How to secure cryptocurrency? Do's and Don'ts
Cryptocurrency is rapidly emerging as one of the most exciting avenues to invest due to the great return over investments. However, it's not without problems. According to a Reuters study, almost one-third of the Bitcoin trading platforms have been hacked and half of them have been shut down over the years. So what can you do to protect your investment? Well, here's more!
One of the basic things to do is something that we need to apply in all things online, when it comes to security: two-factor authentication. This may sound rudimentary and often a nuisance if you are in a hurry, but this is the first barrier that you can set against hackers. This makes it hard for them to hack and that's what you want.
It's advisable that you use a Bitcoin client that gives you the freedom to change to a new IP address with each transaction you make. What you can also do is separate transactions, according to their importance, into different wallets. Keep one wallet to carry out your day-to-day transactions and top it up when you need to.
Another basic thing to do is conduct all the transactions via your personal devices. No matter what, avoid using a computer that you don't own, because even if you have cleaned your tracks, there is always someone better out there. Also, keep your wallet address and your password separate, like you do with your ATM cards.
Keep yourself in sync with things. Always make sure that your wallet software is updated and you have a know-how of the new features. Make sure you have an offline backup of your wallet. So, even if anything happens, you will have something to fall back on. As for the password, make it as complex and unpredictable as possible and change it often.
One should ideally avoid using mobile devices to access wallets and it's recommended that you keep it offline. Make sure that you have encrypted your wallet. This is mandatory when you are storing it online. Destroy the virtual wallet that you don't need. Locate all the copies of it that might have been created and get rid of them too.
Make use of hardware ledgers to store your cryptocurrencies. Some of the common ones out there are Ledger Blue, Ledger Nano S, and Trezor. These hardware ledgers are usually like USB dongles and are nearly hack-proof. They mainly support Bitcoins but some of them also support other cryptocoins. Storing your private keys in these can give you peace of mind.
