Topic: Not your key not your wallet - page 2. (Read 559 times)

It's true not all Bitcoin holders are programmers, but there have been many discussions about the source in Electrum and no one find there's a harmful code that would steal your coins. But it's too naive for you to trust one person statement and claim if not running full node your wallet is not belong to yours, that guy already put a disclaimer.

And you brought the Atomic wallet case here, many users already pointed out to not use Atomic wallet since few years ago. Comparing Electrum and Atomic wallet isn't apple to apple, you need to compare Eletcrum with other open source, non custodial and SPV wallet like Bluewallet.

Although OP didn't say anything new, telling his case, but a reminder that your funds, being on the account of centralized services, no longer actually belong to you and you have practically lost control over them, will never be superfluous. Sometimes, people don't know about "not your keys- not your coins" is, or they forget about it.

Changing conditions is already in the order of things and for sure, these changes will be against your interests. This must be taken into account and be prepared. Better yet, avoid centralized services like coinbase unless absolutely necessary.

Yeah, I get it. Despite the fact that it's been over two to three years now since I used my Coinbase account, I did receive that mail as well. No active crypto users that don't have the habit of always checking their mail, and Coinbase has passed on the information across all their customers, any user that doesn't frequently visit their email would have their self-blame if they still had their asset on that CEX. Although I don't feel much concern about users of this forum because it has always been said times without number for every cryptocurrency user to avoid storing their coins on the centralized exchange.

Any wallet we are using and we don't have access to the secret phrases then we should know that we are taking a very big risk and quick decision need to be taken. There are people that had lost a lot for money on exchanges because they don't have access to the secret phrase to lock there funds so that external hackers will not have access to it. We need to have access to our wallet secret phrase and keep it in a safe place to prevent our account from been locked, or blocked. If we keep saving our funds on exchanges then we are making a big mistake that could make us lose our funds.

I am not a programmer not a blockchain developer then how can I trust Electrum if I can not even understand the code. I never tried Electrum yet and I know that I lack enthusiasm in trying new things but it is my personal thing so I am trying to manage it.

But, how can a non-programmer can trust the code is alternation free of Electrum wallet? Let's say you will suggest to me some other people (they most likely be programmers) so that I could read their reviews about Electrum but in the end, I am also trusting those people whom I never met who are also human. In the end, only one way remains there if we are not ready to put our trust in any other person in the crypto, which is to learn programming ourselves maybe to some extent that we could understand that the code does not contain anything harmful but I do know that that's not an easy task to do. (I know how I might be sounding here).

But most of the people didn't give a thought to checking the wallet which they use by thinking it is open source so there must be someone tracking the codes in here. Do you have any recommendations to verify it?

Not some, but all custodial wallets won't give you any seed phrase and they will hold the keys to your coins, if you want to spend or withdraw your coins you must have to go through the custodial service provider.
If you have the keys and the seed phrase, the wallet and the coins are yours, but do not use trust wallet and other closed source wallets even if they give you your keys, that's because they are closed source and you have to trust them without being able to verify their code or anything about the wallet.

Before you use an exchange you should carefully read the terms of service. Your account will be disabled because you failed to provide the complete KYC so you don't have to blame them. If you want to continue with them provide your details, if not allow them to close the account. But some exchanges keep on changing their terms of service, I don't blame them sometimes because the government keeps pushing them to get more personal information from customers. But it will be ideal for these exchanges to inform their customers about the change of some policies instead of secretly changing the ToS.

Centralized KYC exchanges are like a necessary evil for all traders no matter how was may disdain them due to previous ugly circumstances surrounding their operation and how it has affected their users. That's why it's so important to always give in time to read through the T& C's of any exchange we're to make use of so we can have a good idea of what we're dealing with.

OP failed to complete his KYC and not the fault of the exchange as op knew from the start that KYC is part of the registration process and an allusion that used by Cex to trap their customers money at any opportunity. Let's always do well to do the needed to avoid losing our coins to these avoidable situations not to always transferring the blames to Cex all the time.

If you use a trustworthy open-source wallet like electrum, that's not possible. In electrum, you sign your transactions locally. You are the only one who has access to the private keys and you never send them to third parties.


Atomicwallet is close-source and we don't know how it generates the keys. Whenever you use a close-source wallet like Atomicwallet, everything is possible.

You may lose your fund if there's a vulnerability in the wallet. If you use a trustworthy open-source wallet like electrum, you can be sure there is no vulnerability. Electrum being a SPV wallet doesn't mean it's not secure. It's open-source and there is nothing hidden from users.  

You may lose your fund if your device gets compromised. If your device is compromised, it no longer matters you were using an open-source wallet or not and it no longer matters whether you were running a full node or not.

i read a topic yesterday, which have the same security concerns about the SPV and full node wallet. i would like to mention it here, but let me quote other members too because they had also made the same statements.
And Yamane_Keto also does not agreed with my statementFirst of all, let me tell you i was born confident, and i do have 100% confidence to say that SPV and the full node don't provide the same privacy and security features. Let me tell you all, that, I came to this statement due to this topic.Maybe, I took the context of OP's post wrong here, but let me repeat it. I meant to say, SPV wallets do provide us with the key phrase, but what if the services behind that any SPV wallets got attacked and started to misbehave which could lose you money even if you have the seed phrase. Take an example of the latest hack on Atomic Wallet which caused a loss of around $35 million dollars. The point here is, if we do not own the wallet, then how can we be so sure and satisfied with that wallet amid the difference of open and close source? Because we own nothing they are also software made by some third parties. (maybe i am wrong here).

