I am new to Bitcoin and have been using Coinbase only.

[JustinFields]

I am new to crypto and everything I have done has been strictly through Coinbase. I don't have a key or anything like that.

Is my crypto safe?

What can I do to make it safer?

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

Thanks and good luck to everyone. I am already up about 22 percent on my investment and extremely happy. I do feel that BTC will go to the moon.

[pooya87]

Is my crypto safe?

Not exactly.
You have no control over your own "money".
- Coinbase can some day decide they want to shut down your account and prevent you from accessing your funds.
- Your account can be hacked and the hacker can take all your "money" that you were storing in your account.
- Coinbase itself can be hacked and you (among all other users) can lose all your funds.

What can I do to make it safer?

- Educate yourself on how bitcoin works
- Choose a secure wallet and learn about cold storage
- Move your funds from Coinbase to cold storage
Start by reading this: https://bitcoin.org/en/getting-started and this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

You don't purchase a key, you generate it randomly. Basically it means selecting a random number in a massive range (bigger than 1 and a little less than 2²⁵⁶). Your wallet does this in the background.

[JustinFields]

Is my crypto safe?

Not exactly.
You have no control over your own "money".
- Coinbase can some day decide they want to shut down your account and prevent you from accessing your funds.
- Your account can be hacked and the hacker can take all your "money" that you were storing in your account.
- Coinbase itself can be hacked and you (among all other users) can lose all your funds.

What can I do to make it safer?

- Educate yourself on how bitcoin works
- Choose a secure wallet and learn about cold storage
- Move your funds from Coinbase to cold storage
Start by reading this: https://bitcoin.org/en/getting-started and this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

You don't purchase a key, you generate it randomly. Basically it means selecting a random number in a massive range (bigger than 1 and a little less than 2²⁵⁶). Your wallet does this in the background.

Interesting, is there a wallet you recommend? Also, would I buy my bitcoin through coinbase and move it to the wallet right away.

Will my coinbase account still show my balance if I got a wallet?

[o_e_l_e_o]

Interesting, is there a wallet you recommend?

For newbies such as yourself, generally the best trade off between security and ease of use is a reputable hardware wallet such as Ledger or Trezor. Unfortunately you will need to purchase one of these devices for around $50, but if you wait for Black Friday in a few weeks they have previously had some very good deals on (up to 50% off).

Also, would I buy my bitcoin through coinbase and move it to the wallet right away.

This is a fairly standard way of buying and then holding bitcoin. You don't have to do it right away, and some people might prefer to build up a little bit of bitcoin on their exchange account over time before withdrawing it all at once to save on the exchange's withdrawal fees. But the less time your bitcoin is held on the exchange, the better.

Will my coinbase account still show my balance if I got a wallet?

No. You will still be able to see your purchase history and withdrawal history, but it will not show your balance. Your wallet will show your balance instead.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Better start learning how to use a hardware wallet because you're going to be needing that and at the same time you're going to be much safer when that happens, not to mention that you're using Coinbase which got recently attacked by hackers.

[pooya87]

Interesting, is there a wallet you recommend?

For most beginners a hardware wallet with Electrum on desktop is a good start. But you have to learn pros and cons of different wallets and choose for yourself.
For example a hardware wallet offers a good level of security and is easy to use for those who don't want to spend time achieving that security themselves. It is also easy to use on an online computer without worrying about leaking your private keys. But you have to purchase these wallets, so they are not free!
The alternative is setting up your own cold storage but that takes effort example: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=853288.0 and https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

Also, would I buy my bitcoin through coinbase and move it to the wallet right away.

It is a matter of preference and purchase size.
I don't know the limits of Coinbase but lets say you buy $10 worth of bitcoin every week, there is no point withdrawing that every week also. You can take the smaller risk and let it accumulate before making a single withdrawal of a bigger size.

Will my coinbase account still show my balance if I got a wallet?

No. Your hot wallet will.

[BlackHatCoiner]

You could liken Coinbase with a bank. The bank holds your cash, you hold a so-called IOU. If the bank goes bankrupt or if they get somehow stolen, you'll lose your money.

The administrators of the exchange hold the keys. They've just given you an IOU which says that you own an amount of coins. Bitcoin was created to avoid this middleman in your online transactions. Coinbase is required to buy bitcoins from, but not to be used as a wallet. Instead, you can be the owner of the keys and ensure you're the sovereign of your own wealth.

