Crypto: Not your keys, not your coins - or why I'm not financially independent yet.
In 2011, I had a brilliant idea: buy some Bitcoin for 10-30 USD per coin and then sell them in staggered amounts. The first at 50 USD, the last at a megalomaniac 1,000,000 USD. Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out. However, not because I sold too early or Bitcoin did not reach the 1,000,000 USD (so far), but because I was a customer at the then largest crypto exchange Mt.Gox, stored my coins there and lost them completely due to the hack / theft in 2013.
A short time later, I got back on. This time with an exchange called btc-e. What can I say, the exchange was shut down by US authorities for money laundering (presumably related to the theft at Mt.Gox 😳). Of course, this time my coins were also at btc-e and disappeared from the network together with the website.
I had to learn very painfully that you only own your cryptos if you are in possession of your private keys and protect them from third party access. With crypto you are your own bank and accordingly you are responsible for your investments. That's why since my 'third entry' into the crypto world, my coins are stored on a hardware wallet and no longer in large quantities on crypto exchanges.
Where do you store your coins? Do you use hardware wallets, do you rely on alternatives like paper wallets, desktop wallets or mobile wallets or do you still store your cryptos in crypto exchanges 😱?
Many thanks to @DieFinanzchaotin for the inspiration for this post 🙂
