Topic: Best practices to prevent hackers from stealing our crypto assets (Read 713 times)

Most of the solutions being proposed requires that the person in question does something in order to increase the security of their coins, and while it is easy to think that an investor or trader will be highly motivated to protect their coins, the opposite scenario is what we find all the time, traders do not want to invest a single second of their time to try to improve the security of the coins they already have, instead they only care about the coins they could get in the future, meaning that the security of their coins never occupies an important place on their minds until they get  hacked and lose whatever coins they had on their wallets.

I think the best way to prevent our wallet from being stolen is to better understand how these hackers work, the most common thing that happens is phishing sites, the way to avoid phishing sites is not to carelessly click on links or install suspicious applications, usually sent via email or direct messages to us

Sadly enough probably over 90% of the people that use crypto won't do any of these best practices.  Anyone ever try to figure out how much crypto sits on exchanges.  People use them as their wallets and you can't even explain to them why that is the dumbest thing they can do.

The best website that I found to get ideas on how to store bitcoins safely is the Glacier Protocol.

https://glacierprotocol.org/docs/overview/

And it is because of this that we must never access those websites by following a link in an email or even by using a search engine, we need to either write the address by ourselves or use a bookmark, this way you know the chances of using one of those phishing websites will become really low and you will not have to worry about your coins being stolen that way, still despite how simple it is to follow this advice I do not think the majority of the people will do it.

For Caution when dealing with emails and links in the context of crypto security I feel It is important to know together because many fake websites appear in search engines and can be malware causing harm to the user's computer or device.

The rationale for this warning is that phishing attacks often use this medium to trick individuals into providing sensitive information, credentials, and private keys. Cyber criminals will often send emails or create fake websites that appear to come from a reputable source, such as a crypto exchange or wallet provider.

This can lead unsuspecting individuals to believe they are interacting with a legitimate website when in reality they are being duped into providing their personal information. As a result, individuals should use caution when clicking on links or opening emails and should verify the authenticity of websites or sources before providing any sensitive information.

It is true that anyone as long as they take the right steps can protect themselves to a high degree from most attacks, but many people are not used to be that careful when it comes to their digital lives, and what better example than their smartphones, I am always surprised by the apps people install on their phones as they are willing to install apps which have almost no users and give them all kind of dangerous permissions, and someone that is used to do this will eventually find a malicious app and lose their coins without even realizing how this happened on the first place.

As long as we are not careless I believe we can protect our data from hackers, I once experience number 7 when I open an email and click the link because I was too careless that day, I logged into my account and not checked the URL of the website that its a fake website, after few minutes my wallet balance move to other balance lucky that I quick to response that so I'm not losing all my balance that day.

Just read a post about wallet hacking here on the forum. Good and useful tips from the creator of this topic. And apparently the user who wrote about hacking neglected these simple tips. As the saying goes, be careful

Hackers are everywhere, what happened is that on the early days making a transaction online was very uncommon and people rarely revealed their identities either, so there was not much of value that it could be stolen from them, but since those days things have changed and now people store all kind of valuable information on their computers and phones, this has increased the number of targets and the rewards for hackers, and as such they have become more common than ever.

I started storing my funds in a nano ledger years ago and I could say that it's the safest thing to do. It's risky to just bind your wallets in online exchanges because the chance and possibility of getting hacked are too high. We all know that these days, phishing activities and hacking are still actively developing so as much as possible, we must secure our funds that they could never access in ways that they know. It's always better to be careful and secured all the time because hackers are just everywhere.

Not your key, not your money, because you don't have full control. saving on any centralized exchange would be very dangerous, it's better if you want to save it must be in a personal wallet that we can fully control, like the hardware wallet you suggested. But still the risk of loss will occur if the user is careless.

It's not for stealing assets rather than your carelessness. Sure, if one exchange is hacked then your other assets in different exchange is safe. But it's still doesn't avoid the fact that your assets are in danger. Because you are mentioning exchanges and if you store your money in exchanges, that means your money is at third party hands so you should be warned from that. Would rather to use hardware wallet for that if you want to negate the risk at all.

Hackers are pervasive in the space and other important economic sectors; they will breach even the strongest security measures in an effort to empty someone else's bank account for their own personal gain. We should be able to exercise complete caution while performing any task in the area. Attacks on traders' wallets are increasing as the modern era transitions into the digital era. Being a hacker in this ecosystem is dangerous, and most traders have fallen prey to market manipulation. Before accessing our secret 12 key words, our wallets require two factor authentication.

You forget to mention good antivirus/antimalware software. This is very important.

when we talk about hackers, hackers have been around for a long time, especially since the rapid development of the digital world, hacking has become increasingly common, in the crypto world it is very important to keep our seed phrase wallet safe and secure.
but in fact that is still not enough, apart from keeping our wallet safe, we must also avoid not carelessly receiving and clicking on emails or links from sources we do not know or trust, this is usually called a phishing attack

Years go this happened with the electrum wallet, in which you received an official looking message telling you to update your wallet, and together with the message a link came and if you installed the wallet from the link then your funds will be stolen, then it is key that investors keep themselves updated about the hacks and scam methods being currently used by scammers, so they avoid losing their coins when they are installing or updating their wallets.

