I currently have €30k in Kraken and €30k in Binance, how secure is that?

[DaveFischer]

I've already emigrated from my European home country a while ago, but I'm a bit paranoid.

How secure is it for me to keep storing my €60k in Bitcoin on the Bitcoin Exchanges Kraken and Binance?

Is it really much better to move my Bitcoins to an offline hardware wallet?

 

[troubled soul]

offline hardware wallet

 

[lopez007]

If you don't have the private key of wallet, you don't have the bitcoins. That simple.

I would move to offline if amount is big. If not, use Electrum wallet to store. (I am using it for years without problem)

 

[Jerry1911]

Cryptosteel + Ledger (just don't buy it from the Ledger website, buy it from an authorised reseller).

oh and don't keep large sums in USDT

 

[FastPony]

There's simply no excuse for not using a hardware wallet. Funds on exchanges are a ticking time bomb. Invest a weekend if that's what's needed. The software bundled with the hardware wallets is super user friendly these days, so it will probably be much less.

 

[mebuq]

I've already emigrated from my European home country a while ago, but I'm a bit paranoid.

How secure is it for me to keep storing my €60k in Bitcoin on the Bitcoin Exchanges Kraken and Binance?

Is it really much better to move my Bitcoins to an offline hardware wallet?

move to cold storage, green wallet or ledger of course and keep the seed words.

 

[derspinner]

Cryptosteel + Ledger (just don't buy it from the Ledger website, buy it from an authorised reseller).

oh and don't keep large sums in USDT

Why should'nt I buy from the Ledger website?

 

[Jerry1911]

Why should'nt I buy from the Ledger website?

Because multiple customer data leaks happened already. Anyone can find out if you bought a Ledger or not by downloading the leaked database. You should buy it from a trusted 3rd party.

 

[JohnLocke]

Because multiple customer data leaks happened already. Anyone can find out if you bought a Ledger or not by downloading the leaked database. You should buy it from a trusted 3rd party.

but that don't give anyone access to your ledger device.

I would not worry about using a Ledger nano S for instant to store my crypto, works well.

 

[Jerry1911]

but that don't give anyone access to your ledger device.

I would not worry about using a Ledger nano S for instant to store my crypto, works well.

The hardware itself is fine, it's just that someone can see that you've bought it.

 

[MrYellow]

Hardware wallet is the most secure way. If you prefer it a bit more comfortable any decentralized de-fi wallet will be great, the keys are always yours there so the main logic behind *keys are mine* is given in both cases. Also no traces of any purchase of physical device so if you have a secret 2nd phone it will be working good.

 

[mebuq]

paper wallet all the way take it out of the system

 

[FastPony]

The hardware itself is fine, it's just that someone can see that you've bought it.

The problem is that people's home addresses got leaked ... so now people are afraid of getting robbed / threatened / extorted / etc. There are class action lawsuits against Ledger as a result.

The hardware itself is safe.

 

[JackAlabama]

I've already emigrated from my European home country a while ago, but I'm a bit paranoid.

How secure is it for me to keep storing my €60k in Bitcoin on the Bitcoin Exchanges Kraken and Binance?

Is it really much better to move my Bitcoins to an offline hardware wallet?

Well that depends how much this is of your total net worth.
If for example you have 1M+ and make 10k month, you can forget about that take convenience over security.
If this is all you got and with no other income, I would be extra careful.

 

[Roamer]

I think most active crypto enthusiasts/traders have a tiered setup:

• hardware wallet for cold storage (long term holdings, extra care to be taken)
• metamask and the likes for hot and active trading (actively being used for trades, swaps, IDOs)
• centralized exchanges (binance, coinbase, kraken) to trade on there

The point is to keep as little as possible in the non-hardware wallets as they should be the most at-risk. Now, you also want to avoid transferring from the hardware wallet every day to fund your trades so it's a balance only you know how to find based on your stakes and trading activity.

 

[FastPony]

Now, you also want to avoid transferring from the hardware wallet every day to fund your trades so it's a balance only you know how to find based on your stakes and trading activity.

No strong reason to limit transfers to/from the hardware wallet.

For incoming transfers, you just make sure to never reuse an address. You can generate an unlimited number of addresses for free, and reusing addresses is considered bad practice. I think reuse is only acceptable if the payment comes from the same source, but even then it's not smart. Addresses were never designed to be re-used. All modern wallets consolidate all your address balances for you, so you just see 1 combined balance.

For outgoing transfers, you can first coinjoin the coins so nobody even knows how much you had at that one isolated address. Note though that some exchanges don't want to grant you financial privacy and freeze coinjoined funds, so you might want to look at the mechanism employed by Samourai Ricochet. Basically, it emulates a few "normal" transactions after the coinjoin, so the recipient doesn't know if you coinjoined yourself or someone who owned the coins before you got them.

I suggest a wallet like Wasabi Wallet. The "beginner" wallets don't give you enough control. E.g., some wallets don't show you which address you are sending coins from (makes "coin control" impossible).

PS: Some authoritarian governments might consider above practices to lie in the gray area or even be illegal. Please do your research.

 

[Roamer]

No strong reason to limit transfers to/from the hardware wallet

You're totally right — it's moreso a convenience point that I was making! Basically, transfer enough to your hot wallets so that you don't have to use your hardware wallet "that" often.

Some peeps use two hardware wallets, one for cold long-term storage and another one for more frequent use. Really depends on the volume and convenience one seeks.