Topic: Trust yourself when holding and not the government or exchanges. (Read 820 times)

Who is trusting the government with his own Bitcoin? I don't know about any people sending BTC to the government, so that the government could keep those BTC in a safe place.
There's no way to achieve 100% online security. This is a never ending battle between the hackers and the companies, that provide online security services. Even a cold wallet can get hacked. Some people trust third parties, because the third parties are promising them 100% guaranteed return of their crypto, even if the third party service gets hacked. I don't believe in such promises, but some people do believe in them.

True. This is because they have been consumed with a high sense of trust in the exchange. In fact, it only makes you feel comfortable for a while. Many people think that by storing assets on the exchange, their assets will be safe because they have been legalized by the government, when in fact it is just uncertainty. Your assets are not under your own control but a third party and are also very vulnerable to hacking. If you think about the exchange you use and store your crypto assets more safely, then it is a big disaster that will happen to your assets in the future.

That is why it is highly discouraged for everyone to store assets on the exchange, especially in large amounts. It is better to download a multi-cryptocurrency wallet that you can control yourself. Indeed, this also has risks if you do not understand the potential worst consequences (wrong key storage and so on). Therefore, we need to understand correctly because it is better than storing assets on the exchange.
There are many examples of why people are worried about using centralized exchanges because in the history of centralized exchanges there have been many cases of hacking and so on. So, before doing anything with your assets, do some research so you can better determine what to do with them to keep them safe.

While having your own wallet is great, it's also not practical if we are going to trade. What am I suppose to do if I am not going to keep my money at some exchange, just deposit and withdraw back every session? That's both very costly and that would also be not profitable neither. If you are a long term holder, as in you are going to keep your coins for many years, then I can understand why having your own wallet would make sense.

But if we are talking about a trader, then that trader will have sessions, sometimes as many times as few times a day, so keeping your money in binance or whatever exchange you are using is the smartest way to move forward. I dislike this "not your keys not your money" idea, binance is more trusted than some fool trying to secure their own money. Most people have no idea about security and how to properly keep their coins safe, your computer is a lot more likely to get hacked than binance would, so why not trust them more than yourself.

That's why many people here recommend doing it in a personal wallet instead of an exchange especially for long-term storage to minimise this.

It is undeniable that in the end every fraud and hack we will not know because it could be that for now we are being noticed and targeted by irresponsible people. But in this case instead of doing and storing on exchanges it will be more worth it for us to be in our own possession such as hard wallets or whatever it is that allows us to have full control over the storage we do.
Being on a third party and letting our money sit for a long time is certainly a big risk because in the end it's not just about hacking that becomes a risky thing but of course we are aware that the SBF case some time ago happened because many of us deposited our funds on an exchange which created a situation where it could be misused by irresponsible people including for the third party itself.

True, but in my honest opinion it should only apply when it is fiat in question or traditional assets. Before getting into BTC, the least thing expected of us is to do a little research about it, if done it will show us that BTC is decentralized and how it is an opportunity for people to be their own bank.

So i find it funny to end up buying BTC and then leaving it in the custody of third parties, exchanges have also shown times without number that they are no expert in guarding people's coins.

Well this is what bitcoin is all about, "being your own bank", "self custody" .  I sure as shit don't just the government, who most doesn't hold ones money anyhow, unless you are invested in government bonds/treasury bods etc.  But make sure if you are your own bank, that you know that you can truly trust yourself as there are some lessons to be learned when it comes to "trusting Yourself" and some easy mistakes you want to avoid.

Hopefully, you keep your money in your safe wallet. avoid using the device you use for your wallet for social media purposes as little as possible. just to be safe because nowadays scammers can do hacks you might not even realize.

So you do P2P transactions or do you create an account on an exchange? the government can track your funds in your bank account. transactions that come in and out in a short time usually raise suspicion. especially if it is in a large amount, it can definitely put you in a difficult situation.

I can totally relate to you and your situation. I also live in a country where I don't trust the government or the banks, and this is the reason why even after having bank accounts, I don't keep any money in them because anything can happen at any time. The biggest problem is that they are anti-crypto which means that if they even suspect you of having any involvement with cryptocurrencies, they will block your account and confiscate your funds and then ask you for proof and whatnot to get the funds and the account unblocked which is a useless hassle.

What I do is I keep most of my money in cryptocurrencies, mostly USDT and other stable coins because I often convert them to local currency for expenses and can't afford to lose any value. I buy unstable cryptocurrencies with funds that I know I won't need very soon. So basically, I only cashout when I need funds and keep my funds in USDT so that I'm the only one who has access to them to avoid any kind of trouble.

You have to use exchanges to exchange, simple way of explaining it. It can get and will get hacked and you will lose money - the only thing is to minimize the possible loss, like not using the exchange as the wallet to store coins in, you can avoid a lot of money being lost.

Government services are going to be used by anyone living on this rock. They are essential part of our lives and financial instutions will be needed by any common person. At least if they are hacked, you have the backing that the bank will help reimburse its beneficiaries unlike a crypto exchange which can very well exit scam its users.

Most people here on this thread are experts, early adopters, and people in unusual life situations. That's totally great, and I'm one of them too, but we don't represent 99% of average consumers.

The reality for average consumers is that they want their "big" holdings to be held be somebody who is an expert at guarding their money, and they want that to be held in their name (even though they want their "small" holdings to be held anonymously--that is the Anon Paradox).

Sometimes doctors make mistakes and hospitals do wrong things. But unless you studied medicine for 10 years and have a degree, you are much better off, statistically, going to the hospital when you are sick. This might not be obvious to all of us "doctors" here on bitcointalk.org, but most consumers aren't experts.

