How to withdraw Coins from Exchanges such as Coinbase to your Hardware wallet
Congratulations! You have bought your first cryptocurrency! For being in control of the coins, it is necessary to send them to a self-sovereign wallet, for example a hardware wallet (a comparison on wallets can be found here). Before explaining the transaction process, we outline why it is necessary to transfer your coins to a self-sovereign wallet to be in full control of your funds. The process is comparable to withdrawing cash from an ATM.
An exchange is a hosted wallet where the private key — through which the coins can be accessed — is secured by a third party. Thus, it is necessary to trust someone else to secure ones wallet: Sovereignty over your funds is given to the exchange. This concept ressembles book money at a bank where the bank keeps your money on your behalf.
If you really want to become independent, you have to be sovereign over your wallet. Therefore you need to control the private key. A self-sovereign wallet is analogous to cash money which you own directly without a custodian.
Two steps must be done to transfer your coins:
- Figure out an address of your hardware wallet
- Trigger the transaction to send coins from the exchange to the wallet address
Figuring out an address of your hardware wallet
For retrieving an address of a hardware wallet, the device must be attached to the computer. Then the configuration steps of the hardware wallet must be conducted. This entails downloading the respective app and the backup of the seed to restore your wallet. Eventually, the address can be retrieved through the app.
The process on how to retrieve a Bitcoin address on your Ledger are explained in the following. The prior configuration steps may be found here.
Step 1. Connect the Ledger with the computer and enter the pin code.
Step 2. Open Ledger Live.
Step 3. Create an Account as shown in the picture below and follow the instructions
Step 4. Click Receive on the left panel.
Step 5. Chose the Account from the drop-down list to which you aim to send funds.
Step 6. Open the related app on you ledger (e.g. Bitcoin app for Bitcoin account).
Step 7. Verify the receiver address on your device by clicking the right button.
Step 8. Copy the address as shown in Ledger live and paste it into your exchange account as receiver of the transaction.
Triggering the transaction to send coins from the exchange to the public key address
When logged in at the exchange, it is necessary to process the transaction and insert the receiver address. The interface differs from provider to provider. As an example, the two major exchanges Coinbase and Kraken are shown.
At Coinbase, you merely have to select the “Accounts” tab and select the currency you aim to withdraw.
Then, click on the “Send” button and insert the address of your wallet and the amount to transfer.
The Kraken transaction process is a bit more complex. First you go to funding, then klick on withdraw and then you select the currency you aim to withdraw. Insert the address and the amount and process the transaction.
As soon as the transaction is processed, the confirmation time of the respective blockchain needs to be awaited. When the transaction is confirmed by the blockchain, you find your coins in your hardware wallet.
BlockKeeper helps you to track all your crypto assets
Now you have transferred your cryptos from the exchange to your hardware wallet. You are now in charge of your coins so you must ensure well tracking of your spendings on your own authority. BlockKeeper provides off-chain context documentation and portfolio overviews on a secure and private documentation layer for activities on all major blockchains. In BlockKeeper, the highest privacy standards are ensured through a zero knowledge architecture combined with a great user experience. Check out the BlockKeeper website here.
BlockKeeper allows to manage all your cryptofunds through simple mounting of the public key. Very often wallets provide a xpub which is a meta public key from which all possible public keys can be derived. With BlockKeeper, you merely need to insert your xpub and BlockKeeper will automatically retrieve all addresses used on the blockchains for receiving and sending transactions.
In the following, the retrieval of a xpub on Ledger is shown exemplary.
First, you need to open Ledger Live. Then click on the account of which you aim to retrieve the xpub. Then click the wrench symbol which opens the following screen.
Now you merely need to click the arrow of the advanced logs and there is the xpub.
So now you have retrieved the xpub from your Ledger. Then open the BlockKeeper app and add a new account. Insert the xpub in the first line, select the cryptocurrency type and give a name to the account.
Congratulations! Now you are in full charge of your cryptocurrency funds and you have a mean to perfectly track your cryptocurrency expenditures. We wish you a great start in the crypto world with BlockKeeper!
. . .
Website
Twitter
Telegram
Reddit
Github
BlockKeeper provides a user-friendly open source interface which simplifies crypto asset management and off-chain context documentation. The app ensures highest privacy standards through a zero knowledge architecture combined with a great user experience.
