Guide to secure deposits: How to better hide the Bitcoin in your hands?

In an era of constant economic uncertainty, surveillance, professional cybercrime, and hacking, knowing how to more securely hide the bitcoins in your hands has become a top concern for cryptocurrency holders. Whether by taking the necessary security measures, or using an unmanaged wallet, a decentralized exchange (DEX), or even a brain wallet, there are many measures to protect your Bitcoin. This article tries to detail the best way to store Bitcoin, which can be used by anyone. The purpose of this article is to ensure that you can safely store the cryptocurrency in your hand.

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Safeguard your Bitcoins

"Satoshi" is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, and as the holder of the most popular cryptocurrency, it is important to keep every Satoshi in your hand well. For those new to the cryptocurrency field, and even for the more experienced hodlers who have overlooked certain security precautions and tips, how to protect every Satoshi in your hand is a required course for you, here are some good ones Methods.

Always pay attention to operating safety

• Simultaneously addressing the pressing issues of DEX and CEX, the company received a $ 40 million investment from Sequoia and Intel
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• Over 19000 BCH was sent by mistake, and nearly half have been stolen. This problem is annoying for miners.

Opsec means operational security, which is very important when protecting cryptocurrencies. For example, having simple two-factor authentication (2FA) is not enough. SMS verification can still give hackers a chance. Sim jacking is an example of this. Hackers only need to cooperate with a customer service staff who works at a mobile phone provider. Hackers can obtain the key of any protected account by transferring your device data to a new SIM card. To better protect your property, the best option is to use a verification application such as Google Authentication instead of a phone number. Therefore, you must not use SMS verification on some sensitive accounts, especially cryptocurrency exchanges, or choose a more secure method.

Also, make sure that your account password, username, pseudonym, and other such information are also used in a secure manner. Don't use simple names, birthdays, etc. as passwords for all accounts and wallets. Trusted and verified password managers can generate a long list of unique and powerful passwords, which can help you easily use and keep passwords, and there are some password manager services that allow users to store their master passwords locally, while Not on any central server.

Protect your sensitive information

Let's talk about anonymity again, please make sure that all records, memos or other information that might bind your real identity to your account username are encrypted. Your phone number should also not be made public. The better you protect your sensitive information, the less likely it is for a hacker to steal all your information and steal your bitcoin.

In addition, keeping a low profile and not showing off your wealth is also an important measure to protect the security of Bitcoin. As mentioned earlier, it is not advisable to share your phone number publicly. And you can't show off that you have a lot of Bitcoin in your hand. The more people know that you have a lot of bitcoin, the more likely it is that malicious people will be interested in taking bitcoin from you, and showing off your wealth too much will even endanger your personal safety.

Cold storage

Cold storage refers to offline storage of Bitcoin and its private keys to improve security. Because cold-stored private keys are never made public on the Internet, this approach may have a much higher level of security than other approaches. Hardware wallets such as Trezor and Ledger keep private keys in encrypted physical devices. You can write mnemonic words on paper, or even keep them in fire-resistant metal plates. Of course, there is another option that may be safer: keep the mnemonic in your head.

A "brain wallet" is a bitcoin mnemonic stored in your head. As long as you don't forget it or confuse it, it is absolutely safe. Using mnemonic means such as vivid and interesting stories, general coin holders can completely memorize mnemonic words containing 12 words. However, like all these measures, this approach has advantages and disadvantages. If you have to flee an evildoer, or flee a country, and you can't take anything away, then this option is undoubtedly attractive. However, once the mnemonic is forgotten, no customer service team on Earth can help you recover the lost Bitcoin.

Use DEXs to store Bitcoin in an unmanaged way

Although popular centralized trading platforms such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken make it easy for people to obtain bitcoins and even use them for daily transactions, I still don't recommend that you store bitcoins that are not traded on the exchange. Historically, exchanges have been attacked many times by hackers, and they are also subject to government supervision. Technically, they will also encounter certain difficulties. Therefore, it is not safe to store your bitcoins with exchanges. Once the exchange is closed, hacked, or frozen, your bitcoin is also at great risk.

Better options include using open source code and decentralized exchanges that store software and network data locally. This type of network is more anonymous, users do not even need to register, and can use P2P transactions to provide encrypted chat and blind hosting functions through the network.

Let's take another look at cryptocurrency wallets, which are divided into managed and unmanaged wallets. The escrow type wallet does not provide the user's private key or will store the private key in its own server. The private key of a non-hosted wallet is encrypted and stored in the user's phone, and the user has full control of their assets. Therefore, choosing an unmanaged wallet is a better option than a managed wallet, as the mnemonic can restore the wallet in the event of an accident or loss of equipment. Be sure to confirm that any wallet you use is an unmanaged wallet, because the biggest value of Bitcoin is that users have 100% control of their assets.

Less trust is better

Trust from person to person is wonderful, but if you are storing bitcoin, it is better to have less trust. Satoshi Nakamoto believes that trust is the core issue of the traditional financial system. The Bitcoin creator put forward "inherent weaknesses based on trust models" in the Bitcoin white paper and developed cryptocurrencies to address these challenges.

Therefore, before hiding the bitcoin in your hand, it is important that you first remember the reason for buying bitcoin. You don't have to trust any central entity to keep your funds safe. For storing Bitcoin, you just need to trust yourself.

Disclaimer: This article is for reference only. This article is not intended to be purchased or sold, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any product, service, or company. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is directly or indirectly liable for any damage or loss caused by the use or reliance on any content, goods or services described in this article.

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