You are better off hiring an auto mechanic to fix your car, even though some of them are crooks. You are better off hiring somebody to fix your gas powered heater, and so on.

Most people are better off using a bank or other trusted financial institution to guard their wealth. That's just reality.

Whenever an investor in crypto decides to invest for a long term or hold it for a long term, they should always remember the phrase "Not your key, not your coins".
Using third party means they doesn't really have full control over their asset if the system gets attack or hacked there is nothing that they could do.

This is implies that they are not ready to accept the risk involved in investment that is why they trust bank and looking for whom to out their blame when there is lost with their investment. Many people today trust bank with all their mind and hope because they knows that banks are reliable and can provide bank their investment when lost, but without knowing that this same bank are also looking for a way to dive into crypto currency with their customers investment as form of assets their account and hoping to balance when there is profits.

The situation is exactly like mine. Just like you, I don't trust banks and the government, which is corrupt through and through. It's better to invest money in several areas so that it is safe. Even if some of it disappears, not all the capital at once. That is, I apply the principle of diversification. This is the only correct option that has proven itself in some way in the current reality. I am incredibly upset that I came to it too late. I would have been able to avoid many mistakes related to personal money and the family budget. Such is life.

It's unsafe to depend on the government in this 21st century at most,the way some people still feels comfortable with the government completely concerning security purposes and otherwise.
Y'all should not depend on the government completely for survival,secure yourself,stick to knowledge that'll initiate and create room for improvements and personal freedom.Play smart as the case may be,You don't owe the government for putting yourself to order. for

Not wrong to keep trading money on exchange and not wallet, due to delay in confirmation you can miss out on entering at a position that you would have loved hence, having money available when you need is vital for traders. After making profits, we can then withdraw the profits off the exchange. At no time should there be too much money that you can't handle losing on the exchange because the exchange can be hacked and you don't always get compensated.

I don't trust my government and neither do I trust the banks or any exchange because of the shady things they have been known to do. Exchanges are involved in manipulating the market when they see a considerable amount of trades that can be liquidated and people lose money. Exchanges can't be trusted and we shouldn't leave coins that we have intended to hodl on them when not trading.

I don't trust my country's corrupt and thieving government and I don't trust my country's banks. But unfortunately I'm forced to keep money in my country's bank because if I left money at home, I could run the risk of being stolen by thieves. That's why I always have to pray that my money in the bank isn't stolen. It's the same scenario on the internet. I trade, I buy when the price drops a lot and I sell when the price goes up a lot. So I have to keep the money in the exchange so I can be quick when buying and selling. So I have to keep praying that my money stays safe in the exchange. I know that many people talk about keeping it in wallets, but there are special cases like mine. If a person trades, then that person is forced to leave the money in the exchange.

Lose and profits are part of the game, we should be careful next time because it's not easy one. As a matter of facts, everything is complicated in this world, everyone applies caution with every activities anticipated because no one have a clue about the end results. We believed in only ourselves to do the right thing, it doesn't matter what's coming but in all circumstances, survival is important and consider priority for everyone. Breach in crypto exchanges, who's at fault? Because one can easily have access to our port folio and we totally understands what it means. Hackers have ruined the day with their skills, some used it for good and majority used them for bad, liquidating the account of crypto traders and investors.

Don't know about other, like how they feel about their governments but I don't trust my government with my money and there systems are old, and so vulnerable to hacks, and scams too. I was reading a news that in our country a government clerk gambled the fee of students and lost it all. Now who is responsible for it, only the government because we trusted their person with our money.

I read the news of how $20 million of assets got hacked by the government and I wonder how the scammers convinced by the government to return them all the funds. It can't be true that they were just playing around with the government and they already planning on giving the funds back I think governments have some proof on them and instead of catching them gave them some options and they agreed. We can't really know what's the deal here but every assets on centralized platform is vulneranle to scams and confiscation.

I am having a hard time understanding you here, when you say third parties, do you mean centralized exchanges and custodial services, because it is never safe to store your funds there. However, if you use a self custodial and open source wallet, and if you also run your own node, then you control your funds and your privacy and you don't depend on any third party service.

Trust me, it is coming, there will come a time where banks will be crypto investors themselves and also be open to saving assets like crypto for customers, take it or leave it, many investors still believe that becoming your own bank is hard, they will rather find someone to blame for their own stupidity.

It is just the way some people are.

Everybody will use what would get them the results in their heads.
However, remembering what matters most, the security and confidentiality, must be remembered and appropriately taken care of.

Nothing is safe if you don't believe in yourself, but nothing can be done irresponsibly. Have to exchange but in a safe place then hacker will not be able to hack easily. Many people think that savings bonds are the safest sector for any accounting investor. Nowadays, a common man also expects the convenience of banking services for various reasons. Savings account customers also get banking benefits like reduced risk of cash transactions money collection money transfer online banking etc. Which is of particular benefit to them. But whether in the case of government holdings or in the case of crypto the awareness of the individual is more important here. It is normal to get hacked if the security system is not done properly. When it comes to third parties in crypto investment in crypto is very safe, using a good wallet has less chance of losing funds.

Thanks to the decentralization of Bitcoin, we can have the privacy and freedom of holding our digital cash or asset in our custody without any interferences from third parties. Being the sole custodian and bank to your Bitcoin comes with it's own price, something that is normally left in the custody of third parties like Banks and exchanges. You must secure your private keys and seed phrase, otherwise your coins can either be lost forever or be stolen. If you're able to be knowledgeable about how to write or inscribe your seed phrase and hide them in different locations, then you're good in protecting the access to your coins in the blochchain.

