This has been an AMAZING week for Bitcoin. At the time of writing this article one Bitcoin is worth $954, and on Chinese exchanges it's being traded for $981.
With all of this "digital gold rush" going on, I thought I'd take a minute and remind you how you should properly store your Bitcoins so they won't get lost. I'll keep it short, there are 3 rules to remember:
1. NEVER keep a large amount of coins on a 3rd party wallet (e.g. Coinbase, Xapo). You should always have your own self hosted wallet for the majority of your coins (e.g. Electrum, Mycelium).
2. If you have a lot of money invested in Bitcoin move those coins to cold storage (i.e. a wallet that is not connected to the Internet). I personally use a TREZOR wallet for my coins.
3. Make a backup of your private key or mnemonic seed (the bunch of words given to you when you first create your wallet). Save that backup somewhere offline (e.g. a piece of paper or a flash drive). I personally use Crpytosteel in order to write down the secret phrase that helps me restore my wallet in case of need. Also, Cryptosteel has released a new line of products including a limited edition run of Cryptosteel indestructible backup tools bundled with signed art by contributing artist Rafael Akahira