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

If you are not a hardcore trader, then coinbase is enough for your knowledge.
Though i always say to people to have extra security in each and every where.
Coinbase is a trusted company but it doesn’t give you complete access to your funds.
Whereas you should use offline wallet with private key like electreum. It gives you full control to your funds.

Basically it's worth it, but this is more inclined to investment thing and lucky you seem to be in the green light and have received a profit signal from your investment related to price movements that are currently in an uptrend, even would be more.
For security, you can learn many things in it, of course the site already provides good security features in it and depends on you in using it.
Sometimes careless or forgetting like the private key, email, email password, it can be the initial cause of your crypto insecurity on the wallet site.
The scope of Bitcoin is wide, and recognizing its many aspects encourages our insightful side, it's just that we have to keep an eye on the steps and efforts against less trusted sites.
Alright.. actually not only Coinbase, many other trusted sites to do investing, trading and etc.

Well, Coinbase is not bad, I also make use of Coinbase but not all my cryptocurrencies are stored in my Coinbase wallet. At least you need a wallet where you’re sure of hundred percent control of the wallet, it can be a hardware wallet that stores your coins offline and you also have it backed up with private keys, or you can as well make use of decentralized wallets such as Coinomi, Exodus, and Trust wallet.

The private keys you’re talking about has to do with twelve word phrase that they will tell you to use in backing up your wallet. Once you create these wallets the first thing they will tell you to do is to backup your wallet. Coinbase is a good wallet, but you’re not in control, since it’s a centralized platform so they are holding it for you. All you need for Coinbase is just your email and password.

I think Coinbase is good exchange but depend which kind you are, maybe if you are an investing better use coinbase because this exchange is very good service with safety, but for trading on coinbase not many option what altcoin can we buy, just few altcoin listing on Coinbase and I think Binance is worth and many choose for altcoin to buy.

That will prevent us from getting scams from any exchanges and we can store the coins in the safety wallet. Yes, I know how it pains to lose the funds in the exchanges because of not sending the profit into other wallets instead of just storing it in there. Maybe he needs to consider buying a hardware wallet like you so he does not have to worry if he will get into trouble in the future as no one will know what will happen to us.

Yes, your crypto is safe. You can take steps to make it safer, but the crypto is not at risk of being hacked or stolen. You can also purchase keys, which are essentially like a digital safe.

I have two life hacks: spread assets across more than one digital wallet and use cold wallets

I also have the same hesitation when I was a beginner. I used to store my funds on a top exchange but I was still doubtful about it so I decided to purchase a hard wallet to keep my funds safer. I'm not saying that Coinbase isn't safe but it's better to keep your earnings in a safer place especially if it's for a long-term basis.

If you're new and just using Coinbase it shouldn't be a problem. it even becomes your first step to find out Bitcoin and some other altcoins.
If you have assets you can start trading or you can look for other, more popular and widely used exchanges like Binance. You have to explore further so that you experience more, so you don't just stay on Coinbase. Cryptocurrencies have a wide ecosystem.

No guarantee about this, moreover it is related to online activities.
If the asset is stored in the exchange, it may have less safe, or risky. But I personally also use exchanges to save my assets because I am still trading them.
Key means the private keys or other phrases where we can use them to access our wallets. Commonly it is for online wallets, offline, and other types of wallets.
But for exchanges, we may not have the keyphrase, but we have some passwords/pins and other types of security modes.

If we want to store our assets for the long term, I will suggest you use a hardware wallet. But it will also depend on what assets do you have

And never try to tell others about the key, passwords, or even other secret information about accessing your exchanges or wallets. Learn by doing and you can make it

Now people don't use Coinbase very much to keep Bitcoin. Most of them use all the wallets that are completely secure. Coinbase is full of many secrets yet people Now using some more updates. We use Trust Wallet, Blockchain Wallet and many more good wallets to hold Bitcoin.