In a perfect world, centralized utilities would be used only to get onto them, do what you need, and hop off, however, many people choose convenience instead of the decentralized nature and their confidentiality.

Trusting the storage of coins is definitely not worth it, except hacking, there are many other difficulties as blocking an account, then you will have to prove the origin of the funds. If we are talking about governments, then I understand that we are talking more about banks, which is no less safe than exchanges. But not everyone is ready to be responsible for storing their funds, someone is easier to keep their coins on the exchange and think that this is the safest place. Hackers are a separate topic for discussion, but I think that they most often choose large wallets for their attacks, private holders should not be very worried here.

It was just overtime after a lot has happened in the crypto space along with the biggest hackings of the century occurring with financial institutions (exchanges) made it open to all that no any third party financial institutions can be relied on. The best way to save your bitcoin is by you keeping it safe. There is no way you can not be capable of not keeping it when it’s yours and means a lot to you.

Hackers have become a worrisome part of the crypto industry as they are always waging war against bitcoin holders and always looking for ways to scam them off their money. Even if your exchange is safe and have no intention to scam or cater away with your money. If their security system is so bad, you’ll lose everything you’ve saved with them to hackers who need it more than you for keeping it with an exchange.

If you have a coin on centralized exchanges, you risk losing it to hackers even though it might not be that instant because the exchanges send in and out of crypto to people that withdraw their coins from the exchanges and even though they do say they have a hot wallet and cold wallet, it's not always clearly indicated  or security reasons and as owner, you have to trust them but in crypto, you don't have to trust people until you verify.

For this, it's better you have your own wallet and it should be a cold hardware wallet where it doesn't get connected to internet. If your hardware wallet is/has connected to the internet, it doesn't mean you will loss your coins but there is an extra level of security a hardware wallet thy has never been connected to the internet gives you and that is a peace of mind instead of using the one you have connected to the internet, that way hacker can't reach you.

What mistakes could we learn from this example? What new things did you discover? Share your thoughts with us on this matter. It will be educational.

It would be good if they returned part of the funds. Only part, but the whole thing. This is upsetting and very unfortunate. Who among us could have known that this could happen? That's what I'm talking about.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"

Yeah, the money, part of it, will be returned to the people, however, they could have much more in the perspective of today and how the Bull moves.
Hopefully, many out there would learn from the mistakes / tips mentioned, made by both people and institutions alike.

There are quite a lot of forum members on this forum who remember the events with this exchange very well. It seems to me that there is still a glimmer of hope in their souls that they will get their money back. Well, it was unpleasant when such events happen. Well, where would we go without force majeure circumstances? This is part of this crypto world. We must always remember that this is possible and keep this information in mind.

By the way, who said that many of us trust the government or banks? If this were so, then how did we all end up here? A good question, isn't it?

Absolutely correct! This last part of your comment says it all.

Just last month, a high tech crypto guy's wallet was drained. That was a guy who's extremely knowledgeable in this space and also teaches wallet security but on the said day he allowed his emotion get the better of him. How it happened? He was contacted for a crypto job by a friend for a supposed site. Negotiations were ongoing and the project sent him a file to download and check certain stuff out. Unlike what he usually did, he would send that file to another device and download from there. That wasn't the case on the said day. He downloaded it immediately on the device he was using and on which he had some of his Web3 wallets. He lost every single coin on all the wallets on that device (his phone). We've to know that any single slip can ruin one in this space. Be guarded. That's the disadvantage of using a Web3 wallet (Noncustodial wallet) over Cex. If it were a Cex, I'm sure he wouldn't have lost his coins; especially if he had 2FA on it.

You are right, Everything connected to the internet can be hacked and no matter how smart you are some people can hack your wallet if they get the necessary things about your wallet, the only thing we should pray for is that we should never fall into the hand of who is smart than us and want to scam and steal what we have work for, even the banks some us trust that they are control by the government can be hack, I have seen where someone saying that putting a money in the bank is better than having a coin in a wallet.

Bitcoin is not owned by the government but having a coin in your wallet is very good, even a bank got hacked, although they might say that if a bank gets hacked and the public funds are stolen the bank or the government will be blamed for it but that doesn't mean that it is safe than having a bitcoin, trust is the best thing every individual need when it comes to investment.

Already one guys mention the FTX incidents. I think if you know that you forgot the incident or you don't have idea about the FTX exchanger collapse.
Most of the people in crypto space surely know about the FTX incident. Once upon a time FTX was the  second largest exchanger in crypto space and we saw their ads on the most expensive places and we I know Bankman-Fried the CEO of FTX exchange was one of the quickest young successful man.
But the exchange are always have the questionable proof of reserve and in case of FTX that also proofed. So even if they have more protection that can useful for recovering fund but what will be the usages of the features on the protection when the institute will collapse or will be invisible?

Do you remember how the story with the FTX ended? 

The main reason I see why most people trust government entities to save and guide their crypto is because of the hope that even if those funds are hacked and not recovered by the government, there are higher chances and possibilities of the government paying back lost funds, as there is also always customer deposit protection on funds under banks and government entities. Does such protection don't extend to crypto deposits? 

For now, CEXEs > banks, but dApps don't beat CEXes in terms of convenience.
When this time comes, we will be able to say that banks lost the war for the people's mind 

Saving money in the bank and saving digital assets in your wallet are two different things. We spend money everyday and that's why we can not save it the way we save private keys. We don't access our private keys on a daily basis just like the way we will want to access money everyday. No matter how secretive you think the hidden place is, the more you access it, the more you are exposing it and its likely to be discovered.

