Advice for newbies

[LbtalkL]

Just a bit of advice for the people and mostly for the newbies out there who still use exchanges as personal wallets and are careless about the safety of their funds...

If you don't want to be a victim of another inside job from exchanges or even having your personal wallets hacked (malware), I highly suggest investing in a hardware wallet. You will sleep better at night.

This is more valid than before as the price is surging...

Great suggestion, these advices is not only for newbie. Its been two years here in bitcointalk since I registered and I dont have hardware wallet yet, I will consider buying soon. I store my funds outside of exchanges on some trusted wallets and I own the private keys.

[OmegaStarScream]

aside from that buying hardware wallets may be better but one should not only focus on having one wallet to put all eggs. Cold wallets or online wallets may still be vulnerable to hacks but these cold wallets are better than exchange wallets.

Well OP, how much does a cold or hardware wallets costs? I am interested to buy one. LOL.

A cold storage wallet (offline) such as paper wallets are free basically (just printing) but fragile obviously, they're also not that convenient to spend from. If you're interested in spending on a regular basis, a hardware wallet would be a better solution (Trezor one cost 69 EUR while Ledger is 70$). These wallets are pretty safe and the only way someone could have access is by you giving away your PIN or seed (or by not hiding it well).

[Sellman]

A cold storage wallet (offline) such as paper wallets are free basically (just printing) but fragile obviously, they're also not that convenient to spend from. If you're interested in spending on a regular basis, a hardware wallet would be a better solution (Trezor one cost 69 EUR while Ledger is 70$). These wallets are pretty safe and the only way someone could have access is by you giving away your PIN or seed (or by not hiding it well).

I just wonder that such hardware wallets are strong enough over time, because USB can be broken some time, and data stored in USB can (or can not) be recovered. So, that is nearly the same with hard ware wallet, in my understanding. I imagine that if someone decide to use hardware wallet, they should use at least two hardware wallets. One for main use, and one for preventive cases when the first one broken. Basically, it is what we should do with whatever backup, not only in crypto and wallet backup.

[DdmrDdmr]

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Strictly speaking, you do not need a physical backup of your hardware wallet in a hardware format. That is what the 24 word seed is for. Although it is initially on a piece of paper (which you have to hide and/or encrypt and/or reshuffle), it can be used to restore the content on any BIP39/BIP44 hard/soft compatible wallet, were your hardware wallet to break down (or the firmware become obsolete to the point of not being able to upgrade it for usage).

I do personally have mine cloned though, using the same seed, but it is not strictly necessary. Cloning the hardware wallet onto another hardware wallet does provide the advantage of being able to store it elsewhere, knowing that it is PIN protected in case anyone should get hold of it (unlike a copy of the 24 word seed). Of course 3 failed attempts and it’s a goner (it deleted the content of the hardware device on a Ledger Nanos S), so a copy of the original seed, with all the necessary precautions, is also rather much paramount.

[Julian ogan]

Just a bit of advice for the people and mostly for the newbies out there who still use exchanges as personal wallets and are careless about the safety of their funds...

If you don't want to be a victim of another inside job from exchanges or even having your personal wallets hacked (malware), I highly suggest investing in a hardware wallet. You will sleep better at night.

This is more valid than before as the price is surging...

Keeping all the funds in hardware wallet might not be possible in all cases. As there are some of the open orders that are set at exchanges but, yes, It is required to keep max chunk of the funds in hardware wallet or a paper wallet.

[baundul]

We want to save funds without any risks. That's why hardware wallet is extremely important. But to exchange, exchange is needed. We can get a lot of protection from malware by trusted exchanges. If newbie look into these two issues, he/she will be able to save the capital and sleep in peace at night. They must be kept in mind

This is more valid than before as the price is surging...

[vsemmirom]

Hello everyone, please advise me how to write to the user if he has restricted sending messages from new users?

[OmegaStarScream]

We want to save funds without any risks. That's why hardware wallet is extremely important. But to exchange, exchange is needed. We can get a lot of protection from malware by trusted exchanges. If newbie look into these two issues, he/she will be able to save the capital and sleep in peace at night. They must be kept in mind

Do you? If your computer and phone are infected, there is nothing keeping the hacker from getting access to your accounts/wallets.

Hello everyone, please advise me how to write to the user if he has restricted sending messages from new users?

You will have to rank up, start by reading this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.0

Your question is off topic though, please make sure to ask in relevant threads or make a new topic next time.

[tranthidung]

We want to save funds without any risks. That's why hardware wallet is extremely important. But to exchange, exchange is needed. We can get a lot of protection from malware by trusted exchanges. If newbie look into these two issues, he/she will be able to save the capital and sleep in peace at night. They must be kept in mind

Do you? If your computer and phone are infected, there is nothing keeping the hacker from getting access to your accounts/wallets. Because forums or exchanges can only provide users their security protection, but they can not guarentee anything if users have unhealthy habits and put their devices under threats.

Users have to protect their accounts and their balances themselves by maintaining healthy behaviour.
I mentioned about it here:

[1] Having healthy behaviours when using Internet
The healthier behaviours on Internet space you have, the safer your devices, your identities, and your funds are.
You can spend funds to buy whatever antivirus or Internet security softwares for your devices, but their database have to upgrade regularly to keep your devices safely. Sometimes, database of software providers are not relevantly updated to newest harmful threats and your devices will be under risks of attacks if you have unhealthy habits. Basically, such softwares are unable to completely to secure your devices for sure.

[3] Narrowing down sites that you have plan to visit
I meant, you should not over use different sites that give you nearly the same thing. Personally, coinmarketcap.com is my favorite site, and I don't have intention to use other sites, like coingecko, and so on. It is obviously a personal favorite, but the more sites you visit, the higher risks you can fall into phishing sites.

[rogersykes0]

Good thing here in the Philippines is that theres coins.ph that is well-trusted when it comes to bitcoin wallet. I just hope that it will continue to be secured and prevent the users to be scammed or hacked.

[OmegaStarScream]

Good thing here in the Philippines is that theres coins.ph that is well-trusted when it comes to bitcoin wallet. I just hope that it will continue to be secured and prevent the users to be scammed or hacked.

It's not a wallet unless you control your private keys and that's not the case for the site/app you mentioned, it's more of an exchange.

[bitsurfer2014]

Good thing here in the Philippines is that theres coins.ph that is well-trusted when it comes to bitcoin wallet. I just hope that it will continue to be secured and prevent the users to be scammed or hacked.

There are many exchanges just like coins.ph which also implements strict security standards only to be compromised sooner or later. The fact that OP has suggested other alternatives of cryptocurrency storage other than exchanges e.g. ( hardware wallet) is actually practical and a good advice since exchanges which are most often online have high risk from intrusion and are also inherently unsafe for storage purposes of our digital assets. 

If we cannot afford hardware wallets then we have to apply best security practices to further safeguard our assets and based on my experience, this includes but not limited to:

a) use of virtual machines for storage purposes of digital assets - e.g. VMware / Virtualbox
b) application of encryption tech to storage units
c) use of a robust password manager e.g. keepass password manager (also used for seed phrases, private keys, etc)
d) doing regular backup of our wallets
e) installing intrusion detection systems and other security products on our computers ( firewall, antivirus, anti-malware)
f) avoid any unsolicited emails and any unexpected use of credentials (trick used for phishing sites)
g) being up to date with latest security news and best practices
h) be vigilant and security conscious always.