New to Bitcointalk - Where to safely purchase Bitcoin?

[MiliMil]

Greetings and happy new year to you all!

I've been following this website for a few months and decided to finally create an account.

I'm from Australia and want to purchase 3 Bitcoin and store them offline in a cold wallet.

I have never purchased cryptocurrency before but plan to invest heavily in the next 12-18 months.

Given the recent collapse of FTX and other exchanges in Australia and around the world I thought it would be best to post here and get your opinions before making any transactions.

I plan on purchasing 3 BTC from a large and reputable exchange (Binance at this stage) and then storing it on a cold wallet.

My three questions are;

1- If I were to transfer my BTC from a cold wallet to a hot wallet would this weaken the security of the cold wallet or increase my chances of being hacked?

2 - Where can I securely buy BTC from without paying ridiculous fees?

3 - What are your predictions for BTC in the next 12 months?

I apologise if I have posted this in the wrong location and for the newbie questions. I will be reading and researching like crazy in the next few months and hope to become a productive member of this forum.

Cheers,
MiliMil

[OmegaStarScream]

1. If you're referring to hardware wallets, then transferring your funds will not weaken the security of your wallet unless you're using the seed phrase or private keys on the hot wallet. If you're simply sending a transaction from your cold wallet to your hot wallet, then there's no risk unless of course, the device you're sending funds to is infected.

2. Since you're from Australia, you should look into CoinSpot[1]. I never tried it myself but it looks good.

[1] https://www.coinspot.com.au/buy/btc

[Apocollapse]

Any reputable and popular cold wallet has very high security, no need to worry about it. Just make sure your device is clean from any malware or virus.

If you're fine to submit KYC and looking for cheap fee, I will say centralized exchange. But if you're don't want to submit KYC, then you must use non custodial P2P e.g. bisq, hodlhodl, localcryptos, but you cant' except low fees and quick trade.

My personal opinion Bitcoin price will steady like the current price with little change.

[tranthidung]

1- If I were to transfer my BTC from a cold wallet to a hot wallet would this weaken the security of the cold wallet or increase my chances of being hacked?

It won't

2 - Where can I securely buy BTC from without paying ridiculous fees?

What is ridiculous fee did you mean?

• You can check table for exchanges, taker, maker fees, withdrawal fee and reviews from Cryptowisser.com. You can customize the filters too.
• If you don't want KYC, check kycnot.me

3 - What are your predictions for BTC in the next 12 months?

Bitcoin will have its next halving in May 2024.

• https://bitcoinblockhalf.com/
• https://coinmarketcap.com/halving/bitcoin/

Before the halving, after a bear market bottom is found, it will continue many months with accumulation phase that is the most boring phase.

[mendace]

Oh wow 3btc are not a few is a nice investment and I advise you not to use Binance. Here in Italy we are using a lot bitkipi.com is a broker to which you make a transfer and you get btc safely in your wallet, do everything from an app and you can either create a new wallet and save the seed or import the zpub only in reading. It's a great service and just an email, even anonymous. Let's say it's a kyc light. Otherwise I recommend Bisq.

[Nrcewker]

2 - Where can I securely buy BTC from without paying ridiculous fees?

If you are worried about unnecessary fees and really frown upon it, then you should try P2P transactions to buy the Bitcoins. These are comparatively cheaper and when you do P2P transactions, you have multiple payment options to buy Bitcoins. But yes there is a little amount of risk involved in it while buying through P2P transactions. Currently paxful and localbitcoins have the best P2P deals and their escrow service is also good. If you want you can check these awesome marketplace.

[romero121]

2 - Where can I securely buy BTC from without paying ridiculous fees?

If you are worried about unnecessary fees and really frown upon it, then you should try P2P transactions to buy the Bitcoins. These are comparatively cheaper and when you do P2P transactions, you have multiple payment options to buy Bitcoins. But yes there is a little amount of risk involved in it while buying through P2P transactions. Currently paxful and localbitcoins have the best P2P deals and their escrow service is also good. If you want you can check these awesome marketplace.

P2P buying is the better option. We've got lot many choice available for P2P transaction. Localbitcoins have got lot many traders providing with the best rates in connection to the market price. With Binance there is access for zero fee buying and selling. Maybe OP can try using the feature and further move the funds to self custodial wallet for increased security of the bitcoins bought.

[Adbitco]

First of all welcome to the forum and i would likely advise you to read the do's and don't, also for any questions you should visit the Beginner & Help section. Then talking about the best wallet to store your currency you may also visit Wallet software lastly since you already mentioned 3 btc you are advised not to accept any trade from personal messages from any member otherwise you could likely got scammed.
For me it would be ideal you buy from p2p service provider maybe a reputable member from your local thread or any other reputable p2p service provider.

About Btc price, well this is just the beginning of the year and would be very hard to speculate what would be the outcome of it but since we all looking at the next bitcoin halving meaning after it then we may experience a tremendous increase.

Safe trade.

