Topic: I am new to Bitcoin and have been using Coinbase only. - page 2. (Read 492 times)

Exchange is never a secure place to have your funds as private keys are stored with them which gives them access to your funds directly and as others said private keys are type of proof which shows your ownership over that funds so it's currently with coinbase not you.Try to move them out and store your funds in some hardware wallet and keep the seed phrase safe with you about which you need to learn first of all.As it's said not your keys not your coins.

Coinbase is one of the last places on the planet that I would leave my bitcoin.  It's a good thing that you came here to ask around if it were a good place to leave your coins or not. The TRUTH is that Coinbase is an utterly corrupt company ran by a complete scumbag in Brian Armstrong.  I have had several friends get their coins locked up or stolen from Coinbase.  Use them fine, but always move the coins off right away.

Yes, as what o_e_l_e_o said.
For other platforms, I cannot suggest any other platforms unless you reside in Philippines then you can use Coins PH to cash in your money and turn it into Bitcoin.
Coinbase is okay, but as previously advised, if you are going to hold it, consider a desktop or hardware wallet if you are really going to keep your Bitcoins.

Welcome to the crypto world. Coinbase is a good exchange but it's not that good to put all your capital in one place, try to make research about Gate exchange, Binance, KuCoin, Huobi too.

First thing is to do not trust any crypto exchange, instead of having $1000 capital and trade all of it in Coinbase, you can split it into 2/3 of top exchanges similar to Coinbase (top exchanges). Always remember to use wallets (cold wallets) to store your coins for a long time. A cold wallet is good because your Bitcoin will be stored offline, that's why we called it a cold wallet. Make a research about Trezor wallet and Ledger.

A key is the main security for your coins in wallets, it's like a Key to your house, a Key to your car, but the difference is if you lose a key to your crypto wallet then you will never recover it! So your money will be lost. Always remember to keep your wallet key somewhere safe (it's a digital key - a combination of numbers, letters, and special characters) so you can store it to your personal email, google drive, and so on.

Congratulations! 22% it's a very good profit because some staking pools will give you 7-10% yearly! Keep it up, Bitcoin is a good coin and the leading coin, it keeps growing day by day.

From what I know Electrum for smartphone still doesn't work with hardware wallets, so if he wants to use his HW with his phone he will probably need something else there (I use Mycelium)

You already got some great answers to your questions, and there's nothing really that I can add to them except to second o_e_l_e_o's recommendation that you look into hardware wallets if you really want to keep your bitcoin safe.  Personally I'm a fan of Ledger devices, but those and Trezors are the big two and are the most reputable.

If you just want to store your bitcoin on your computer (or phone), I'd go with an Electrum wallet over any other software wallet.  You always have to keep your private keys safe, whether they're in the form of a 12-24 word seed phrase, QR code, or whatever.  You can stamp the words into a piece of metal or buy a pre-made metal wallet on Amazon or some other site.  Bitcoin Merch is a decent place to shop, and they accept crypto, as does the Ledger website and I believe Trezor does a well.  Coinkite sells Opendimes, which are pretty cool, and the ColdCard wallets, which I've never tried.  And the bottom line is that if you lose those private keys, you lose your coins--so be careful.

Welcome to bitcoin!  You're in for a wild ride.

They will charge you a small fee to cover the network transaction fee. This fee will be disclosed to you prior to making your withdrawal. You can minimize this fee by waiting until such a time that the bitcoin mempool is empty and transactions are cheaper. Use a site such as https://mempool.space/, and when the mempool has less than 1 vMB of transactions, then that's generally a good time to make a transaction.

Coinbase is fine, and since you are already registered and verified on it, then you have very little reason to consider moving to a new exchange and repeating the whole verification process.

Personally I use decentralized exchanges, which are less newbie friendly but are more secure and more private than a centralized exchange such as Coinbase.

Thanks a million guys. I am researching wallets as we speak to take money out of coinbase.

A few more questions that I have.

Will coinbase charge me for taking my bitcoin out?

What platform do you guys use to purchase BTC? Is coinbase a good opiton?

This is a good option to do, because sometimes we are not aware of this, that there are still many people who use luxury standards to buy things.
but things like this have to start now. As long as the product you buy is the same, why not use a cheaper one, because the most important thing is the use, right?
From now on, I think I must pay attention to the needs and desires. because often people including me buy things that are not really important needs just because they want to get the goods, this should be reduced as well.

I can relate to the OP's author very much when I was started in crypto particularly Bitcoin and also Im using the Coinbase wallet back then, no keys and whatsoever and I can say that it the right decision to ask those questions in this forum because there's a lot of knowledgeable persons/users here that will surely help and I agree with them the best way to store Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is a Hardware wallet.

First and foremost, getting into crypto is a good first step. Welcome to our world! As for Coinbase, it’s a custodial wallet where you don’t have the control of your funds like bank accounts and traditional payment processors. Plus, it’s vulnerable to hacking like the recent one (if you can check the latest news via Google or social media).

To ensure that your cryptos are safe, transfer them to a non-custodial wallet. If you have some budget, better invest in a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S and Trezor. Depend on what crypto you own, there are numerous wallets that you can consider such as Trust Wallet, Tronlink Pro, Exodus, Solareum, etc.

