Within the crypto-sphere I have come across a particular saying many times: "Not your keys, not your coins." What this essentially means is that keeping your coins on an exchange isn't nearly as safe as keeping them on a cold wallet. This is because, as the saying indicates, you do not have access to your private key, which is basically what unlocks the ability to trade that coin, on an exchange. As a result, despite the multiple ways of further securing an exchange account (such as Google authenticator, Authy, or any other 2FA method), It is always safer to store coins in a cold wallet.
Wallets can either be hardware or software, with the former being even more secure than the latter, which comes at the expense of a significantly higher price tag (software wallets are generally free).
Although I have yet to invest in a hardware wallet, there are two very reputable organisations that I have heard good things about:
- Trezor
- Ledger
which could be a good place to begin research.
The software wallet that I use, and I suspect many many others, is MetaMask, a free Ethereum wallet. Available for download both as an app and a browser extension, it is very painless to set up, and will only take a few minutes. This is how you do it in just a few steps:
- First, download the app/browser extension
- Secondly, create a password (the safer, the better! And be sure to remember it/store it somewhere)
- Third, keep going through and click on 'reveal secret words' - it is absolutely imperative that you store these somewhere safe, as anyone who gets access to it will be able to get access to your coins
- Then, confirm the secret phrase on the next page
And just like that, you're ready to go!
There are many cold wallets out there, so please do DYOR and decide which one is best for you. All the best!
