Why you should not let cryptocoins stay on an exchange

in #bitcoin7 years ago

If you have cryptocoins in your possession, you can store them in different places. Some places are a bit more secure than others, as the users of crypto Coincheck purse discovered at the end of January. The stock market fell prey to diabolical hackers who ran off with 500 million NEM coins, which was then equal and about 326 million euros. To prevent such a thing, you better not let your coins hang on cryptocurrency exchanges, but safely put them in a wallet.

Hackers and cryptocurrency exchanges
Because trade fairs manage millions of cryptocoins, they are an important target for hackers. Coincheck is not the first to deal with this. In 2014 it all started with Mt. Gox, who at the moment accounted for 70 percent of all bitcoin transactions worldwide. Unfortunately hackers struck their battle and started off with no less than 850,000 bitcoins. At that time, it was worth around 366 million euros, but now it would be closer to 9.5 billion euros. Next to Coincheck and Mt. Gox, many scholarships have fallen prey to cryptodives, including Bitfinex, Etherdelta and Bitstamp.

Nice and handy
Of course there is a reason than people let their coins hang on trade fairs. It is actually easy. Your coins are kept for you and you can quickly exchange them for euros or other cryptocurrencies. You also need scholarships in that respect, but it is unwise to trust your entire Bitcoin assets.

Private key must remain private
If you are dealing with cryptocurrency, you have to deal with a public key and a private key. You share the public key with others so that they can send money to you. With the private key, you can transfer money to others from your own account. Here comes the problem with scholarships: in order for you to be able to trade for you, a stock exchange needs your private key. And that is exactly what you do not want to drop into the hands of hackers. Of course, exhibitions all have a security team that defends itself against the hackers, but they only have to do it once and you lose millions of euros.

A better place to store your coins is in your own wallet, but here too there are safer and less secure options.