Topic: Security Should Be Your First Target as a Newbie (Read 755 times)

One of the main requirements for Bitcoin for beginners is to ensure the security of the wallet. No matter how much a beginner invests, if the wallet in which he keeps his invested bitcoins gets hacked, all his investment will be lost. Moreover, while updating the wallet, one must keep track of it and also while withdrawing and depositing, one should always be careful not to withdraw or deposit to the wrong address.

Yea, I don't. There are always newbies to prey for, once one batch has learned their lesson there will be another fresh batch of newbies, it's never ending cycle between hackers and users who get hacked.

However, one thing that can be done is, once one has learned their lesson, they can share their lesson with others, so few may be saved from committing same error.

Asking how to make your investments work and become sustainable in the market will still be useless if you are not responsible enough to secure your investments. That should be your first goal and target more than anything. But since its nature for the people to only get learned after they have committed mistakes and losses, then most probably after that, these investors will only tighten the security of their wallet.

Hacking becomes more rampant in the market maybe because of these new investors who lack the knowledge to secure their investments. And the more newbies to rush investing without prior knowledge, expect that hacking and scamming will never be stopped.

But it is quite unfortunate because the average beginner does not realize this, except for those who have been managing assets for a long time, the security for their assets in crypto will also be considered, but new investors in the crypto world are rarely aware of their security, on average, after making crypto purchases they store them on exchanges and that is the beginning of their mistakes as beginners.

Because this is also led by the marketing opinion of the exchanges saying that they are running according to regulations and are safe, that is what causes beginners to entrust their assets to be stored on the exchange (first mistake), I have also experienced it, and after the mt.gox collapse that storing assets on the exchange is not safe.

I suggest using either ColdCard or SeedSigner. Both require some learning but it's worth it to learn how these powerful tools work.


In order to use either ColdCard or SeedSigner, you need a desktop coordinator wallet to build and broadcast (send) transactions. I suggest using Sparrow wallet because it is the most feature-rich wallet I have ever found. There's not much that this wallet cannot do.


Absolutely. The best way is simply to buy and hodl. As long as you are using the best tools in the industry, you will be just fine.

One more thing, try to enter your trading or investment account password when you re-enter your account, it's best to do it manually because if someone is having fun they can easily enter it from the stored cache data, especially if the beginner is also tempted by the Airdrop which is often present and published on Telegram channels or other social media and this is in accordance with what you wrote in point three.

Don't forget the Bluewallet wallet is also good. I have tried it myself and there are many superior features there that make it comfortable to use.

If neglected, in time, users will realize what steps need to be taken not to get rekt by scammers.
You may be too careless when you are starting, but as you experience losses, you will learn from your own mistakes.
And as much as possible, in every transaction you need to make, you should always check at least twice about the addresses involved,
it may be your savior if you happen to omit even one letter in your coin's/token's address.

Security is the ultimate as a newbie because a lot of us have lost huge amounts of money due to our negligence of the security demand that is needed for our safety in this industry and a lot of time, there have been misconceptions about that fact, so before you buy any asset at all, you must, first of all, know how to protect your assets and increase your security for as much as possible to as to stay on top of the situations at all time. Most of us could have retired by now, if only we never lose the kind of money we have lost before,  because of lack of security knowledge and risk assessment skills that could have helped us alot to avoid multiple thefts of our assets.

On this one, you can't control what's on the heads of people. We agree that being in bitcoin alone, lessening the risks that we take upon investing on it.

But that doesn't mean that if you invest in Bitcoin alone, you're already securely storing in a wallet, the question is what type of wallet?

Usually the new ones are treating exchanges as wallets and that's the mistake they does every time.

Yeah its because profit will be one thing came up in their mind. They always get hype by the earnings accumulated by some people but they didn't give the long credits about the hard work those people done and how they make sure that every decision made they are secured then make sure that never step on wrong decision in terms of investing.

If newbies will be just suspicious at their first try and will do a research about everything need to consider before starting their journey for sure we will never or at least see less of them got scam or hack. But I believe since crypto is now becoming popular the awareness regarding scams is also increasing so maybe on upcoming years there are more awareness regarding on risk and scams so hopefully those newbies will take time to participate and take some time to learn from those programs.

Security is its utmost important regardless if you are a newbie or an experienced one in your bitcoin investment. It's useless to attract a lot of profits in your investment when you don't even know how to secure well your coins in your wallet. That is why by creating a hardware wallet wherein you can be free from scammers online is a big factor to obtain security. And by choosing not to disclose or share anything about your wallet most especially your private keys, you are keeping the high security of your own wallet.

This will only be possible if you are educated enough on what type of investment you are entering and how to secure the safety of your own coins in your wallet. Otherwise, a lot of scammers will be eyeing on you if you resort being careless because you are busy planning on how to make your investment more profitable while leaving its high security at stake.

 

Beginners have always been the worst hit when it comes to this issue of security and what to expert as a standard practice for a newbie to secure himself in industry although tou have mentioned the risk with all the possible scams thatay happen around the internet off course we have experienced alot of them and that experience have build our ability to easily spot them when their are presented to us and how to avoid failing into those online crypto scams.


