Good morning, good afternoon or good evening (I don't know what time it is in your part of the world), today we will talk about online wallets and exchanges and why it is important to choose the right one, best suited to our needs. We will also talk about security in order to prevent them from stealing everything and in the end I will recommend some wallets / exchanges. Let's not waste any more time and start immediately.
Online wallets are often snubbed especially by the most experienced people, used to using cryptocurrencies for years, for easily understandable reasons.
First of all, they are commonly considered insecure (after all it is relatively easy to subtract someone's access credentials to a site) and secondly they have a very limited operation since the user does not have their own private keys and, therefore, to give an example, those who had their own bitcoins on an online wallet at the time of the BCH hard fork could not claim their own coins (which it is reasonable to think the managers did, thus making a good deal of millions that they should actually have belonged to users).
In short, keep our cryptocurrencies without owning
private keys can hardly be considered a good idea, however online wallets also have advantages (in my opinion undeniable) and can even be very useful in particular circumstances.
Cryptocurrency wallets: What are online wallets
Although it will seem trivial to most, I think it is important when dealing with this type of topic never to assume that everyone already knows what you are talking about; however, I find it necessary to briefly explain what online wallets are.
Quite simply these are internet sites (and as such are therefore centralized) that offer users wallets (i.e. cryptocurrency wallets) accessible via the internet; therefore they work like any other site, the user registers and then can, using their credentials, access the wallet that the website makes available to them.
These services therefore offer very limited operations, we can keep our cryptocurrencies, but we do not have private keys, we can perform transactions and move funds, but nothing more than that.
The benefits of online wallets for cryptocurrencies
That it is never a good idea to store large amounts of cryptocurrencies on online wallets is a fact, but contrary to what you can read around online wallets also have indisputable advantages.
Meanwhile, they are anonymous, almost all sites allow the user to register without entering any personal data; it is still possible to follow the tracks left on the web to connect to the internet, but with a few small precautions you can use online wallets to make the possession of our bitcoins perfectly anonymous. Clarification: it is complicated, requires numerous precautions, but it is not impossible.
Another noteworthy advantage concerns the possibility of releasing access to our funds to a physical device; for example, imagine that you have to travel and want to take a large amount of money with me. I could certainly travel with a paper wallet, or maybe use a hardware device (like trezos), but what if I lose them? If I lost my paper wallet or my cold storage device I would be in a bad trouble; if I have been careful I will be able to use the recovery seeds to recover my funds, but it is not said that he was so smart.
A simple alternative, however, is to use online wallets; if I want to take 10 BTC with me, all I have to do is choose ten different online wallet services and deposit a bitcoin on each of these; at that point I can still take my cold storage device with me, but if they stopped me at customs and checked it they would find it empty.
Then then I just need to access my online wallet / exchange and move the funds to cloud storage.
In addition to all this, we must also add that online wallets are perhaps the easiest and most convenient access point for beginners who are starting to take an interest in cryptocurrencies, after all it takes time to understand how this world works, not to mention the fact that it does not all users have the option to install bitcoin core on their computer.
It is therefore quite common for a person who has just had a first approach to the world of crypto to start moving just by opening an online wallet (I started this way myself). Although online wallets are certainly the least suitable tool for storing our cryptocurrencies (especially for long periods of time), they still have undeniable advantages and should therefore not be discredited a priori, but simply used for what are your needs.
Basic safety rules in the use of cryptocurrency wallets
Security when we talk about cryptocurrencies is always a central topic, but when it comes to online wallets it becomes even more important; in the meantime, it is necessary to start from the assumption that when we use this type of services we place enormous trust in the service manager.
Since we are in the hands of third parties, we should take advantage of services that already enjoy a certain authority on the market, which do not have any scandals behind them, which are not the subject of constant complaints from users. So what we need to do is to search for some information on the web before opening an online wallet on a certain site, so as to ensure in advance of the seriousness of those who administer that particular site.
Without this the advice, for those who work with cryptocurrencies, is to dedicate a computer exclusively to this; the risk we run is to use a machine infected with malware that could steal our access credentials. The ideal is therefore always to use a computer with which we do not browse, but which we only use to move our funds and with which we have never accessed any risky sites (porn, online streaming, etc.); another thing we should never do is use the "remember password" browser button.
Many do know it, it is convenient not having to remember passwords but the advice is to write them on a sheet (or several sheets) that you leave exclusively AT HOME in the most hidden place there is.
Those keys, in fact, do nothing but save the access credentials internally to the browser and browsers are one of the easiest access points for an attacker to force; in fact, there are viruses that can very simply extrapolate the data saved by the browser, obviously including the access credentials that we saved by clicking on the "remember password" button.
Again with regards to the password, it is preferable to use a "strong" password, therefore at least 18 characters long, which includes letters (both upper and lower case), numbers and special characters (where permitted); we can write down the password on paper, of course, so as not to risk forgetting it. Another basic security standard is to enable two-factor authentication systems (on the sites that allow it), in this way to access our wallet in addition to credentials (password and username), we will have to give further confirmation by email or by entering the code that we will receive via SMS on our mobile phone.
