This is a series of quick, easy to remember tips to avoid losing cryptocurrency in exchanges and to scams. I highly recommend scrolling through for anything you may find useful and commit it to memory.
CHECK EVERY COIN, EVERY TIME ("CECET")
When it comes to sending or receiving cryptocurrency, it is dangerous to do so quickly as you would send a Paypal payment. If you have ever accidentally sent the wrong amount, or to the wrong crypto address, you know the heartache of losing cryptocurrency forever.
It pays dividends to practice calm, patient sanity-checking every single time, for every single coin you send or receive. Perhaps at some point there will be far more safeguards in place (some apps already reject incorrect addresses for tokens, saving the user the agony), but in the meantime remember this mantra: Check Every Coin, Every Time.
Check again and again until you're 100% sure, then check again:
- The right type of wallet (ERC-20? Or no? Testing only crypto wallet?)
- The right symbol (the letter symbol matches what you want to be dealing with)
- The right value (the price of the crypto is exactly as you expect and its verifiable in two or more places)
But what if you did just that and still somehow something slipped by? --You confused 'XPR' with 'XRP', or made one of a hundred minor miscalculations between choosing an amount to transfer and clicking that ol' "Confirm Transaction" button.
I'd recommend this strategy next time with any amount that is permissible by your platform of exchange or wallet(s):
SMALL NEVER HURTS ("SNH")
Send a smaller amount than you hope to receive or send in the actual transaction, just to test that the system will do what it is supposed to. This step also ensures you have done sanity checks ("CECET").
Call it the "demo" transaction, if you will.
The purpose of a demo transaction is to test the system (whether wallets work together or not, if doing it the first time), to verify an exchange is trustworthy (amounts sent or received, fees charged, crypto skimming noted and transaction processing times). Instead of putting your whole worth of a cryptocurrency on the line, be sensible and SNH the transaction.
JACK OR NIMBLE ("JON")
Say you notice your favorite wallet is locking you out and you push it out of your mind as a one-off. Or say, you come across a negative review about your exchange of choice. What do you do? Ignore it? Or do you investigate the claims, to make sure it isn't just some competitor, trying to smear your favorite exchange?
If you're wise, you'll park in any conversation that concerns your cold storage or any other relevant news about a currency that is "closing shop". Listen. Ask questions that are informed and verify the claims for yourself. If the rumors and anecdotes line up on Twitter and in other social venues like Reddit, perhaps even making the news... it's time to really pay attention.
If the claims are true, you best be JACK OR NIMBLE. Jack means you lose all your crypto cause you didn't pay attention to the warning signs, to investigate and be NIMBLE. If you're having to read the bad news in the New York Times, you weren't nimble, you got jacked.
- Pay attention to rumors, gossip, anecdotes about crypto exchanges, crypto wallets, cryptocurrencies.
- Investigate the claims that concern your cold storage, exchanges and wherever you are long or short significantly.
- Be nimble and escape heartache and havoc, don't get stuck with jack.