[noorman0]

1. No, but holding bitcoins in your cold wallet may not be very well private, especially if your hot wallet will receive lots of bitcoins from other people.

2. Several p2p markets are certified "blockchainaustralia.org".

3. Not sure, I just like holding. Let's just say the gloomy season in the next 1 year. Here people have speculated about it, you can find some references.

[Upgrade00]

Firstly, ignore any PMs you may get regarding this post. Making it public that you're about to purchase 3BTC and asking for some sort of assistance would surely attract lots of scammers to you.
Also, why not make a smaller transaction first, and familiarize yourself with how Bitcoin works and how to store it. As you said, you've never purchased any cryptocurrency before, so it's much better to start light and grow your investments as you learn more.

1- If I were to transfer my BTC from a cold wallet to a hot wallet would this weaken the security of the cold wallet or increase my chances of being hacked?
2 - Where can I securely buy BTC from without paying ridiculous fees?
3 - What are your predictions for BTC in the next 12 months?

• It doesn't necessarily weaken the security, except that when you make a transaction from a wallet, it exposes the public key and further transactions from it can be traced. Ideally when sending out from a cold wallet, you should not reuse it.
• It heavily depends on your location. If you have a local board on the forum, it would be a good place to ask.
• More of the same in 2023, possibly some upwards movement towards to $25k - $30k range, but mostly sideways movement.

[NeuroticFish]

1. I recommend you consider buying/using a hardware wallet, it's more newbie friendly and you may make less mistakes than with a cold storage.
2. No matter what storage you use (cold storage of HW), consider recovering from seed after the initial setup so you are sure the backup seed you will store (safely, offline, multiple copies) is the correct one.
3. I recommend you withdraw first a smaller amount to verify the process goes on as it should, then the rest, even if this means doubling the withdrawal fee. For 3 BTC no safety measure is too small.


Also the recommendation you've already got to ignore private messages and invitations to Telegram, Discord or whatever is a very good one.

1- If I were to transfer my BTC from a cold wallet to a hot wallet would this weaken the security of the cold wallet or increase my chances of being hacked?

It depends how badly you do it. Keep in mind that cold storage is meant to always stay offline, no matter what. Do you know how to use cold storage to sign a transaction without transforming it in hot wallet? I hope you do.

[EarnOnVictor]

First answer: You should not be too scared about this hot or cold wallet of a thing, try to use a non-custodial wallet for the hot wallet dealing, and make it an open source. Many keep their BTC with the hot wallet, and nothing bad has happened to it. It's your choice though, it might be a cold wallet in your case as it's more secure and doesn't connect to the internet. Also, you might want to read the advice from @ theymos here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5421039.msg61293646#msg61293646.

Second answer: You have to be careful of Binance in purchasing the BTC. The reason for that is that there are cases in which Binance seized people's money in the guise of some conditions and security checks. You might save yourself the drama by using your credit card to buy directly from your non-custodial wallet through their partners and transfer to wherever you want to save it.

Third answer: I would advise you to keep the BTC for almost 2 years for maximum earnings. The reason is that 2023 might still be challenging for BTC, it might reach some highs and lows over the year. However, 2024 is a promising year for the coin as it's the year of halving where it could move significantly higher as per its tradition every 4 years.

[CryptoBuds]

Oh wow 3btc are not a few is a nice investment and I advise you not to use Binance. Here in Italy we are using a lot bitkipi.com is a broker to which you make a transfer and you get btc safely in your wallet, do everything from an app and you can either create a new wallet and save the seed or import the zpub only in reading. It's a great service and just an email, even anonymous. Let's say it's a kyc light. Otherwise I recommend Bisq.

Bisq is a great choice if he cares about his privacy. But since he is looking to use the lowest-cost exchange, I don't think Bisq or any decentralized exchange will have cheaper fees than Binance. Currently, I see that Binance has the cheapest trading and withdrawal fees, exactly as OP requested.

And as a newbie without much trading experience, I don't think using DEX will be convenient for him. I think it won't be a problem if he uses Binance to buy bitcoins and then moves all bitcoins to cold wallets.

[Vampobit]

Hello!

Advice:
First of all, make sure to buy a cold storage device from the official seller and not from a re-seller, nor from amazon etc.

Answers:
1. Not at all.
2. If you want low fees, unfortunately you have to use a centralised exchange. Personally, I moved from Binance (centralised - requires KYC) to RELAI (no KYC).  It is very convenient since it allows me to make recurring payments and send my BTC straight into my cold wallet. In fact, I had to sign a message from my cold wallet and give my signature to RELAI and that's how I authorized recurring withdrawals. So, I like it because I actually do nothing. Everything happens automatically. From my card, to Relai and then, straight into my cold wallet.
3. Can't make predictions for 12 months. Sorry!

[dkbit98]

1- If I were to transfer my BTC from a cold wallet to a hot wallet would this weaken the security of the cold wallet or increase my chances of being hacked?