The bitcoin network is probably the most secure network we've ever deal with. Part of the reason it is safe to store your funds in the form of bitcoin is that it is hard for a potential hacker to identify individuals who are self-custody of their bitcoins and it is even harder to find out where exactly the keys to their funds are located. Private keys are distributed geographically, they are recorded on different media, security measures may vary depending upon an individual holding them. So, it is practically infeasible for a hacker to rob many people at once. Exchanges provide a hacker with such an opportunity. They are big honeypots for hackers because they have got all the funds that people put into them for trading purposes, they have got all the keys to those funds either. In this case, the only thing a hacker needs to do to rob millions of people is hacking this big storage of private keys.

There are different types of wallets. I guess you have the resources to do your own research so might as well do one so that you can choose what suits your preferences well. But to answer your question and to give you a gist about it, personally, I don't think your crypto is safe in Coinbase. Earlier this year, I think it was March or so, Coinbase has been breached by hackers and thousands of Coinbase users' accounts were hacked. It was said that the hackers used some sort of phishing tactics to lure their victims. Unfortunately, there were accounts that has been compromised, and their funds were stolen. Although it was reported that Coinbase made a move to compensate and address the issue to their clients, for me, it wasn't enough to regain the trust back knowing that their system was easily infiltrated by such a method.

There are software wallets and hardware wallets. Comparing the two, the most reliable one would be the hardware wallet. Software wallets such as the exchanger wallet that you have are easier to be hacked. Given that it was connected online, the risk it has is higher. Meanwhile, hardware wallets are safer considering that your private keys are stored offline. It's more difficult to be accessed by hackers unless you'll give away your seedphrase. It still has risks, but not as high. Cold storage is the best way so far to secure your assets.

Big, popular, regulated, established, running for a long time, etc., all mean next to nothing when it comes to the security of your funds. Every big, reputable, longstanding exchange has been hacked for users' coins at some point. Every big, reputable, longstanding exchange has been hacked for users' data at some point. 6000 Coinbase users were hacked just a few months ago and had their coins stolen, and Coinbase have admitted to selling user data to third parties without their users' knowledge or consent.

Are you safer using Coinbase compared to some completely unknown exchange? Sure. But are you objectively safe using Coinbase? No.

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Lots of people in this thread are mentioning Electrum, but not a single person has given advice on how to use it safely. You should only download it from electrum.org, and you must verify your download against ThomasV's and SomberNight's public keys prior to installation to ensure you have downloaded a non-modified version.

What do you talking about? Bitcoin has good security, but the exchange itself isn't secure. If Bitcoin is easily to get hacked, using non-custodial or even hardware wallet is pretty useless since they can hack the Bitcoin without touching your wallet.

Those article you saw about Bitcoin got hacked is the fault of the user didn't secure the private keys.

From what he says, it is better to send his bitcoin to another wallet that he can fully control his funds and not worry about the hacker or other bad things that can happen. Yes, that is risky to save his bitcoin in an online service like Coinbase, although many of us use Coinbase. But we need to be careful because that is our funds and we do not want anything worst to happen to our funds.

is it completely safe? the answer is no. because you do not have a key to access your wallet. you have an account with their wallet for your. so if it's completely safe the answer is no. but is it safe? Yes, because they are already big and popular, let's just say you are safe even though you are not.



Try creating a wallet address from non-custodial wallets . google it for more details. Simply put, it's a wallet that only you have access to and when you generate an address you will get a backup key. private keys and others. as others have mentioned, maybe you can try electrum for first time.

Congrats that you take the KYC requirements of Coinbase easily. In my case, I have gone through a not convenient way when I'm completing the KYC process there. I was asked to undergo verification that time but even submitting clear documents, I always end up being disapproved. I will not forget that experience that leads me not to use their exchange.

About how to make your funds safe there, keep your linked email and phone number secured. Setting up 2FA is a must. Now rely on Coinbase security that they will be a trusted exchange forever. Since you are a newbie, it's not a bad choice to use exchange wallets in the meantime for the experience. While you are moving forward, studied what wallets are recommended that you will be able to hold your own private key. Electrum for example. It's a user-friendly wallet where you can hold your own keys. Try familiarizing that wallet.

It's better to purchase a hardware wallet than using the free Bitcoin wallet if Op can afford it.  There's a feature that has an advantage upon using a hardware wallet because HW can protect itself against malware infection from the computer.  Here's a thread of a [BIG LIST] Hardware wallets (80+) and I highly recommend Trezor or either Ledger Nano wallet.

As suggested by most users above, Electrum is the best since it's free to use but there's a crucial thing that you must understand first.  Watching this Youtube video might help you in advance. 

Technically, your funds should be safe as Coinbase is one of the regulated big exchanges and running for a long. Funds stored on their wallet is completely secured, as it should be. If ever there will be a hacking incident, I'm sure everything will be covered and not likely to turn a 100% dead exchange.

But if we talk about a real safe or whatever appropriate term for that, we should hold our own funds and secured it by any means. That will be your next task to learn, search for "non-custodial wallets".

I'm sure learning won't be hard that for you as you pass the Coinbase strict and hassle KYC requirements still as a newbie.