How to Develop a Security Mindset Before Buying Your First Bitcoin.

[Aljawaab]

Good advice on security. For a beginner like me, which is safer starting point:
‎leaving coins on an exchange while learning, or selfcustody right away? Both have real risks, (exchange failure or account compromise vs loosing a seed phrase).

[knowngunman]

Good advice on security. For a beginner like me, which is safer starting point:
‎leaving coins on an exchange while learning, or selfcustody right away? Both have real risks, (exchange failure or account compromise vs loosing a seed phrase).

I will honestly advise beginners to start with self custody. Both methods have risks but if you start with exchange from the beginning, you will get comfortable with that and know nothing about how to keep your seed safe. You'll find it difficult to adapt to self custody later and everything will feels new to you when you try to switch to self custody. Moreover, you should know from beginning that your key is your coin. If you don't control the key, the coin is not truly yours. As a beginner, if you get used to self custody from your starting point, you'll take the security of your wallet seriously from the beginning. Self custody risk can be minimise with your own practice but exchange risk is actually beyond your control. So choose wisely.

[tech30338]

Also you need to secure other things like emails, social accounts, phones, computers not only the wallets, this are the things we forget while we secure our wallet we sometimes forget that there are other things that can be targeted, sometimes we did not know that we are already compromise, because we are too focus on one thing, we did not know that it can also be a way to be able to steal what we are protecting.

[Queen uloma]

They just have to learn the hard way. I do sometime think the best way to educate someone is to let them learn from their mistakes. Some people even after you try to teach them would still not be ready to put their learnings into play. Someone that's nee into the crypto market should have just two things in mind, storage and purpose. Purpose helps you grow a thick skin on why you should invest into that asset, in this case BTC. Some investors don't even know why, they just see that people are making profits and wants to also follow the crowd till it gets blurry.. the type to storage method you choose for your investment also determine how safe your asset will be on a long term. If you fail at these two points you have already failed your investment..

You’re very correct, it’s true that some  people learn from their mistakes, but it’s better to learn before losing money. Anyone that wants to invest in bitcoin is suppose to understand why they are investing in it and how to store their bitcoin safely.

Not because everyone is making profit, you decide to follow suit. When someone doesn’t have a clear purpose and proper security, the person have already put their investment at risk.

[Perfectbaby]

Also you need to secure other things like emails, social accounts, phones, computers not only the wallets, this are the things we forget while we secure our wallet we sometimes forget that there are other things that can be targeted, sometimes we did not know that we are already compromise, because we are too focus on one thing, we did not know that it can also be a way to be able to steal what we are protecting.

This can only be possible if we associates our information with either phone number, email or whatever. As I know Wallets creations does not involved mails or phone except for some football app or gambling site that may need our phone number to sign up the site.
But for wallet creation such as Electrum, you do not need an email or phone number to get started, the only needed is for you to store your seedphrase in private place that is not associated with online or Mails because, through mail someone out there may likely have access to mail and have to compromise your wallet.

[Joy- maker]

Also you need to secure other things like emails, social accounts, phones, computers not only the wallets, this are the things we forget while we secure our wallet we sometimes forget that there are other things that can be targeted, sometimes we did not know that we are already compromise, because we are too focus on one thing, we did not know that it can also be a way to be able to steal what we are protecting.

This can only apply if they are holding their Bitcoin investment in a centralized exchange, and  I'm pretty sure their are people who still store their Bitcoin in a centralized exchange.

However, everyone is free to do what they want, so if they are more comfortable with keeping their bitcoin investment in a third party account it's okay by me.

But, my advice to them, is to keep their Gmail and phone numbers secured, because scammers are now swapping people's phone numbers into another SIM card, and after that they reset your password since they already have access to your phone number to receive the OTP to gain access to your email and then proceed to steal your Bitcoin from the centralized exchange.

[GIF-JOBS]

They just have to learn the hard way. I do sometime think the best way to educate someone is to let them learn from their mistakes. Some people even after you try to teach them would still not be ready to put their learnings into play. Someone that's nee into the crypto market should have just two things in mind, storage and purpose. Purpose helps you grow a thick skin on why you should invest into that asset, in this case BTC. Some investors don't even know why, they just see that people are making profits and wants to also follow the crowd till it gets blurry.. the type to storage method you choose for your investment also determine how safe your asset will be on a long term. If you fail at these two points you have already failed your investment..

You’re very correct, it’s true that some  people learn from their mistakes, but it’s better to learn before losing money. Anyone that wants to invest in bitcoin is suppose to understand why they are investing in it and how to store their bitcoin safely.

Not because everyone is making profit, you decide to follow suit. When someone doesn’t have a clear purpose and proper security, the person have already put their investment at risk.

