Poll : do you trust an exchange to hold your bitcoins ?

[Marbit]

Trust an exchange? Never. I learned early on with BTC that third parties are a no-no if you want to keep your money safe. So, unfortunately, while I trade, my money is not safe. But I know that, and the risk-reward is worth it for me.

[buy4crypto]

Its very hard to trust an exchange. Sometimes its a a necessary evil as others have said when you have to trade.

I've had a few coins lost on those bad apple exchanges. Not a great feeling.

[vic_stam]

Do I trust them? No, why would I?

Do I do it? Yes, I'm an idiot

Lo, I am the same way bro

[CoinsCoinsEverywhere]

I don't usually trust anyone, same goes with exchanges  but I do keep some altcoins on them, why? Because I can't download all of their wallets and install them on my pc, so its a safety precaution, and I keep them their until I can get some profits outta them and then I sell and move on to next one or turn to btc and withdraw.

Totally agree on the altcoin wallets. I don't trust a lot of the developers or the software. Lots of BTC wallet draining malware out there. It's too bad, because the best way to get in on an alt pump is to buy before it hits an exchange.

It would require extra effort, but if you keep your altcoin wallets completely separate from your BTC wallet, you should be ok.  Ideally, it would be best to use two different computers, or at least two separate OS installations on the same machine.  But at the very least, if you keep your BTC in cold storage and make sure you don't have malware when you access it, you should be pretty safe.

[Sharky444]

I would not hold more than 10 BTC on ANY exchange.

[Zer0Sum]

What I personally do : I own about 30 btc, and I let them sit on Kraken.
I keep them there for several reasons :

- I dont trust myself to keep a paper wallet safe for a long time.
- I mostly trust Kraken, in particular because they have automated audits.
- I want to be ready to sell quickly in case of a huge crash.

Just wow... you are gonna get a BIG lesson in counter-party risk someday.

[DannyElfman]

What I personally do : I own about 30 btc, and I let them sit on Kraken.
I keep them there for several reasons :

- I dont trust myself to keep a paper wallet safe for a long time.
- I mostly trust Kraken, in particular because they have automated audits.
- I want to be ready to sell quickly in case of a huge crash.

Just wow... you are gonna get a BIG lesson in counter-party risk someday.

It would probably be a better idea to have 12 BTC at an exchange that allows 2.5x leverage and simply sell bitcoin short in the event that you wish to sell all of your bitcoin. You could keep the rest in a blockchain wallet for example.

Another option would be to use the second market bitcoin fund. You would need to pay some fees but the counterparty risk would be much less.

[Pony789]

Nope, as the old saying goes, if you don't have the private keys, you don't have your bitcoin.

[KimNam]

No way i put my coins in exchange more than 12 hours
i'll withdraw it when i'm done trading
too many scam exchange, especially in altcoin trading

[BowieMan]

trust? no way. but sometimes there's no way to stay in fiat for a couple days waiting on a down leg.

same. on longer swings down, i wire out fiat, but on short moves, nothing else to be done.

[haploid23]

trust? no way. but sometimes there's no way to stay in fiat for a couple days waiting on a down leg.

same. on longer swings down, i wire out fiat, but on short moves, nothing else to be done.

But constantly wiring fiat in or out eats up any profit you've made (if any). Those wire fees are not cheap, and sometimes there is even a fee to receive a wire, depending on the bank. It just depends on your risk tolerance.

[HigsonPP]

trust? no way. but sometimes there's no way to stay in fiat for a couple days waiting on a down leg.

same. on longer swings down, i wire out fiat, but on short moves, nothing else to be done.

But constantly wiring fiat in or out eats up any profit you've made (if any). Those wire fees are not cheap, and sometimes there is even a fee to receive a wire, depending on the bank. It just depends on your risk tolerance.

just have to compare that cost with the exchange risk of holding fiat on an exchange. these exchanges are very shady and unregulated.

[Harley997]

trust? no way. but sometimes there's no way to stay in fiat for a couple days waiting on a down leg.

same. on longer swings down, i wire out fiat, but on short moves, nothing else to be done.

But constantly wiring fiat in or out eats up any profit you've made (if any). Those wire fees are not cheap, and sometimes there is even a fee to receive a wire, depending on the bank. It just depends on your risk tolerance.

If you have a large enough balance at your bank account then your bank will likely not charge you for wiring funds out of your bank account. You can send an ACH payment from the exchange to your bank account. 

[wasserman99]

trust? no way. but sometimes there's no way to stay in fiat for a couple days waiting on a down leg.

same. on longer swings down, i wire out fiat, but on short moves, nothing else to be done.

But constantly wiring fiat in or out eats up any profit you've made (if any). Those wire fees are not cheap, and sometimes there is even a fee to receive a wire, depending on the bank. It just depends on your risk tolerance.

If you have a large enough balance at your bank account then your bank will likely not charge you for wiring funds out of your bank account. You can send an ACH payment from the exchange to your bank account. 

ACH is often not an option from exchanges based in Europe. SEPA is great for people who live in that zone, but for people in the US, international wires are the norm. That usually means a fee from the exchange, from an intermediary bank, and possibly from your own bank. It adds up.

[fdiini]

Can probably trust bitstamp who already have an audit.

[ranochigo]

Can probably trust bitstamp who already have an audit.

You can but however, not fully. Anything can happen after an audit, even a hacking. AFAIK I don't think a reputable auditor did that audit, if not, it would be a good add-on.

[iflash]

Hello,

I used bitcoin.de and I would trust them watching over my 10 months old daughter. I don't think I need to say more.

Best

iFlash

[desticy]

don't trust any exchanges.

[KimNam]

Can probably trust bitstamp who already have an audit.

yeah you can give more trust to them, but don't give all of your trust
everything can happen in the future, better if you save you coin in your own wallet

Hello,

I used bitcoin.de and I would trust them watching over my 10 months old daughter. I don't think I need to say more.

Best

iFlash

German exchange? do they accept USD?

[counter]

I know I shouldn't but I do leave large sums of funds on their so I won't be devastated.  It is a horrible habit to have and I will try to not do this and use more security with my coins.