1 Introduction

There comes a time in every crypto-holder’s life when he or she has to take a serious look at how secure their current holdings are. Over the years, I’ve witnessed multiple people storing their crypto in ways that are begging for trouble. This includes the following:

• Leaving their coins in an exchange wallet (with or without 2FA enabled).
• Using a browser-based wallet with an unsecured computer.
• Using a mobile wallet with known security flaws.
• Storing a wallet on a rooted mobile.
• Using a software wallet on their virus riddled PC.
• Not using a hardware or paper wallet to store large amounts of crypto assets.

You shouldn’t be leaving your coins on an exchange, and if you can avoid it, you shouldn’t be using a software wallet. If you’re going to take away anything from this article, make it the fact you must obtain and use a hardware wallet or a paper wallet if you hold more crypto than you are willing to lose. If you’re interested in general security practices, it’s worth checking out our post on OPSEC and the best way to stay safe as a cryptocurrency holder online. To drill this point home let’s outline some previous known events in which users have lost obscene amounts of crypto.

2 Known Hacks & Losses

The following are (mostly recent) events in which large amounts of cryptocurrency were compromised resulting in losses for the victims. I’m not going to list every example, these are cases off the top of my head and should be enough to give you an idea of how common this is. There are likely many similar cases every year that are not made public by the victims. I’ll update this list periodically. As you can see, securing your coins should be taken seriously!http://blog.chuck-reynolds.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/securing-background-324×160-1.jpg Let’s discuss one of the two decent options for securing your crypto: hardware wallets. Paper wallets are also a good option in certain circumstances but are not as suited for regular access to your funds on an internet-enabled computer, so we won’t examine them here. Paper wallets are discussed in our blockchain guides.

3 Hardware Wallets – Ledger Nano S vs. Trezor

There are many hardware wallets available, and most manufacturers offer many models. For the sake of simplicity, we are only going to discuss these two options today, as they are usually readily available and are arguably the most popular. The KeepKey deserves mention here too as it’s been getting some positive reviews. The aim of this article is not to shill you my favorite hardware wallets, however, it’s an important purchase, so let’s briefly go over the pros and cons of these two:

Conclusion

The Ledger Nano S takes the cake mostly due to price and currency support. That’s not to say other hardware wallets aren’t good. Do your own research and buy a wallet that’s right for you. And remember, always purchase your hardware wallet direct from vendors or authorized distributors. Never purchase from Amazon, eBay or third parties if you can’t be sure the device hasn’t been tampered with.

Article Produced By
Greg Adams

https://blokt.com/guides/storing-crypto