Things I learned through the years of Buying and Trading Bitcoin

[itos84]

Hi, I am interested in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin since 2014 and want to provide some advice I have gained through the years and experience.

• Never invest what you can't afford to lose. This includes your whole life savings, child college funds, all your rent money.
• Use a paper wallet so you don't keep your copy of the seed phrase in your PC. I still suggest using a hardware wallet as a backup in case the paper gets wet, faded or destroyed.
• Use a hardware wallet for backup.You can get one with 50USD and it's one of the best investments you can do for your funds.
• Don't get in debt buying Bitcoin. It's never a good idea to get in debt in risky investments. This includes buying Bitcoin with a credit card. I started like this and it's not a good idea because interest rates. I now buy only with cash it's a lot better!
• Don't leave crypto on exchanges. That's why you got a hardware wallet, withdraw your funds on a constant basis to your wallet. If you leave your crypto
• Don't put your seed phrase on online backup. I lost some funds putting a screenshot in a Dropbox account. There are bots that scan .txt for seed phrases. Use physical media there are good metallic cases to use. If you can't avoid making an online backup then use 7ZIP to encrypt a screenshot of your seed phrase(no text) and protect your file with a strong password. That would make harder for bots to discover.
• Don't make public your earnings. This is to prevent someone with bad intentions to steal your crypto, especially if they know where you live.
• If trading and investing in crypto is it is causing you severe anxiety/depression, please stop for a while. I had to stop for some years due to anxiety. If you are risking your physical and mental health then the money it's not good.
• Learn techniques like DCA (Dollar Cost Average). This is so you buy a constant amount in a determined day. So, for example, buy $10 USD of Bitcoin each day per 6 months. This will teach you to be discipline on investment and don't fall of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or use sentiment and do a panic sell.
• Set clear goals. Why are you investing? Do you believe in the technology of blockchain? Just for pure speculation? Set clear goals of prices to enter and prices to exit and what % you can afford to lose to avoid further losses.

I won't go on recommending products but you can go and do a google search comparison of hardware wallets and physical steel wallets for seed phrase.
Note that these are things I have learned by myself so you don't fall in the same pitfalls I did.

I am also a developer and love creating blockchain products, so try to have some fun doing all your crypto tradings. Thanks for reading and have a good day.

Edit: Added Paper wallets as jjjfff suggested.

[jjjfff]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

[pushups44]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

This is true, but an advantage to using a hardware wallet is perhaps that it can store the private keys to multiple wallets, so you don't have a cluster of paperwork with all kinds of private keys requiring multitudinous software. It's just good for organization.

[okala]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

Yeah you are right one don't necessarily need a hardware wallet all you needed to do is to secure your wallet keys properly,  we all have learn loads of lesson since our involvement in bitcoin and we are still learning but you have mention the fundamental things that is needed to survive in this volatile industry.

[Oceat]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

For some newbies, this isn't obvious for them since they don't know what to do after they get in into the world of cryptocurrency. Where there is a lot of different things that is not the same when dealing with money online. That's why it's still better for them to read this so that they have more information to know better in the future.

[Beerwizzard]

It is just a set of general rules. Some of them are not always valid. For example:

• Don't leave crypto on exchanges.
  

Frankly speaking I prefer to have some small amount of money on exchange. Sometimes you have to buy something really fast and you don't have much time to wait untill your account would be funded. You shouldn't obviously keep there any  big amounts of money but your 100$ on some major exchange would be probably as safe as your 100$ on PayPal, both services face their own issues.

• Don't make public your earnings.
  

That's also not relevant to everyone. For example a good doctor is earning some good money and everyone knows it but for some reason wealthy people are not getting robbed every day.

Well, it seems like OP just pasted some general and most popular things in order to get some merit.
Sorry.

[Ailmand]

Good lists of lessons you have posted there. When I was a newbie, I trusted the market too much and did not expect it to drop massively, now just to add, do not believe other people's speculation and never ever indulge on hypes when investing. Have your own decision when it comes to your investment.

[itos84]

Good lists of lessons you have posted there. When I was a newbie, I trusted the market too much and did not expect it to drop massively, now just to add, do not believe other people's speculation and never ever indulge on hypes when investing. Have your own decision when it comes to your investment.

This happened to me. I did all the bad things like panic selling, keeping a seed phrase online, losing crypto in crappy exchanges that got hacked, putting everything in a altcoin that had no purpose, and being caught in horrible anxiety. I even ended in the hospital one day, not fun. Back then around 2014 I had another bitcointalk account "itos", sadly it got hacked and made this new account instead. Tried to talk Now I am more disciplined and have learned from mistakes. Hopefully, new people that want to have some of their portfolios in crypto can learn too.

