Keep All Coins in Hardware Wallet vs Separating Some in Exchanges/Other Wallets

[jerry0]

I know people have a nano ledger s or hardware wallet like trezor if they have btc.  Now if you have bitcoin, i know you should keep it in hardware wallet for safety.  Now what i like to know is if your are a holder and not trader, ,should you ever keep any coins in an exchange or that coin's own wallet if you already have a nano ledger s?  I read that it now supports a lot of coins which back then it did not support.  I recalled watching a video where they talked about bitcoin safety and one person on cnbc mentioned you should not keep everything in one place.  However, he said something like have a trezor and said how if you keep coins in an exchange, keep it in several so if one gets hacked or whatnot, you only lose 20 percent of what you have as oppose to everything.   That makes sense but why wouldn't he suggest either put it in hardware wallet or a wallet specifically for that coin?  I assume he means if you do trading right.


Now let say you do trading and daytrade.  If you do that, then aren't a good portion of your btc or altcoin going to be on an exchange?  And let say you use bittrex and binance.  Well isn't that pretty safe already because those are the top exchanges out there?  But if someone trades full time and keeps all their coins in an exchange, you can't really blame them right?  I can't imagine someone transferring their coins everyday from their bittrex or binance account and then back to their nano ledger s when they are done trading.  Only to send it back to the exchange the next day.  Obviously this person could have a good amount of coins in their nano ledger s and smaller portion in the exchange.  But thoughts on this?


Now if the nano ledger supports a coin you have and you do not trade this coin and basically hold it, is it 100% foolish to keep it in that wallet as oppose to the nano ledger s?  Example coins like coss and funfair... i don't have these coins but wanted to list a few of them.  If you are not trading it and holding it in its own wallet such as COSS Wallet or Funfair Wallet,  you should 100% send it to your nano ledger s and store it there?  If you do it there, you basically are storing everything in that nano ledger s you have.  But that is still better than its own wallet right? 


But what if that wallet gives you rewards etc.  Do you still get them putting it in nano ledger s as oppose to that wallet.  I believe certain coins if you keep it in wallet you get airdrops?


Now what about this?  In that cnbc segment i saw, that person mentioned how you could have a few trezors... so imagine like buying 2 or 3 nano ledger s.  Does anyone here do this or recommend it?  Because if you do that, well you have a percentage of your coins in each device as oppose to everything on one device.  I imagine the only reason to do this would be if you have more than 18 altcoins or whatever is the max nano ledger s allows?  How many coins does it even allow now?  But the negative would be you have to have more 24 word seeds.  But do people who have a lot of cryptocurrency own more than 1 of these?  Is it even smart to do that?


So curious what people here say.  Obviously it depends on if you are holder or a trader who trades few times and of course daytrader.

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[erickkyut]

You already answered your question. It is obviously depends if you are a trader or a holder. If you are a holder, the best thing to secure your coins is on hard wallets. If you are a trader, just store it on trusted exchange so that you can easily trade it when needed. Just make sure that you activate the highest security of your account such as 2FA.

[pooya87]

keeping any coins on exchanges unless you are actively trading them is a terrible idea and should be avoided at all costs.
as for using multiple hardware wallets, i think it is an overkill. you only need one hardware wallet but you should learn how to use that one. learn things such as how to make a back up (write down your seed for instance) and keep your ear to the ground for finding out if there is a vulnerability in their hardware that is found.
but you can also use multiple methods. for example keeping the long term investment in a paper wallet that you don't touch and only keeping coins you want to spend (like altcoins you want to keep longer but you still want to be able to dump as fast as possible) in the hardware wallet.

[Casdinyard]

I don't know what you really want to say. A lot of this and that when it's obviously don't know what to do and which wallet should be use.

1. If you're a fan of airdrop, then just leave it to MEW.
2. If you're planning to hold your coins long term then choose hardware wallet.
3. Doing day trade? Then just leave some in exchange sites that you think you can afford to lose when sites get compromise.

You can do all of these, just determine which coin is for long term and which for short term and for day trading as well. Simple, isn't it?

[Pursuer]

thinking an exchange is safe just because they haven't yet scammed you is such a naïve way of thinking in my experience. even the biggest exchanges that seem completely legit can scam you or at the very least they can get hacked, declare bankruptcy and in this process you are the one who really loses money.
the funny thing is that in your post you mention Bittrex as a "pretty safe" exchange while they scammed thousands of users not so long ago!

as for the coins that give you "reward" like the PoS coins or the coins with master node,... you have to decide how much risk you want to take. obviously keeping coins in cold storage is always safer than keeping them in a wallet connected to the internet. and also you should consider the risk of price dumps which is pretty common and inevitable for altcoins. then if you are ok with that kind of risk then use the online desktop wallets for the tiny rewards.