Banks are criminals deriving profits from people's resources but it's still the best and safest way to store your fiat. It guarantees you rest of mind and gives you assurance irrespective of circumstances. Op, the hacker did not willingly returned the stolen assets, it was recovered according to report from the link you shared.

This is something people have either overlooked or intentionally overlooked, and they make noises aimed at centralized exchanges or governments. Indeed, everything has its pros and cons, nothing is absolutely safe whether we depend on the government or protect our own assets.

I have said this many times, no matter what type of wallet we use, whether it is a non-custodial wallet, the security of the assets will largely depend on the wallet owner. Not everything is default as long as we use hardware wallets, non-custodial wallets will ensure our assets are never in danger.

Whenever there is any incident involving a bank, exchange or government there are hundreds of threads about them but I find it strange that there are very few threads about individuals storing their bitcoins in non-custodial wallets getting hacked. I don't deny the importance of using non-custodial wallets but there seems to be a bias here.

Because we were taught to trust with government, since changing an old habit is hard, most people still keeps their money in a bank. Most people don't even know how to save and hide their money because they tend to overshare with their family and friends.

If they can just act poor and avoid to talk about money, it will be safer to hold on by own instead of handing to the entity.

Just hide your money like this How to hide your seed in the wall, anyone including criminal will not know where your money at.

It's no time to not to utilize CEXes and others services that may be beneficial to people out there, in my opinion.
Of course, they have their drawbacks and regarding the security of holding much of your portfolio in there, but if you know what you are dealing with - why not use it to the extent that would be preferable to you? After all, dApps didn't push them out entirely as of now 

I support and encourage people to store bitcoin themselves and not rely too much on centralized platforms but I also disagree with many people who are badmouthing centralized platforms or governments. Obviously they have much better security and safety systems than individuals, they can not only detect and prevent attacks in time but also make hackers pay the price. If this is a personal wallet attack, don't expect the hackers to return our money but the government can do that.

Also, we like to criticize and badmouth centralized exchanges or government but we end up using their services to sell or buy bitcoins. I want to ask, is there anyone here who has never used a centralized exchange or does not have a bank account? If we are still using and depending on them, please don't speak ill of them because that doesn't make us any more beautiful.

You have it backwards. Good, established and large players have extremely sophisticated systems to prevent unauthorized access, but individuals have no such facility at all.

Individuals have lost billions of dollars trying to hold on to their own Bitcoin.

The government and other centralized platforms are what get hacked the most, most times the government don't disclose some hack to not cause panic among us but they're not safe. Hodling by yourself is better than trusting exchanges to hodl your Bitcoin for you. The exchange or other centralized system don't have the facilities to prevent scammers or hacker's from gaining access to your Bitcoin. Hackers lobe them as they're their regular victim's that they hack often to get information that they can use. Exchanges can't be trusted too because they're also victims of hackers targeting them to steal the Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrency that they're storing. Many exchanges are reported to not have upto the funds they claim to have hence you shouldn't trust them to help you hodl your Bitcoin effectively.

There's more to that story than what we've actually been let in to see. I read a few  analyses on the movement of funds onchain on Arkham Intelligence. Some of the analyses were that it could be a test by the US government itself to check the wallet's security and if bridged whether it could be traced and recalled. On my part, I think it was a real security breach but that the hacker lost composure and got scared along the line to finally pull through and cash it. Hence, the return of funds.

Anyway, that brings me to the position that wallet security depends on the wallet owner, not on the app housing the wallet. Any wallet can be hacked. It doesn't matter whether it's hardware or not. That's my position.

It was never been recommended in the first place and its been countless being suggested that when it comes on storing up your coins then it is really that never ideal on making use of those centralized platforms or custodial wallets when it comes into this aspect. This isnt really just that only talking about crypto holdings but also in talking about fiat as well on which there would really be those breaches. In regarding into this situation then the hacker did able to successfully made out such breach and stolen up such fund then returned it back? For sure there would really be those negotiations made internally in between that hacker and government but in personal point of view of a certain individual who do hack government funds, then he do already assumed out that taking out those funds is never been easy. It will really be having that full alert on where those funds would be going.

If this one talks about crypto coins then there might be a chance on holding it out and wont really be given back because tracing crypto transactions is never been that easy not unless if you would really be touching up centralized platforms or services on which identity could really be known but if not then there's no way that you could be able to know the hacker on any case. So this is something that will really be situational but actually in overall then this is something very basic about choosing on which one is really that worth on using in terms of security with those funds or coins you do have.

Mmm I'm not sure I would agree with this sentence. The government consists in many different departments and oftentimes people working there have a very basic knowledge about technology, computer, virus, etc etc. I still remember that time ago I read an article that was explaining how Windows XP has been around way longer than it was supposed to be because it was largely used by government organizations, hospitals, banks, etc, so Microsoft kept releasing security updates because they were asked to do it. So, no, when I think about government, bureaucracy, etc, I don't think they are safe.

Even the banks that are claiming safe and secured can sometimes have an issue themselves in the case of bankruptcy which I believe can also affect their said customer. As for the issue of keeping or storing coins on exchanges, well that's another risk because the exchange can fold up or even be hacked which I believe if such situations occur you as their costumer will also bare full effect of the situation as your coins will be gone forever.

I will never support the idea of anyone trying to expose how much they are holding because we don't know what strategy that can be used to steal our funds these days because I know scammers are always in search of sophisticated means of scamming their victims. It is better we keep our holdings to ourselves and never disclose it to anyone especially on this faceless forum. There are lots of victims that have lost their funds as a result of low privacy practise to ensure funds are safe in whatsoever wallets they could be. Every holders need to be observant and keep to good safety method of keeping their holdings safe from the public notice.