Op mentioned that, sometimes when wallet is outdated is becomes a vulnerability to attackers, you are right, but not entirely, that's why we need to choose the wallet we plan to use for storing funds carefully, there was a case where the latest update is bad for the wallet and it opened door to vulnerability, I do not remember the wallet name anymore.

Newbies are still newbies and I think they are prone to hacking given that they don't have much idea on what they are doing or what to avoid for them not being hacked by someone. Those wallet you have mention is safer compared to those custodial wallets and there have been instances that those wallets are being hacked, Of course using strategic methods by hackers. It's a very rare scenario that someone could hack a hardware wallet this is why holders prefer using it rather than any wallets out there. A couple of dollars wallet will serve you for years and for sure you don't need one after you bought one. It's an investment for someone who is really serious in crypto. Though not an obligatory purchase.

Before even investing in cryptocurrency the very first thing to do is to know how to secure your assets because in the crypto world when your assets are exposed and unprotected people will easily take advantage and steal them from you thats why it’s very essential to know how to safeguard your assets.


There are many scams in the cryptocurrency industry, and not just beginners fall for them even experts can make a mistake and become a victim of a scam. However, I think beginners would benefit more from this post because they lack the necessary knowledge. Since almost everyone makes a few rookie mistakes that cause them to lose some or all of their assets, it is beneficial to educate newcomers with this information as they embark on their journey.


Your seed phrase is the password to your assets, and only you should have access to it. Anyone who knows your seed phrase can transfer your assets and gain access to them. To prevent hacks, it is recommended to save the seed phrase offline, away from an internet connection. Saving them offline is safer because using the internet simply exposes you to scammers.


Though paper is fragile and can be easily ripped or damaged but paper is also a secure way to keep your keys safe, so it is important to make many copies and store them in different places in case of fire or any other emergency. Writing on paper has the benefit of being easily accessible, provided you don't hide them too deeply that you may end up forgetting where they were kept.

For beginner $69 seems expensive but according with how secure when holding or saving assets there, I think secure or not our assets is not depending where are saving place but how take it keep safe with trusted website access. During saving cryptocurrencies assets in trustwallet, metamask or any other dapp wallet keep secure when you have other back up wallet using for transaction or swap on dapp exchange.

Many people hold their assets between trustwallet or exchange wallet but never access with risk and unknow website for swapping their coins and right now keep safety without any hacked.

Of course, this is an axiom. Use new wallets for testnets and different airdrops where you need to connect to different sites. I myself use several wallets for this.

Hardware wallets are not really that expensive, a Trezor One costs 69 dollars and if you are patient you could get one even cheaper when there is a discount, and while I understand that there are places in which 69 dollars can be a lot of money, if you are holding some altcoins and they skyrocket at that moment you could easily afford a hardware wallet and diminish significantly the chances of being hacked and losing your coins to them.

Never connect wallets irresponsibly on any site which is the common error of anybody and always check the legitimacy of the sites as well. In joining airdrop or any testnet  program, always use new wallets just to stay safe and prevent hacks in the future. As always hardware wallets are the best guard of our wallets, though it costs a lot but it will surely secure our assets.

There are some wonderful tips that you've been share to us. If I may add it, Here are a few additional tips to consider for protecting your cryptocurrency assets:

1. Be cautious with public Wi-Fi: When you connect to a public Wi-Fi network, there's a risk that other people on the same network can intercept your internet traffic and potentially steal your sensitive information, including your cryptocurrency wallet credentials. Therefore, it's generally best to avoid using public Wi-Fi when accessing your cryptocurrency accounts or wallets.
2. Use a VPN: If you do need to use public Wi-Fi or any other untrusted network, consider using a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your internet traffic and protect your privacy. A VPN creates a secure and encrypted tunnel between your device and the VPN server, which can help prevent others from intercepting your data.
3. Diversify your holdings: It's generally a good idea to diversify your cryptocurrency holdings across multiple wallets or exchanges, rather than keeping all your eggs in one basket. This can help mitigate the risk of losing all your funds in case of a hack or other security incident.

If we are not sure about the credibility of the site, we'd rather keep it at ease because for me 12 words are enough to secure our wallet, not unless we are careless enough. Because I know that hackers will always find a way to track and steal your money despite the long passwords you have, not by cracking it but in some other ways.

I would say that there is nothing that would guarantee 100% safe in crypto wallets but we can at least secure it by simply being careful on accessing sites and email links.

2. Hardware wallet

I agree with this now there are still a lot of pishing wallet link hacks. I agree that using our hard wallet assets is definitely safer, especially when we store large amounts of coins and make long-term investments.
if you want to buy a hard wallet, make sure you buy it at an official store, not through 2nd and 3rd parties so that our hard wallet is safe. Stay Safe

Lately this kind of attack has become more common and people need to become extremely cautious, if you are not participating in an airdrop and then you suddenly find some unknown coins in your address then you need to become very suspicious about those tokens and never touch them, because the moment you do so that is the moment your coins will be stolen, and as we know once our coins are outside of an address we control there is no way to recover them.