But when tou concentrate on Bitcoin alone, you minimize your risks and also increase your chances of making a profit out of the market at some point since you will already have your Bitcoin securely stored in your wallet and not any form of investment.

Be it a newbie or whoever, security measures are very important for everyone especially if it is Bitcoin investing. I am going to tell you how I managed my security. My bitcoin or crypto wallet is secure and I use a complex password that no one else can easily guess. I confirmed the two phasers as I understood the private key of my wallet. Also, my wallet is properly encrypted so that no one can access the transaction information. Although I take good care of the security of my wallet, still if there is a problem, my wallet is active from deposit, I can recover my transactions etc. Also, I keep my wallet storage management portal enabled, so that if there are any issues, I can resolve them. I think everyone should implement deep security measures to keep their bitcoins safe.

It should be for everyone because scammers will find a way to scam people and you'll be surprised of the scammers new innovations just to scam people. Well, for newbies first target should be knowledge or information because if a newbie doesn't have knowledge then how will s/he keep the assets safe and how to keep the seed phrase safe. Having knowledge on what to do and things that a newbie shouldn't do. Anyway, it's not just newbies that should prioritize knowledge first and then security but also other forum members or people that isn't newbie.

People tends to invest first then after that is learning how to secure their investment which I think is very risky.  I agree with @OP that before releasing any finances, we must know about our investment and the security revolves around it.  We should learn the basic fundamental of the investment, and how to secure that investment before getting into the investment venture itself.  This should be the process so that hackers, scammers and fraudster have little time frame to caught of off-guard or chance of stealing our investments.

In anything concerning cryptocurrency the primary thing we should do is to make sure that we have secured our bitcoin wallet, because sometimes what causes losing of bitcoin in the wallet is base on lack of security, some people save their seed phrase or security passwords online especially through the email and that's while some of them misplaced their coins in the aspects of saving the security keys in their mail and whenever the mail is been hacked and they will accessibility to penetrate to your wallet.

Exactly,  security of investment is even more important than investment in itself because what the need of having an investment if you can securely protect it from thefts, alot of newbies have failed to this and have lost almost 100% of the investment at some point, so knowledge is very important and building a good security awareness and enlightenment is keybto securing your future investment.
Bad situation really,  no where is really safe right now, but we can because of rhe so.many hacks and other security attack to neglect the place of building that knowledge at some point and if that ve the case, it still bring us back to what I already said earlier concerning,  holding while you learn because by so doing m, you are saving and at the same time you will be learning, so that In the end you haa ve double advantage and an increased security architecture to support your knowledge bank.

I'm of guilty in that part because before I just being dependent on the built-in defender of my windows and after an incident of hacking that's time i made an investment in security which is having an anti-virus or Windows defender like ESET in my devices to prevent this expensive mistake happens again. Im a user of a Trezor wallet to make my wallet more secure but even its secure still my device I'm using is vulnerable with thsis possible attacks. I recommend investing in security first and next is the asset.

Learning is the first stage for any development. This is why schools are created to teach basic things which you can also impart on other after skulling. Most newbies fail to learn because they came to the forum to make money rather than to learn. But they have forgotten you can give what you don't have.

Old investors have been around for enough time to know the basic things about hacks and scams and how they can be secure from these things, whereas new investors tend to have no knowledge or experience regarding these things and that is the reason why they mostly become victims of scams and hacks because they don't know the correct ways of keeping their assets or using the correct security measures to stay safe from hacks and exploits of wallets.

Newbies or new investors are also often targeted by scammers through phishing links or different approaches that they use to make them believe that they can earn a lot of money and newbies get trapped since most newbies think it's easy to earn a lot of money in this industry which is actually not true.

True, I see plenty questions people asking For investment, but often they have no idea of securing their investment.

We have seen already nothing is truly safe as some fiascos lately, such as ledger — it's questionable after ledger recover. Non-custodial wallets? Atomic wallet got hacked. Exchanges? They get hacked all time.

Security of a wallet is the main priority for every newbie to take note of and to know for the security of their funds in the wallet. Without proper measures on security, you will end up losing your money to hackers or scammers who will easily take advantage of your ignorance. Before buying bitcoin or venturing into an investment in bitcoin, know how to protect your money because this is the basic foundation that need to be known before joining the cryptocurrency space.

Take note of new scams and ways these scammers are using to lure their victims into scamming them of their money. New methods are always coming out when the existing ones got rebuked or known by all, so it’s very important to always be on watchout for new scamming method.

The negligence of beginners in terms of security and their failure to acquire the necessary experience and knowledge to secure their wallets, devices, and platforms on which they trade makes them easy targets, and they unwittingly offer their funds on a silver platter to scammers. Security is a very important matter, not only for beginners but for everyone involved in the cryptocurrency space, regardless of their level of experience. Prioritizing security must be the first goal, above all else. A single mistake made by any crypto holder can lead to catastrophic results and loss of the capital that he has collected and invested for years in the blink of an eye. Scammers never cease to evolve their schemes and methods of fraud and exploit every trending event to spread their traps. Therefore, Any person, whether a beginner or more experienced, should not underestimate the importance of security issues. They should learn security methods through courses, reading, learning, and gaining awareness of common fraud methods to know how to protect themselves if they encounter one.