It's so funny cause what I'm thinking right now it's far from this, but when we talk about trusting your holdings there's no guarantee that's it's safer in our hands cause unlike other exchanges we put in our funds it's usually get frozen or hacked or one thing or the other so from my point of view I don't think anywhere it's safe cause what's applicable to one it's definitely applicable to All, so what I should say in regards to trusting yourself when holding should mean discipline yourself to taking charge of your funds.

One thing to avoid in storing assets is not to store them in random wallets. It is enough experience from other users to feel how they complain about the obstacles experienced in the wallets they use.
They initially only considered the ease of use aspect but did not care about other things such as the source of the wallet.
Next, the thing to note is to distinguish between a wallet and an exchange. Exchanges provide addresses, but they are not wallets.

Even if we climb to the top of a hill and shout this from morning till night 365 days of the year and 24/7 there are people who will never heed this warning. And I don't blame them because for us we may think it is the safest and sanest thing to do but for some others it is not about safety but convinces. It could also be about their own safety. Maybe they suffer from forgetfulness or something that makes them feel that their coins in exchange is safe. And you know what, if they feel that way, then good for them.

Because individuals can be hacked too, and individuals can lose their their wallet, it can be stolen, people can be attacked over their wallet, and so on.

There's a reason why, despite the fact that there are bank robberies, almost everybody keeps their money in a bank or other financial institution.

The solution is to pick a well-established player with a strong reputation like Coinbase, Binance, and so on. This is always going to be much safer than physically holding your own life savings.

(I think it's very different when we're talking about "small" amounts of money and not your life savings--this is what the Anon Paradox talks about: people want anonymity for their "small" money in their physical wallet, but they want personal identity guarding their "big" money).

Storing tens of thousands of dollars or more in your own physical wallet is sorta nuts, if you ask me.

After seeing and hearing about several large exchanges that were hacked by unknown people, I started to have less confidence in placing any assets for a long period of time on any exchange. So when I have any assets, I always have the initiative to immediately move them to a personal wallet, unless I still need some funds in the form of certain assets in order to be able to trade for a few days before I move them back into my personal wallet. Because after seeing several exchanges that have been hacked even though the exchanges also have their own level of security, it certainly makes no sense to entrust any assets to an exchange for a long period of time, especially if we can still store the assets ourselves in our own personal wallets.

Until the time when Bitcoin was founded, people trusted fiat and government the most. It must be hard to disbelieve a belief that has been built up over the ages. But since the invention of Bitcoin, people have now realized that they can keep their wealth to themselves. He will be at risk if the government also does not ensure proper security of his assets.

No one will be held liable if we fail to provide adequate security for wallets we hold. In some cases it's different for those who are completely new because they don't have the knowledge to secure bitcoins which makes them more vulnerable to owning them.

Nothing is safer than keeping your Bitcoin to yourself and ensuring its maximum security. If one's wealth can be kept with others, it is kept with the government or an exchange platform particularly third party, then there will never be maximum security.

Accounts and apps can be hacked and that's why banks grab this opportunity to let people know that their bank is more safe or secured compared to keeping your funds safe yourself and they will act as guardian to keep your funds safe. It is a common knowledge that storing in an exchange is not safe. When a person have invested in Bitcoin or have hold a Bitcoin then that person shouldn't talk about it. I'd rather trust myself keeping my funds safe rather than depending on third party or something like that.

This is more dangerous than our accounts or wallets getting hacked. The moment criminals find out we’re holding a significant amount of Bitcoin, they could rob us, putting ourselves and our families at risk. We definitely don’t want that to happen, so it’s important to stay low-key and think before we speak.

I know we’re proud of our investments and the profits we’ve made -some have even changed their lives, but we need to consider the potential risks that come with it.

Yep that's true, it's not even understand about Bitcoin principle, but we're talking about the financial literacy in general.

Many people I met always think if our investment generate more than our monthly income, we're already financial freedom, but the reality isn't that simple.

Let's say our monthly spending is $1K, we have $200K worth of money to invest in stock that give 7% dividend annually, so we're earn $14K annually. They will say they're already financial freedom because it can generate $1.16K, but they don't even adjust it with inflation rate and the taxes they need to pay.

It is true that we must truly believe in ourselves in holding the assets that we have and it is impossible for us to entrust the assets that we have to parties that we do not know well, with efforts to keep the assets that we have safe, of course we must make several efforts as you have mentioned above and after we try our best but still the assets that we have are hacked, of course there is a mistake that we made in securing the assets that we have and we must re-examine what we have done so as not to make the same mistake again in the future in securing the assets that we have, if you just surrender to the assets that have been hacked and do not have the slightest disappointment, I am very sure that you can collect the assets again and of course you will be more careful in securing the assets.

Yes, it is scary to watch how adults do not know how to manage their personal money and do not understand the basics of elementary school. I have to deal with them all the time and I am scared by their level of knowledge in the field of financial areas. They know practically nothing and do not want to know. What, in fact, is the problem today of going online and getting the missing information? What is the reason? Maybe it is laziness? Or maybe something else. So maybe it is time for all of us to find this reason and fix this situation?

People who are online can be targets of hackers whom even don't these people are Bitcoin investors. So the vital principle to be safe, starts with how you do online, is it safely and carefully in security or careless and unsafely, it will decide that your devices and accounts will be compromised or be safe.

With investment in Bitcoin, people need to keep their investment privately and avoid to announce it publicly on media and in real life talks with friends, relatives. Because they will put themselves at risk and their Bitcoin fund at risk of hacks, physical attacks and more.

