"Not your keys, not your Bitcoin"

[RapTarX]

I found this thread interesting. More specifically, the sentence I have used in the title. Check the thread. Since 2011, many exchange were hacked and its user had lost their bitcoin. Until you are not holding the private key, it's not your coin. Be aware and don't use exchange to store your coin.

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[Pmalek]

This is a good reference point especially for new investors who believe that it is a good idea to keep your money on exchanges. Exchanges should be used only for what the name suggests - the exchange of currency A to currency B and once that is done the money should be withdrawn to a safe device. 

For better visibility I am going to add the list of hacked exchanges so it's visible in this thread as well. I think it is important as there are many well known names in that list.

Code:

Exchange   Year         Amount / Month   Amount / Coin Founders              
✔️ Bitcoin7     2011 <       50.000 $ October  5.000 / BTC
✔️ Mt.Gox       2011 <       8.750.000 $ June    2.000 / BTC           Jed McCaleb / Mark Karpeles
✔️ Bitcoinica   2012 <         228.000 $ March 43.550 / BTC
✔️ Bitcoinica   2012 <          87.000 $ May 18.540 / BTC
✔️ Bitcoinica   2012 <         300.000 $ July 40.000 / BTC
✔️ Bitfloor     2012 <         250.000 $ September 24.000 / BTC      Roman Shtylman        
✔️ PicoStocks   2013 <       3.000.000 $ November  6.000 / BTC
✔️ Vircurex 2013 <         160.000 $ May    1.450 / BTC
✔️ BTER         2014 <       1.065.000 $ August                 / NXT
✔️ BitPay       2014 <       1.800.000 $ December         5.000 / BTC
✔️ Bitcurex     2014 <               ? $ March                  /
✔️ Cryptsy     2014 <       9.500.000 $ July 11.325 / BTC
✔️ Cryptorush   2014 <         570.000 $ March        /
✔️ KipCoin     2014 <         690.000 $ October                /
✔️ MintPal     2014 <       1.300.000 $ October                /
✔️ Mt.Gox       2014 <     460.000.000 $ February 650.000 / BTC Jed McCaleb / Mark Karpeles
✔️ Poloniex     2014 <          64.000 $ March         97 / BTC   Tristan D'Agosta
✔️ LocalBitcoins 2015 <     ? $ January     17 / BTC
✔️ 796Exchange 2015 <         230.000 $ January  1.000 / BTC
✔️ BTER         2015 <       1.750.000 $ February  7.170 / BTC
✔️ Bitcurex     2016 <       1.500.000 $ October          2.300 / BTC
✔️ Bitstamp     2015 <       5.200.000 $ January 19.000 / BTC    Merlak brothers
✔️ Bitfinex     2016 <      77.000.000 $ August        119.700 / BTC    Rafael Nicole
✔️ Gatecoin     2016 <       2.140.000 $ May            250 / BTC
✔️ ShapeShift   2016 <         230.000 $ April            469 / BTC
✔️ Bithumb     2017 <      30.000.000 $ February / Crypto Kim De Shi
✔️ YoBit       2017 <       5.300.000 $ April                  /
✔️ Yapizon     2017 <             $ April            3.816 / BTC
✔️ EtherDelta     2017 <             $ April                  /
✔️ Okex       2017 <               ? $ August               ? / BTC
✔️ Coinis       2017 <               ? $ September            ? / BTC
✔️ YoBit       2017 <             17% $ December               /
✔️ Bancor       2018 <      23.000.000 $ July        / Guy Benarzi
✔️ Coincheck   2018 <     500.000.000 $ January / NEM Koichiro Wada, Yusuke Otsuka
✔️ BitGrail     2018 <     187.000.000 $ February / Nano    Francesco Firano
✔️ Zaif         2018 <      60.000.000 $ September              /
✔️ Coinrail     2018 <      40.000.000 $ June        / Crypto Lee Nuss
✔️ Cryptopia 2019 <    16.000.000 $ January        / twitter.com/Cryptopia_NZ/status/1085084168852291586
✔️ Liqui Crypto 2019 < Closed $ January      Closed cointelegraph.com/news/ukrainian-crypto-exchange-liqui-shuts-down-cites-lack-of-liquidity
✔️ QuadrigaCX 2019 <   145.000.000 $ January      Closed cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchange-qaudrigacx-goes-offline-claims-maintenance-issues
✔️ Coinmama 2019 <       $ February 450.000 / emails+passwords www.ccn.com/exchange-coinbene-swears-it-wasnt-hacked-traders-fear-the-worst
✔️ DragonEx 2019 <       $ March Waiting for more info. www.coindesk.com/singapore-based-crypto-exchange-dragonex-has-been-hacked
✔️ Coinbene 2019 <       $ March Waiting for more info. blockonomi.com/coinbene-hacked-exchange-says-not/
✔️ Bithumb 2019 <  Waiting info.$ March      3.000.000 / EOS cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchange-bithumb-reportedly-hacked
✔️ Binance 2019 <    41.000.000 $ May  7.000 / BTC cointelegraph.com/news/hackers-withdraw-7-000-bitcoins-in-binance-crypto-exchange-security-breach
✔️ GateHub 2019 <    10.000.000 $ June     / XRP cointelegraph.com/news/report-nearly-10-million-in-xrp-stolen-in-gatehub-hack
✔️ Bitrue 2019 <     5.000.000 $ June     / cointelegraph.com/news/singaporean-exchange-bitrue-gets-hacked-losing-5-million-in-xrp-cardano
✔️ Bitsane 2019 <           $ June     / cointelegraph.com/news/exit-scam-dublin-based-exchange-bitsane-vanishes-with-users-funds
✔️ Bitcoins Norway 2019 <           $ June     / news.trijo.co/news/norwegian-crypto-exchange-wants-to-force-users-to-sell-their-cryptocurrencies/?lang=en
✔️ BitMarket 2019 <           $ June     / cointelegraph.com/news/polish-crypto-exchange-bitmarket-shuts-down-citing-liquidity-loss
✔️ Bitpoint 2019 <    32.000.000 $ July     / cointelegraph.com/news/japanese-crypto-exchange-bitpoint-suffers-32-million-hack