No, unless you somehow exposed your seed words.
Sending transactions to other wallet will only show there is some connection between two address you used for sending and receiving.
Hot wallets are less safe and if your device is infected with malware they can easily be hacked.

2 - Where can I securely buy BTC from without paying ridiculous fees?

Best way for safely purchasing Bitcoin without kyc can be made with decentralized exchange Bisq, or using any other p2p options for buying Bitcoin with cash or other payment methods.
Remember that using centralized exchanges can result in freezing your coins or you could be asked to perform identity verification, and you would have to pay extra withdrawal fees.

3 - What are your predictions for BTC in the next 12 months?

I am not a prophet.
Go to Speculation board if you want to talk about Bitcoin price prediction.

[MiliMil]

Hello!

Advice:
First of all, make sure to buy a cold storage device from the official seller and not from a re-seller, nor from amazon etc.

Answers:
1. Not at all.
2. If you want low fees, unfortunately you have to use a centralised exchange. Personally, I moved from Binance (centralised - requires KYC) to RELAI (no KYC).  It is very convenient since it allows me to make recurring payments and send my BTC straight into my cold wallet. In fact, I had to sign a message from my cold wallet and give my signature to RELAI and that's how I authorized recurring withdrawals. So, I like it because I actually do nothing. Everything happens automatically. From my card, to Relai and then, straight into my cold wallet.
3. Can't make predictions for 12 months. Sorry!

Thanks for your response, it has been noted.

[MiliMil]

1. I recommend you consider buying/using a hardware wallet, it's more newbie friendly and you may make less mistakes than with a cold storage.
2. No matter what storage you use (cold storage of HW), consider recovering from seed after the initial setup so you are sure the backup seed you will store (safely, offline, multiple copies) is the correct one.
3. I recommend you withdraw first a smaller amount to verify the process goes on as it should, then the rest, even if this means doubling the withdrawal fee. For 3 BTC no safety measure is too small.


Also the recommendation you've already got to ignore private messages and invitations to Telegram, Discord or whatever is a very good one.

1- If I were to transfer my BTC from a cold wallet to a hot wallet would this weaken the security of the cold wallet or increase my chances of being hacked?

It depends how badly you do it. Keep in mind that cold storage is meant to always stay offline, no matter what. Do you know how to use cold storage to sign a transaction without transforming it in hot walleta? I hope you do

I would need to connect the cold wallet to the laptop/smartphone & copy+paste the key right?

I am researching it as we speak. Any tips would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

[MiliMil]

3. In my opinion, the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange had a negative impact on the entire crypto industry.  

This negative effect will have far-reaching consequences.  In the future, the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and Tether is possible.  The collapse of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange is also possible.  

The collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has weakened the position of Bitcoin lobbyists in Washington.  As a result, there are many uncertainties associated with the upcoming legislative regulation of the crypto industry.  

All this does not contribute to the rise in the price of bitcoin in the next 12 months.  In this regard, in the next 12 months, I expect a flat period (low volatility and stabilization of the price of the first cryptocurrency).

I agree, I think there will be long term and negative spillover on crypto because of FTX. Ordinary investors will be turned off by it. If that can happen to FTX what's to say it can't happen at Binance? I think people should store their crypto in their own wallets so they are in full control. Do you mind if I ask if you keep your holdings on an exchange or your own wallet?

[MiliMil]

1. If you're referring to hardware wallets, then transferring your funds will not weaken the security of your wallet unless you're using the seed phrase or private keys on the hot wallet. If you're simply sending a transaction from your cold wallet to your hot wallet, then there's no risk unless of course, the device you're sending funds to is infected.

2. Since you're from Australia, you should look into CoinSpot[1]. I never tried it myself but it looks good.

[1] https://www.coinspot.com.au/buy/btc

Noted. Thanks!

[NeuroticFish]

I would need to connect the cold wallet to the laptop/smartphone & copy+paste the key right?

I am researching it as we speak. Any tips would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

I think that you may be misunderstanding something, so let's make the terms clearer.
Cold wallet or cold storage is usually a wallet software running on a laptop that's always offline.
Hardware wallet is an external device that can create wallet seed and sign transactions; this also needs a wallet software running on a laptop or smartphone, but they can be (should be) connected to the internet.

So, in order to get the master public key from a cold wallet you need either an USB stick, either (better) a camera, since Electrum allows sharing all kind of info, including the master public key, as QR image. If this is the "connect the cold wallet to the laptop/smartphone" you had im mind, then maybe you've used bad terms and I'm too strict.

If you meant hardware wallets... then there's no sharing of keys between the HW and the software wallet from your laptop/smartphone you should do. By connecting the HW to the wallet software the wallet software knows what to do in order to show you the addresses and request signing transactions. In this case, some wallets (Ledger Nano S plus, Trezor T, Trezor one, some others too) work with cable connection, others (Ledger Nano X, Satochip, some others too) work with wireless connection (Bluetooth or NFC) hence don't need physical connection.