How To Keep Your Bitcoin Safe

A Beginner’s Guide to Purchase Cryptocurrencies and Keep Them Safe

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can be kept in “wallets”, most of which are software applications running on your PC or that can be accessed via the Internet. To control and spend your Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) wallet applications keep a long string of characters called “private key” (you can see it as a very long password) stored either on your pc or in an online server. Both these options are not safe as hackers can take control of internet servers or install malware on your pc and “steal” your Bitcoin.

The safest option is to keep your private keys away from the internet, so that hackers cannot steal them. For this reason several companies developed usb-key-like wallets that allow you to store your Bitcoin offline and protect them with strong encryption and a PIN code (so called “hardware wallets” or just “hard wallets”). If you are thinking about purchasing cryptocurrencies, I would strongly recommend to keep them safe in a “hard wallet”.

Now you need to open Coinbase website or application and send the purchased Bitcoin to your Ledger Wallet address:
7. Open Coinbase and navigate to the “Accounts” page
8. Click the “Send” button of your Bitcoin wallet
9. Paste your Ledger Wallet address into the “Recipient” field
10. Select the amount of Bitcoin you would like to transfer
11. Verify that you have copied the correct address as sending cryptocurrencies to the wrong address will result in the loss of your coins
12. Double check you’re sending your coins to the correct address
13. Click “Continue” and then “Confirm”

If you followed the process correctly your Bitcoins are now being transferred to your Ledger Wallet, you should see a “pending” transaction on your Coinbase account that should be processed within 10-20 minutes max.

Make sure to pay attention when you copy-paste your hard wallet address to Coinbase to make the transfer, if you mistype the address or you change a single character you can lose the whole transfer amount.

Once you transferred your Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) to your hardware wallet remember to keep it safe, including the 24 words recovery passphrase that would allow you to access your funds in case you forget your PIN or lose your hard wallet. Now that you have your private keys under your control it would be very hard for someone to steal them, however be careful because should you lose them, there is no one that could help you to recover your Bitcoins.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended as investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are risky. Never invest more than you can afford to lose. Always seek professional financial and legal advice before making any investment. Always follow the official instructions of your hard wallet and exchange providers.

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