Source:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5090869.0

[Lucius]

This may be one of the most famous sentences in crypto world, and everyone will completely agree with that statement. People are very often confused by how bitcoin works, and it is good to know that bitcoin is always on blockchain, and that we can only buy information which allows us to transfer bitcoin over blockchain. That information is called a private key, and every time you create new bitcoin address, new private key is created.

It is therefore quite foolish to give such info to anyone, and in case of crypto exchanges users are taking a double risk - from exchanges and from hackers who attack such companies on a daily basis. QuadrigaCX owner was allegedly died and take all private key in his grave, and Mt.Gox case is still unresolved after 8 years - I think this is enough warning for everyone who still think "This can not happen to me, I have 2FA on exchange"

Still, it's a big mistake to think that desktop, paper or hardware wallet provide perfect safety for cryptocurrency. In last few days we can see how people lost coins using the above-mentioned ways and methods. Nothing is safe if we use that in the wrong way.

[El duderino_]

This is one of the first rules and is been explained very often, still many are lazy or don't do any research and get their coins lost by storing them on exchanges or will be very vulnerable by storing them there as we write this very second...

Why is it so that one has to burn himself before they know the danger of something like that??

[Velkro]

For better visibility I am going to add the list of hacked exchanges so it's visible in this thread as well. I think it is important as there are many well known names in that list.

Amazing list, had no idea that there were so many of them loosing people money in one moment.
Never store your funds longer than needed for trade on exchange.
Its REALLY important.

[Btczhageh]

The most stupidest mistakes investors make or cryptocurrency enthusiasts make by storing their coins or tokens in exchange, whatsoever you called it; secure exchanges or not aren't good to store coins or tokens for a longer time. I was a victim of cryptopia and will not forget my personal experienced with them. For now,  I use Hardware wallet or Blockchain wallet.

[DdmrDdmr]

Being completely true as a statement, the other side of the coin is that not everyone is brilliant at being their own bank, thus the amount of reports from people that have has their crypto stolen whilst being their custodian.

The upside of being in control of your own private keys comes with the slight burden of responsibility over its security. While for the most that is not too much of an issue (due to either knowing what they are doing, or simply no being targeted), it does entail getting acquainted with best practices on the dos and don’ts, as well as being sharp on the election of the type wallet itself in relation to operative needs and security features.

[hugeblack]

It’s Better to say "Not your code, Not your Coins. Download full-node wallet"

Having a private key (or wallet seed) does not mean that you are safe, a lot of open source/famous wallets have been hacked or lost some keys for example: newbie's wallet (blockchain.info) ----> Old bitcoin history: @johoe return 870 BTC to the owners.
Avoid using untrusted/closed source wallets and it is better to download a full-node wallet.
Downloads only from official websites

[Sohyun Park]

I think it is always a healthy to store your major chunk of funds in a offline wallet. The funds that are involved in trading sometimes must be left on the exchange as it is required.

I would suggest it is good to have 2FA on all our online accounts be it a online wallet or a exchange for some extent the funds are safe when we enable 2FA.

