As a crypto investor, the less app you install the better.

[Z390]

The image below is mine, I took this screenshot because Unstoppable wallet, a open source crypto wallet is the only crypto wallet that I have on my phone that warned me about using a non default keyboard, and I have many other crypto wallets on my smartphone including metamask and trust wallet.



This shows that all these apps are sensitive to everything we do on our smartphone, I will like to advice beginners to avoid non default keyboards, as they have the potential to collect every data on your phone, the sensitive ones and the less sensitive, even the words we type through them.
This is just a reminder for this new year, if you are just starting your crypto journey avoid doing this with your phone.

Avoid using a non-default keyboard, stick with the default keyboard

Avoid taking screenshot of your wallet seed phrase, somehow this can get to the hands of the wrong ones.

Avoid unlocking your phone bootloader, all OEM security is gone after the unlock, unless you know what you are doing.
My final advice for all smartphone users is that the less apps you install on your phone the better, the less likely you are exposed to data leaking apps or malicious app, and don't use any app store to install apps, directly find their official website, that should direct you to the right apps on stores or direct download.

[1714645602]

1714645602

[1714645602]

1714645602

[1714645602]

1714645602

[1714645602]

1714645602

[1714645602]

1714645602

[sunsilk]

I second it's the same for the desktop users that are into crypto. The risk is on those folks that are mostly getting into airdrops and joining those tests and requirements that they need to fulfill through downloading certain apps from those projects.

Before downloading, always verify the source of that app. Because if might look genuine and official but with a few jumbled characters on its name, you might not notice it quickly when you're not meticulous on it.

If you are not the type that downloads a lot of things, you have nothing to worry about.

[Charles-Tim]

This shows that all these apps are sensitive to everything we do on our smartphone, I will like to advice beginners to avoid non default keyboards, as they have the potential to collect every data on your phone, the sensitive ones and the less sensitive, even the words we type through them.

The best are wallets' virtual keyboards and the wallets that will only allow you to select the words for verification that you have backup the seed phrase.

There are many close source third party apps on applications stores. Using third party keyboard is not good at all. I do not know why people like it. I prefer the keyboard that my devices come with.

Not only apps but there are other things to avoid. I set my apps not to install file from third party and I do not download any file from any site. On the online device that I have my little of my coins, I only use it for wallet and exchange purposes and nothing more than that.

To be on the safest way, use cold wallet, multisig wallet or combine both. But also still be very careful of malware.

[Adbitco]

The only crypto wallet app I have stored in my Smartphone is Trustwallet and metamask, and other cryptocurrency exchange app, lately have stopped to install these mining app and any other cryptocurrency wallet for account security and security of my phone. Somes we get our phone stock with these app and we don't know when any hack would come especially when a particular airdrop ask to install app and claim their token from then i never pay heed to install more app in phone because i don't want my assets to be touched or hacked from my phone since we now have our money in our palm walking with it.

[I_Anime]

Most people don't reason what would be the gain of most mining app to the developer.  Most mining app aim is to gathe Most individual personal information (personal data) with all means mostly with the used of kyc. The only wallet have installed in my device for multiple coins are trust wallet and meta mask while for my BTC I'm just using electrum and bluewallet.
That why before thinking of installing any app you should make proper research concerning that app. Because they are also Decentralized mining app but they are few.

[Upgrade00]

As a crypto investor, you should invest in a good open source hardware wallet or keep your coins on an airgapped device. This way you don't have to worry about what you download on your mobile or desktop cause it's not linked to your holdings.

If you have to use a regular mobile device, you have to take necessary precautionary measures.
• Don't use third party keyboards,
• Don't use closed source wallets like trustwallet,
• Don't store passwords or seed phrases on the device,
• Don't click on unsolicited links.

[Luffygroove]

This shows that all these apps are sensitive to everything we do on our smartphone, I will like to advice beginners to avoid non default keyboards, as they have the potential to collect every data on your phone, the sensitive ones and the less sensitive, even the words we type through them.

yes, absolutely! A non-default keyboard can get your typing recorded and pose a risk of scamming, which is called a keylogger. To be clear, according to Malewarebytes (click the  link), "keyloggers are a particularly insidious type of spyware that can record and steal consecutive keystrokes (and much more) that the user enters on a device. The term keylogger, or “keystroke logger,” is self-explanatory: software that logs what you type on your keyboard ".That's why you should just use the default ones, and the secure apps come from a legitimate source. 