In addition, don't connect your wallet to untrusted websites that are not safe, you could be entertaining your money with scammers with that kind of websites and when they allow you communicate with a smart contract that is designed to trap you, you are going to lose all you have in your wallet, don't forget to stay way from airdrops, there are some airdrops that sometimes done on purpose to make you think they are giving you free token but if you check those airdrop, they are trap that once you try to swap them, they will sweep your wallet with nothing left, stay safe.

2FA seems the best option for those who can't afford hardware wallets. But this is not just like that, we are also carefully dealing with unsolicited emails, especially if it contains a link that will redirect you to access your wallet as this is probably a trick leading to hacking your account.
The most thing we can do is to be more careful in accessing our wallets and using our personal internet and the computer will help to protect us more from any possible hacking incidents.

All of this is a good practice to secure any of your online account actually

This 2-factor authentication software for me is really a centralized thing because most of the centralized platforms are using this as an additional security on top of their security, I am not against it.
But if you really are in a decentralized platform like using a cryptocurrency that is a non-custodial wallet, you really don't need these, you only need to secure your private keys and you must store them somewhere centralized or even in online storage.

These are all great tips for protecting your cryptocurrency assets! It's important to keep your seed phrase safe and secure, especially offline, as this is what you use to access your crypto assets in your wallet. A hardware wallet is also a great option for holding large amounts of cryptocurrency. Two-factor authentication, using a strong password and regularly updating your software are also important security measures to take. Finally, it's crucial to use a reputable exchange with robust security measures in place.

Hackers are too resourceful and some users my think that taking extra precautions is not worth their time but it is worth it, as an example if there are two houses but one has its door open already and the other has their door closed which one do you think a thief will pick to rob? The one with the open door, so even if 2FA is not foolproof, it adds another layer of security to your accounts and many hackers will probably not bother to hack you as there are many other potential victims out there which are easier to fool and hack.

I’m using both 2FA app and I can say it both works to me.
Well, having this might not fully secure your wallet but at least you’re doing your part to use every available option  to prevent from getting hack. Protecting your keys is very important, this is the most crucial part of securing your wallet. CEX is not safe even if its the top exchange, for your holdings go for a hard wallet instead.

I would disagree with this, and been disagreeing with it for a long time as well. I keep saying that people were not to be trusted, you are suggesting hardware wallet, but you are downplaying how stupid regular people are, sure you may not be, or maybe I am not, but there are so many idiots out there in the whole world, there are really a ton of people who are too stupid to have their own hardware wallets and I would not suggest that.

At least if they put it on a trusted exchange, the exchange will keep it safe for them, and that would be a lot better for their funds safety. Otherwise, I know people who got their hardware wallets stolen, and "asked for help" by putting their phrases online as a clue to figure out where it is, no moron like that should own a hardware wallet.

Exchanges do a good job at tempting people with the offers they give to their customers, but people should never forget why they are holding cryptocurrencies to begin with, and that is to have complete control over their capital, the moment you give up your control then it does not matter what cryptocurrency you bought you are back to the fiat system, and this is not what we want, unfortunately there are many investors which are here only for the money they can potentially make and it is easy to convince them to go against the principles which created this market.

Even if there are many methods to avoid harmful attempts your funds/wallets there is no better way that can beat hardware wallets. When you write its seed to paper and put to secure place it just never leaks online.
For exchange side, best method is to never deposit coins there. Exchanges are there to trade (buy/sell) not to use as crypto wallets. I know earn sections are very mouth watering sometimes but there's no better way other than avoiding to hold your coins there.

I used Google Authenticator from google playstore but i see a error it’s code aren’t always worked, so i chosen Authy it’s the best 2FA app i think. And i don’t think reputable exchanges means your money will be safe, you know FTX was one of the biggest exchange and it’s considering safe for many users but unfortunately it’s now Bankruptcy. Because in CEX you have no key that means you're not owner the assets.

That's basically the key point to every safety and every software. I just saw an instagram reel where a father makes a joke to his son, the "recipe" for peanut butter sandwich says "put the knife in the peanut butter" and he just puts it in directly, simply throws it in, not like trying to scoop some up or something, literally just puts it in as a whole.

Now we all know that is not true, but the instruction said "put the knife in" and he did. If users are terrible at security and safety, no matter what type of instructions and what type of tools you provide for them, they will fail to protect their funds. So we need to make sure that we know how to properly do it.

I think that the point of educating yourself includes all other points.From all the books I have read on Cybersecurity from many vendors that offers a lot of training I have been able to spot one thing which is,user education and training is the most important part in any job a user perform and I am making for a second time the analogy here to emphasize how important it is education when it comes to digital assets like our cryptocurrencies are.I agree on everything and I would add to the list a point which is to use secure operating systems like Linux,while this alone won't help people who do not know what they are doing,it will drastically improve the security posture to people who know what they are doing.

As you have mentioned about going offline, I can also add that as much as possible, don't disclose your activities in social media.
With the generation today, a lot of them are posting every step of their lives in social media not knowing that their privacy is already exposed.
These scammers know who to hunt, and usually they can get their victims via online, what they are reading from these people.
So for me, not only offline wallets but also be discreet with your activities. There's no reason for you to publish that you have satoshis.
Unless, you want to boast it to the world that you have. But to safeguard your privacy, much better to keep it with yourself. You don't need approval from other people.

