Once you have managed to pile up $1000 worth of bitcoin and you are ready to save it as an investment it is time to get serious. Getting serious in this case means moving your bitcoin private keys out of custodial wallets (Coinbase, other exchanges) and out of the hot wallets (Bitcoin Core, Electrum, JAXX, and others).
In Bitcoin, possession is 10/10th of the law. Who ever controls the private keys literally owns the bitcoin. This means if you keep your bitcoin on Coinbase you don’t own the bitcoin. If Coinbase gets hacked and the hacker steals all the bitcoin you are NOT insured and you CAN loose your bitcoin.
If you keep your bitcoin on your computer in a wallet you downloaded it is technically in your control so long as your hard drive never fails and no malware is ever installed that steals your private keys. Knowing that hard drives die, laptops get stolen, malware makes it to even the best protected computers this is also not a long term option.
Hardware wallets solve the problem of having a safe place to store your bitcoin long term. They hold your private keys in a way that is practically impossible to hack because they are never exposed to the internet. You can access your bitcoin on any device with a USB port and a Chrome browser. You can can even plug them in to a computer with viruses and malware without risking your bitcoin being stolen.
Finally if you should ever loose your hardware wallet or have it stolen the thief can’t access your bitcoin on it without a PIN and/or Pass Phrase. When you setup your hardware wallet you document a recovery seed (25 ordered English words) which you can use to regain control over your private keys once you replace your hardware wallet.
My favorite is the Trezor which you can read about @ www.trezor.io you can buy it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P5HU80...
The second best one in my opinion is the Ledger Nano S which you can read about here https://www.ledgerwallet.com/produc... you can buy it on amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J66NF4...
The Last one i would recommend is the KeepKey which you can read about here https://www.keepkey.com/ you can buy on Amazon here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0143M2A5...
Final notes:
NEVER BUY A HARDWARE WALLET FROM A SITE YOU DON’T TRUST.
NEVER BUY A USED HARDWARE WALLET.
NEVER ACCEPT A NEW HARDWARE WALLET FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE IF THE PACKAGE SEAL HAS BEEN BROKEN.
Thanks for reading!
Congratulations @freegenx! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
SteemitBoard World Cup Contest - Quarter Finals - Day 2
Participate in the SteemitBoard World Cup Contest!
Collect World Cup badges and win free SBD
Support the Gold Sponsors of the contest: @good-karma and @lukestokes
Congratulations @freegenx! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!