How to keep bitcoin/cryptocurrencies safe?

The total supply of bitcoin is 21 million coins and the last bitcoin estimated to be mined in 2140. The current supply at the time of writing is a little over 17 million coins but you may be surprised to hear that a recent research estimates that approximately 3-4 million bitcoins are lost forever!

Except the lost bitcoins there are also millions of stolen bitcoins! During the lifetime of bitcoin there were large numbers of hacks and frauds in which many people lost a lot of money.

How could this happen? I will cover the ways you can get hacked or lose your bitcoin/cryptocurrencies so this will never happen to you:

FORGETTING PASSWORDS

You will be amazed how many coins are lost in wallets that cannot be accessed to because the users forget their passwords! Today it’s probably less common but back in the times when bitcoin was much cheaper it happened a lot more often.

LOST/BROKEN HARDWARE

There are many ways you can store your bitcoins/cryptocurrencies, some are safer than others. Hardware wallets and cold storage wallets consider safe – using this wallets your chance to being hacked is very low but hardware has its own disadvantages: many people lost their coins by losing or even throwing away old hardware because they forgot that their coins were where Also, old hardware can get broken what will cause losing the access to any coins on that hardware.

SENDING COINS TO THE WRONG ADDRESS

Before sending coins between your wallets make sure the address is correct! The slightest mistake can result in sending your coins to someone else! Moreover if by mistake you are trying to send your coins to an address that don’t even exist the blockchain will not recognize it and will allow you to do so, resulting in losing your coins forever and no one will ever could use them!

HACKS AND FRAUDS

Many traders store their coins on exchanges so that they could trade them fast and easily but actually this is very dangerous. When you store your coins online like in exchange there is a risk of getting hacked. Not only your own account can be hacked but even the whole exchange can be hacked! One famous example is the Mt. Gox exchange hack – 850,000 bitcoins went missing in 2014!
Except hacks there are a lot of scammers out there that try (many times successfully) in different creative ways to make people give them access to their coins only to steal them.

Here are some tips you can use to reduce the chance of losing your cryptocurrencies:

PASSWORDS

Always make sure you remember your passwords but at the same time try to use a long password. If you can’t remember it avoid storing it online, it may sound silly but writing it down on a piece of paper is probably the safest way to keep it.

USE 2FA

Two Factor Authentication is just a second layer of security. If you use 2FA you will have to provide not only username and password but also another code to access your account. The extra code can be sent to you via SMS to your phone or can be generated by google 2 step verification.
If it’s the first time you hear about it I suggest you to learn about it more – just google it.

USE HARDWARE WALLET

Unless you are a day trader there is no reason to keep your coins on exchanges.
Hardware wallet is the safest way to store your coins! It’s resilient to malware and once you transfer your coins you can just keep it some place safe in your house.
While other types of storage are free hardware wallets can cost you a hundred bucks – it may seem expansive but if you invest a large amount off money on cryptocurrencies it’s totally worth your peace of mind.
There are several different hardware wallets out there you can find some of them at our store here.

BE SURE!

If you transfer coins between wallets\exchanges for the first time or if you afraid that you doing something wrong make a test – send a small amount first to see if you are doing it right and once you see that your coins arrived to right place you can safely transfer your full amount.

DON’T BE NAIVE

If something sounds to good to be true maybe it probably is. Scammers will do anything to get your money! Don’t trust blindly anyone and always do your own research, don’t provide personal information and never, NEVER give anyone your PRIVATE keys or your passwords.
Many scammers promise people to send them coins for free – all they ask is for their private key to know where to send the coins – private key is meant to be private – with your private key you can access to your coins and transfer them – if someone else have your private key he can just access your coins and send them to himself. If anyone will ever want to send you coins they will ask for your public key and this key is meant to be shared so people will know where to send coins so they will arrive to the right person.

Hope this information was helpful!

Keep it safe!

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