Secure your cryptocurrency keys on a hardware wallet

To be clear on the subject of cryptocurrency wallets. There are many types. Some wallets you can install on your phone, computer and you can even print a paper wallet. But this article is about the way I protect my crypto investments with a hardware wallet.

The most popular hardware wallets are the Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets.

My experience is with the Ledger Nano S and will cover the basic function in this article.

Securing your cryptocurrency private keys off the exchange is a top priority. Because if you don’t have your private keys, then you really don’t own your coins (even though you paid for the cryptocurrency.) Also, it’s important to fully isolate your private keys from your easily hacked computer and mobile phone.

A hardware wallet is simply a high tech usb storage device that encrypts your private keys. Some wallets now have bluetooth.

With the Ledger hardware wallets you install a program called Ledger Live and the program communicates with your physical hardware wallet. You will have to create a 24 phrase backup and a pin.

Once the setup is done. You will be able to see a list of your coins that you send to your wallet in Ledger Live. I really like using Ledger Live, because it lists how much your coins are worth and how many coins you own. Plus you can track when your confirmations are complete.

Each crypto coin works at different speeds and different confirmations. Some coins might have three confirmations and other coins could have hundreds of confirmations. Confirmations confirm the transactions are legit or secure.

Until the confirmations are complete you can’t do anything with your coins.

Ledger live is where you install the coin apps and create coin accounts. So for instance if you bought bitcoin you would install the bitcoin app on your Ledger wallet and also create a Bitcoin account in Ledger live. The process is pretty straight forward.

Then when you decide to send your crypto off the exchange to your wallet. Ledger live would create an address that you would send your crypto to. Kinda like sending an email to a certain address. You just copy and paste the address.

It very important that the address is correct and you check it twice. Coins sent to a wrong address are lost forever.

You can also buy cryptocurrency from Leger live, but I’ve never used that service before.

The bottom line is you are your own bank with cryptocurrency. No one is going to do it for you. You must store yours coins off the exchange for ownership. Do it!

Ledger Hardware Wallet https://www.ledger.com/

Trezor Hardware Wallet https://trezor.io/

How to make a Paper Cryptocurrency Wallet https://walletgenerator.net/

Is Coinbase Pro a good beginner exchange?

My opinion is Coinbase Pro is a very good exchange to learn on. To be a successful trader in either cryptocurrency or the stock market you will have to master how to trade. You need to understand how to place market and limit orders just to name a few. Even if you are not day trading, Coinbase Pro is a better way to buy your coins. You control how much you’re paying and what the fees are. With some apps you can pay to much just for the convenience of pushing a button. Take control.

Setting up an account on Coinbase Pro is pretty straight forward. You will have to prove your identity and give them your banking account information. Coinbase will then make a small deposit to your bank account and then you verify the deposit. Once that is complete you can then transfer money directly from your bank account into your Coinbase Pro account.

My suggestion is start with a small sum, such as 100 dollars and practice trading. Once you learn how to trade, practice how to send coins between your exchange and your hard wallet.

Be patient and enjoy the learning experience. Expect to lose money in your learning process.

Ledger Nano S Cryptocurrency Hard Wallet

Should you buy a hard wallet? For me I like owning a hard wallet, because it keeps my cryptocurrency keys on a separate device. There are many different ways you could store your keys off the exchange. You could store them on a phone wallet and also a wallet installed on your computer. You could even make a paper wallet.

Why store your cryptocurrency off the exchange? “Not your keys, not your coins,” that’s the old saying in the crypto world. When you have your coins on the exchange you do not own your keys. So a hacker could gain access to your keys and steal your coins if the exchanges security was compromised. So always store your keys off the exchange in some sort of wallet of your choice.

When you set up a Ledger Nano S wallet you will be asked to write down a 24 word recovery phrase. This is very important that you do this correctly. With the proper order and spelling. The recovery phrase is the only way your can restore your hard wallet to gain access to your cryptocurrency if the device was stolen, malfunctioned or the 6 pin password was forgotten. All serious wallets will have some sort of recovery phrase you need to write down.

Always buy your hard wallet directly from the manufacturer to make sure the wallet was not tampered with.

With the Ledger Nano S you will have to install the software “Ledger Live” to setup and use your wallet. It’s pretty straight forward.

I’ve found the Ledger Nano S hard wallet build quality excellent and reliability excellent. I’ve used the Ledger Nano S for about 2 years with no problems. Same goes for the Ledger live software.

If you’re serious about securing your cryptocurrency, then a Ledger hard wallet is a device I trust.

Good luck and happy trading!

Splits and ICO’s are crypto trading plays

Just like the stock market has IPO’s (initial public offering.) Cryptocurrency has ICO’s (initial crypto offerings.) Similiarly crypto will also have splits just like Apple and Tesla just split their stock. Crypto traders will try to profit from ICO’s and splits.