Bitcoin security guides.
Bitcoin privacy guides.

"adds hacker image for spooky effect"

Self custody is everything. Hackers sending coins to the government or exchanges probably only happens when they haven't washed their jiajcked coins properly

Firstly, I don’t trust the government talk more of holding bitcoin involving a third party. There’s more to securing our asset compared to an exchange or the government holding our bitcoin. One needs to be careful when dealing with bitcoin generally due to high rate of scammers not just crypto scam.

No doubt self custody is not garantee 100% but it’s still better you keep your holdings personal and safe, smart people still fall victim even if it’s rare I guess no one wants to be a victim that’s the reason we still have to make every possible best compared to third party.

I do not think self custody guarantees 100% safety of bitcoins. Even if a person chooses self custody, bitcoins can still be lost either through some errors from the holder of the bitcoins where he might forget his seed phrase or send some bitcoins to the wrong address. What about cases where his wallet is stollen or damaged? It becomes even worse when the person doesn't know how to use a hardware wallet or paper wallet. Whether one stores his bitcoins with exchanges or chooses  self custody of his bitcoins, anything can still happen.

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Bitcoin investment is very risky, not only because of volatility, but because every holder of bitcoins is a potential target for scammers. Bitcoiners should be vigilant, use ONLY reputable exchanges if they have to and safeguard their private information, including wallets very well to avoid losing everything.

That's contradictory then, if only people with a certain level of knowledge can be their own bank without getting burned, what should do other people if they can't use banks and exchanges? I'm not sure the average Joe is able to be more safe and protected than most exchanges to be honest. In addition serious and reputed exchanges always try to reimburse their customers when they get hacked, if the theft is not too important though.

People are always have the habit of trusting anything that the government is backing and anything that the government is saying, they believe is true and the banks actually play a very important role, and I can say that their is a lot of things when it comes to the bank, they are still relevant and since they are more of a stable currency they should continue with their currency and people that want to do bitcoin should continue with bitcoin, truly if you look at people everyone have the right to decide what they want to do with their money so that is why they don't need to be forced.


When it comes to exchanges and keep you money this is a decision you have to avoid like a plague so as not to make the same mistake they made with FTX and a lot of people regretted why they kept their money in an exchange,  if your asset is in your custody then it is better to keep it in a wallet and not in an exchange because not your keys not your coin.

Many discussions have constantly been raised concerning hodling and the truth is everyone has different criterias and reasons why they Hodl. The Idea is either you are targeting period of time to sell off or you are actually targeting a particular higher price . However I've come to notice that everyone literally uses price a particular price tag, and that's because even if their target time is reached they will still likely continue hodling until they get a favourable price.

Well I think people that HODL based on government based news or exchanges that moved some coins, are actually acting based on FOMO because most of the time they are actually scared price will fall drastically because of such news.

Anything online is prone to hacking, it does not matter who is holding it there, exchanges and institutions get hacked, and even if they do not get hacked, they can lose your money either through misappropriation like ftx or when they are chasing more gains in fractional reserve. The only way to store your BTC should be in your self custody and no other option should even be considered.

I think people who are in the cryptocurrency world, if they have money, they will never leave it in a non-custodial wallet. Because you yourself know that they are always thinking about how they can invest their money and profit.

Although I do this myself, if it turns out that I have like $100 in store, it doesn't make sense to put it away and then I invest in a good coin. If I don't find any good coin like that then I invest in BTC.

I trust myself with Bitcoin more than I trust any company or the authorities. That's why I appreciate the option of having a non-custodial wallet and keeping the coins there. However, I also feel like I'm a very responsible and very organized individual who rarely forgets or loses anything important. Many people are not like that, and it's completely normal. It makes sense that some trust big organizations and institutions more than they trust themselves. You can contact support if you forget your password, and even if the platform gets hacked, you might get reimbursed. So I believe it's just a matter of personal choice.

People who are old and experience in Bitcoin, would know that Bitcoin is a decentralized asset that doesn't need to be under the control of the government. The security of one's crypto asset lays on their hand and if they properly manage their asset, they can not lose it.

I don't Trust anyone as regards to my asset's holdings the reason is that, having control is more than whatever conviance that may come along the line, and for that exchange and other non custodial wallet's and assets are all risk intensive because at once you could lose control of the account since all you are given is just users log in details and all other assets control are in the hand of the third party.


So for the sole aim of control, self custody assets are far more better and secured than any other form of holding, government holdings are the worse off since their incure tax at the end of every month or via each profits mergin.

Banks are hacked bringing bank account holders and the banks bridge of trusts with their funds. Currently in my place, over five commerical banks has faced scammed issues which the banks claims they're unable to return back account holders funds n full. They bargains or refunding holders 40-50 % of their funds being lost while banking with them.
This scamming issue specifically affected the bank itself and not targeted on the account holders. So this has made the bank being responsible for their lost funds.
The governments would always claim that they're worth trusted and have created all needed amenities to safeguard our funds but that's literally selfish to me because all they wanted is thier service charges and laying unnecessary taxes on the people and yet their trust volume is vulnerable to o be comprised by a third party probably scammers hitting them.
So I don't see any need entrusting our bitcoin on the government when they can't even afford to secure their own central currencies under their custodial.

Government having crypto asset doesn't mean they are free from hackers. lack of security protection is paramount to hack, provided that their security system is not well protected or there seed phrase has been compromised, then they are paramount to hack. If you ask me about this hack I will say the fault is from those that are in possession of the government wallet, because when asscces to a Waller is held by more than one person then there is no privacy. I believe this hack is done by those in charge of that wallet. If it was a real hack they wouldn't have returned %80 within 24 hours.

