, they can. If you're only going to invest like £200, then use Exodus wallet[1] instead, so you can hold most of your coins on a single wallet. If you're going to add up some funds in the future though, I suggest purchasing a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S[2] and Trezor[3]. I can't stress this enough, a hardware wallet is an essential in terms of securing your investments.

You can only buy bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum through Coinbase. To purchase ripple, send some BTC/ETH to an exchange like Bittrex[4] and or Binance[5] and exchange those coins for some Ripple.

[1] https://exodus.io
[2] https://ledgerwallet.com
[3] https://trezor.io
[4] https://bittrex.com
[5] https://binance.com

Thank you to both responses, I appreciate the advice. Just to add to this response in particular, I've checked out the sites and didn't realise a hardware wallet was what it is. I thought you buy software and install it to a normal external hard drive lol. Anyway, my other worry is, if you buy a hardware wallet, and the exodus wallet for that matter. If the computer has viruses will that still lead to the BitCoins potentially being hacked from the security keys being exposed etc? Also once you buy the coins, is it easy to transfer them to these wallets? Thanks again

[mk4]

"if you don't control your private keys, you don't have any bitcoin"

Coinbase is a centralized wallet, meaning, if they wanted to lock up your account for some random reason, they can. If you're only going to invest like £200, then use Exodus wallet[1] instead, so you can hold most of your coins on a single wallet. If you're going to add up some funds in the future though, I suggest purchasing a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S[2] and Trezor[3]. I can't stress this enough, a hardware wallet is an essential in terms of securing your investments.

You can only buy bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum through Coinbase. To purchase ripple, send some BTC/ETH to an exchange like Bittrex[4] and or Binance[5] and exchange those coins for some Ripple.

[1] https://exodus.io
[2] https://ledgerwallet.com
[3] https://trezor.io
[4] https://bittrex.com
[5] https://binance.com

Thank you to both responses, I appreciate the advice. Just to add to this response in particular, I've checked out the sites and didn't realise a hardware wallet was what it is. I thought you buy software and install it to a normal external hard drive lol. Anyway, my other worry is, if you buy a hardware wallet, and the exodus wallet for that matter. If the computer has viruses will that still lead to the BitCoins potentially being hacked from the security keys being exposed etc? Also once you buy the coins, is it easy to transfer them to these wallets? Thanks again

Since Exodus Wallet is a software wallet which is installed on your computer, then yes your keys can be stolen, causing the hackers to steal your coins. Not with hardware wallets though, because in hardware wallets like trezor and ledger nano s your keys don't actually leave the hardware device. So yes, hardware wallets are miles safer than any other wallet.

And yes, transferring bitcoins is pretty easy, as long as you're 100% sure that you're sending the coins to the correct wallet address.