Most newbies think that their security on the internet is very trivial, in fact there are quite a lot of newbies who don't have any basic knowledge about the best security when doing activities on the internet.
In terms of Bitcoin, there are many private wallets that can be the safest place to store them, such as Electrum and unstoppable wallets. Apart from choosing a safe wallet, you must also store your private key in a safe place, don't store it carelessly so that the assets you store don't just disappear.
The last thing that is no less important is a lesson about the schemes that fraudsters always use in the crypto world, beginners must also learn that because beginners in crypto are easy targets.

Anything that doesn't have to do with buying Bitcoin and Hodling them in your self custodial wallet isn't Bitcoin investment but most newbie aren't enlightened about this ad they think those ponzi scheme platforms promising them high ROI is associated with Bitcoin investment. If the Bitcoin aren't in your wallet that you own the private key to, you don't own the Bitcoin and that's the number one thing everybody interested in investing in Bitcoin should know.

Security shouldn't be ignored or you'll be regretting later, many people are losing their Bitcoin to hack (exchange and wallets hacking) and scammers because of them been ignorant and not taking security very serious. As a newbie before buying Bitcoin you should consider which wallet you'll be using to store your bitcoin as keeping them in an exchange shouldn't be an option as they are the worst form of storing Bitcoin.

Hardware wallets are the most recommended ways of keeping your Bitcoin safe but we have alternative means like using airgapped device to store you Bitcoin. You can use Electrum wallet and you'll have same security when paired with an airgapped device. And for those using 2FA security for the wallats, making use of those 2FA apps from centralized companies like Goggle Authenticator is not different from having no 2FA security features as those extra 2FA are weak because they can easily be recovered or hacked into as google uses a centralized server to store those backups and they don't have the best records when it comes to data privacy.

I disagree with you on this point, reason being that this is applicable to only literates whom really cool down to fully understand a venture before engaging in it.
Most easy to get people whom are not that exposed to demand the pros and cons of bitcoin  are convinced by only hearing about the positive aspect and how bitcoin can make them rich soon. They tend to be intrigued by it and purchase it optimistically. They might even consider trading as another avenue to maximize their profits and take a few YouTube courses to get started. The possibilities of linking their main wallet to the platforms are very high as they were not properly informed. After hitting a rock, that's when their brains will calm down and they start seeing the pitfalls of their investment. That's when they will either abandon the project and run away, or start learning the security features.
So there is no overload of security update for everybody. people need a constant reminder of the dos and don'ts of bitcoin investment.

When these two features are taking serious, one can be able to be sure about the safety of their assets. The major reasons why people get hacked is as a result of their security lapses. Some people are not well informed about measures to protect themselves from cyber attack. Newbies are always the end target and some individuals who do not prioritise the safety of their assets ends up being scammed as a result of links clicked which was sent by hackers to them and unknown to them, it was a phishing link to gain access to their details to undo them.
Most times, it is nice one be sensitive to safety and security to protect themselves and their assets when it comes to digital technology.

When it comes to dealing with digital Assets like Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, It is very important to ensure that the security of our funds is met or put measures in place to safeguard and store our funds safely before we even think of making any investment. We should avoid the clinking of links, either from our emails or any platform we are dealing with, or expose the wallets that we store our cryptos on any online platform. Lastly, we must ensure the use of the most secure wallets out there to save our funds,  Nano wallet, electrum wallet, etc.

 If newbies can include security in their process of learning BTC and crypto as their major target in the community, I guess it will help them to enjoy the benefits that is attached to those that value security in their wallets. If you acquired the BTC knowledge without having the knowledge of how to make your coins secure in your wallet, show that all your efforts of learning BTC and crypto will be in Vail in the future because it will be very easy for scammers to create way to your wallet and withdraw all your coins you have labour for many years.

 As a newbies never you share your wallets personal details to anybody, and ensure you write down all your seeds phrase in a place you will be the only person that can access such place because the day someone access the place, your coins will be at risk.

During my reading of many previous comments on this topic, I noticed that many members, including some experienced members, limit the concept of “protection” to protecting their wallets and do not pay sufficient attention to the principle of protection with regard to their privacy.
 It is very important for users, including newcomers, to be aware of the basics of privacy protection, from which they learn how to preserve their private data and how to use it on the Internet.
Protecting personal data (including navigation data and other identifying data) is no less important than protecting wallets and the savings on them.  Even if it seems less important, access to this data can cause unexpected risks.

The suggestion you have given is equally acceptable not only to us and everyone should take care of this and make arrangements otherwise someone else could have easily got the fruits of such hard work. The entire management should be well aware of all the security related issues Security is something we all avoid because we do not have measures against it only when we are exposed to danger so we should be forewarned Finally I would say that knowing the details about Bitcoin and how to store it is very important for newbies like us.