People are dumb and trust third-party apps or wallets to hold their coins. It’s like risking your hard-earned money at the hands of others. No matter how strong the security system, there will be a guy who is more smart and knows how to bypass it. He will simply get inside and take everything from everyone. You will just file a case against the company, and nothing will happen. So it’s better to take the responsibility yourself and hold the coins yourself. If you are holding a large amount, then invest in hardware wallets; else, go for the free open-source wallets to store the coins.

For people that sell off are not long term investors, if we actually are taking about those that should take off their funds off exchanges I think the advice or rather warning is usually directed to those long term holders with huge amount of funds. For short term holders or even day traders no problem since it will cost them extra charges in fees.

The transaction fees I think it is only when you intend to move your funds to exchange and sell that you meant but sending between two wallet addresses the transaction fee of using a wallet is always cheaper than sending from exchanges, as you have the ability to actually set your fees yourself if you use the right wallet.


Staking is something I don’t actually think a large holder will even consider except all this altcoin lunchpools by exchange to get newly listed coins for free but for the APR the risk is definitely not worth. One thing is many of these holders of coins on exchanges simply do it just because they don’t want to be their own security and also they think that when hacked this exchanges could offer return over their personal wallet been hacked to me it is simply still a gullible thinking

Oh I really believe in myself when holding it not in them. In my confidence, I also think that anything can be done by hackers if they target our assets. To strengthen the confidence that was earlier, take steps in storing assets to keep them safe, such as not storing assets on devices that are online all the time, avoiding public information. Even if assets can be hacked after taking these storage steps, I will not be disappointed.

People have been trusting a third-party, so-called bank for their entire lives, so it doesn't seem like a big deal when they apply the same principle to crypto. Obviously, they will come around once they learn the lesson that whatever we say may not be convincing enough to those who are stubborn with the attitude that it's my money and I can do whatever I want.

I used to do the same when I was a beginner. I kept money in the coinbase wallet/exchange and I can't able to access some of the funds due to some codes not getting to my mail and that's gone forever which is what made me to realize convenient should not be the priority for securing our assets.

And another reason is they can grow their money, holding in non custodial wallet will not make them able to grow their money.

People who invest in cryptocurrency are looking for profit over anything, it's fine for them to risk more if they can earn more rather than playing safe. It's very rare to see someone hold their coins in their wallet, if you have real life friends who invest in cryptocurrency, you can check where they hold their coins.

Hackers can return fund, can be arrested or succeed with stolen fund and if you have your money on a hacked exchange, you only can pray that God will save you.

But always prepare for worst that you will lose that fund forever, because many hacked exchanges turn to dead. Exchange graveyard.

Putting your fund to hands of others to secure it is wrong and risky practice, then if their platforms are hacked, you will have very little hope that they will have enough business budget to compensate your loss. Most of times, small exchanges will disappear, die and even a Tier 1 exchange FTX bankrupted, many centralized exchanges can die after a big hack.

I think that is because the fee of transaction that makes people thinks that if they putting their crypto with a third party will be safe and they don't have to bother sending their crypto. Not to mention about the transaction fee that can increase following the busy of the network.

Besides that, if their crypto is on the exchanges, they can directly sell their coin in any high price they want. They don't have to wait until the transaction finish which can be longer if the network is crowd. They should realize that there are no 100% safe in the internet even if third party can guarantee that all data in their site is safe.

The other reason is because they feel comfortable with the third party so they think it will safe if they keep their crypto on that third party. Each people will have their own decision where they want to keep their crypto. But we are always recommend to save it in our private wallet so we can have full control over our assets.

It is a misconception that is based on lack of information that third party apps or things promoted by the government are completely safe because if you are properly informed about security methods and up to date on how to keep your bitcoin safe you would not want to depend on third party apps for security because you trust what you know.
With proper information that you have as well, you will know the history of those who trusted third party apps and the government, and how they ended up.

Why was the whole Bitcoin thing introduced in the first place?. We all know that it's just a system that gives each individual the opportunity to become their own bank and also being financially independent, which I believe most of us are aware of while few don't adhere to. Though, people have their choice of preference, but it's quite surprising that so many people choose do things outside the whole context of becoming a personal bank.

 I clearly don't see much difference between a cex and a bank, because they they keep funds, which the government also have access to.  I think people tend to trust cex and the government because they personally lack accountability and maybe don't trust their own personal safety.

People who do this are known as white hat hackers. They look for vulnerabilities in the system but won’t steal any money. It’s a good thing the government had white hat hackers check for vulnerabilities first because if it had been criminal hackers, that money would be gone.

There’s a big difference between holding your Bitcoin yourself (which most of us would recommend ) and letting an organization hold it for you. But at the end of the day, it’s about what we’re comfortable with. Holding your own isn’t foolproof either; you could lose your Bitcoin if you lose your key due to unavoidable events like floods or other disasters, even fires.

Sometimes, alot of persons don't actually see the need to have their own coins under their own control. This is most especially don't by business owners who offers crypto as a payment option. But the, these centralized bodies can be control by the government and who knows what might happen next. Like we have seen in the past, where some exchanges shuts down something with no warning. All these are more reasons why we should try our best to own our keys to our wallet. From the article op posted, I still don't get the reason why the hacker returned the funds though. Such cases are rare.

it's an intentional concept that has been handed down to adults while they were much younger and they've Come to live by it. Banks and centralized institutions have been projected in a manner that they look safer holding your money for you than you keeping it yourself. We've grown to trust them even when in several instances, they've proven to be less reliable than we take them to be.