Read: http://notyourkeys.org/

[Similificator]

First of all, you need to understand that no funds are a hundred percent safe be it fiat or crypto. What it all boils down to is the measures you take to keep an asset safe and your understanding about the asset and the variables connected to it. My advice for you is that if you have enough funds to invest and burn, better invest in knowledge first. Nit only will you not burn money uselessly, but you would also be earning much more than how much you are earning currently (if you actually are earning some). Plus, it would help you know more about security measures that'll make your funds more secure.

[MusaMohamed]

Why did you choose Coinbase to use?

Is my crypto safe?

It is not safe because Coinbase control your coin, not you.

What can I do to make it safer?

Use non custodial wallets to store your Bitcoin.

Recommended wallets. You can choose Bitcoin Core (if you have about 500 GB to store the blockchain, prune node is not good to use), Wasabi wallet (if you want to use CoinJoin transactions and Tor), Electrum (if you need a light wallet to use).

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key.

Not your keys not your coins
https://notyourkeys.org/

[Kakmakr]

Well, I am happy that your "investment" in Bitcoin is going well.... just remember that Bitcoin is not an investment.... but rather an alternative currency. (You have to use a small percentage of your Bitcoin to buy and support services that accept Bitcoin as a payment option, because if everyone just use it as an investment... then it will fail in the long-run.)

The miners get reward for mining in the form of miners fees (a small payment or fee that are deducted, when you do transactions)... if there are no transactions or not enough.... Miners will stop mining and the whole payment system and network of merchants will fail.

So download and install Electrum from their official site and withdraw some of your coins from Coinbase to your Electrum wallet. (You will then have the private key for those tokens)  

[24Kt]

Well, I am happy that your "investment" in Bitcoin is going well.... just remember that Bitcoin is not an investment.... but rather an alternative currency. (You have to use a small percentage of your Bitcoin to buy and support services that accept Bitcoin as a payment option, because if everyone just use it as an investment... then it will fail in the long-run.)

The miners get reward for mining in the form of miners fees (a small payment or fee that are deducted, when you do transactions)... if there are no transactions or not enough.... Miners will stop mining and the whole payment system and network of merchants will fail.

So download and install Electrum from their official site and withdraw some of your coins from Coinbase to your Electrum wallet. (You will then have the private key for those tokens)  

Electrum wallet is really a good start if you can't install the bitcoin core wallet as you need big space for this. Also, if you don't want to purchase hardware wallets which are quite expensive for small users. With some of the links posted above by other users, I hope the OP will educate himself as storing your funds in a centralized exchange is really not advisable.

I hope the OP read the recent disclosure of coinbase regarding the hacking of thousands of their users' accounts -
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/coinbase-slammed-for-terrible-customer-service-after-hackers-drain-user-accounts.html

I thought they settled it in a very good way but seemed a lot were not happy how they handled this incident.

[dupee419]

I agree with the others, Electrum wallet is a good choice, I am using Coinbase right now but not for long-term, will place this on my hardware wallet after a few weeks, Coinbase may be one of the popular wallets but the downside here is that this is an online wallet.

As a newbie, this forum will help you a lot, Electrum is a good wallet, although it may complicate you on how to operate it, though I think they've improved the user interface through the years since this wallet is pretty old but one of the most reliable wallets that are free. I suggest buying a hardware wallet, it doesn't cost that much to be honest, after gaining profit, it's worth your money on investing a hardware wallet.

[teosanru]

I am new to crypto and everything I have done has been strictly through Coinbase. I don't have a key or anything like that.

Is my crypto safe?

What can I do to make it safer?

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

Thanks and good luck to everyone. I am already up about 22 percent on my investment and extremely happy. I do feel that BTC will go to the moon.

We generally have a saying "not your keys, not your crypto", which means that when you are not holding your private key of the wallet while using coinbase, the bitcoin that you see aren't technically yours, coinbase can go down any day and you can lose all your bitcoins, coinbase is even prone to hacking which means your funds can be hacked too, a simple way to keep your funds with yourself is using a private key wallet, just download a simple wallet like Mycelium wallet on your mobile phone which will give you your private key and your funds are absolutely safe in there, you won't be able to buy sell like coinbase, but you can send receive money at just network fees. You can use Electrum wallet for PC.

[o_e_l_e_o]

You could liken Coinbase with a bank.

A bank is generally much safer than Coinbase or any other crypto exchange, though. If your bank account is hacked and emptied, or you fall victim to a scam and send money to a scammer, then there is a good chance your bank can reverse all the transactions and get your money bank. If the same thing happens with Coinbase, you can wave goodbye to your coins.