Bitcoin investment is not an easy matter, and it is not that if you invest here, it can definitely give you profit, or there is no guarantee that you will also profit just because others are profiting from it. See, any investment is risky, this is true for everyone, the person who has profited from Bitcoin also had a risk involved in making this profit, but he managed the risks through his own ability and by managing the investment correctly, he has now profited, but you do not see those risks, but how you see his profit and you invest by seeing that profit, but you do not see whether you are actually financially and mentally ready for this Bitcoin investment, but you are only investing emotionally, but the success of this type of investment is very difficult. You have to understand the risks, understand the risks and manage the Bitcoin investment correctly, this is how to achieve success from Bitcoin, but without any preparation, without any long-term goal, it is never possible to achieve success by investing only emotionally.

[Plutomanian]

Also you need to secure other things like emails, social accounts, phones, computers not only the wallets, this are the things we forget while we secure our wallet we sometimes forget that there are other things that can be targeted, sometimes we did not know that we are already compromise, because we are too focus on one thing, we did not know that it can also be a way to be able to steal what we are protecting.

Who would want to steal from us if not scammers? We know the space is no longer safe for us anymore. We need to be careful not only with our wallets but other things that surround us. Buying our first Bitcoin should not be a big deal because that's just the first step to get acquainted with GREATNESS. We need to do more, we need to learn more about the space and always be positive because if we want to win, it all starts with us being scrupulous and fastidious with the market. Most importantly, our emails should be protected at all times, no sign to leak any inform because the public and these scammers are very sensitive.

[moneystery]

Good advice on security. For a beginner like me, which is safer starting point:
‎leaving coins on an exchange while learning, or selfcustody right away? Both have real risks, (exchange failure or account compromise vs loosing a seed phrase).

That's actually your choice. But if it is self-custody, it is more recommended to first learn about self-custody from the beginning and study how to store and secure assets properly. You can learn from videos on YouTube if you don't understand, and it is recommended to start testing with very small amounts of money to begin with. Once you start getting used to it, it shouldn't be any harder for you to manage your own assets.
I don't think it's that difficult because there is so much online content explaining about self-custody, but you just need to be more serious in learning it because self-custody comes with full responsibility on you.

[Compromise me]

I will honestly advise beginners to start with self custody. Both methods have risks but if you start with exchange from the beginning, you will get comfortable with that and know nothing about how to keep your seed safe. You'll find it difficult to adapt to self custody later and everything will feels new to you when you try to switch to self custody. Moreover, you should know from beginning that your key is your coin. If you don't control the key, the coin is not truly yours. As a beginner, if you get used to self custody from your starting point, you'll take the security of your wallet seriously from the beginning. Self custody risk can be minimise with your own practice but exchange risk is actually beyond your control. So choose wisely.

Self custody is always one of the best options for everyone in crypto because it gives you control of your assets, and you have never been worried about anything. Just keep yourself updated about safety and never compromise on security, especially since things are getting worse due to the involvement of social media, which is currently the best weapon for hackers to have access into your devices. I learned things in my early days, and I am always strict about them, not your keys, not your coins, because it's all about you and your asset security, which is important. People are careless or have not enough good knowledge about a few security things, always face problems, and never have a good end to their journey into crypto. Even here, one point is always a risk, but it minimizes the chances of scammers success.

[RockBell]

Also you need to secure other things like emails, social accounts, phones, computers not only the wallets, this are the things we forget while we secure our wallet we sometimes forget that there are other things that can be targeted, sometimes we did not know that we are already compromise, because we are too focus on one thing, we did not know that it can also be a way to be able to steal what we are protecting.

And we are always fond of the habit of always keeping private stuff in our emails, and we should learn to keep our stuff away from the internet, but people are always looking for ways to make things easy for themselves, and it does not work that way. We need to take our security seriously because that is one of the footstones that we need to stand on. Once security has failed, then every other thing has failed, so before any other thing, security should come first then accumulation can follow, and self-custody is what matters a lot because the exchanges can not be trusted, and from the look of things, we need to take security seriously no matter what.

[GbitG]

Well, there is so many great replies and suggestions regarding through the privacy like all members triggered form scratch to advance. So I will just just simply elobrate the general opinion.....

We just connected here through the forum for one motives which is Bitcoin and simply is that Bitcoin is the name of financial freedom. So now I will drage the topic back.... Look if you know how to invest and still didn't understand how to maintain the privacy then "Sorry"   you are still you are a financial slave

For Financial freedom you need to have look for privacy first.... Then go for investment


Protect Your Privacy = Protect Your Wealth  

[WhoYouCantKill]

Also you need to secure other things like emails, social accounts, phones, computers not only the wallets, this are the things we forget while we secure our wallet we sometimes forget that there are other things that can be targeted, sometimes we did not know that we are already compromise, because we are too focus on one thing, we did not know that it can also be a way to be able to steal what we are protecting.

You’re right. Someone could actually succeed to safely secure their wallet, but making sure they use an offline or hardware wallet and also keeping everything offline, so they feel that even if their device is compromised, they still wouldn’t lose anything vital like their coins that’s safely stored in a hardware wallet. But they fail to understand that even if hackers and scammers may not directly access a person’s wallet, infiltrating their devices could equally bear its own level of risks, like identity theft, information theft and other serious threats, and it may not look like much, not until they finally use the information gotten from your device to target you in the future.