- Which exchanges are the best
- How should I secure my coins once I've bought them?
Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#2Steer clear of Kraken. Their software/infrastructure is more inept than anything I've seen in recent memory. Coinbase and Bitstamp seem fine. Put your coins in cold storage or a hardware wallet such as Trezor.
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#3Steer clear of Kraken. Their software/infrastructure is more inept than anything I've seen in recent memory. Coinbase and Bitstamp seem fine. Put your coins in cold storage or a hardware wallet such as Trezor.
Coinbase has horrible support. if you are out of the USA, there is not support. In the USA, it can take at least a week before they will respond. I would not recommend.
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#4My setup:
BTC/ETH/USD Exchange: Coinbase --> GDAX
Other Coins: Bittrex/Poloniex
Hardware Wallet: Ledger Nano S
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#5Is there any way to exchange your money for bitcoin and just put it in a 'personal wallet' if you don't want to store it on somewhere like coinbase, etc?
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#61: Don't keep your coins at an exchange. Only keep at an exchange what you are going to trade soon.
2: Backups, lots and lots of backups. And update the backups EVERY time you do a transaction!!!!
3: Keep your coins in multiple "batches", so if you lose one, you don't lose all.
4: Keep most of your coins offline. A bootable USB key is a good idea to reduce hack surface. Divide up the coins on multiple removable USB keys that you normally keep removed. (And USB keys can and do fail, so don't forget those backups.)
5: If you encrypt your wallet write the password down!! Your attack vector is hackers on the internet - they can't see the postit on your wall (if they are in your house you have bigger problems). But your family will appreciate the ability to have the money in case of problems. (Or if you decide to not do anything with coins for a year or two, then want to get back into it - you'll probably not remember the password. There are far too many people who lost their coins because of encryption.)
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#7Do not leave coins on an exchange. Any digital currency is only yours if you control the private keys.
All recommendations are for Bitcoin.
Most secure: A hardware wallet like the "Trezor" or "Ledger". Good balance of security and usability. Gives you a backup phrase in case the device is lost. Backup phrase fits on a piece of paper, can be made as secure as required. Keep backup phrase in multiple locations.
Cheap and secure: (encrypted) paper wallets generated from https://www.bitaddress.org , with backups stored in multiple locations. Bad usability, but can be made as secure as you want/require.
Easy, reasonably secure, not for large amounts: "breadwallet" for iOS/Android. OSS, user friendly, but not recommended for long-term storage. As most modern wallets do, this one also gives you a backup phrase to be stored on paper.
As for exchanges, I'm in Europe and trust bitcoin.de. On Reddit there have generally been no major complaints about Bitstamp, a few about Coinbase, and a lot about Kraken.
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#8Is there any way to exchange your money for bitcoin and just put it in a 'personal wallet' if you don't want to store it on somewhere like coinbase, etc?
Yes there are a huge variety of wallets like this, hardware and software. Storing your coins on one is best practice, don't rely on an exchange.
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#9Which exchanges are the best?
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Depending on where you are located, best exchanges probably means an exchange that has high liquidity and smoothly facilitates withdrawal and deposit. In this case consider Gdax, Bitfinex, Coincheck, etc.
How should I secure my coins once I've bought them? --- Really securing coins is hard and requires up most attention. The easiest way to get started is to purchase a hardware wallet. I recommend Trezor but you may also use a Ledger. These wallets supports a few other coins aside from Bitcoin such as Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum. As for Ethereum, the Trezor wallet works well with Myetherwallet, a web wallet for Ethereum which you can secure your own private keys. This private key can reside in your hardware wallet in which you use to sign transactions. This very same wallet is also used to store all ERC20 tokens.
Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies
#10In the U.S., GDAX (by Coinbase) is a good exchange with a fee of 0% - 0.25% depending on whether you are a "taker" or a "maker."[1] This is a lot less than Coinbase itself, which charges 1.49%.[2] (Assuming you fund with a bank account.)
Do NOT store your coins on an exchange. You do not actually own the coins unless you control the private key. Use a hardware wallet. Some options include the Trezor[3], Ledger[4], and KeepKey[5].
Also, ShapeShift[6] is a good exchange for converting between various cryptocurrencies.
[1]: https://www.gdax.com/fees/BTC-USD
[2]: https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/210959...
[3]: https://trezor.io/