BE PARANOID WITH BITCOIN SECURITY 😱🔐
When I first started with Bitcoins I invested 3 whole months in diligently studying the following before buying any amount of Bitcoins
- How to secure my bitcoin wallet
- How to buy securely
- How to trade securely
If you would notice whenever I move bitcoins in the cryptospace, the #1 and absolute priority should always be security.
Securely storing Bitcoins and its private keys
Securely transferring BTC between wallets
Securely trading them on exchanges
Why is it important to have a "PARANOID" like type of mindset whenever you are dealing with Bitcoins?
Because handling and dealing Bitcoins is like having your own bank. You are the last and final authority on your Bitcoin wallet and its private keys.
You transact directly on the blockchain ledger and if you lose your Bitcoins or send them to the wrong address there's no one in the Universe that can help you retrieve or reverse your Bitcoins.
So here are a few professional tips on how to securely manage your Bitcoins.
Storing Bitcoins in Private Key Wallets
- Back-up your 12 seed or 24 seed Master Password on paper
DO NOT SAVE THEM ON YOUR PHONE,
DO NOT SAVE THEM ON YOUR EMAIL,
DO NOT PRINT THEM FROM YOUR COMPUTER
Write them down yourself on a piece of paper, make duplicate copies and put in a waterproof cellphone case and store in your home vault or safety deposit box in your bank.
Last Pass Password Manager:
After developing the habit of being paranoid with security I immediately changed the old habit of being careless with my online accounts and passwords.
Here's a simple checklist of what I do to be absolutely sure of my accounts:
I use Lastpass password manager now for all my passwords
All my passwords on all my online accounts especially my email and online exchanges have "very strong" approval when I changed them.
My laptop and my phone now have very long passwords and special characters.
I use 2 Factor Authenticator for all my online accounts and I even put an "App lock" on my Android phone for the authenticator app on my phone.
For my cold storage, I reformatted my extra PC at home and made sure it never and will never touch the internet because that is where I generate my Bitcoin wallet masterkeys.
In transferring Bitcoins we always follow a standard operating procedure to be absolutely sure of each and every transfer:
- Use QR code first if possible
- Copy and paste only policy for wallet addresses
- Take screenshots of wallet address and ask the recipient to reconfirm it
- Make a test send before sending the rest
- For new wallets make sure to test the send out from the new wallet
- Double check transaction through the blockchain network
If you are trading on crypto exchanges DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CRYPTO TOKENS ON EXCHANGES, THEY GET HACKED ALL THE TIME!
I bet you didn't know that it takes so much effort in securing and owning Bitcoins right?
Why do I have this kind of practice and mindset in handling my own Bitcoins?
It is because I already envision that the Bitcoins I'm holding now are worth Billions of dollars in the far future (don't get too excited I only have a few Bitcoins hehehe 😆)
The mindset now in terms of security is envisioning your Bitcoins as if they are x100 or x1000 already!
Try to find on youtube the guy who lost 7,000 Bitcoins in 2013, it is now worth 7 Billion pesos! 😱
If the guy had the mindset of Billion pesos worth of Bitcoins way back in 2013 then he wouldn't have carelessly handled his Bitcoins back then.
Bitcoin now is becoming more precious everyday and they are like owning an asset more precious than gold.
Always keep in mind that in the world of cryptocurrency everyone is trying to hack, steal and peep on your private keys.
There only three possible things that I see that you may lose your Bitcoins:
- You lost your private keys through theft
- You made a wrong send to the wrong address
- You were scammed by someone from sending your Bitcoins to their wallet address.
My best advice!
Stop moving your Bitcoins regularly, just put them in a wallet with private keys that are highly secured and keep them for the long-term.
The more you move your Bitcoins the higher the probability of you losing it, so stop playing around with it through exchanges and sending back and send again until you make a mistake!
Did you know whenever we sell Bitcoins with our clients we follow all these procedures and even ask them how secure are their Private Keys, if we find out that the client is very careless with his Private Keys we cancel our trade for that moment until he is absolutely sure he knows how to safely secure his wallet and private keys.
"Bitcoins that will be worth Millions or Billions in the future are useless if you can't safely keep them for the long-term"
If you've read this far and you truly understand my post then you are already more equipped to handle Bitcoins than 96% of the rest of the world.
Please take this advice seriously since I really care about Filipinos keeping and holding their Bitcoins for the future of their family.
This is a friendly advice from Ian Madrid, Bitcoins Meetup Philippines. ❤️
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