Want to lose all your crypto overnight?
If not, here’s a smarter way to protect your investments
TL;WR — DO NOT KEEP YOUR CRYPTOCURRENCIES ON THE EXCHANGES AND GET A WALLET!
Why shouldn’t I keep my coins on the exchanges?
This crypto world is brand spanking new and is less than a decade old (in accordance to bitcoin); therefore, so are the exchanges.
This means:
- Best practices are T.B.D.
- New cryptocurrencies are launching ALL THE TIME and integration on exchanges can be difficult
- New exchanges are going 0 to beta, to (potential) crashes. Even the ‘trustworthy’ exchanges are prone to crashes — see bitfinex crash
- You own your crypto only if the exchange stands the test of time, i.e. heavily backed by some outside investor, have good code, and doesn’t have bad actors
- Exchanges are prone to hacks
- Exchanges can shut your country off which can lock your crypto to the exchange — see bitfinex again
History will repeat at the top of the Mt (Gox)
Trust me, it’s happened a lot. Even popular exchanges have failed or have had drawbacks. For instance, MtGox was once the #1 exchange for bitcoin, and then it went bankrupt. People lost millions of dollars worth of bitcoins. :(
“MtGox announced it had lost some 850,000 bitcoins, of which 750,000 belonged to its customers. At the time, bitcoins were trading at $827 apiece, making the value of the loss equivalent to $620 million.” — MIT Technology Review, 2014
This would be $14.5B USD today!
Other fine examples of problems with exchanges:
You’ve made it this far — I bet you want to get off the exchanges now
So what should you do? Get a wallet that supports your crypto, STAT!
Here are a couple of wallets that I like
- Exodus for more mainstream currencies, ie — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin
- Exodus Eden for more non-mainstream coins—the alt currencies. (Note — this is still a working version, expect bugs)
- Wallet for IOTA
Want to get HARDcore?
If you’re holding numerous cryptocurrencies and want to make sure your crypto is a secure as possible, here are a couple of wallets for you.
The old fashion way
The hardware way
Final notes
The safest way to secure your investments is to not store all your crypto in one place. Spread it to a couple wallets, that way if any fail, you won’t lose everything.
And always make sure to always back that ‘thang’ up.
Been in the game?
Let me know what wallets you love in the comments!
If you haven’t had a chance to read my last post on how to buy IOTA, you can find it here. Since my last post, IOTA is above $4, a 605% gain for the month.
