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Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

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Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#21

Post by jrruethe »

nitin_flanker wrote: post #18
tmlee wrote: post #9

Which exchanges are the best? --- 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…

What if I can't/don't want to buy a hardware wallet? (Since the amount that I want to store isn't worth buying an expensive wallet) I've heard that paper wallets are good too but I have no idea how to use them. It would be great if you (or anyone) can help me with the process of using them.

I wrote a guide a while back that may be of some help:

http://jrruethe.github.io/blog/2015/04/23/bitcoin-paper-wall...

Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#22

Post by j_s »

pointsphere wrote: post #7

Do 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 a…

Trezor - https://amzn.com/dp/B00R6MKDDE/ $99.93 | referral: http://amzn.to/2wsH6WM

Ledger Nano S - https://amzn.com/dp/B01J66NF46/ $146.50 | referral: http://amzn.to/2eYkJSQ

You may find better prices (back ordered) on their respective sites linked elsewhere on this thread.

Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#23

Post by j_s »

rrobukef wrote: post #15
ars wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is absolutely not true. If you send coins your wallet generates a new key for the remaining coins. At that point your old backup is useless - it has a key that no longer works. And yes, people have lost coins because of not knowing this.

This should be a solved problem with HD wallets.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11693631 (May 2016)

> droffel: Hardware wallets use the BIP32[1] spec to implement "Hierarchical Deterministic" (HD) addresses. Using a single seed phrase (stored internally on the device, and also written down external to the device, neither copy should ever be online), you can generate an infinite number of addresses for your wallet. Every time you request a payment, you get a different address to send to, there is no address reuse (unless you or someone else chooses to send funds to an address that has already been spent from).

Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#24

Post by j_s »

Coinbase is still using MongoDB (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14902743) but seems to have worked through the growing pains they had getting started.

Ask HN: Does anyone know what's going on at Coinbase? | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5427985 (March 2013)

Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#25

Post by carvelo447 »

Xapo is one of the most reliable wallets to store your Bitcoins. Another great advantage is that it has a debit card so you can shop and withdraw money at ATMs and Coinbase is another of the recommended Wallets to store Bitcoins, for its simplicity and power. In addition, it allows you to store Ethereum and Litecoin.

Another advantage is that you can buy Bitcoins from most countries in Latin America by credit card.

If you invite a friend to buy at least US $ 100 in one of the criptomonedas they give you $ 10 in Bitcoins to you and your friend.

They are the best to store and I recommend them since they are the ones I use.

Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#26

Post by hackermailman »

I keep an old thinkpad laying around offline and do the following

    Create unsigned transaction(online).
    Sign it (offline).
    Broadcast it (online).
There will be instructions for any wallet software how to do this on bitcointalk or their own documentation. After each txn backup the wallets to some other offline/cold storage in case the thinkpad dies. If you had millions of coins you wouldn't want to do this obviously due to usb attacks but for my <$1k wallet good enough. There's also QubesOS, can keep wallets running in different VMs

Re: Ask HN: What are best practices for buying / storing cryptocurrencies

#28

Post by celticninja »

jordiburgos wrote: post #20
celticninja wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Transfering the coins from and to the exchange... Would that cost a fee?

Yes, miners fees make the system go round.
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