This has been the best option to secure your wallet, but of course hackers can still find a way so if you are not being careful with your holdings, you might fall on their trap and becomes a victim. Protecting our crypto is a must, you have to use every resources that you can have just to be more safe and not waste all your sacrifices, going offline can also be a good option, don’t over exposed online.

Just like everyone said, hardware wallet and that is not even being creative. I know a few people who put their money into an address, and wrote down that address, and put that in a vault or something, not really a vault but definitely a safe, like the ones you see behind paintings in the movies. That's as paranoid as you can get.

I don't really do that much safety, don't see the reason for it, don't have enough money to make it lucrative for any hackers, they would be quite disappointed if they hack me. But at the end of the day, there are levels to this and you can pick whichever you want, from putting it in an exchange, to having it written down, anything could be done.

Newbies are especially susceptible to those types of scams as they are willing to believe they can invest in a shitcoin and make a lot of money, while those like us which have years of experience on this market know that even if this is technically possible almost no one can get those kind of results, so newbies prefer to believe those lies and take their chances, and unfortunately for them they end up losing the small amount of money they invested in this market.

Even accessing your email in other's pc or laptop is not advisable.  Our personal stuff should be stored and access only from our own devices.  Because web browser often keep the cookies and details of the site and might be used as gateway to know our account details.


True often times people make a mistake of clicking links whenever it fascinated them.  So for our cryptocurrency security, never access or setup our wallet address privatey form other people's gadget.

Yup, nicely suggested. Everyone has different choices though. For me I am always believing on my hardware wallet. Though I had it lost once and found it back, I had hard time recovering the wallet from the mnemonic phrases I had stored pretty well. That proved that having hardware wallet is safest place to keep your bitcoins in it. I lost it during our home shifting but it was found in new home in old furniture. In the process almost one year gone and my bitcoins were sitting just like that. I think that is enough to understand when its locked up then no one is touching it.

Only thing to keep in mind is, have the seeds, private keys safely stored somewhere which are away from any members. Having extra layer of security is always preferred. Who knows it could be million dollar worth wallet in the future. 

The need for safe guarding our crypto assets cannot be overemphasised. It's best to be weary of the possibilities of hackers taking advantage of loopholes and strive to ensure that due care is taken to safe guard your assets. The suggestions by the OP is quite helpful but not exhaustive.

You are right. Only use trustful devices to login into your wallets. That is, devices only you have access. Accessing wallets through devices which belong to other people, doesn't matter who they are, isn't advised, even if it's your father, mother or best friend's desktop or mobile.

Not that they want to scam or sabotage you intentionally, but they might click wrongly, downloading viruses or malwares by mistake when browsing online, depending their level of knowledge and cleverness when spotting potential threats on the internet.

It reduces the complexity of truly keeping safe a wallet if you regard that point as the only important one. OP's points are good even for newbies, I believe what most users need to comprehend is the nature of cryptocurrency whereas we are in control of our own belonging/private keys. With that in mind, we should be reluctant and keep a high alert if there is something that we deem suspicious when dealing with any of our personal belongings.

Some common sense like, if we create a wallet without submitting an email, and then there is an email that claimed we need to update those wallets is shady at best. So, that is the kind of thing that new users should be aware of.

Some people could install key loggers on internet cafe so its not good to use this place to log in your important details especially your online wallets since hacking might happen if you are playing cool around. Much really better use your own personal device to avoid this head ache causing incident. We know how hot crypto these days and for sure once there are people who find out that you use that and have huge balance on your wallet they might plan on how you could fall in there hand so avoid risky place and settle on your device since you can find the real safe place there.

By all means, we should not use internet cafe if we wanted not to get hacked because some antivirus doesn't work, you got to be lucky that Kaspersky antiv warns you. Because what if it has never been detected, it certainly you got compromised and lose your important files which may include login details, keys/passwords to your crypto assets. It is advisable to use our personal laptop or PC to avoid any problems, might we detect it the first time but never know next.

I agree, public internet cafe have lots of keyloggers installed, other even infect our USB with keylogger installer.  It happens to me when my mother print some picture in an internet shop.  The moment I open the USB to save another set of pictures, my Kaspersky antivirus alerted me and deleted the malware.  If I don't have an antivirus, my pc system would have been compromised.

So we better be vigilant whenever we  rent on internet cafe, always scan the  flashdisk we use and make sure that it is clean before opening any file on that flashkisk.

Doing crypto in a internet cafe is just crazy given that there is a crazy amount of chance that the past users of that computer accidentally or intentionally installed a virus or malware. As long as it's confirmable in the blockchain, The transaction will be expected to be successful but if you were hacked, It's hard to expect that the wallet you are using still has the balance you are expecting. I believe that it is one of the basic security thing that all we should put in our mind, Use our own device only in using crypto. Imagine those people who did multiple security measurements, I know people who don't use crypto but still scared on connecting to public network because of the risk of getting hacked in it. It is one of the basic rules of crypto security, Always use your own device!`1

There is only one thing I could add OP,
 - only use your personal computer when accessing your wallet.