[Lucius]

As a crypto investor, you should invest in a good open source hardware wallet or keep your coins on an airgapped device. This way you don't have to worry about what you download on your mobile or desktop cause it's not linked to your holdings.
~snip~

HW is not the ultimate solution to all problems, because those who do not understand the risks are still at risk from threats such as clipboard malware or seed stealers that such devices are not immune to. Regardless of where you store your coins, I would not agree that we should download apps just like that, because we still run the risk of infecting our devices with various malicious programs that can cost us a lot.


The best advice you can get is to not keep more in your mobile wallet than you can afford to lose - because there is not only a risk of malware, but also of someone physically attacking you and forcing you to give them access to your wallet.

[dzungmobile]

A device, either desktop computer, laptop, smart phone or tablet, must be only used for storing your bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. Ideally it should be your practice but if you can not assign a specific device for this, you can use it with other tasks but always try to limit your application installation.

Because risk from downloading files, installations is big in practice.

Don't be too much curious and fall into malicious things.

An example is a senior Bitcoin developer, an ex-staff, Lukedashjr.

Bitcoin developer @lukedashjr's wallet was hacked.

[Kelvinid]

One or two are good enough. Besides, it is useless to have 3 different wallets when we just use the two. I have Electrum on my PC and Trust Wallet and 1 exchange site on my phone, and I have no problem in regards to hacking incidents ( I hope it won't happen). If we believe that is all we need, then that is good already.

It was not a sort of app collection that we needed to have them all but what we just needed it the useful one.
We can have them on the other phones but not a single phone for some security reasons.

[Zaguru12]

Most people don't reason what would be the gain of most mining app to the developer.  Most mining app aim is to gathe Most individual personal information (personal data) with all means mostly with the used of kyc. The only wallet have installed in my device for multiple coins are trust wallet and meta mask while for my BTC I'm just using electrum and bluewallet..

Most of this mining app are dangerous because a hack to their network reveals data of the users, that’s why you see many people receiving emails of even wallets that they do not have. As for your choice of wallets I will say the your bitcoin wallet choices are great but those trust wallet and meta Mask are not advisable because they are closed source, because with close source wallets you don’t know what exactly is happening behind close doors, you can go for open source wallets like unstoppable wallet.

HW is not the ultimate solution to all problems, because those who do not understand the risks are still at risk from threats such as clipboard malware or seed stealers that such devices are not immune to. Regardless of where you store your coins, I would not agree that we should download apps just like that, because we still run the risk of infecting our devices with various malicious programs that can cost us a lot.

This days with the away seed phrases are getting either compromised or people are accepting fake transactions due to phishing attacks on this Hardware wallets I will even advise the use of wallet on airgapped devices rather than hardware wallets but the problem is most newbies do not understand how to set this up so the best thing is for them to just stick to hardware wallets but it most certainly be an open source one such that any breach will be notice by experts.

It was not a sort of app collection that we needed to have them all but what we just needed it the useful one.
We can have them on the other phones but not a single phone for some security reasons.

Instead of having multiple mobile devices you can simply go for a cold storage wallet either airgapped device or an open source hardware wallet like passport. I think the amount of a new mobile phone is equivalent to getting any of this devices.

[alastantiger]

• Don't use third party keyboards,

If anyone can, avoid anything that has third party to it. I feel that the security risks associated with them is very high. From the OP it is a kind of security measures put in place that blocks third party keyboards when it thinks that the individual is entering a very sensitive information.

The best advice you can get is to not keep more in your mobile wallet than you can afford to lose - because there is not only a risk of malware, but also of someone physically attacking you and forcing you to give them access to your wallet.

Yes, this is the best advice. This takes me to my point earlier. 3rd party apps on mobile devices are like family. They are filled with so many tracking software that the user is oblivious of. On the other hand, even if you use a desktop wallet, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is up to date with the anti-virus and firewall.

[Nwada001]

There is one thing I do lately in regards to my crypto wallet, both on my laptop and my mobile phone. My wallets are on my old device, so I wipe both the PC and mobile phone and turn them into my personal wallet gadget. It's only the wallet app that is installed on both devices.
 
I'm a gamer and graphic designer, and I know most of these online gaming apps and other apps I download on my phone for other uses are not safe, but I still need them in one way or another to help with whatever I want to use them for.

There are apps that we might really need for something, and we might want to get them by all means, but most of these apps are not open source and can be dangerous to anything relating to crypto. This is why I have to use a separate device for my daily life as an activist and also a separate device for my wallet.