Thankfully the market and blockchain technology is more evolved now and I think at least big exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase are fairly secure. If you are a trader I suppose it makes sense to have some funds on exchanges. Make your own decisions and don't let emotions do the trading.

[playboy654]

I agree everything because it is the life for me incense from the past few years and I will get every time income when using trading so this will be like no one can give the opportunity like this to make money every time when you have little amount in your hand and using this opportunity for long time will be most helpful thing forever.

[mersal]

It gives different kinds of experience to different people and it will be not fast you for everyone and also it will not negative why are the investors and traders because making the same path from the beginning stage but the end will be decide about your success and defeat

[Naida_BR]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

Paper wallets are more vulnerable than hardware wallets. Who told you that paper can last forever?
Both are immutable with a clear difference that it is in favor of hardware wallets. Hardware wallets give you extra security.

[jhongzjhong]

These pointers that you have stated are really idealistic. When I was new in the industry, I never have seen pointers like this and that is the advantage of the newcomers today. Before, I invest what I can't afford as long as I can stop the urge to do so. There's a small level of greed you will feel in investing something. You will expect something and you won't know that you will lose your money from it.

I still remember the old days and it was really a fun ride. I hope that.

[btccrusher]

These are the primary advice for protecting digital assets, thanks for the golden idea. Hardware wallets could be expensive for many of us, in that case, I like any offline wallet like Paper (offline generated), Electrum (on a device that never connects to the internet). But I prefer memorizing a 24-word seed, that's the best way I feel safe. If anyone following my idea, make sure you never forget spelling and the order of the words.

[carter34]

Setting a clear target is good but let it not be a greedy one.

Well, it seems like OP just pasted some general and most popular things in order to get some merit.
Sorry.

Probably so because I don't see anything that is different. Although, he can't force merit on himself.

[cryptjh]

Using a hardware wallet much be obvious for most people who are in crypto now. But a paper wallet is also great, here you can make as many wallets as you want, just laminate the seed words, and they should be able to last for a lifetime, and then make many wallet backups on different USB flash drives!

I would not be too paranoid to have a little founds on an exchange, sending them back and forward each day cost fees and can take a lot of times, when you just want to get into a good trade. So better advice would just keep what you are willing to lose on an exchange, so you can trade when you want to.

[richminded]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

Those paper wallet still need to be protected because it can ruin by a natural calamity. OP has a pretty years with cryptocurrency and its good to learn more about this market. There might be some error but if you do continue to learn you will succeed. Always be secured with your coins but never be too confident, try to have more secured wallet.

[maxreish]

Use a paper wallet so you don't keep your copy of the seed phrase in your PC. I still suggest using a hardware wallet as a backup in case the paper gets wet, faded or destroyed.

I just realized I did not create paper wallet either that the use of hardware wallet. After reading this thread, I will probably create one. Looks like there is still someone like me who aren't aware of anything like that and I was only using mobile phone for tradings.

[elda34b]

I just realized I did not create paper wallet either that the use of hardware wallet. After reading this thread, I will probably create one. Looks like there is still someone like me who aren't aware of anything like that and I was only using mobile phone for tradings.

You don't really have to make a paper wallet, you can also have 2 hardware wallet for example. A paper wallet is good for a long-term wallet that you don't need to use once in every month. So better prepare a list of wallet that you need before you start creating any wallet.

[kaya11]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

I did this and my house got burned with it, and now I have a huge problem, all my coins from past ether wallet address is now gone. I do admit it's my fault for not keeping it safer than I am doing right now with my current ether wallet address.I recommend you to buy a hardwallet than trust on a piece of paper. In the end it's your choice.

[andriarto]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

Hardware wallets aren't mandatory. Printed private keys are just as secure, just gotta store it right. Paper lasts 1000 years, hardware wallets don't.

I did this and my house got burned with it, and now I have a huge problem, all my coins from past ether wallet address is now gone. I do admit it's my fault for not keeping it safer than I am doing right now with my current ether wallet address.I recommend you to buy a hardwallet than trust on a piece of paper. In the end it's your choice.

very unfortunate, after being lost we don't know where to report this crime. moreover in my country there is no legalization for cryptocurrency. Kehati htian and concentration are very important so that they are not trapped by the trap of hackers