5 Strings of Wisdom

[Aco]

So I'm a little over 2 weeks in since I bought bitcoins and got serious about it.  I've learned a lot, but more wont hurt.

For the wise guys out there, based on your experience with BTC, what 5 strings of wisdom can you compile for us noobs that we need to know.   This would be super.

Thanks!

[xypos]

If you aren't the sole controller of your private keys, you don't have any bitcoins.

You can trust other people, like you trust your bank.
Inputs.io is a safe online wallet for instance.

[DodoB]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

[bee7]

You can trust other people, like you trust your bank.
Inputs.io is a safe online wallet for instance.

@OP: I think xypos is joking.
There is no safe online wallet: if any third party is involved in storage then it is not safe.

[waltermot321]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

No, try again and u have a chance to be millionare.

[bludstem]

My advice is to treasure your BitCoins as you would the physical currency in your area.

[Shallow]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

No, try again and u have a chance to be millionare.

Buy a lotto ticket and you have a chance to win many millions, except you won't.

[waltermot321]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

No, try again and u have a chance to be millionare.

Buy a lotto ticket and you have a chance to win many millions, except you won't.

Well, the chances are higher then people trying to mine a block with USB erupter. And yet there are a lot people doing that..

[b!z]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

No, try again and u have a chance to be millionare.

Buy a lotto ticket and you have a chance to win many millions, except you won't.

Well, the chances are higher then people trying to mine a block with USB erupter. And yet there are a lot people doing that..

The chance is still better than solo-mining with a CPU..

[johncarpe64]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

No, try again and u have a chance to be millionare.

Buy a lotto ticket and you have a chance to win many millions, except you won't.

Well, the chances are higher then people trying to mine a block with USB erupter. And yet there are a lot people doing that..

The chance is still better than solo-mining with a CPU..

Ha, do people still use CPU? Its like spoiling it for nothing...

[DodoB]

1.If you hit the jackpot gambling,take your money and leave
2.in gambling the host always profits

No, try again and u have a chance to be millionare.

Or a high change to become broke 

[odolvlobo]

Here are 6:

1. Encrypt your wallet and back it up before sending any bitcoins to it.
2. If you don't control the private keys, you don't own the bitcoins. (repeat from above)
3. You cannot profit from mining if you don't understand how the difficulty works.
4. Brain wallets are easier to hack than you think.
5. Do not trust an anonymous person on the internet.
6. Do not follow any investment advice or suggestions posted by newbies in the Newbies forum.

[Galahad]

1. Keep your private keys outside the computer on paper or cd, this was you are immune to hacks. If using the local wallet program, backup wallet.dat and then delete from system.
2. Don't trust vanity services (pretty wallets) or unnecessary services with your keys.
3. People on Bitcointalk have an interest in Bitcoin price. They may want the price to go up / down so don't listen to everyone you hear.
4. Consider altcoins but none of them may have anything important to add over Bitcoin. Satoshi was very clever, others are just modifying / copying what he did for the most part.
5. Don't gamble. (Rule 3 is relevant here, I don't believe all the users who say they are gambling their Bitcoins away on gambling sites.)
6. When you want to load the private keys back in to spend Bitcoins, do so on a clean install of a Linux distro, that way you can guarantee there are no viruses that might want to steal your money.
7. Don't go around telling people you have Bitcoins.
8. Don't spend more on Bitcoins then you can afford to loose, we still don't know if it's going to work or not. I have around 50% savings invested outside of Bitcoin.

[Aahzman]

Man who forget key find himself locked out.
Never be on the south side of a northbound elephant.
Don't eat yellow snow.
Stay alert. Trust no one. Keep your laser handy.
If something sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam.
If something sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam.
If the person trying to talk you into the "something that sounds to good to be true" is telling you all the right things, everything that you want to hear, it's probably a scam.

[hayek]

1. Read
2. Comprehend
3. Innovate
4. Be Creative
5. Teach Others

[c1010010]

1. Read
2. Comprehend
3. Innovate
4. Be Creative
5. Teach Others

Well put.

[petersiddle98]

1) Don't buy any ASIC
2) Don't buy any GPU
3) Don't buy any Litecoin
4) Don't buy any other Alt
5) Buy Bitcoin and win...