[Ever-young]

Most people don't reason what would be the gain of most mining app to the developer.  Most mining app aim is to gathe Most individual personal information (personal data) with all means mostly with the used of kyc. The only wallet have installed in my device for multiple coins are trust wallet and meta mask while for my BTC I'm just using electrum and bluewallet.
That why before thinking of installing any app you should make proper research concerning that app. Because they are also Decentralized mining app but they are few.

Most wallet developers don’t even need your KYC before getting your personal information just the moment when you install the app in device and you grant them access to your phone they will automatically be extracting any information they they need from your phone without your knowledge from your pictures down to your contact.

Even when you want to install the crypto wallet which you want to use always make sure you are getting them from the direct source because downloading crypto wallet from random sites are also very dangerous as it can expose your wallet to hack and you don’t know what that one you downloaded is capable of aside from your crypto being stolen they can also do some other danger to the wallet.

[Lucius]

Yes, this is the best advice. This takes me to my point earlier. 3rd party apps on mobile devices are like family. They are filled with so many tracking software that the user is oblivious of. On the other hand, even if you use a desktop wallet, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is up to date with the anti-virus and firewall.

AV and firewall make sense, but only the paid ones. I won't say that they do their job perfectly and don't spy on the user, but all those AVs that are free are very bad at their job and collect all possible data from your computer that they can get their hands on. However, if you already have such software on your computer, you don't need to worry too much about updates, because everything is set to be updated automatically - whether it's about antivirus definitions or upgrading the program itself.

[Upgrade00]

<snip>

I didn't say a hardware wallet is the solution to all problems, there's isn't a singular security advice that offers 100% security neither is there a best advice, rather we have an application of several precautions and security tips which we are constantly learning and improving.

Combining a hardware wallet and a airgapped device deters majority of online threats like clipboard malwares or seed stealers.

[Pandu Geddon]

My final advice for all smartphone users is that the less apps you install on your phone the better, the less likely you are exposed to data leaking apps or malicious app, and don't use any app store to install apps, directly find their official website, that should direct you to the right apps on stores or direct download.

For security, yes, I agree with you. because most applications require permission to access location, contacts on the smartphone, and even access our files. they don't steal, but we allow the app to access it all.
So all of us need to minimize these risks. If possible, use a special smartphone that is not used for activities other than opening a wallet.
Not only applications but sometimes we are too curious about advertisements or emails sent to our devices. We must be careful and vigilant in using our devices.

[knowngunman]

Avoid taking screenshot of your wallet seed phrase, somehow this can get to the hands of the wrong ones.

My final advice for all smartphone users is that the less apps you install on your phone the better, the less likely you are exposed to data leaking apps or malicious app, and don't use any app store to install apps, directly find their official website, that should direct you to the right apps on stores or direct download.

Do people still use crypto wallet that allows taking screenshot? I don't know for others but right from setting up a wallet, if I discover that it allows taking screenshot of keys phrases, I will instantly discard it without a second thought because it is a sign of weak security protocol from the developers. On the aspect of keyboard, I don't know what third party keyboards offer that phone built in keyboard doesn't offer which makes people to use them despite knowing the risk involved nowadays. I remember back then when I used third party keyboard but whenever I enter any site or app that requires typing of password or other sensitive information, my phone will automatically switch to phone built in keyboard. That's how things are supposed to be but I don't know what's wrong this days. Some of these security threats can be avoided by us using simple measures but we choose to overlooked it until it causes harm.

[Shishir99]

Most mobile phones have second space or Dual user mode these days. You should not use the same user to do everything. Use the default user interface for your daily use and use another interface just for crypto-related things. It would be better if you could use a completely different device for crypto currency alone. But, you have to think if it's worth it.

You don't have to buy another device just because you want to safe your $50 crypto. You should go for a hardware wallet or a different device if you are an investor yourself. Even though I do use my regular device for crypto as well, I am planning to have dedicated device for crypto only.

[BITCOIN4X]

Your crypto is your responsibility, meaning you are the first person who is fully responsible for whatever assets you own. Storing all your assets on your smartphone especially in an online wallet is a risky choice, but if you understand it and are able to bear all the consequences then it is good for you.

Wherever you keep your assets (any wallet), just know, don't tell anyone except people you trust. You never know who will take it from you, whether it's a hacker or a robber, so it's best to avoid it. Here we can only give you advice, but the best practices are in your own hands.