Because it can also be a reason why we got hacked when that computer is also infected with viruses and malware installed. Though I have no experience yet as I was anticipating such a thing, a friend of mine got that kind of experience when using the internet cafe. His transactions went successfully but when he access it the following day, he find out that it was empty already and notice some unpermitted transactions.

This is the most important point, in my opinion, particularly for newbies. I have been receiving tens of links on e-mail or Telegram and all of them are scams. The number of scams/fishing attempts is increasing as much as the popularity of cryptocurrencies, because a lot of dishonest people see this domain as an opportunity. Unfortunately, even some experienced or crypto-influencers fell into these scams and lost money. Therefore, I think everyone should be well careful with every link and new connection they receive on various social media platforms.
I want to add another procedure, which is: don't talk about how much money you have in the form of cryptocurrency, especially on telegram, because these talks will make hackers/ scammers target you using different ways.

Yes, criminals are evolving too, now we have this so called poisoning attack and sooner or later it will be bold and dare and it will be huge.

But at least, if we educate our selves, maybe, just maybe we can prevent this kind of attacks and we always need to practice safety precautions as well so that we will not be another statistics in the world of scammers. And there is nothing than to learn everything right away in the beginning of our crypto journey and not when you have stacked a lot of coins because the feeling of losing everything could be devastated.

Personally, I would gladly help other people to have knowledge with possible scams and the necessary prerequisite towards securing your digital assets. I think once you have understood that, you will have a better gauge on what you should or should not do with your crypto assets.

Not only do we have to be careful with phishing links, but we also have to be able to recognize well what a phishing link is and whether it is true that the link sent to our email is a phishing link so we won't get caught by it and it would be better if we don't use the main email which we usually use to register on exchanges to also be used to register on random websites because they can use our email by sending annoying things, and the best thing is to store our crypto in a hardware wallet if have one but not in an exchange or online wallet.

People need to also be very careful with the apps they install on their phones even if they get them through the app store, as there are many apps out there which are released by hackers and that ask for all kind of permissions they should not realistically need, but people download them anyway as they never check such a thing, then the hackers eventually get hold of important information like your seed words or passwords and eventually you lose all the money that you had in the different wallets you had installed on your phone.

In this list you should also include that avoid using cracked software/games in your PC/laptop or mobile. Because crack software/games can include virus that can monitor our keyboad and screens easily.

There are a lot of suggestions how to store it, and if you still do not store it properly then maybe you shouldn't have a hardware wallet. I have always said the same thing and people doubt me but I am going to say the same thing again. If you are investing your money into bitcoin, and you are not really interested in crypto as much as knowing how to store it safely, putting it on a trusted exchange is not a bad idea at all, it's actually quite common.

There are billions of dollars in binance, you think they won't know how to store it safely? All those "not your keys, not your coins" is old news when we had shady exchanges, binance will store it safely for you.

What the author forgot is that there is a new scam going around called address poisoning attack. And it happened to me even. It’s only on the ETH and BSC chains.

Basically out of your address you will see a destination transaction. It will have the same first and last characters. However this transaction is not real. You will copy it by mistake and send money there thinking it’s to the same address as before. And it goes to the hackers. Basically very sneaky way of scamming people.

For me, really matters here is how you will make your private keys or wallet seed phrases safe. Because let's say even if you use a hardware wallet but you store your wallet seed phrases not secure, it is still not safe at all. The downside of software wallets sometimes is just your device where your software wallets are stored is compromised or even your seed phrases are very prone.

Educating ourselves is the most important. When we have the knowledge about the do's and don'ts we'll look for the better security and keep is in a more secure way. Even with securing the recovery phrase some used to be careless and loss big funds. Through education these problems can be overcome. More discussion is another thing that lets us know what is available in the updated market for better security.

Almost everything OP said is correct, and for me, the most important part is the last part he said "Educate Ourselves" because if we don't do it, we won't know if our assets have been put at risk. or not.

It is still a big thing to have enough knowledge as long as the ideas that we are discovering here in the world of cryptocurrency are correct.

Ask that from numerous crypto veterans that have been hacked / scammed via several different methods. And not just by social engineering or honey traps, when humans are the weakest point obviously criminals target them and their pressure points. Some use violence and threats some use more sophisticated methods. If you haven't encountered any of these cases in your feed in the past, i am not sure what news feeds have you been following. Hell security professionals get hacked from time to time even when they don't hold any coins, imagine the incentive when you hold BAYCs, ETH or BTC enough to spark their interest.

Just put more cautious into it. If you are using online wallets or exchangers as wallet, then avoid accessing unecessary and unfamiliar sites because malwares may access your device and eventually have access to your account. And if you are using hardware wallets, never put it in unsafe places wherein you'd forgot it or lost it. We are talking about money and that is an enough reason for you to be more careful of it.
There are even instances wherein investors have lost their hardware wallet. Remember the guy who accidently dumped his hardware wallet and eventually made efforts on finding it? In hardware wallet I think it is oneself which would be your biggest worry. Putting it in places wherein it won't be secured would definitely put your assets at risk.