You are right but sometimes those old members already have information that guides their decisions and they can stay safe in the face of all of this, but the newbies, due to lack of information are mostly left to learn from their own mistakes which sometimes is not good enough.


Nonetheless, I have included them in the discussions also and if you'll read a few comments above you already know and see where i mention that.

The suggestions given by you are very important but not only these suggestions are for new investors but also the old ones should pay attention to these things because at any time anyone can face this hacking so those who are involved in crypto are always different phishing.  Stay away from the site and use the most secure wallets.

I don't think that one should start caring so much about security as soon as when they 100 sats, and IMO it is not such a sin for a newbie to have his coins deposited in exchanges. Learning is a curve that must be transited, one cannot simply jump to the top. So, if there are still veterans who deposit their savings in exchanges, why reprehend someone who has just started learning, when the risk is so low because of the value of his coins, and the potential lesson so valuable?

some beginners I know actually keep their assets on exchanges. they buy it and leave it on the exchange. Those who don't really understand wallets and their security feel that just having a wallet like Trust Wallet is enough. that's what I see from some beginners around me.

For those who are familiar with this forum, you probably already know the important things they have to do to store Bitcoin and crypto assets in their wallet. even security for wallets is also studied so that the security system functions.

Wise people always promote good values so that other people's crypto assets are always in a place with a much higher level of security by providing several recommendations that can be used to keep their assets safe. But what happened, when they explained safe places to store assets, the advice went in from the right ear and then out of the left.

That is the phenomenon that is still happening out there, they prefer to ignore the security level of assets for the reason of making it easier to sell them. People like this often become victims of exchange hacks because their bitcoins are stored in Exchange wallets.

Sometimes it's useless, and a waste of time to tell newbies, and people (who 1st time know bitcoin) learn the security. They just nodded, and even pretended to understand just to make you happy if the lesson was to be accepted.

I just experienced telling my cousin about security (how to use non-custody and create a wallet offline), but in fact, he still keeps his bitcoin on exchange until today. So when I ask him why? he just tells, to make it easy if the price rises up to sell it and make the profit. That's why until today we still hear people just lost their bitcoin by keep it online. because their hearts are made of stone, and Their heads are filled with shrimp brains.

Newbies should the develop proper security consciousness habits right from the time they have even as little as 100 satoshis. It will help them in the future as they accumulate more and more bitcoins at that time being security-conscious would be a second nature to them I need the would not fall victims easily when there is a security breach.

Here is a good place to start by looking at the Security and Privacy encyclopedia by OcTradism

This happened a long time ago even before I discovered this forum, and this have served as a bitter lesson for me and have taught me how important wallet securities are and how it is impossible to recover wallet seeds because those wallet developers already made such warning that they do not have access to your wallet keys and won't be able to help you to recover them if you lost control of it.
So this ops advice can really save some ass around here who may make such dear mistakes like mind but if they ever come across threads such as this, it will help the lot to avoid every possible roadblock that may result or as a result of one conflict or the other.

Sorry for your lost mate. It must have really been a very painful and demoralizing experience. Security is very important and should be paid serious attention, otherwise you would just be working for someone else without even knowing. 

Well, you're correct. Newbies are more vulnerable and without proper guidance they won't know that security is important and should be taken seriously besides making money, because if that is not done, all you have made in months could be drained in seconds.

The thing is that,  if i have hard this ops advice in the early days of my involvement with bitcoin i would have safe a lot of money that I lost in this space, at the start I never paid close attention to the wallet and private keys and it security importance to my funds and access and control of the wallet, I had sent bitcoin to a wrong wallet that I have no access to the wallet and that affected my motivation a lot of time and I wish I know what I know now back then, so I think newbies need this the most because the advice from ops will help them to avoid losing their first wallet.

Newbies need it the most. You know why, they have this background knowledge of bitcoin and the first that rings inside their head when they hear of bitcoin is mad money. The success stories is what they all want to hear but security is even the hardest thing to do before holding bitcoin. At any time your security is cracked, your coins are gone forever.

This can be circumvented by using a new wallet every time you want to connect your wallet to a new website related to investing or claiming something. So if a hack occurs, the new wallet will be affected without any effect on the main wallet where you store your Bitcoin.
it might be quite complicated and cost more. but it will be safer than taking risks which could result in greater losses for us. Moreover, many beginners prefer to use mobile wallets such as Trust Wallet. some may already consider wallets to have enough security to prevent hacking.

Thank you for sharing these valuable security tips for newcomers to the Bitcoin industry. It is unfortunate that security challenges can have such a Negative impact on the motivation of newbies but with the right knowledge and precautions these risks can be minimized.



I completely agree that choosing the right type of wallet is good It is important to research and understand the different options available such as hardware wallets or Software wallets and choose one that suits your specific needs and preferences.

The level of security offered by the chosen wallet is also a vital consideration. Features like multi-factor authentication can provide an extra layer of protection so it is worth exploring wallets that offer these security measures.