Like everyone has already said you don't actually house and control your own money. Coinbase does. This is OK for smalltime stuff while you are getting to know the ropes. It is kinda like going to the casino and handing them a $20. You walk around trading that 20 in and out of various slots getting a piece of paper each time telling you what you have value wise. Some point you need to go to a cashier and cash it out and put that money in your WALLET. (If you have any left LOL) ... I would really suggest getting an Exodus wallet myself. It is a NON KYC (know your customer) . They have great customer support and videos. That is a great wallet to HODL (hold for long term). You can search most of this stuff and learn about. Just be sure when sending from CB to the receive address in your wallet whichever you choose , make damn sure everything is correct before sending because you can loose it all if the address is incorrect. READ UP ON THAT WELL!! It's a little scary honestly but I'm only a few months into crypto and I have come a LONG way already i think. It's amazing ... especially BIT[Suspicious link removed]D LUCK and enjoy!

Coinbase was one of the first exchanges I have used but I rapidly stepped away from it because it did not offer any trading with other currencies. This was back in 2013, Now I'm using it again. As for security, can't say it's bad but Last week reports were made saying Coinbase got hacked. As for the keys, you should always safeguard your private keys as they are the ones who will allow you to access your coins. However, this is only in case you have your coins in a personal wallet and not on an exchange. If you have your coins stored on an exchange then technically they are not yours because you do not control the private keys.

"Not your Keys, not your coins"

You can learn more about keys here

Key is not something you buy. The Key that you hear people talking about is the Private Key, which gives you full access and control over your cryptocurrency from anywhere around the world. And you only get to have a private key for your wallet when you’re making use of a decentralized wallet, and not centralized wallet like Coinbase.com.

Coinbase is a good wallet to use, and so far I think it’s a safe platform, except that they are the ones keeping your cryptocurrency for you, and you only have your email and password, but as always a lot of people are going to prefer to hold their private keys, because they know that private keys gives them the complete control over their wallet.

key is the most important to keep your money secured.. So don't rely on that platform if you don't have such important things, it seems useless to be honest, because how you can recover your money especially if you forgot something in order to have an access? Change wallet ASAP mate i suggest. there's a meta mask, trustwallet and mew wallet they required seeds and its very secured.

Since you are new to bitcoin is good to do some important findings, I think you should get yourself a good wallet that can safeguard your funds. At some percentage your fund is safe but like you know life is a risk.

it is most convenient for us to store assets in a personal wallet, so that we ourselves are responsible for the security of the assets we have, and even then it should be divided into several wallets to make it even more secure. it is indeed risky if we store assets on the exchange, which we still bear the risk of hacking on the exchange

try to create a private wallet instead of storing your assets in coinbase, it is very insecure if you store your assets in public services such as coinbase, hacking and closing your account will definitely happen someday
  For a good wallet, I think friends have already suggested it to you

Coinbase (and thus the IRS) already knows you have X amount of bitcoins. Even if you move them away from the exchange you are a target for them if you try to hides these coins from them in the future. So assume no privacy of the money you buy through centralized websites.

I agree with this, a hardware wallet is your best bet, buying them used might be a risk so I would do what this quote says and buy it new during black Friday or something. But there are a few things to do when you have a hardware wallet like that.

I wouldn't tell people that you have a hardware wallet, because then you become a target for a $5 wrench attack:

Along with that, do not tell people your private key, no matter what service you use, if you're new, do not give anyone or anything your key, that is the worst thing you can do.

Good luck!

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.

My answer is that you don't need to buy a key, it's randomly generated when you create a wallet to use. I recommend you need to learn how to use the wallet as well as store the wallet code, the seed code. That's the key to help you get into the current wallet, I think you still don't know how to own it. If you don't know how to use it and don't have the keys, chances are your assets will be locked and you won't be able to use them, move them or sell them.

I think you should start studying and looking for a hardware wallet which is a bit more advantageous especially for beginners, I think coinbase is too open and easy to hack and it's better to make a hardware wallet even though it costs extra but it will be much safer to be there.
and maybe what needs to be emphasized here you have to be really careful in doing something other than that because here the risk is high so I suggest not to take unnecessary actions and have to start learning the system from bitcoin maybe even how to trade and TA if you want while trading here.

Because the majority of bank account hacks or people falling for scams involve them transferring money electronically to another bank account.

