Getting hacked is not a fun experience. I have heard lots of horror stories about this happening to people.
This cryptoartist guide was created to help you avoid the possibility of getting hacked. If you follow this guide and always store your crypto in a hardware wallet, your chances of being hacked are greatly diminished. There are many crypto wallets available, but I would avoid using Exodus, as I have witnessed people getting hacked while using that.
Most cryptoartists are using Metamask to mint and sell their art. Metamask is a good online wallet, but you should not store very much ETH in it. Only keep enough ETH for gas fees in your Metamask wallet.
First thing you need to do in Metamask is save your private keys to a usb stick. Also you need to write down your seed phrase on a piece of paper and put it in a safe place.
When you earn ETH from your cryptoart sales, don’t leave it in Metamask, send it to a hardware wallet.
https://trezor.io/
https://www.ledger.com/
Hardware wallets are an essential part of being a cryptoartist. Two hardware wallets that I recommend are Trezor and Ledger.
Never buy a Trezor or Ledger from Amazon or any other site other than their official websites. Hackers often sell used Trezors or Ledgers to steal funds.
You will need to set up an account on a crypto exchange if you’re going to convert your ETH to Bitcoin. There are many ways to do this, but I recommend using Binance because it's easy and available everywhere.
After you set up your Binance account, you should also enable 2FA, and please choose Google Authenticator. Never use text SMS as your security option because the text SMS method is vulnerable to SIM swap attacks. Always use Google Authenticator when given an option.
One of the easiest ways to convert your earnings from cryptoart sales to USD is Cash App https://cash.app/
You can request a debit card for free. When you sell Bitcoin for USD, the conversion happens instantly. There is no waiting. This is very different from the banking system which usually takes 3-5 days to get your USD. I recommend using Cash App.
I am not sure what options are available to other parts of the world as far as converting crypto to fiat.
Never click on links sent to you by strangers. Never use text SMS as a security method. When visiting a site like Ledger or Trezor, don’t do a Google search because there are fake websites that look similar. Only use the links above in the article or visit the company's Twitter account (look at the number of followers to make sure it's the legit one) and click on the official website from there.
Makersplace / NFT Showroom / Rarible / Twitter / Website