I appreciate your emphasis on avoiding potential scams and being cautious with investments. It is wise to stick to buying Bitcoin and holding it securely in your own wallet, rather than risking it on third-party platforms that may be vulnerable to security breaches.

these tips may seem basic they are indeed essential for newcomers to build a strong foundation of security knowledge. I will definitely take your advice to heart and apply these principles to safeguard my Bitcoin investment. Thank you sharing your insight.

This is the major challenge alot of people face when it comes to cryptocurrency, I don’t think this post should be mainly focused on educating newbies alone but the general public. Everyone into cryptocurrency will find it useful in securing their assets because security has been the biggest threat as scammers are everywhere looking for ways to steal people’s money. Newbies are easily the best target because they have no experience of any kind and lack the appropriate knowledge to safely sefe guard their wallets. Lots of newbies have been victims to hacks and scams and as time is evolving scammers are also evolving coming with new tactics and strategies to deceive people and steal their assets thats why I don’t joke with any post regarding scams and hacks so i can learn of new tricks scammers have come up with.


Some newbies who were unfortunate to suffer asset theft in their early days are likely to give up on pursuing their cryptocurrency journey because they believe the industry is crawling with scammers and there is no method to safeguard yourself from them. All they are lacking is appropriate bitcoin understanding and guidance.  We are fortunate enough to receive information from this forum at no cost to us. All the knowledge you require on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can be found here, and this forum is a great resource for beginners who are struggling to protect their holdings.



This is where the majority of beginners make mistakes; they are never too eager to learn which wallet is best or what security precautions to take. The safety of your money should be your top priority when making cryptocurrency investments, especially if you plan to hodl. The first thing to do before doing anything else is to acquire the necessary knowledge.


Exactly, avoiding any kind of investment other than holdling bitcoin will reduce the possibility of being scammed and losing your money. It is extremely dangerous to store your bitcoin anywhere you don't have access to the seed phrase or keys since you can easily become a victim of fraud. Newbies should never forget these terms Not your keys not your bitcoin.

I expected to see more comments from the ops that point towards the direction you pointed to right now and in as much as that be privacy is the mother of all security,  because ot mostly through privacy lick that security breize are experienced,  first of all we all have to be minimal in the amount of information that we put out to the public and how best to protect yourself at all time, and after we achieve that, one still need to protect his/her security details and keep improving on them at all time to be able to stay ahead of possible hack, phishing or whatever attempts on your privacy.
Many times also we overlook a lot of things to the point that we aim at only what we stand to gain instead of the purpose and protection of what we aim to gain in the long term, so even before investment,  we must have to pay close attention to things that protect our investment in the long term.

I think this applies to everyone, and I have noticed one problem that comes with crypto in general... most users never want to DYOR on best security practices, like not clicking  on unknown links especially for the cyber social, don't share private keys with anyone unless they are your spouse or something...and we never want to go into details to know of what to look for when it comes to choosing a wallet (either going for custodial or non custodial wallets and their pros and cons), could it be the bad habits we pick up of not reading manuals in real life and out of the box we believe we can figure it out as we go and ignore all the research required

Newbie here means-Fresh and straight out of the fiat world

You are very correct and just like i made it clear in my other comment that, when i said newbies i am not refering to forum beginner even thiugh that may be intentional but steal relevant to them altogether and at that could be best we have a full time awareness of what the security risk are to both newbies and the entire members who may still need such information as a wake up call to them, to help improve they security level at all time and how best to make our ways around it.


So I am sorry if I have too much emphasis on the term newbies even though that is not what I mean in reality,  since security is everyone and we should all take it seriously at all times.

This applies to not just newbies but everyone who holds crypto currency. Security is very important as anyone could be susceptible to a hack. Besides these important points you have highlighted, it is important to avoid exposing your secret phrase

Hmm, Well said Op safety and security should be the top priority of every member whether He's new or experienced (I'm sure experienced ones realize this factor). I used to say safety can be like ABC Always Be Careful, don't compromise with having the latest updates, never cross the safety borders, better to avoid clicking on everything.

That's it the platform choice should be reliable and its reliability can be checked by its service nature whether it is sourced or not because it will explain the most of story.

Not many are privileged with the opportunity of being presented with the knowledge shared here on bitcointalk forum even though not all bicoiners and not everyone has joined the forum but we are among the few lucky ones that are opportuned to be here and this forum have taught me a lot personally even though i have not really made any investment yet which i will soon enough. Newbies who lack the knowledge will easily become a victim of scam. I have no bitcoin but i have made myself familiar with bitcoin and it’s security.

This forum is a very educative forum which has helped not just newbies but a lot of people i believe in reducing their chances of being scammed.

You have a shared a very useful tips though it may not seem like it but when ignored can do alot of harm and cost us our assets.

This is the part where alot of newbies are are being easily manipulated, they are always eager for gains so they would want to invest in whatever that would bring profit without knowing the risks associated with this investments.