Very rarely are people being forced at gun point to go and empty their bank account in cash and hand it over to an attacker, and most ATMs have daily withdrawal limits in the region of $1000 on them. Sure, if you have cash stolen, then there is nothing the bank can or will do about it, but if you've had $50,000 transferred from your bank account to another bank account, then the bank can easily freeze that and reverse it. In fact, most banks wouldn't even let you make that transfer without demanding some kind of additional proof or paperwork.

As much as I much prefer bitcoin over fiat, I obviously still have to have a fiat bank account to live. And as much as I hate the zero privacy, zero ownership, and zero censorship resistance I get with my fiat bank account, I have almost no concerns about hacks or scams with my fiat bank account, whereas I wouldn't trust a crypto exchange to hold a single satoshi for me.

I don't think that's the reason why getting stolen in a bank is better than in an exchange. A thief can spend your money much faster than you'll realize you have to somehow reverse the transaction. Not sure how a bank can tackle this problem; how can they reverse a transaction if the thief has already spent the money and not deposited them somewhere custodially.

It's the insurance. Coinbase can get hacked or pretend of being hacked and you can do nothing about it. On the other hand, the bank may provide you insurance in case of such incident.

A bank is generally much safer than Coinbase or any other crypto exchange, though. If your bank account is hacked and emptied, or you fall victim to a scam and send money to a scammer, then there is a good chance your bank can reverse all the transactions and get your money bank. If the same thing happens with Coinbase, you can wave goodbye to your coins.

If you wait for a Black Friday, Christmas, or similar deal, you can get a good hardware wallet for $30. Most people will spend more than that on buying themselves lunch in a single working week. If you are only holding $30 worth of bitcoin, then sure, spending $30 on a hardware wallet might be too much. But as soon as you get to a few hundred dollars worth, then it is a smart investment.

We generally have a saying "not your keys, not your crypto", which means that when you are not holding your private key of the wallet while using coinbase, the bitcoin that you see aren't technically yours, coinbase can go down any day and you can lose all your bitcoins, coinbase is even prone to hacking which means your funds can be hacked too, a simple way to keep your funds with yourself is using a private key wallet, just download a simple wallet like Mycelium wallet on your mobile phone which will give you your private key and your funds are absolutely safe in there, you won't be able to buy sell like coinbase, but you can send receive money at just network fees. You can use Electrum wallet for PC.

I agree with the others, Electrum wallet is a good choice, I am using Coinbase right now but not for long-term, will place this on my hardware wallet after a few weeks, Coinbase may be one of the popular wallets but the downside here is that this is an online wallet.

As a newbie, this forum will help you a lot, Electrum is a good wallet, although it may complicate you on how to operate it, though I think they've improved the user interface through the years since this wallet is pretty old but one of the most reliable wallets that are free. I suggest buying a hardware wallet, it doesn't cost that much to be honest, after gaining profit, it's worth your money on investing a hardware wallet.

Electrum wallet is really a good start if you can't install the bitcoin core wallet as you need big space for this. Also, if you don't want to purchase hardware wallets which are quite expensive for small users. With some of the links posted above by other users, I hope the OP will educate himself as storing your funds in a centralized exchange is really not advisable.

I hope the OP read the recent disclosure of coinbase regarding the hacking of thousands of their users' accounts -
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/coinbase-slammed-for-terrible-customer-service-after-hackers-drain-user-accounts.html

I thought they settled it in a very good way but seemed a lot were not happy how they handled this incident.

Well, I am happy that your "investment" in Bitcoin is going well.... just remember that Bitcoin is not an investment.... but rather an alternative currency. (You have to use a small percentage of your Bitcoin to buy and support services that accept Bitcoin as a payment option, because if everyone just use it as an investment... then it will fail in the long-run.)

The miners get reward for mining in the form of miners fees (a small payment or fee that are deducted, when you do transactions)... if there are no transactions or not enough.... Miners will stop mining and the whole payment system and network of merchants will fail.

So download and install Electrum from their official site and withdraw some of your coins from Coinbase to your Electrum wallet. (You will then have the private key for those tokens)  

Why did you choose Coinbase to use?

It is not safe because Coinbase control your coin, not you.

