Cryptocurrencies are the order of the day and surely you know many people who bet on buying them or mining them without knowing very well how to protect them or how to keep them safe. Therefore, we must take into account a series of tips to prevent cryptocurrencies from being stolen or to store them safely.
You must protect your wallet from bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency and there are a series of tips and tricks that we must take into account to save them. Take care who you send them to, take care where you are going to store them but we can also have a plan B or a second purse or wallet to protect large amounts.
What to keep in mind? How they are stored and protected
The first thing we have to know is how bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency are stored. You probably want to start investing but don’t know exactly what to do with this type of money. It is not physical money that you can take out at an ATM like bills and coins and keep it in your purse or purse or in a box at home as we are used to. It is money that is not stored as such in the safe or the piggy bank, they are files that are not stored as such but we use a password that allows us to confirm that they are ours. And it is this key that we are going to protect and the one that we need no one to know because it is the one that gives us access to them and the one that allows us to operate with them.
There are two keys. A public key and a private key. The public key can be equivalent, in conventional money , to the bank account that you can give to someone to make a transfer. On the other hand, the private key is the secret code that only you know and that allows you to use your money. Like your access code to the bank or the PIN code of the card that allows you to pay, withdraw money, etc. It is this that you must protect because it is the one that allows us to operate, control bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency. And how do we protect it? With a third key or password that would be the one of the wallets that we use and that make that only we can access that private key.
How to protect ourselves
Once it is clear to us how your storage works or what keys or passwords we need, there are some tricks that will teach us how to protect ourselves.
Control your keys
Something quite obvious and logical is related to the above: we use a series of keys to protect ourselves (the private one and the wallet key) and we must make them as secure as possible . Do not use an obvious password, easy to guess or easy to hack as a key to your purse or wallet because anyone can access and steal everything that is inside. And in the case of the private key , although it is logical, you should not give it to anyone.
Another fundamental step that we must take into account is that if you encrypt the wallet and lose the access code, you will lose everything there is. You will lose all cryptocurrencies. That is why it is important that you remember the password but that it is secure enough to protect us properly.
Choose a purse well
Wallets allow us to store cryptocurrencies . But there are several different types of purses: cold and hot. Cold wallets are usually the safest and have a physical format and are disconnected from the Internet. The hot ones or hot wallets are those that are connected to the Internet and are more comfortable but carry more risks since they can be hacked more easily.
Cold wallets can be paper wallets or hardware wallets. They are the safest way to store our cryptocurrencies since they are not connected to the Internet and no one can hack them but we must bear in mind that they are not intended to be used frequently but if we want to store the currencies in the long term so as not to use them. In addition, although they are safer, they also have risks because you can throw them away by mistake, break them, wash them. On the other hand, other safe wallets are those of hardware through a pendrive or a small device. They are more comfortable than the previous ones but also safer than if we use a website or an app in which all our data can be stolen.
Choose several wallets
Another recommended option is that we use several purses or wallets that allow us to protect the principal. That is, if you have a prepaid card for online purchases and not linked to your bank, the same happens in these cases. You can have a wallet in which you “fill” with small amounts and that you use for day-to-day transactions and a main wallet where you have the main amount stored. Not using the latter will make you more protected.
This is useful if we want to have one in hardware format, for example, that helps us fill out one that we use in a web or application. If there is any risk or danger we will lose a small amount but we will not lose everything we have.
Use all possible security methods
Wallets or wallets can usually be encrypted and it is important that you do so so that no one can access. In addition, there are also online storage services that include other security methods such as double authentication that not only requires a key but will also ask us for one more step to verify identity.
It is advisable to bet on as many security methods as possible as long as you are going to use applications or websites as a wallet.
Control apps or websites
Be careful when choosing hot purses. Hot wallets are always connected to the Internet and this does not give the advantage of being able to use them whenever we want, but the websites can be attacked or can disappear forever without a trace. In this case, we run much more risk. That is why it is especially important that you choose well if you are going to use online wallets or cross-platform applications.
Seek opinions, seek experience from other users. Look for safe options not to store your cryptocurrencies on a page that will close in two days since you risk losing them and you will not be able to do anything to save it.
In addition, it is recommended that you do not have an application installed on the phone you use every day. If you have a smartphone that you no longer use and you always leave at home, it would be better if you have the cryptocurrency app on it instead of having it on a mobile that you are going to take to a party, to a concert … since, if it is stolen, you will lose it.
Be careful with your transactions
Be careful with whom you send bitcoins or any cryptocurrency, what you pay or where you pay. Once we have sent money we cannot get it back so we should first make sure that we are using it on a reliable website. In the Dark Web we will find all kinds of stores that offer us anything in exchange for cryptocurrencies but they will not always be reliable. Nor on the superficial Internet: succulent offers with payment with bitcoins or collector NFTs that are not unique but similar, for example, to other more popular ones.
We must always be careful when making any type of payment either through a purchase or between individuals since we will not be able to recover it.