Security is the basic foundation of your bitcoin journey. If you don’t have a good security of your funds in your wallet, you will lose everything to scammers in a blink of an eye. When you’re introduced into bitcoin and told about the basics of it, what you need to do first is to know how to secure your funds in your wallet, if this step is not well taken, your bitcoin journey will be horrific and will lose interest instantly in this financial technology when you lose your hard earned money to scammers.

Asides from security, what I take serious is privacy. If there’s no privacy they won’t be any assurance to security. As you’re securing your funds, don’t expose anything to the public. If your funds are not private, it can attract hackers to try and infiltrate your wallet which is very risky also. Having a good security and total ownership of funds is important in bitcoin and safeguarding your assets from the eyes of preys and hackers is also very important. If you don’t attract them, you won’t have a case of -attempt to jailbreak into your wallet.

If you're going to use them as your long-term wallet, that's how things can be wrong. It's okay to use them with negligible amounts and there is no doubt that many of us here still use them as their personal wallets. We just have to learn from what has happened in the past and we need to use the wallets that we trust the most. And that's not just enough because we also need to back up them for reasons that we may not see as for now. We always need to remember that simple phrase about ownership of keys.

People do stupid things with their wallets that's why they lose their funds, they sign some access to their wallets themselves, if we can find data (which doesn't exists) about how many people lose their recovery seed the numbers won't be much compare to those who expose their wallet to hackers because they want to take some free coins from strangers, so many people are not contented with what they have.

Till today people are still giving out their recovery seeds through raindrop scam, they are been sent free NFTs and they are want to claim the free money, I can share my wallet screenshot it's fill with fake giveaways, and free NFTs that are also malicious, newcomers don't know this.

Now when I teach people about crypto beginner its a must to reveal to them what fake tokens look like, also fake airdrops too, because this is the only way to safe them, if I just recommend a wallet and turn my back they will find a way to claim shit freebies, they will think its for free for using the wallet, something that some told me after his wallet was drained.

You are right mate. It is nice one takes security of their assets very serious because if they fail to do that maybe hackers would help them do it better after stealing their assets. I really see sense in your opinion of updating your wallet app and other apps you have on your phone but it does not just end there, have you wonder why sometimes even after updating app it seems one just made it easier for hackers to invade their gadgets. If you may know updating of your android version too is also a measures of staying safe because once done, the security features would be strong and tallies with your updated app security features which makes your gadgets more secured and protected. So it is not all about updating app alone, updating your android version too is advisable too.

This is one of the biggest problems but not the most. Most newbies get confused about which wallet they will use. They get confused between wallets and exchanges. Most newbies think Binance, kucoin, and coinbase are their wallets. They don't understand that those exchanges do not give full control to their Bitcoin. They do not provide the private key of your Bitcoin.

The 2nd thing is securing their wallet. Most of the time you do not need special security if you have good common sense. All they need to know what never store your seed phrase online and never share it anywhere. Simple steps!

While security is crucial, IMO it's essential to avoid overcomplicating things to the point where your funds could become easily inaccessible. It's essential to keep security measures manageable and well-documented because complicating your security setup with numerous layers and tools can result in confusion and potential loss of access. Personally, I may be wrong but I more feared about that, than by an attack coming from someone on internet, a malware or a theft by someone at my home. In addition, people more often lose their funds from scams and phishing than from hacking.

Even without taking a cyber security course/studies, we as individuals can also carry out research on how best to take care of our security while on the internet and also what exactly we should and should not do while interacting with others on the internet or in our offline dealing.


Indeed the need for security improvement at regular intervals is key to staying safe in the online world as it is the responsibility of the user to keep themselves safe and protected against possible attacks.

Aptly written. We shouldn't play lightly with our security on the internet not just our wallet security. There was a thread here where one user said everyone should take a cyber security course. And we should never stop learning about the lastest and most recent wallet security to safeguard our crypto assets.

I'd say the first target for as a newbie is learn the principle.

Many newbies can't understand the reason why they want to buy Bitcoin except for making money, they need to know if Bitcoin isn't the only one asset that good to invest. If they understand between each asset and still choose in Bitcoin, they will not regret since they understand what the of Bitcoin is.

Security is the most important especially in digital space, everyone must have a common sense to small a scam or flaws.

Being a newbie, we have to focus on the security of our asset first before trying to make investment, this begin with having the understanding of what are the things expected of us to know and do at the course of learning about cryptocurrency, when we are informed, we will not be misinformed, but when we don't know what to do or how to go about it, we begin to receive various offers that may not fit in for our regular safety than when we know what we are doing.

For the newbies, is important to build a good security foundation by way of choosing the best wallet with higher security and for those of us non-Newbies we also have to keep up to date with our wallet security and how we move our funds around.


Is also important to take also into consideration, the need to be able to implement a second layer of security to everything we do, since the security of our funds is the basic and primary thing to do.

A good newbie should always make sure he is secure from the beginning and its a protocol not for newbies but for everyone. In the real world a lot has been hacked or scammed even though they arent newbies due to what? Carelessness and being bit of hasty isnt it. Its always good to slow down and have sense in doing things. If not sure of something ask first, theres no harm on doing that than making mistake that could haunt you forever.

