Hacker News Reader

Comment by razemio | Hacker News Reader

Just an addition for non tech users. You should NOT hold your own keys, if you are not up to the task. Consider an exchange with a good record instead and within your "legal region". My recommendation would be Kraken or if you are based in Germany bitcoin.de. Both do not have a single incident which was major and have been doing it for years.

The risk that you loose you coins because you are not able to secure your system is higher, then keeping them on an exchange.

Using a hardware wallet is also a risk. You can loose it, forget your pin or store your backup pass phrase in an unsave / unstable location. For example in a excel sheet or WhatsApp text message to yourself.

View on HN

Isn’t/Wasn’t the whole deal of crypto that you don’t need a third party anymore? Otherwise it’s just a bank with extra steps it seems to me.

Yes, very true. However when people forget the passphrase to their wallet and lose access to their funds, suddenly they don't want to be their own bank anymore, they want a name and number to yell at down the phone until it comes back.

Not entirely. A few other use cases:

- workaround to not pay Western Union's fees

- investment

- trading

- protection against inflation

- money to buy goods from (sometimes questionable) places

- money to buy digital goods

- NFT Stuff

5 out of 7 I can do already. Western Union and NFT are the use cases I can see as unique. Although wasn’t there an NFT exchange where I can buy in dollars now?

That’s not to say it should be mutually exclusive, but it’s not unique and probably simpler with hard currencies. And probably more safe guarded as well.

I’m reasonably smart, but I still find the idea of managing my own crypto wallets intimidating. I don’t know what I don’t know, and it’s an unforgiving process if you screw up.

It's lose man, lose. Not loose.

Thanks, -fixed- (can't edit anymore) noted.

The downsides of "Be Your Own Bank"...

Why not just write it on a piece of paper, and maybe put a copy in a safe if you want to be ultra secure? I've been doing that for nearly a decade without a single issue. Or if you are a bit more technical just an encrypted text file? Even a password manager is more secure than keeping funds in an exchange, compounded with the fact that you still have to securely store the credentials to access that exchange anyway.

> compounded with the fact that you still have to securely store the credentials to access that exchange anyway.

Not entirely correct. For the Kraken account, 2FA is a must AND you will still have to enter a code send to Gmail if you connect with an unknown IP address. Even if the PC would be compromised it is impossible for the attacker to send funds anywhere because for this you have a second 2FA. If you want to send money to a different account (does not matter if $ / € or ₿) you also have to verify this by E-mail and 2FA code.

My mum is a good example for a no tech person. You can't imagine what I have been through. To even think she would remember after 3 days, where she stored the keys, after 7 days that she needs them at all and finally after 14 days that I have ever told her anything about it. There are MANY people, where the exchange is the best option. I could go on with other examples, but my mum is a prime example of a non-tech person. For my mum, Internet Explorer is not a browser, but "the button to the internet".

Have you ever seen the lock picking lawyer pick a lock? Also, a safe tire you to a physical location.

This is a perfect solution fallacy, it's very improbable for the vast majority of burglaries, just don't write "HERE IS MY SEED FOR CRYPTO $$$" on it. An exchange going bankrupt, hacked, or losing access to your account summed up is order of magnitude more probable to happen, even with the piece of paper on your desk without a safe or a text file with the default OS encrypted hard drive.

>My recommendation would be Kraken or if you are based in Germany bitcoin.de.

You should still use Kraken, even if you are in Germany. bitcoin.de is vastly inferiour on many levels. Kraken, Gemini, Bitstamp and Coinbase are OGs and have a strong track record.

True, but since it based in Germany, you can take legal action if something goes wrong. Considering that they have been around for years without any issues, it can't be that bad.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com