[HODL2090]

Withdrawing your assets from an exchange daily to deposit it next day looks stressful and would cost you a bit of transaction fees.

But it's a strategy I would suggest. No exchange is totally safe, not even those that haven't been breached, and no level of security us too much to protect your interest.

[Osayo]

If I am able to afford hardwallets like trezor or Nano Ledger, I would rather prefer to keep all my coins in it since it is far safer. The only condition I would leave any coin in an exchange is when I have a trade order limit which I am waiting for.

[hugeblack]

Think of it as you try to save your money, it's not so much different from paper money.
The only difference between trading platforms and banks is that banks guarantee you your money "number rather than the value" but the platforms do not give you any guarantee.
It is not very different between paper and cryptos; you need to save it in a safe place and learn how to restore it.

"Do not keep all eggs in one basket, learn before earn."

[h0lybyte]

Whether you are a regular trader of crypto currencies or a holder, it was never safe to store all your coins in exchange.
But if you are only a holder, then you should prefer hardware wallets where you control private keys, that means you can keep them with you wherever you go

[goldSkylark]

I agree. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. Try to diversify your wallets, perhaps? I know it sounds tedious but for now, it’s the best way to keep your investments safe. How I wish there were better security features for our wallets and exchanges, huh? I wonder when we can have peace of mind…

[crwth]

Like everybody said, don't put in all in one basket. I think that's the usual thing that people do. What I do with my BTC is just keep it in cold storage, which is in my old laptop (still working btw). What wallet are you talking about anyway? That gives out rewards? Airdrop wallets? I think that's a great thing just keeping it in a wallet like that, but it's certainly not secure.

It's like making savings in a bank, don't you want it to be moving for you, or making money for you? That's just the concept if you're going to risk your money or not.

[Qurelal]

These five methods dramatically reduce the risk of theft:
- paper wallets
- encrypted paper wallets
- offline transaction signature (no internet connection)
- fragmented secret keys
- multi-signature wallets
- hardware wallets.
I'm sure that there are no other methods.

[boyptc]

I get your point and it confuses you because you are following someone's advice which you think is good on national tv. What you have said on all those points are correct. Since the exchange part has been given and commented by others, I'll go with buying 2-3 more hardware wallets. Well, this depends on what's your keeping strategy. If you aren't confident of having 1 nano/trezor then buy another one just to make it say that you aren't keeping it to one place and to satisfy yourself. There's nothing wrong having only 1 hardware wallet, a two or three.

[leavolnhals]

That's a strategy I'm using. I'm really scared of the scammers. They always attack the wallets of people with a lot of money and I do not want to give up much of my efforts in this market. I have so many altcoins in my hard purses and the goal is to hold up to 2020 and only use $ 3k to trade.

[chidrawarster]

The best way is to store the tokens in hardware wallets if you want to hold the tokens for a long time. If you want to trade then go to exchanges and store there for easy usage and easy digital transactions to avoid moving the tokens here and there.Finally ,if u want just airdrops leave them in MEW and wait for the prices to rise to sell them accordingly.I myself follow the same for organised usage in daily life.

[Kakmakr]

Even though multiple hardware wallets for different exchanges might be seen as overkill, it might be better if you could do that, because you do not want all your money on exchanges be linked to one hardware wallet. It just makes it easier for people to see how much money you have, once they link all these tx's to one hardware wallet.

Yes, a hardware wallet generate different addresses, but it could just happen that you re-use the same address on other exchanges and that they link your addresses together. 

[Ruben Ramsey]

The idea is actually an essential one for the investors. If the money stays in different places, then the risk of losing it suppresses and of course it is a wonderful way to stay relaxed from the fear of the scammers. Also, keeping money in different sites might also find out the competence of the specifics and their reliability.

[Hivalley]

I personally wouldn't store all my coins in an exchange,whatever exchange it might be, it just isn't a safe bet for me, I'm always kinda sceptical about exchanges, like a sudden mishap is about to happen, I definitely would go with multiple hardware wallets,that way I get to store my coins all in a hardware wallet and at the same time ensure they aren't stored at a single place..
So in case of a breach I'll have something to definitely fall back upon

This cryptocurrency sphere is really a delicate one, trying everyday to stay away from SCammers,who are trying so hard to get to you...

[georgepark]

It depend on who are you in the market? holder or trader? if you are a holder keep coin in hardware wallet, and exchange wallet is the best choice if you are an inventor

[muslol67]

You already answered your question. It is obviously depends if you are a trader or a holder. If you are a holder, the best thing to secure your coins is on hard wallets. If you are a trader, just store it on trusted exchange so that you can easily trade it when needed. Just make sure that you activate the highest security of your account such as 2FA.

Only traders or holders is not enough options. Every day a project takes the SWAP decision. I know the tokens that it has SWAP'ed and forget the wallet. So it is trash now.