If I was to be a newbie, my first target would have been to learn how to earn bitcoin. By learning how to earn bitcoin I would definitely come across many things. It is only when you have bitcoin or have learnt how to earn it that you begin to find the best way to save your bitcoin. I am not undermining the essence of good security practices, but I am seeing that earning will motivate one to learn how to save well.
I have read a thread that says "knowledge of bitcoin without investment is a waste", I think agree with that.

Exactly, newbies need to read, learn, and have the capacity to earn and every other things come in.
Then, when it is about security, newbies should try to use the exchange as an exchange and the personal wallets as wallets. It will be safer this way.

 The importance of security cannot be overemphasized. Let's take an instance of you trying to move to a new place, you will do your research to know how safe and secure that place is right? Well it's the same with anything here on the forum because without ample information on what you're dealing with, you're no less better than a blind man and this leaves you open to attacks.
As a newbie always ensure you make proper research before investing on any cryptocurrencies because you could be moved by the hype and promise of profits some of these digital tokens tend to present and miss out on the dangers especially those interested in altcoins.
 

Personally I don't recommend any wallet without 2FA, although it doesn't guarantee 100% security but it helps a long way to keep your wallet from easy access if you are vigilant and got a track monitor on your wallet. Clicking on links that says they are giving away BTC in reward and bounty's for certain promotion online should be avoided totally as a vast majority are phishing links and malware with which they get access to your wallet.

I always advise newbies that there's almost nothing as Bitcoin investment outside HOLDING, stop patronizing these scammers who come with such ideas as Bitcoin doesn't give such turn over in such a short period of time, never will you see a legit Bitcoin turnover yielding such huge amounts they promise in very short time especially when it's not a bull run, even Bitcoin trading is not very ideal as some of this scammers come with the idea of trading and making it look very appealing, but I can assure you from experience if you are not the trader do not entrust your portfolio to another to trade for you it's not safe.  HOLDING in a safe wallet still remains the best way to invest in Bitcoin.

the advice is for everyone and the majority of us here still uses online wallet despite their risk and vulnerability anything connected to the internet is another easy for hackers to bridge security but I think there is a limit to that, and I can bet that 70 percent of us still use online wallets. and we all are aware of the dangers, and the worst to trust is the exchanges are worst they have a lot of much more dangers keeping your funds there. what happened to FTX is enough to learn from, not your keys, not your coin the destiny of your assets should not be left in the hands of an exchange.

The best possible practice for the update is to be wary of any installed apps,  that ask for a fresh log-in when you already have the old version installed.

Security is not a hard thing to do but what we did is we ruin it and let someone hack our keys due to the wrong practice of safekeeping. We usually think that by having those things that you have mentioned OP, we are totally safe which is not as we are still prone to these smart hackers. Honestly, we are all subject to that scenario as we are working online. But there is a way to avoid this (at least) and that is not to click and visit sites that are not known to us or something to say, unsolicited links that redirect us to account login.

There's a reason why I always link security-related sites/articles for my copypasta. People always overlook security because apparently most of them have "secure" devices anyway, even though a lot of them use cracked versions of Windows OS and likes to install pirated software lmao.

* https://chainsec.io
* https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/security.html

Anyone who starts using the Internet first of all needs to learn how to use it correctly. What do people who buy a new gadget and start their online journey do? The first is entertainment, games, etc. But mostly, it is on such sites that we get a bunch of viruses that remain on devices for a long time, causing some kind of inconvenience. Therefore, if you are going to deal with financial issues, separate the places where you will use the Internet for entertainment from the places where you are going to deal with investments and handle wallets. That is a serious matter. Computer security begins with the understanding that you don’t need to be distracted by bright banners, tempted by calls for easy money, or trust that someone suddenly gives you prizes. Even if you don’t have the money for an air-gapped device, a hardware wallet, or even a quality antivirus, you can safely use your Electrum wallet, provided you are confident in your Internet surfing skills.

Newbies must search, read and learn first.

They must do those steps before doing anything like posting, trading, investing, using an account, wallet to store their bitcoin. Hopefully if they search, read, and learn as their first steps, they will find my topic.

Good topics on security and privacy that is renamed to Security and Privacy Encylopedia today.

I can miss some threads but they can find missing threads in Beginners & Help Encyclopedia.

Right, and I agree that it's not just for newbies but also for everyone. About the type of wallet, there are still some people who are saying they trust online wallets for keeping their balances. Well, we all know that it's a wrong thing when you're going to use them as your long-term storage of wallets and there's even an article that shown that huge institutions are keeping it the opposite way, the way we know what's right. And that's them that are trusting exchanges to keep their portfolios. Don't be like them if they afford to do that but we just have to do what's right. As the famous phrase we say, "not your keys, not your coins".