True, I was just pointing out that not even hardware wallets are completely safe if we make a dumb mistake like that, however if you use a hardware wallet as you should the chances of being hacked drop considerably, to the point I think the majority of those which have a lot of money invested in the market of cryptocurrencies should get at least one, as the majority of the people out there simply do not know how to secure their smartphones or desktop computers appropriately.

For the resellers, there must be an indication or like a seal, same on what we have on the product that we bought from the store to ensure that the item is still safe to use and have not been used yet by the reseller themselves. Hardware wallets is said to have a better security than the online wallets, I think that is because they are offline but I think there is still a threat once you connect them to the computer if you want to do a transaction or if you want to update the wallet.

We can also lost them or they can get damage over time. This can be the reason why some people don't bother on availing one anymore. Plus they still haven't experience any problem on using an online wallet.

Yes, that's why it is advisable to buy it directly to the manufacturer, to avoid being hijacked or your hardware wallet being tampered by someone because they know it's going to be some crypto assets on those from individuals who are buying it.

It's easy to buy it from the manufacturer website, and then they also have some reputable stores as well carrying their products.

And I must say it's a must for every crypto enthusiast to have a hardware wallet.

Hardware wallets help you avoid online threats better than software wallets but it doesn't guarantee the security of your crypto assets if you don't know how to keep your seed phrase/private key safe. The bottom line in asset protection is for us to decide, not a hardware wallet or a software wallet. When you use any wallet, your assets will be on the blockchain, so as long as someone owns your seed phrase, they will have full rights to your assets. Don't think that hardware wallets are absolutely safe.

Bought a hardware wallet from the third party or unofficial store is similar like asking a stranger to create a web wallet for you where he's already know your seed phrase and private key, it just his choice to rob your coins or not. Hardware wallet is the most safest storage because it's almost prevent from any malicious virus and keylogger which can steal your coins. People are careless for not buy a hardware wallet when they have a huge amount of money on their web wallet or exchange.

Buying it from a doubtful source is the mistake they do in that case. Get it from the real source and you won't have such a problem. If you bought ledger nano from "some guy" then you could lose all that you have, but if you buy it from ledger directly and not from some random stranger, the problem drops a lot smaller.

I personally bought it directly from ledger, took months to get to me because on early days they took your money but then built it later on, so it took months to receive one, but I never had any problems at all because I bought it directly from the source. Nobody in between has ever seen it and I trust them enough to know they wouldn't risk any hacking issues in house.

It is important to not generalize that much as this is not entirely true, there have been many cases in which people buy a hardware wallet from a doubtful source and instead of generating a new wallet they use the seed words which came with their compromised hardware wallet, they make a deposit and the hacker steals the money as those seed words originally belonged to them, so as you can see you can lose your coins as well with a hardware wallet if you are not careful.

Hardware wallet is the most important thing and the only one that can really secure your funds

#8 is all you need, that's the most generalized answer one can give out, educate yourself about the whats and hows of keeping your pc safe, even spending money to buy a separate one to keep whatever you want to stay permanently hidden could work. Identify how to use sandboxes/VMs in case you ever need to access an external site you're not sure is safe. It'll come a long way, not just in terms of being safe in storing crypto assets.

To be fair there are dumb enough people to fall for it, that's just how it is, can't exactly expect everyone to have the same strong mentality to not fall for it. Though I reckon any sane educated person about crypto wouldn't do that, it's like giving the keys to your house lmao.

How did you say that all exchanges will eventually end up with the scam dude? Don't say you don't use exchange here. you don't buy cryptocurrency or bitcoin?

In my understanding, we individual investors, for example, I am one of them, and I believe in bitcoin, of course, I will buy bitcoin in an exchange that I know has been tested and has gone through a lot of tests and in the end, it is still resolved they still maintain the trust of their traders, and this exchange is binance.

Is this the only exchange where no matter how many times a hacker entered their platform, they quickly resolved the issue and did not let their clients lose trust in them? So I can say that this is a reputable exchange for me, and the risk depends on us.

Currently, I am using Google Authenticator, and I have also heard about Aegis, but unfortunately, it is only for android OS. I was expecting them to release an iOS version, but so far, there hasn't been one. I would like to ask if you have any recommendations for people using iPhones or Mac.


Are you using an exchange? I believe you have no choice. Binance is a reputable exchange, if it weren't, it wouldn't be able to dominate the market today. As long as you don't use them to store assets in the long term, use them to exchange, P2P, or use them for the proper purposes, then they are worth using.

This is important as well, just as there are many misconceptions about this market in general there are also misconceptions about their participants, many of the people I have listened taking about bitcoin think those that are part of this market are either scammers or awfully rich, so if someone outside of your circle of friends found out that you hold bitcoin they may think you have a lot of it and they may try to steal from you while using violent means to obtain your coins, and if you do not have the amount they believe you have you could find yourself in an extremely dangerous situation.

Well said, but if I may add and this is increasing as well, we all think that we should protect ourselves at all cost specially online. But there is this so called:

https://cryptosec.info/wrench-attack/


So just be careful who you talk to in public with regards to your crypto assets or how much you have.