[rosezionjohn]

It is funny that even after countless reminders like this, some still prefer to store their assets on exchanges. I once asked why do they do it, one reply I got is "It is more secure. Even if it gets hacked, I will still be refunded" and I'm like  

[OgNasty]

Some people’s security practices and understanding of Bitcoin are so poor, that keeping BTC on an exchange isn’t a bad idea. That being said, if you know how to create a secure wallet of any kind and you leave a majority of your funds on an exchange, you are asking for trouble.

I’m still waiting for my mtgox funds many years later.

[bernardos]

I’m still waiting for my mtgox funds many years later.

I think it would be very beneficial for all members here if you wrote a thread about what happened to you on mtgox. You are the first user that I heard say he lost money on mtgox and it could be a good lesson for everyone here to read your experience.

[BitMaxz]

I didn't know that there are many hacked crypto exchanges I only know hacked 5 exchanges from 2015 to 2019 which are MT.Gox, Poloniex, cryptopia, Binance, and Bitstamp. I mostly heard of these exchanges here on the forum than the other exchanges listed above. That is why I don't want to keep my coins in exchanges for a long time because even it is in a high level of security there are still possibilities that they can be still hacked.
That is why I always keep some of my coins in the offline or cold wallet as long as they are not connected to the internet they are safe.

I think it would be very beneficial for all members here if you wrote a thread about what happened to you on mtgox. You are the first user that I heard say he lost money on mtgox and it could be a good lesson for everyone here to read your experience.

No need for that there are many threads about MT.Gox here on the forum where most of them lose their precious coins from Mtgox exchange.

Here are some of them.

- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179586.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4412667.0
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=451225.0

Additional knowledge about MT.Gox below.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox

[hatshepsut93]

Some people’s security practices and understanding of Bitcoin are so poor, that keeping BTC on an exchange isn’t a bad idea. That being said, if you know how to create a secure wallet of any kind and you leave a majority of your funds on an exchange, you are asking for trouble.

I’m still waiting for my mtgox funds many years later.

If someone's security is that bad, it won't really makes much difference then - if their PC is ridden with malware, coins from both exchange and software wallet can be stollen, if someone doesn't verify the sites they visit, they become a victim of phishing with either fake exchange or fake wallet. 2FA is one thing that can help people with horrible security practices, but it's also available in some wallets like Electrum, though this comes at a price of additional fees.

[elda34b]

You are the first user that I heard say he lost money on mtgox and it could be a good lesson for everyone here to read your experience.

Mt.Gox is a famous case. I'm quite surprised you heard it only by now as most articles/news about exchange hacks will likely quote or at least mentions about Mt.Gox.

If someone's security is that bad, it won't really makes much difference then - if their PC is ridden with malware, coins from both exchange and software wallet can be stollen, if someone doesn't verify the sites they visit, they become a victim of phishing with either fake exchange or fake wallet. 2FA is one thing that can help people with horrible security practices, but it's also available in some wallets like Electrum, though this comes at a price of additional fees.

Like it or not, people need to increase their security awareness if they want to participate in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They don't have to store it on their computer wallet though. They can just make a paper wallet, keep it safe somewhere, and store their long-term hold there.

[Julian ogan]

I found this thread interesting. More specifically, the sentence I have used in the title. Check the thread. Since 2011, many exchange were hacked and its user had lost their bitcoin. Until you are not holding the private key, it's not your coin. Be aware and don't use exchange to store your coin.

I agree with you, keeping cryptos on exchanges is not safe. Many exchanges got hacked even though they follow many security measures. Recently, Japanese crypto exchange BitPoint Loses $32 Million USD to Hackers.

It is always good to store your coins in your own wallet where you will have the access to your private keys. Cold wallets are the best option to store your coins.

[odolvlobo]

I expected the number of hacks to go down over time because security practices would improve, but the opposite has happened. Every year the number of hacked exchanges has risen. It is becoming a more frequent occurrence every year.

[Lucius]

It’s Better to say "Not your code, Not your Coins. Download full-node wallet"

Having a private key (or wallet seed) does not mean that you are safe, a lot of open source/famous wallets have been hacked or lost some keys for example: newbie's wallet (blockchain.info) ----> Old bitcoin history: @johoe return 870 BTC to the owners.
Avoid using untrusted/closed source wallets and it is better to download a full-node wallet.
Downloads only from official websites

If I'm not mistaken, current size of bitcoin blockchain is over 230 GB, and this is main problem for people who want to use full-node wallet. It is not only problem in fact that user need to have hard disk of at least 250 GB, but also in speed of user internet - this is not something for low speed internet connection.

You are mixing online wallets with desktop / hardware wallets, it is not the same level of security and it will never be. Online wallets are most insecure way of keeping cryptocurrency, and by using any desktop / mobile wallet this security is improved. If user want to improve security even more, hardware wallet is next step. Having a private key or seed is just fine&safe, problem may be only in a way how users is handle with such data.