How to keep your crypto safe

We’ve talked before about the importance of self-custody for your crypto assets, but recent events have served to underscore how vital it is. In the past, we’ve discussed the vulnerability of exchanges to hacking and theft (ask Mt. Gox users about that) and this is still a concern, although exchange security has come on leaps and bounds since then. But, as the recent woes of platforms like Celsius and Voyager Digital have shown, hackers are not the only threat to your crypto’s safety.

 

When you keep your crypto on an exchange or a lending and borrowing platform - in short, when you entrust your crypto to another entity - you have to trust that entity to manage it properly. You do not control the private keys to your crypto under these circumstances - the platform you’ve entrusted it to does. And, remember that oft-repeated mantra: not your keys, not your coins.

 

So, in this episode, we take a look at the best ways you can take charge of your crypto and store it as safely as possible. We look at ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ storage, discuss the best types of wallets out there and go through some simple steps you can take to protect not just your crypto, but yourself as well. This could be one of the most important podcast episodes you ever listen to.

 

Oh, and for anyone still wondering, Mike’s wallet transfer did come through, pretty much as soon as we’d stopped recording. Typical. 

 

Check out Coin Bureau’s video on the best hardware wallets on the market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q8nK4XxmkA 

 

And here are the links to some wallet manufacturers: 

Ledger: https://www.ledger.com/ 

Trezor: https://trezor.io/

Keepkey: (Shapeshift is the company that builds the Keepkey device) https://shapeshift.com/keepkey 

We hope you enjoy the show.

 

Producer for iHeart Media: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.