But full node wallets, are not made by any third parties because you configure the inbound and outbound network securities here. and also own the wallet too. (have you ever heard the hack of full node wallets? if yes, then what is the ratio here.)

Are you agree with me?   because it's an encouraging point for me because others didn't agreed with my point, but your positive reply had increase my confidence about which Yamane_Keto had raised questions.

This is one of the disadvantage of using a centralized exchange to store your coins,they can come up one day and change their ToS and your funds will become trapped in their exchange. OP and  newbies make sure that you read the ToS of any exchange or platform that involves deposit and withdrawal of funds so that you don't get your funds stuck in it due to  ignorance. I hope those users that have their funds in coinbase will have access to transfer their funds to a noncustodial wallet for safety. Our privacy and total control over our funds matters a lot.

Truly, holding your assets on Centralized exchange is not worth the risk. Holding it there is just like you pouring water into the basket. You have no access to the private key only them, you are not in charge of your assets only them, they trade and make profit from your assets and you do not share the profit with them, when they get hacked, you suffer the loss and they do not because they have external storage safe for their assets which you know nothing about and in all, you are being charged fee for trading, withdrawal as well. So with all these do you think in the right sense it is advisable to keep holding your assets with CEX?

OP it is nice you received such mail and i commend them for that as it is amongst what they should be doing to keep customers abreast ahead of time to get them engaged as well.

Lastly, it is advisable to make such you scale through any kyc you have done with any exchange before moving your asset to the exchange so as not to be told the story that touches the hearth.

It's a good warning not just for the newbies but those that have been here for quite a while. It doesn't matter whether you trust or not the exchange you're using and where your funds deposited at.

The fact that they can change their TOS anytime is what's also worrying for users that trusting their huge funds on them. In your case, as you've said that it is not that much and nothing to worry about.

But we can sense that if the amount is quite high and this has happened to you or to anyone, that's stressing. So for those that has plans for long term holding, do not do it on an exchange.

I did know about their previous ToS till they changed it, at that time (before I knew about the dangers of Kyc) I wanted use it to store my coins since I won't be able to withdraw without Kyc because at that time I couldn't get the required documents for the Kyc (till now though) but the fact is I never expected them to change their ToS good thing I don't have any coin of high value there.
This is not about their privacy only but the fact that the exchange can change their ToS which may be unfavorable to some customers

Yes but I have done alot of dumb things, thinking Kyc was secured where as they are alot of dangers surrounding it. I recommend this post for anyone who wants to know about the dangers of Kyc Why KYC is extremely dangerous – and useless

Thanks though but this is from them, I do get emails frequently for though.

Let me start by making a little slight mistake on your topic that it's not your keys not your coins, anyone has the right to claim using any wallet he decided to choose and that wallet turns to be your own preferred choice even though the coins were not stored in the wallet, they were stored on the blockchain and the kind of wallet we use gives us access to having the unblocking keys required to decode the encoded coins we are having stored on the blockchain, some custodial wallet will not give you access to those keys and when such happens, it's not your keys not your coins.

Using a centralised exchange for reasons other the above mentioned could be doingvit wrong and I say this with particular stress on storage.
Even staking itself could be another means in which, you indirectly use an exchange for storage purposes. By staking, you are locking a coin on the exchange and providing liquidity for that coin and in a way, your leaving that coin there which translates to indirect storage.

You might forgive his misconception, am sure he meant it differently,
Not your keys, not your coin.

Right. OP can still use coinbase non-custodial wallet, but even their non-custodial wallet should be avoided. It's worth mentioning that coinbase non-custodial wallet is close-source and there is no way to know how the keys are generated and whether they have access to the keys or not.

As a trader and someone who loves holding currencies in the exchange site you are always advisable to do your kyc completely before start storing coin inside because they may change their term of operation which would likely affects your funds and to pass the kyc.
We all know that centralized exchange are very risky to leave our funds inside due to numerous drama of hack, breakdown or bankruptcy, the best is to look for reliable wallet and store your fund nowadays the crypto exchange and wallet are not that friendly so we have to be very careful while chosen wallets or exchange.

The good part is that, Coinbase sent you a reminder to notify you on their operation because sometimes most of the exchange do not notify their customers before closure or any change of service operations.

There is a difference between your Coinbase account and Coinbase wallet. If you read the email details, you can still use the wallet and not the account.

wait WHATTT Where did you get the confidence to say this? SPV wallets are the same as full-node wallets, but they are lightweight that store block headers and Merkle roots, which are primarily intended to rapidly increase Bitcoin adoption due to the difficulty for anyone to manage a full node and synchronize it periodically. The privacy that a full node provides you is higher.


As long as you have access to the private key, you can broadcast a new transaction even if the wallet in which you generated the private key stops working.

This is wrong.
If you use a SPV wallet, you don't need to download the blockchain and get the required data a server that is running a full node. This has nothing to do with security of your keys.
As mentioned by Helena Yu, the purpose of running a full node is helping the network and having more privacy.

Take note that for generating a secure bitcoin private key and address, you don't need internet connection at all, let alone running a full node and downloading the blockchain.