April 18, 2019 - Dubai, UAE

A cardinal rule with cryptocurrency is that you, the investor, has to take ownership of your holdings. Unlike traditional banks where you can just store your money and leave it up to them to protect your finances, cryptocurrency is the complete opposite.

Here are 5 rules to keep your cryptocurrency safe in 2019:

1. Use cryptocurrency exchanges to exchange coins not store them

While most cryptocurrency exchanges offer an online wallet, this is not where you should be storing your holdings. Most of the time, they store your private keys leaving you vulnerable to hacks. Transfer your holdings to an offline wallet or keep the private keys on you.

2. Best cryptocurrency wallets 2019

Choosing the best wallet really comes down to what sort of transactions you make.

Online wallets

If you make transactions daily, an online wallet makes a lot more sense. If you find a decentralized exchange that does not store your private keys, an online wallet makes sense. For instance, if you invest in DASH,  DASH wallets allow you to seamlessly store, secure and send your DASH coins.

Hardware Wallets

However, if you are really paranoid about losing your investment, invest in a good hardware wallet. Hardware wallets are much more secure than online wallets and have a 2-factor authentication and are protected against hacks or malware.

Read the reviews before investing in a wallet. Let’s say you want to store Zcash. Before you invest in a wallet, read the Zcash wallet reviews to determine if the wallet is right for you. Few questions that you might want to ask yourself is:

1. Is the wallet secure?
2. Does it support multiple coins?
3. Is it user-friendly?
4. Can I use to buy and send coins or only store coins?
5. Is there a way to recover information if I lose my private keys?

3. Don’t be swayed by fads

There is a lot of noise in the crypto space that you really should not be paying attention to. Do your own due diligence before investing or trading cryptocurrency. Create Google alerts to keep a check on your investment and read reliable resources.

4. No shortcut to success

There is no shortcut to getting more crypto coins in a short time. If you see a giveaway online or some secret community that asks you for a membership fee to impart trade secrets, run for the mountains. These are scams designed to fool you and make you part with your investment. The only legitimate way to earn free Bitcoins is by mining, Bitcoin faucets and referral programs.

5. Don’t tell people about your investment

If you’ve managed to amass a great number of crypto coins, you should definitely feel a sense of achievement but do not share this with anyone online or in real life. This can make you an instant target for a malware or phishing attack.

Another important thing to note is that you should use a separate system for investing in crypto, a new email and a secure browser. Also, never make transactions over public WiFi. Remember, you are solely responsible for your crypto holdings.