Another piece of advice is to verify the wallet update before pressing the update button.  There is already a case where some hackers tampered with the update of software that made many Bitcoin holders lose their holdings.  Like what happened to many Electrum users who got victim to a hacker's fake message of wallet updates where when the user tries to click the update message will be directed to a malicious file.  According to the article: Hackers steal over $22 million via Electrum wallet, the user ends up installing the malicious version of the electrum and ends up getting hacked the next time they logged in.

Op, This are really helpful to all especially to those just starting their bitcoin journey. Aside all these there is one key security features:
Update your wallet when ever update is available though this is not just limited to the wallet but other applications on your device to avoid hack and malware attacks.

Because I live in a country where the economy is poor and many youths are engaging in scams, I always take security details very important, and it was one thing that I was always concerned about when i first joined this forum. I knew then how important it was, I know how important it still is. If a newbie becomes a victim of loss of bitcoin, it is very discouraging and can make the newbie not want to continue investing in bitcoin because they will feel that bitcoin is not safe to keep.

This advice shouldn't be limited to only newbies alone but all other cryptocurrency holders, the need to secure our wallet is of utmost priority for us because what is the essence of investment when you can't secure it, even though we have limitations but then should be at the based level as the ops said, anyway the ok and sound as a reminder since we are already used to this warning through the various discussions as regards to wallet securities.
Taking this as just a reminder and thanks to ops, but then you should not limit the advice to newbies alone unless you have your reasons for doing so.

Sometimes, I wonder why we push these advice to only the newbies when we know that any one can be a victim of scam.it all falls down to how much efforts you have ensured In securing your funds.ive seen a lot of situations on the forum , when higher ranked members reported to have been victims of scam and asking the forum for help. The best thing is to be updated with some of the latest ways in securing your funds. You can by a hard ware wallet, which stores your funds offline and away from threats. But since the hardware wallet is expensive, just as @Findingnemo had said, you can set up an airgapped device and install electrum or other secured wallets. The airgapped device acts as a cold storage keeping your funds away from the internet.

For me, I think the best and most important option should be to know what to secure before even thinking about the noteworthy security protocol to observe in order to keep safe what it is one has discovered.

For Bitcoin or any crypto currency, I have learnt so far how to avoid the hook of visiting phishing sites and ads meant to install spyware on ones device inorder to gain vital data. I still don't know the all of it, but my time here will help me learn more and lead me to one of the main reasons why I joined this forum in the first place, which is to learn about trading crypto and how to make the best profit from it .

I've said this countless times already... alot of newbie's should be able to read Thier way through in the forum as that'd only do alot of good than harm...
Secondly, I believe anyone won't just jump into doing something he ain't really conversant with... For that reason, they'll always want to learn through, from the experiences of the gullible ones...

---

lastly,.. if it's not secured, then it's not worth the time and investment... Bitcoin has proven itself over a decade and more.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

Well said! The safety of the fund is important since if the fund is lost, the whole thing is pointless. I believe that there are different wallets and platforms with their different offers for security, all should be weighed and used appropriately. I prefer to use smartly combined passwords, email and SMS altogether and I've never been scammed whatsoever. It's also advisable that the gadget of your wallet is not the gadget that receives codes for your account verification.

Even before anything, as part of the measures for safety, the choice of wallet matters so much. The non-custodial wallet with open source is arguably the best, and if one must trade with a centralized exchange, trusting it with little funds is better and all possible security features are advised to be put on.

Not just newbies, it should be the priority for everyone.

I would summarize this into further get a wallet that can never be attacked by malware but newbies can ask if is this possible.

Yes, it is and called air-gapped wallet aka cold storage which means the wallet is installed in a device that will never get connected to the internet so there is no possibility of exposing your recovery seeds via that machine.

Here is my post about how to do it with electrum

Security of your Bitcoin investment is one of the biggest challenges that most newbies face, to the point that some of the newbies who have fallen victim to the various security attacks be it on personal Bitcoin wallet attacks, where newbies get exposed to phishing that steals security keys and thereafter taken control of the wallet, or exchange hacking that leads to lost of wallet balance on the exchange, etc.


This scenario has a large-scale negative impact on the overall motivation of newbies in the industry, but as a member of Bitcointalk we have the privilege to access good information that helps shape our understanding and approach to security safety, even though we still have a few security challenges but it has been reduced to the barest minimum if only you as a newbie can play your own role to safe guide your investment.


Let me share with you Newbies a few elementary security guides that helped me through the journey

The first tip is that your first primary assessment should be to build knowledge on the best security method to use with your wallet.
1: type of wallet to use: make sure you make the best choice when it comes to your choice of wallet to
     store your Bitcoin.


2: level of security of your wallet, what is the level of the wallet security and how well does the wallet allow you to add another level of security of wallet e.g. multig 2fa, etc?


3: avoidance of greed tendency e.g never being involved in anything such as investment unless just to buy Bitcoin and hold, because doing so will allow you to always be 8n control of your wallet, since most other investments may require you to transfer your Bitcoin to third-party platforms that may or will become scam or victim of security crisis like exchange hacks.


The above tips may look theoretical and lack technical analysis,  but they help a lot and I advise you to apply them as a newbie in other to have a good start in your Bitcoin journey.