Life becomes more meaningful when you starts questioning some certain things and prob to know why certain things have to be done a certain way but unfortunately, the definition of a good person has always been the individual that doesn't want to question things but act the way the government wants them to act.

Most exchanges are facing regulatory deficulty and banks are struggling to deal with government policies and how most of the policies have negative effect on the existence of the banks and all other centralized financial institutions. relying completely on them will mean that you're giving them complete authority over your finance and whatever asset that's in Thier possession which is a risky thing to do.

I wouldn't be so categorical with the definition of stupidity. Everyone was a beginner once. For some, if you look at the situation from the outside, mistakes will be lessons. The mistakes themselves are created so that people learn from them, but someone learns not from other people's (and here it is appropriate to call them stupid) mistakes but exclusively from their own. The rule "not your keys, not your coins" was not invented yesterday. And yes, beginners are different, as are people in everything else. Greed or laziness will always be an appendage of those who do not want to hear and listen to advice and of those who are too self-confident in their "knowledge."

Third party wallets especially non-custodial wallets are I think way more safer compared to storing your funds in centralized exchanges. One thing is full control which is not an option when you store your money in the banks or centralized exchanges. Government can also play with your funds if they wanted to like freezing them or whatsoever so yeah this is the reason why I don't trust the system.

We trust the government because our parents told us to trust them from a young age. We have seen our parents blindly trusting the government with their finances, so we have followed in their footsteps. I agree that it is very risky to keep your cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin with a third party but if someone is not that educated then they can lose their crypto from their wallet. There have been so many instances we have read wherein users accidentally lost all their crypto to a hacker by sharing their pass keys or authorizing an application. Unless we are aware of how to keep crypto safe in a noncustodial wallet we might end up giving access to the wallet to a hacker or a scammer.

We have realized that because the government tells us that it's a safe thing to deposit and save our money in the bank. And so as what everything the government told us to do, we've brought it up to this point that the exchanges are also safe to keep our funds because they're centralized and they have licenses to operate. Well, good thing that this community has been here for so long and thanks to the ones who have been here first in giving us tips and reminders about keeping our own funds in our hands.

I think it is more about authority and having someone to run to than anything else. People thinks it is much safer when you know there is an organization behind that you can give your money to. People probably think that they have more sophisticated technology and security services than most. And going back to my first point: in case something happens, they have someone to blame.

As opposed to if you hold it yourself and you lose it, you bear all responsibility. You can’t go up to someone and request refunds or something like that.
Won’t be surprised if more hackers try the same thing knowing how breach-able their systems are. Doesn’t bode well for the US government to be honest. Especially during election season.

This world is colorful and everyone has different thoughts and perspectives on life, you don't need to feel confused when others don't think the same way as you. Likewise, have you ever wondered or asked your parents why they prefer to deposit money in banks, invest in gold or real estate but not bitcoin like you? Likewise, many people who are not confident in themselves feel that it is safer to entrust their assets to the government or the bank, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Storing bitcoins ourselves allows us to have full control over our assets, which makes us feel more secure instead of having to trust others. But that doesn't mean our assets are absolutely safe, never get hacked and stolen. The Internet world is a risky world and anything can happen.

People actually think the opposites.

It's true government or exchanges can be hacked, but in this case the government is successfully recover almost all of their coins, so at least it's better than hacker that hack your wallet and lose it all.

That's what other people think, while I, myself, choose to hold my coins in non custodial wallet since I don't trust with centralized entity.

I’ve always said: you never own a bank account; you have an account registered in your name.

Subtle but big difference.

Maybe because such people are so stupid and irresponsible that they are not able to take security measures and preserve their crypto assets. Also, we can add the lack of basic technical skills and the desire to learn something new. I am talking about those people who are not even able to "press a couple of extra buttons" on their smartphone in addition to the ones they use. From my observations, there are plenty of such people around and for them the best solution is "putting their crypto with a third party" if they want to dive into the world of cryptocurrencies. Attempts by such people to show independence in this matter leads to the creation of topics on this forum (and not only), like "I was hacked and all my savings in crypto were stolen".

Paraphrasing the title of the topic, I can ask, how can you trust yourself if the user is a complete lamer newbie?

Every decision comes with a risk even owning your coin yourself with no proper knowledge isn't secured.
None is truly safer, owning your coin gives you control over your funds and won't be subject to been seized because of allegations.
So a better choice
What's the essence of securing what you don't own.

It's because that's what they think what "trust" is. We've been trained to believe that they're the only reliable ones when we handover our money to them.
But there's more to it once they learn more about the funds that these third parties are not their holdings but them, just as how we're saying that "not your keys, not your coins".

Everything connected to the Internet can be hacked, even your hardware wallet through some new found bug in the firmware.

People are still brainwashed by a system where banks act as guardians, treating everyone as if they are incapable of managing their own finances.

Unfortunately, many adults have the financial literacy of a ten-year-old, a result of carefully designed government programs that exclude economic education from primary school curricula.

If you want to be your own bank, you need a certain level of knowledge. You can’t just jump on the bandwagon and expect to succeed; without proper understanding, you’ll end up getting burned.

When we talk about government holdings, it usually implies safety since they’ve taken all the necessary steps to secure it. But hackers still managed to breach it, maybe just testing the system’s security before returning it within 24 hours. Makes me wonder why some people think putting their crypto with a third party is safer because of “better security.” But with what’s happened, even the government can be hacked, so why trust them with our Bitcoin?

The story-
Hacker returns stolen funds to US government in less than 24 hours