Because there are also crypto criminals in the offline world and you don't want to be a victim because it could cost you your lives, just saying.

Being educated in what we do is the best asset to have and the best protection that we can have. Because when you're aware on how to avoid all of those unknown links, and surprising emails that you don't know the source of then that means you've been educating yourself on preventing being hacked.
This also covers how to be away from scammers. It's one thing you need to have but you can use it for so many things so, the known quote about one stone hitting two birds.

Why would you be so dumb enough to let someone pull off a social engineering trick in order to access your private keys in the first place?


Please tell me another joke 

If you lose the private keys, then that's on you. It's more like losing a bundle of dollar bills. You have no one to blame except your carelessness. But don't ever let a third party lose the money on your behalf.

I have never lost or leaked a single private key and seed phrase since my newbie days in 2017. Should I call it a miracle?

All the above you mentioned above are good. Although, I know most of them but prefer to use only reputable exchanges because, no matter how careful you are, If the exchange you're using got hacked, thats all. So, I just use the most reputable exchanges like Coinbase, MEXC and Binance. And I always practice all the other steps you mentioned.

Those are basic practices and anyone that uses crypto currencies should be aware of those methods to keep their assets safe not only from hackers but themselves. I am saying themselves because people most often lose their coins because they end up losing their private keys and they have no backups! They should know how to properly create a backup and store backups safely.

And one more thing, reputable exchange doesn't mean that your coins are safe from hackers. No matter how much the exchange claim that your coins are safe with them, it is not. Look at the exchange hacks and collapses.

While I believe that it is good to have alternatives, I think google is doing a good job and I have never heard of anyone who got their 2fa hacked, you can get hacked in any different type of ways, but not with your 2fa being hacked, that doesn't really happen that easily.

However, between mails, passwords, 2fa and so forth, it's really hard to crack into someone, and when you want to withdraw, they need to hack into your email as well as your 2fa at the same time, that is how binance does it. But if you want to make sure, Ledger is the way to go because they really do a good job preventing any hacks, even when your ledger gets stolen, it's near impossible to hack into it.

If the purpose of doing all of this is to keep our coins secure then it is key to use Linux over Windows, people think of Linux as a complex OS, and while it can be more difficult to use than Windows it is many times more secure, as the majority of the computers running Windows are running a pirated copy which could be full of viruses, so install Linux in a computer you may not use much and then install your wallets there, this simple step will make it harder for hackers to get to your coins.

I think that there shall be another point just like people shall rarely or even never participated in the airdrop randomly.

Sometimes scammers were using the airdrop just to attack the wallet that already owned by others. It can be seen from how many airdrop participants who got dusting attack or various attack from the scammers. People shall be carefully to share their address to any project that claimed to hold airdrop for the participants. This gonna be a very important point too.

If we are going that road then there's no place safe enough for your private key either. If someone really wants your money they might just do some long con clever social engineering. Thing with exchanges and banks is that they are more resistant and trained to protect their data for any of that kind of attact then any pleb with a hard wallet that can lost everything in a fire or an accident.

As a disclaimer, i am not saying cex:es would be better for everyone. I am just saying that some people lose their house keys and important papers all the time. It's not that different with privatekeys

This is the primary thing one needs to focus even if he/she had entered the cryptomarket without knowing anything. Just the learning and keeping ourselves updated along with the changes happening around, we'll get to know about securing the crypto holdings.

When one educate themselves automatically one can identify the scam and the real market. In recent days more funds were scammed than hacks. Just the beginners were targeted and easily made the prey. Through education these problems can be solved.

^ In all said above was right except this, I did not agree with this.
There is no reputable exchange that could be trusted to store your crypto assets, all of them will become scams in the end if they wanted to.
So I think there is no way to trust centralized exchange, store your assets in a hardware wallet and you are the one who is responsible for keeping your seed phrase, not a third-party exchange.
Nevertheless, the rest you have mentioned was right and must people learn.

8. Educate yourself :

This would be including all the things that been stated above on which on the time that you do make yourself educated for whatever things that is related when it comes to security
then it would be definitely be known.Make yourself that updated and make yourself that know even with the basics of the basics which if you do stick with those
sentiments then you would be able to make yourself that avoid on possible hacking or loss of funds into your wallet. Be sensible into your actions.

There is nothing like a safe "reputable exchange"

I think you are familiar with the phrase Not your keys, not your coins

Do you know how many people though that FTX, BlockFi and Celcius network were reputable platforms until they filed for bankruptcy?

All the Robust security measure won't matter if the exchange itself decided to go offline or exit scam. A simple measure is do not at any one point think an exchange is your wallet.

You can use open source Two-Factor Authentication alternative application than Google Authenticator or Authy. Aegis is a good alternative in my opinion for you.
Aegis Authenticator, a decent alternative to Google Authenticator and Authy.

Link for download Aegis: https://getaegis.app/ on Google Play or FDroid.

Thank you @OP for creating this thread, I will try to learn more.

How do we keep our cryptocurrency assets? Because I researched various good practices that we can apply as holders. Because it is not enough that we know how to find good coins and which one to buy. But we don't know how to protect it.

