Bitcoin revolutionized the trading universe two years ago when it reached a staggering price of over $20 thousand. After that, the cryptocurrency market quickly became a popular solution among business persons who wanted to diversify investment portfolios.

By Jacob Dillon

Today, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are worth over $300 billion in total, so grabbing just a small piece of the cake can earn you a fortune. However, trading the likes of Ethereum and other digital coins comes with a few risks of its own.

How To Secure Your Cryptocurrency In Case Of Emergencies

The biggest threat comes from hackers because they steal almost $3 million worth of assets from exchange networks daily. It’s an obvious signal that you need to take care of safety risks and learn how to protect your assets.

 

In this article, we will show you how to secure your cryptocurrency in case of emergencies. Let’s take a look!

5 Tips for Keeping Your Cryptocurrencies Safe

There are several ways to protect your cryptocurrencies, but you should also learn why security breaches happen in the first place.

Most crypto owners use electronic wallets to store and trade digital coins. Such wallets come with two types of keys:

• A public key: Just like the name suggests, it’s a public key that enables other users to initiate transactions and send you coins.
• A private key: This key is for your eyes only as it allows you to launch transactions and transfer coins to other users.

The problem occurs when you rely on third-party providers (the so-called exchange networks such as GDAX or Coinbase) because they store both of your keys. Although reliable exchange platforms take care of security, no one is immune to malware attacks and there is always a risk of hackers acquiring your keys.

This is not only a theoretical possibility but rather a real-life threat. A few months ago, Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint, has been hacked for $32 million in crypto assets.

Now, the biggest questions are how to react to hacker threats and what to do in case of emergencies. There is no perfect solution here, so we prepared five highly practical tips for you.

• Store coins in a hardware wallet

The average person might think that crypto administration is 100% digital, but this is not exactly the case. You can use a hardware wallet to store coins and keep them out of reach of online hackers. As physical devices, hardware wallets are resistant to malicious software and viruses.

Jake Gardner, a data security analyst at Forex Broker, adds that physical wallets make you a sole owner of the private key, so you don’t have to share it with anyone: “Wallets also build a strong security mechanism to prevent thieves from discovering your private keys even if they steal the actual device.”

• Hardware wallet alternatives

If for whatever reason you are not interested in hardware wallets, you can choose between these three alternatives:

• Coinbase Vault: This platform is known for advanced security systems, so you can safely keep Bitcoin and Ethereum there. However, we still don’t recommend holding large amounts on a digital network.

 

• Paper wallets: Paper wallets are similar to hardware devices and they contain both the private and the public key. Although safe, paper wallets don’t have such a simple user interface, which makes them less practical for frequent transfers.

 

• Desktop wallets: Some investors prefer desktop wallets, but we are not too excited about this solution. In this case, your cryptocurrency is safe as long as your PC is safe from malware attacks and viruses.

 

• Add two-factor authentication

One of the most reasonable things you can do for all accounts and services (crypto-related or not) is to set up two-factor authentication. Cryptocurrencies are by no means an exception here, so we strongly encourage you to use Google Authenticator and maximize the safety of your digital assets.

• Use a YubiKey

While Google Authenticator is certainly a nice option, control freaks will demand even more protection for their crypto transfers. YubiKey is the most convenient option because it forces cryptocurrency owners to insert a physical device (USB) into the PC in order to gain access to their online accounts.

YubiKey is small and you can carry it around on a keychain, so you can hardly ever lose it. The bottom line is that YubiKey represents a simpler and much safer solution than Google Authenticator.

 

• Use common sense to protect all accounts

The last advice on our list is to use common sense and act the way it seems safest and most natural. What does it mean? Well, we can mention a few basic tricks here:

• Create different passwords for different services.
• Always design complex passwords.
• Always use two-factor authentication to boost security.
• In case you own a physical wallet, make sure to safely store a paper recovery seed somewhere else.

Following these rules, you should be able to defend your accounts and cryptocurrency transactions 365 days a year and it will be easier to react in unplanned or emergency situations.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency trading can be one of the most profitable investment solutions for clever investors, but the industry is still full of risks that can make or break their business plans in seconds. Security breaches are the biggest threat of all, thus making it fundamental to focus on state of the art safety measures.

In this post, we showed five ways to secure your cryptocurrency in case of emergencies. Do you already use some of these mechanisms? Which one do you consider to be the safest for your trading habits? Share your opinions in comments – we would love to see your experiences with cryptocurrency trading!

AUTHOR BIO

Jacob Dillon is a blockchain developer and a part-time blogger from Australia. Jacob is a passionate cryptocurrency analyst, but he is no stranger to other topics such as self-branding and personal development. Jacob is a father of two lovely kids and an amateur long-distance runner.

See more Cryptocurrency articles here.

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