Hi fellow Steemians!
It's been awhile since my last crypto blog and I've been procrastinating on writing this one, as I've been busy managing my portfolio's, trading, enjoying the summer weather, and dealing with some big problems lately, which I'll share with all of you in a minute. So to all my followers, this is the reason I haven't been posting as much lately.
So we all know that after buying your crypto's on an exchange the next most important part is securing them safely. In a previous post I highlighted the Exodus wallet which I use, but I recommend using multiple wallets to add more security. You can use paper wallets for Bitcoin (bitaddress.org) or for Ethereum (myetherwallet.com), but probably the most secure way of securing them is using hardware wallets. Here is a list of popular hardware wallets:
1. Trezor
2. Ledger Nano S
3. Keepkey
I personally use the Trezor and am very happy with it so far. The Trezor is very easy to use and setup . Basically you just plug it into your laptop, open up a browser on your computer, type mytrezor.com, enter your 4-digit pin, and away you go. This 4-digit pin is very secure as the keypad only shows up on your Trezor screen and its always changing, so only you can see where the numbers are. The Trezor can store Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, and Zcash. You don't have to worry about storing your private keys as they are all encrypted inside your Trezor device, but you just have to MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR 24 WORD RECOVERY SEED.
I've heard good things about the other 2 hardware wallets also, but I cannot personally give my opinion as I don't have any of them yet. I'm Working on it but as everyone knows these things are hard to come by nowadays as their is a shortage of them.
So there's a story behind when I ordered my Trezor about a month ago. I ordered it from a local shop and I tracked the shipping of my Trezor to the minute, since anything to do with crypto's you develop some type of paranoia. My tracking number showed the exact date and time it was suppose to be delivered to my mail box, so I checked my box and found it empty! No Trezor, but it says its been delivered!! So I decided I'd wait for one day to see if it would magically appear in my post box tomorrow, you know sometimes people make mistakes right??
So tomorrow came and nothing still. Now I was getting worried, so I called the Post Office and inquired about my missing Trezor and they told me it should be there, but since it's not they would start an investigation. Poof! Within 3 hours a man shows up and delivers it personally, but doesn't that smell fishy??? I did report to the Post Office that my package had been opened. So now I'm just relieved to get my Trezor and I go to open my package and hmmm.... its already opened. Below is what it looked like after I unrolled the package as it was rolled up like a ball and a small piece of tape was holding it so it looked like it wasn't opened.
Honestly, I was just happy that my Trezor box was untampered with and I was holding it in my hands. So now I had my Trezor and just as I thought that was the end of it, it wasn't.
The coincidence almost seems impossible, but later that night I became a victim of identity theft. Someone tried to open multiple credit card accounts and loans under my name. Luckily I was quick enough to prevent them from actually spending anything by flagging all the credit bureaus and banks and added extra security to every account I have (Now thats taking paranoid to an extreme yea??). In the end, I had to file a police report and just spent the last month cleaning up the mess made by this thief.
So helpful advice for my Crypto steemians, be paranoid and spend the time and money to safely secure your Crypto's. I have been fortunate thus far but you just never know right??