In the cryptocurrency case, there are many hacked incidents although when I was just starting, I experienced my laptop being hacked and fortunately, I didn't have much important stuff saved in my file there. Because others can be considered experts here but they still get hacked, how about the people who always start here?

So this will be our guide to protecting our cryptocurrencies. And it applies to long-term and short-term holders.

1. Keep your seed phrase safe and secure :

     private and seed phrase is the most important aspect ofcryptocurrency owners. Because this is what we use. so we can access our crypto assets in the wallet, Hardware wallets and Non-custodial wallets all have seed phrase and private key.

That's why if we create a new wallet, the seed phrase we need to keep and hide so it doesn't end up to others or disappear. The mistake is because others put it they do it online, in notepad or google Sheets. After all, it's easy it's accessible. But it can also be easily accessed by those hackers, so it is not recommended. So the advise of most people put it in "Secure offline storage" Just write the risk on paper, it's an easy break, lose or burn. We have put it offline it's easy to break the paper, but it will still result in the loss of our cryptos.

2. Hardware wallet :

      This is advisable if we want to hold for a long period. It is a physical device specifically designed to securely store our crypto assets offline without being connected to internet and potential cyber threats.

It is also one of the safest and most secure methods of a strong large amount of cryptocurrency it is much better. This is an option compared to other cold storage, Normally, it has a built-in display button. And the offline storage device that is not connected to the internet is a USB drive or Encrypted hard drive. It is recommended for people with big holds of cryptocurrencies.

And if you are also planning to buy a hardware wallet, make sure you buy from the manufacturer, not either It is advisable that you buy it secondhand the hardware wallet has been compromised.

3. Two-Factor Authentication :

    We an adding security measures to also protect our cryptocurrency account. Particularly the centralized crypto exchange. In exchanges, normally there is a way to turn on our 2FA authentication. The most common 2FA is the one-time password OTP generated via SMS or APP to mobile users.

 And with bank accounts normally, it has OTP through SMS or text message when we log in to the new device or
Let's transact online and we'll receive something for it can proceed and it is also applicable to the rest of us account online, social media account, and cryptocurrency exchange, mobile wallet, etc.

2FA via apps like google is a more recommendable authenticator or Authy. And not via text message, because otp text message is easy to hack. Some are used hackers are just as devising to intercept that and theirs get the OTP.

   Anyway, as long as we have 2FA enabled it's much better than not having it. But if we base it on security, google authenticator is more secure. But if you want the safest google authenticator you can use "Yubikey"

source: https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/two-factor-authentication


4. Strong password :

  We can say that a password is strong if it has upper and lowercase, number and special characters. Then its length is at least 12 characters long, it is more difficult for hackers to guess it or extract the password.

Another risk we take is using the same password in different accounts. Once the hacker has access to one password he has access to all accounts. And it is dangerous in cryptocurrency accounts. Imagine if a hacker has access to one of your accounts in an exchange because you only have one password, there is a possibility that he can also access your other accounts.

Sometimes it's hard to think of complex passwords and then we need many more, and this is where password managers come in because it automatically generates a random and secure password for each account, it's also encrypted and accessible only with a master password. This will also help to avoid the risk of forgetting the password because we don't need to memorize it and always provide a convenient way to manage all of our passwords in one place.

5. Software update :

This is also one of the procedures that we sometimes forget to update. Updating our software and wallet regularly is also a crucial part to protect our cryptocurrency. Sometimes when the software is outdated, it has vulnerabilities, because the software used by hackers is also updated and they may discover a way to exploit the software.

And to address this issue, software developers always release security patches to fix them. So we have to update that we have security measures on our device.

And not only that, but we also often use operating systems and web browsers, and we also need to update them. Because hackers also use it to hack us, so we need to regularly check if there is something new or if we need to install it in the software and web browsers.

6. Reputable Exchange :

How do we know if an exchange is reputable based on its track record? There must be "Robust security measures" such as encryption, 2 Factor Authentication, and secure storage of funds in a cold wallet.

They need to be transparent in their operation and have a clear policy for handling security breaches and user funds. It also adds reputation if a cryptocurrency exchange is regulated by a financial authority. And just a few of the reputable exchanges here that I can say are Binance, Okex, crypto.com, and others, it just depends on the user's preference.

7. Be careful with email and links :

This is where phishing attacks often come from, which are used by cybercriminals to steal sensitive information, credentials, and private keys.

Those phishing emails or links may appear from a reputable source such as a crypto exchange or wallet provider, and those who receive them will think it is the original website but it turns out to be a trap. There are so many incidents like this, that even crypto holders when they search on google, many fake websites will appear that they don't know are malware.

8. Educate yourself :

This is our most important weapon to protect our crypto is our knowledge about this industry. And the crypto space is rapidly evolving, along with security threats and vulnerabilities. By staying informed and educated about what is happening in crypto we can think of necessary steps to protect our cryptocurrency assets. The ones who are often hacked are the new ones because they don't have enough knowledge to protect their crypto, they have not updated with the new things that hackers do to trick users.

I hope this information has helped some of our communities to protect our crypto assets