Use non custodial wallets to store your Bitcoin.

Recommended wallets. You can choose Bitcoin Core (if you have about 500 GB to store the blockchain, prune node is not good to use), Wasabi wallet (if you want to use CoinJoin transactions and Tor), Electrum (if you need a light wallet to use).

Not your keys not your coins
https://notyourkeys.org/

First of all, you need to understand that no funds are a hundred percent safe be it fiat or crypto. What it all boils down to is the measures you take to keep an asset safe and your understanding about the asset and the variables connected to it. My advice for you is that if you have enough funds to invest and burn, better invest in knowledge first. Nit only will you not burn money uselessly, but you would also be earning much more than how much you are earning currently (if you actually are earning some). Plus, it would help you know more about security measures that'll make your funds more secure.

You could liken Coinbase with a bank. The bank holds your cash, you hold a so-called IOU. If the bank goes bankrupt or if they get somehow stolen, you'll lose your money.

The administrators of the exchange hold the keys. They've just given you an IOU which says that you own an amount of coins. Bitcoin was created to avoid this middleman in your online transactions. Coinbase is required to buy bitcoins from, but not to be used as a wallet. Instead, you can be the owner of the keys and ensure you're the sovereign of your own wealth.

Read: http://notyourkeys.org/

For most beginners a hardware wallet with Electrum on desktop is a good start. But you have to learn pros and cons of different wallets and choose for yourself.
For example a hardware wallet offers a good level of security and is easy to use for those who don't want to spend time achieving that security themselves. It is also easy to use on an online computer without worrying about leaking your private keys. But you have to purchase these wallets, so they are not free!
The alternative is setting up your own cold storage but that takes effort example: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/diybitcoin-cold-wallet-usb-stick-creation-step-by-step-guide-853288 and https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

It is a matter of preference and purchase size.
I don't know the limits of Coinbase but lets say you buy $10 worth of bitcoin every week, there is no point withdrawing that every week also. You can take the smaller risk and let it accumulate before making a single withdrawal of a bigger size.

No. Your hot wallet will.

Better start learning how to use a hardware wallet because you're going to be needing that and at the same time you're going to be much safer when that happens, not to mention that you're using Coinbase which got recently attacked by hackers.

For newbies such as yourself, generally the best trade off between security and ease of use is a reputable hardware wallet such as Ledger or Trezor. Unfortunately you will need to purchase one of these devices for around $50, but if you wait for Black Friday in a few weeks they have previously had some very good deals on (up to 50% off).

This is a fairly standard way of buying and then holding bitcoin. You don't have to do it right away, and some people might prefer to build up a little bit of bitcoin on their exchange account over time before withdrawing it all at once to save on the exchange's withdrawal fees. But the less time your bitcoin is held on the exchange, the better.

No. You will still be able to see your purchase history and withdrawal history, but it will not show your balance. Your wallet will show your balance instead.

Interesting, is there a wallet you recommend? Also, would I buy my bitcoin through coinbase and move it to the wallet right away.

Will my coinbase account still show my balance if I got a wallet?

Not exactly.
You have no control over your own "money".
- Coinbase can some day decide they want to shut down your account and prevent you from accessing your funds.
- Your account can be hacked and the hacker can take all your "money" that you were storing in your account.
- Coinbase itself can be hacked and you (among all other users) can lose all your funds.

- Educate yourself on how bitcoin works
- Choose a secure wallet and learn about cold storage
- Move your funds from Coinbase to cold storage
Start by reading this: https://bitcoin.org/en/getting-started and this: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/general-bitcoin-wallets-which-what-why-1631151

You don't purchase a key, you generate it randomly. Basically it means selecting a random number in a massive range (bigger than 1 and a little less than 2²⁵⁶). Your wallet does this in the background.

I am new to crypto and everything I have done has been strictly through Coinbase. I don't have a key or anything like that.

Is my crypto safe?

What can I do to make it safer?

Everyone talks about keys, what exactly is a key. Where can I purchase one and how does it work.

Thanks and good luck to everyone. I am already up about 22 percent on my investment and extremely happy. I do feel that BTC will go to the moon.