In any case, when you rely on online wallets the risk of seeing our funds disappear is never negligible, however we can make sure to protect ourselves as much as possible, through the methods we have just seen, and above all avoiding using these tools to keep large sums of money. In short, if you are the lucky owner of 30 bitcoins you can also afford the luxury of keeping 3 of them stored on different online wallets; hard to imagine that if you divide 3 bitcoins on 10 different services you may have problems simultaneously on each of these and in any case even if this happens you would have lost only 10% of your bitcoins so it will still be a bad day, but not as bad as if I had lost everything.
The best online cryptocurrency WALLETS available right now
At this point let's move on to what is probably the aspect that most interests those who are reading, that is, a quick review of the online wallets commonly considered the best by users, based on factors such as safety, ease of use and assistance provided in case of problems:
- GreenAddress.com: it is commonly considered one of the best online wallets (as far as bitcoin is concerned) for ease of use and security, excellent reviews you can find online on forums and specialized sites.
- Coin.Space: very easy to use, it includes an exchange inside to exchange your cryptocurrencies with other users (including a couple of stablecoins, but you cannot exchange for fiat currency)
- BTC.Com: interesting service because unlike others it guarantees you full control over your private keys
- Blockchain.Info: historical service that needs no introduction, today the beauty of 31mln active wallets counts, one of the most used online wallets in the world.
- Myetherwallet.Com: considered for a long time one of the safest and most reliable online solutions, as well as an extremely useful resource for those used to operating with ETH and the various compatible tokens; however in the first months of 2018 the site was hacked and to this day its solidity and security are called into question. (I put it in last position just for this reason)
To all these services are added the wallets of the exchange platforms (exchanges) both centralized and decentralized, all typically accessible via the web; then there are the smartphone wallets which are actually apps but which offer a fairly similar operation to that of online services (even more complete in certain cases).
In short, when it comes to wallets for cryptocurrencies there is really spoiled for choice and the only thing you need to take care of is to diversify in any case the solutions chosen to store our cryptocurrencies, so that even if they had to being problems of any kind we will never risk losing everything.
The best online cryptocurrency EXCHANGES available right now
I state that, as for the wallets, I will recommend exchanges that you can already know as not, in any case they are the ones that I have been using for years, tested, reliable and safe.
- KuCoin Exchange: KuCoin is undoubtedly my favorite exchange, it has a huge number of cryptocurrencies, it often includes airdrops (free cryptocurrencies as a reward for users), it has a staking and soft staking system (earn cryptocurrency as interest only for the fact that the you own), you can borrow your own currencies for an interest gain and much more.
In general I have always had an excellent experience, I recommend it without reservations.
- Binance: I don't think it needs any introduction, it is one of the most famous exchanges in the world, it looks a lot like KuCoin even if in my opinion less cryptocurrencies and it is a little more "messed up" at the interface level. However I use it in combination with KuCoin for some cryptocurrencies (including Bat and Loopring trading)
- Coinbase: I recommend it for a number of reasons, the first and fundamental reason is that on Coinbase "my grandmother could also trade", it is very simple to use, it has the "Coinbase earn" program thanks to which you can earn something free. Supports FIAT currencies.
In general, the advice is to use KuCoin and Binance and only if you want to sell in exchange for FIAT currency (Euros, Dollars, etc.) will everything move to Coinbase to sell and receive funds on PayPal or on the bank account.
Conclusions
Normally we tend to advise against the use of online wallets because these services are managed by third parties and it is therefore necessary to place great trust in them to consider the use of this type of wallet reasonable; however, we have seen that there are some cases in which this type of service can also be useful.
However, it is necessary to be careful to exploit online wallets safely and not expose yourself to unnecessary risks; PERSONALLY I consider it important to make sure to divide our currencies into several wallets (attention: I also mean an exchange wallet although it is not the safest solution).
Proper management (summarized in points) can be to keep the currencies as follows:
- 70% on cold storage devices (never on a single device but at least two or three, or even more if you have large sums);
- The remaining 30% can be divided between various solutions, from paper wallets to desktop wallets (bitcoin core type to be clear), passing through smartphone applications (to manage small transactions every day) up to online wallets.
In this way it will be impossible to lose everything overnight, because even if it is conceivable that a single wallet could be compromised it is difficult to believe that 10 and more wallets (between desktops, smartphones, online and physical devices) can all be compromised in the same precise way moment.
What do you think and above all, what do you do to keep your cryptocurrencies safe? Let me know also in the comments I will be very happy to know yours.
Duty clarification: English is not my mother tongue and I may have made mistakes, I apologize in advance for my bad English
Anyway thanks for reading and see you next time!
Useful/Stonks link ALL TRUSTED:
My Exchange:
Airdrop/Giveaway:
Faucet:
- Free BTC/ETH/DOGE multi-faucet (1 site, 3 crypto)
- Free Bitcoin+ Earn interest on holding
- Free Bitcoin Cash app (Android)
- Free Litecoin app (Android)
Cloud Mining FREE:
Other:
- Read.cash (Like publish0x but with Bitcoin Cash)
-
Honeygain (Share your internet connection for cash + 5$ Bonus ONLY with this link)
- BitUniverse trading bot
Browser
