How to Keep Bitcoin Wallet Safe – Guide
Bitcoin is on yet another wild ride. The cryptocurrency’s value has surged from $3,000 to nearly $13,000 in the last three months, and is currently hovering around $10,000. People are more likely to purchase bitcoins under such conditions in hopes of making a profit. However, as the price of Bitcoin rises, malevolent hackers see an opportunity to steal money from gullible users who are unfamiliar with Bitcoin’s security principles. If you are new to Bitcoin, these indicators will help you protect your digital wealth. Signature up for an online wallet like Coinbase or Binance is the simplest way to get started with Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies. Many of Bitcoin’s technical hurdles, such as managing private keys and addresses, are hidden behind online wallets, making them an attractive option for those who are less tech-savvy or new to Bitcoin. Most online wallets only take a few minutes to sign up up to, and all you need to access your account is a browser, login and password. Online wallets, on the other hand, are not the safest place to keep your cryptocurrencies. Anyone with your email and password can gain access to your coins and steal them, and unscrupulous agents can do that with just a phishing email. Also, unlike traditional payment systems, it is very difficult to recover lost bitcoins.
Here are some best practices that can improve the security of your wallet:
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA)
Most online wallets support some form of two-factor or multi-factor authentication. Enabling 2FA links your account to a phone, mobile app or physical dongle. If a malicious hacker gets your username and password, they still need to have that extra factor to access your account.
don’t use your Phone Number for 2FA
Most websites support various forms of two-factor authentication, but not all 2FA methods are equally secure. If you rely on SMS passwords to protect your account, cunning hackers can hijack your phone number and intercept your 2FA password. If you are associating a phone number with your account, it would be better to use a separate secret SIM card.
Use a separate email for your Bitcoin wallet
Most of us have a primary account for our daily communications, but we use the same email address for our Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal accounts. We share it with friends, family, and co-workers. They can share it with other people and eventually a malicious hacker can get it. If your online wallet is linked to this email, the hacker will have one of two important pieces of information needed to access your wallet. Use a separate email address for your online wallet — one that you don’t use for any other purpose. This minimizes the chance of your account being discovered by a cybercriminal.
Use an offline wallet
Every Bitcoin wallet has one or more “addresses” where it stores its cryptocurrency. Bitcoin addresses are long, unique strings of alphanumeric characters, and each address has a pair of public and private encryption keys. When other users want to send bitcoins to your address, they use your public key. When you want to spend your bitcoins, you use the private key to sign your transaction. The private key proves that you own the bitcoins stored at a specific address. So the key to securing bitcoins is to keep your private key in a safe place. By using an online wallet, you are effectively allowing the service provider to protect your private keys for you. That’s why it’s so easy to use online wallets. But it also makes online exchanges an attractive target for hackers. While these companies do their best to protect user accounts, they are breached quite often. An alternative to online Bitcoin exchanges are offline wallets, which give you full control of your private keys and will protect you from massive data breaches on Bitcoin exchanges. The downside is that they are more difficult to define. up and usage, and require more technical knowledge. Offline wallets come in different flavors:
software wallets
Software wallets are applications that you can install on your computer, portable memory drive, or mobile device. A wallet app like Electrum stores private keys on your device and uses them to sign Bitcoin transactions whenever you want to make a payment. If you want complete security with a software wallet, you must install it on a computer that is not connected to the Internet and transfer the signed transactions to a computer that is connected to the Internet. The process is more difficult, but also safer.
hardware wallets
Hardware wallets are physical devices that generate and store cryptocurrency key pairs. They usually come with an associated application that you must install on your computer or your mobile device. When you want to send bitcoins to someone, you need to connect the hardware wallet to your computer or pair it with yours. phone by Bluetooth. Each transaction is signed into the hardware wallet with the user’s approval. Hardware wallets are very secure because the private keys never leave the device; Trezor and Ledger are two popular options.
paper wallets
Paper wallets are Bitcoin key pairs printed as QR codes on paper. You can create paper wallets on one of several websites such as bitcoinpaperwallet.com. To receive money in your paper wallet, scan the public key with any Bitcoin wallet app and send it to the payer. To send bitcoins from your paper wallet, scan your private key to sign your transaction. Paper wallets are “cold storage”, meaning they are good for securely storing bitcoins, but not very useful for making daily payments. Paper wallets are secure because they have no digital component and cannot be stolen or hacked remotely. But you must destroy the digital copy of the wallet after printing it, to ensure that no one else replicates it. Using an offline wallet does not mean that your bitcoins are absolutely safe. If you leave your private keys in an unsecure place, the wrong person could find them. Also, you may accidentally destroy your keys which will also result in your funds being lost without recourse. For example, if you lose or destroy your hardware or paper wallet or forget your security PIN, your bitcoins will be lost forever.
Final note
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