Also, if you don't want to purchase hardware wallets which are quite expensive for small users.

If you wait for a Black Friday, Christmas, or similar deal, you can get a good hardware wallet for $30. Most people will spend more than that on buying themselves lunch in a single working week. If you are only holding $30 worth of bitcoin, then sure, spending $30 on a hardware wallet might be too much. But as soon as you get to a few hundred dollars worth, then it is a smart investment.

[BlackHatCoiner]

there is a good chance your bank can reverse all the transactions and get your money bank.

I don't think that's the reason why getting stolen in a bank is better than in an exchange. A thief can spend your money much faster than you'll realize you have to somehow reverse the transaction. Not sure how a bank can tackle this problem; how can they reverse a transaction if the thief has already spent the money and not deposited them somewhere custodially.

It's the insurance. Coinbase can get hacked or pretend of being hacked and you can do nothing about it. On the other hand, the bank may provide you insurance in case of such incident.

[o_e_l_e_o]

A thief can spend your money much faster than you'll realize you have to somehow reverse the transaction. Not sure how a bank can tackle this problem; how can they reverse a transaction if the thief has already spent the money and not deposited them somewhere custodially.

Because the majority of bank account hacks or people falling for scams involve them transferring money electronically to another bank account.

Very rarely are people being forced at gun point to go and empty their bank account in cash and hand it over to an attacker, and most ATMs have daily withdrawal limits in the region of $1000 on them. Sure, if you have cash stolen, then there is nothing the bank can or will do about it, but if you've had $50,000 transferred from your bank account to another bank account, then the bank can easily freeze that and reverse it. In fact, most banks wouldn't even let you make that transfer without demanding some kind of additional proof or paperwork.

As much as I much prefer bitcoin over fiat, I obviously still have to have a fiat bank account to live. And as much as I hate the zero privacy, zero ownership, and zero censorship resistance I get with my fiat bank account, I have almost no concerns about hacks or scams with my fiat bank account, whereas I wouldn't trust a crypto exchange to hold a single satoshi for me.

[herurist]

I think you should start studying and looking for a hardware wallet which is a bit more advantageous especially for beginners, I think coinbase is too open and easy to hack and it's better to make a hardware wallet even though it costs extra but it will be much safer to be there.
and maybe what needs to be emphasized here you have to be really careful in doing something other than that because here the risk is high so I suggest not to take unnecessary actions and have to start learning the system from bitcoin maybe even how to trade and TA if you want while trading here.

[rugrats]

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

My answer is that you don't need to buy a key, it's randomly generated when you create a wallet to use. I recommend you need to learn how to use the wallet as well as store the wallet code, the seed code. That's the key to help you get into the current wallet, I think you still don't know how to own it. If you don't know how to use it and don't have the keys, chances are your assets will be locked and you won't be able to use them, move them or sell them.

[goinmerry]

I am new to crypto and everything I have done has been strictly through Coinbase. I don't have a key or anything like that.

Is my crypto safe?

What can I do to make it safer?

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

Thanks and good luck to everyone. I am already up about 22 percent on my investment and extremely happy. I do feel that BTC will go to the moon.

Technically, your funds should be safe as Coinbase is one of the regulated big exchanges and running for a long. Funds stored on their wallet is completely secured, as it should be. If ever there will be a hacking incident, I'm sure everything will be covered and not likely to turn a 100% dead exchange.

But if we talk about a real safe or whatever appropriate term for that, we should hold our own funds and secured it by any means. That will be your next task to learn, search for "non-custodial wallets".

I'm sure learning won't be hard that for you as you pass the Coinbase strict and hassle KYC requirements still as a newbie.

[sheenshane]

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

My answer is that you don't need to buy a key, it's randomly generated when you create a wallet to use. I recommend you need to learn how to use the wallet as well as store the wallet code, the seed code. That's the key to help you get into the current wallet, I think you still don't know how to own it. If you don't know how to use it and don't have the keys, chances are your assets will be locked and you won't be able to use them, move them or sell them.

It's better to purchase a hardware wallet than using the free Bitcoin wallet if Op can afford it.  There's a feature that has an advantage upon using a hardware wallet because HW can protect itself against malware infection from the computer.  Here's a thread of a [BIG LIST] Hardware wallets (80+) and I highly recommend Trezor or either Ledger Nano wallet.

As suggested by most users above, Electrum is the best since it's free to use but there's a crucial thing that you must understand first.  Watching this Youtube video might help you in advance.