Kraken exchange had been sending me emails about they were going to be offering Polkadot staking soon. Doing some quick research I had decided that I was not really interested in Polkadot at the moment. It was still in Beta form and not yet easily supported by my Ledger Nano S hard wallet.

But I was curious about playing a cryptocurrency split. Polkadot (Dot) was calling it a redenomination which was similar to a split. They were creating a new Dot that was 100 times smaller.

I like summer dresses with polkadots and ladybugs put a smile on my face. So why not join the fun. Plus I had a whole 20 dollars on Kraken to experiment with. That’s the humorous part about this trade.

So the day came on Kraken that the Dot was available to purchase and I went all in with my 20 US dollars. Then I staked it on Kraken earning close to 12%. Hit the pillow that night with sweet dreams of the riches about to bless me.

Next day out of curiousity I checked the price of Polkadot and realize that the price had increased by about 49%. Well that was good enough for me. I login into Kraken. Unstake Polkadot. Sell it for dollars. Buy Tron with the handsome profit. Send Tron to my hard wallet and call it a successful small fun trade.

A couple days later I check the price of Polkadot and see that the price is up a whopping 129% since my initial trade. Wow.

Yeah I know I made a meager 10 dollars, but it was fun. Yes I love Polkadots and ladybugs, but even if I had some real money on the exchange I would not of bet more than 100 dollars in a coin that I had not researched and believed in.

How much are you willing to risk?

Splits and ICO’s are crypto trading plays to think about.

How to make money with Cryptocurrency?

You know it’s really easy to talk about making money in cryptocurrency when the market is up. Just like the present situation in tech stocks. Past bitcoin history reveals the bubble always pops and the price of bitcoin crashes back to earth and the alt coins follow.

So here we are with the price of bitcoin at 11,543.89 on August 29, 2020. Are we heading to 20,000.00 and then higher? Is this time different? Bitcoin fever is rampant.

Bitcoin has been described as digital gold. A place to store money.

Yet Warren Buffett the greatest investor of all time describes cryptocurrency as, “having no value and can’t produce anything.” Hard to argue against the greatest.

Presently the market cap of Bitcoin is around 213 billion dollars. So it seems we can make some short and long term money. Bitcoin was was born about 11 years ago.

Can you make money trading cryptocurrency? Of course. The question is how much money do you have to gamble with? Do you believe in cryptocurrency? I’d rather bet big money on Amazon or Nvidia for the long term.

But lets diversify a little and bet on blockchain technology that is here to stay. Walmart is using it. IBM is betting on it. Farmers are tracking the food they grow with blockchain. The jewelry industry is tracking diamonds with it. So we could take the safe bet and invest in big companies using and creating blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology is not Bitcoin. Blockchain is a digital distributed ledger.

But lets make money on cryptocurrency. Buy low and sell high.

Open a coinbase pro account. Fund the account with money from your bank. Learn how to trade just like the stock market. Such as market and limit orders. Pick a cryptocurrency coin that you think is going to go up in value and click the buy button. When the price goes up click the sell button and your on your way to crypto riches. So easy?

But it’s a funny thing gambling. Because most of the time you will buy high and sell low. Don’t invest/gamble what you can’t afford to lose.

My advice on learning to make money in cryptocurrency is start with 100 dollars and plan on losing it. Now remember your cryptocurrency is not guaranteed by the exchange for safe keeping. You will need to move your cryptocurrency off the exchange for safe keeping into a hard wallet. But if you are just day trading you will need to keep the money on the exchange so you can get sell it quick. Moving your cryptocurrency between hard wallets and exchanges takes lots of time.

So first steps are to learn to trade and move cryptocurrency around to different exchanges. Invest in a hard wallet for long term storage and learn to use it. Find some coins your want to buy. Start a small portfolio.

Let’s speculate that cryptocurrency is here to stay. This is my present strategy. Besides putting some money into bitcoin for long term speculation. I’m looking for the next 3rd and 4th generation cryptocurrency blockchain technology. The future of cryptocurrency! Bitcoin is slow. Cryptocurrency needs to be faster than Visa, Mastercard, Western Union and Paypal to win the game. Plus cheaper in transaction fees.

Long term bets I’m researching:

Cardano (still in development, but you can make money staking it)
Tezos (working and can stake it)
Tron (working in gaming and can stake it)
BTT (Justin Sun says big things are coming)
Dash (Dash is strong in Columbia)
BAT (Brave browser and working model)

Staking is when your freeze your cryptocurrency and earn interest or rewards. Like a certificate of deposit with more risk.

Cryptocurrency is volatile and you can lose your money in seconds. You can also make money quick.

Just like the stock market I think it’s important to diversify.

Pros: Market never closes, exchanges becoming more secure
Cons: Market never closes, cryptocurrency not protected from hacking on exchanges.

Have fun trading cryptocurrency and researching the technology. Meetup with groups. Support projects like the Brave browser which is trying to make the internet better and pass along some ad revenue.

That’s my short take on cryptocurrency. Is it gambling or investing? Are you long term or short term?