How to get crypto off exchange step by step
How to get crypto off-exchange |
we are going to break down some important information about cryptocurrency wallets into simple and easy-to-understand concepts together t we feel more comfortable transferring our cryptocurrency off of exchanges into our own cryptocurrency wallets for safekeeping this week's episode and exchange with over 100 different cryptocurrencies and over 20 different fiat currencies on crypto.com's mobile.
the app you can buy crypto with bank transfers credit debit cards or crypto at true cost with no markups they also have a desktop exchange that is solely for crypto-crypto trading. we can grow as a community interact with each other and stay up to date on all things crypto. so let's learn about cryptocurrency wallets.
what is a cryptocurrency wallet when we hear the word wallet we immediately think of the pocket or purse accessories that hold our cash ids credit and debit cards however unlike cash digital currencies are not stored in a specific location and do not exist in physical form instead cryptocurrencies account balances and transactions exist on a blockchain or similar technological foundation what is blockchain is just a fancy term that describes a running ledger of transactions so without losing sight of this article wallet has software that creates and stores your private and public keys interacts with the blockchain monitors your balances and allows you to send and receive cryptocurrency so to send receive store and monitor the cryptocurrency balances you need to use cryptocurrency wallets.
instead of thinking of a wallet in the traditional sense where cash is actually inside of your wallet or your credit cards are actually inside of your wallet a better way to think about a cryptocurrency wallet is as a key to access your funds because your cryptocurrencies are on the blockchain which is just a running ledger of transactions distributed all around the world your crypto is basically just assigned to your private key so your wallet gives you access to the funds assigned to your account of sorts let's explore how do cryptocurrency wallets work/.
we are going to go through a very simplified analogy to help us wrap our heads around cryptocurrency wallets and how they work together please note this is not exactly how the technology works it's just an analogy a simplified way to understand how cryptocurrency wallets work is to consider how your traditional online banking applications work imagine your bank is the blockchain your bank account number is the public key your crypto wallet is your online banking app and your online banking app login credentials are your private key.
so your bank records and tracks all the transactions going to and from your bank account just like the blockchain records and tracks all the transactions going to and from your public key using your online banking app you're able to check the balance of your bank account and send or receive transactions just like a cryptocurrency wallet allows you to check your balances and send or receive crypto however to log into the online banking app you first need to type in your username and password which is like using your private key to access your cryptocurrency wallet a public key is similar to your bank account number.
if you provide anyone with your bank account number they can send you funds keep in mind that public keys are also commonly known as wallet addresses however having your bank account number alone would not allow someone to take funds from your account this is also how a public key works people can send you cryptocurrency using your public key or public wallet address but they cannot take funds using your public key however giving your online banking app login credentials to someone would probably allow them to send funds from your bank account to somewhere else this is similar to a private key if you give someone your private key they can access your cryptocurrency and send it elsewhere unlike traditional banking.
if you give away your private key and your funds go missing you will not be able to recover them this is why it's so important to keep your private key private before sending or receiving cryptocurrency you must first make sure you are sending the same type of currency to a wallet address or public key that supports that particular cryptocurrency, for example, you can only send bitcoin to and from bitcoin addresses and you can only receive or send ether to and from ether addresses.
if you have another person's public key or address you can easily send them some corresponding cryptocurrency and vice versa just to recap a cryptocurrency wallet has software that interacts with the blockchain stores your public and private keys monitors your cryptocurrency balances and allows you to send and receive cryptocurrency what are the different types of cryptocurrency wallets there are many different types of cryptocurrency wallets to choose from and each of them has their own pros and cons in this article we will break down wallets into two categories hot and cold.
a hot wallet creates and stores your private keys online while your cold wallets create and stores your private keys offline so examples of hot wallets include desktop or mobile app software these wallets operate on your computers and cell phones which are connected to the internet so when you set up these wallets your private key is generated on a host device which just means it's connected to the internet which could be more vulnerable to being compromised however by far the least secure way to store large investments in cryptocurrency for the long term is on an exchange why well, first of all, it's online therefore hot more vulnerable to hacks and on top of it cryptocurrency exchanges are a huge target for hackers since obviously there's a ton of potential crypto that can be stolen with any individual wallet any of us manage on our own.
a hacker has no idea how much potential loot there is to steal while crypto exchanges there is a guaranteed gold mine of sorts of crypto and as if it couldn't get any more sketchy cryptocurrency exchanges rehypothecate crypto now without going into too much detail breaking that down basically it means that the one ether you're looking at on your account on your phone could also be the same ether five other people are looking at on that exchange meaning cryptocurrency exchanges don't actually have all of the crypto-backed one-to-one for all of their customers.
so if there was a massive run on exchanges where everyone wanted to move their bitcoin and ether to their own wallet there would not be enough to go around yeah scary so let's learn about the safest most ideal way to store significant amounts of crypto for the long term cold wallets cold wallets are also known as hardware wallet hardware wallets are designed to safely create and store your private key offline and when sending receiving or managing funds.
you will need to use the hardware device and go through more security steps in general which makes your funds less vulnerable to theft by creating and storing private keys with hardware wallets your funds are safer from hackers and other potential security issues that hot software wallets are more likely to experience so storing your cryptocurrency on a hardware wallet is the safest most secure way to manage your funds so if you scroll down to the description area below you can access the correct and official sites of my recommended hardware wallets bc vault is my personal favorite another option is the ledger nano backup pack.
so scroll down to check them out note there are two things you need to know before buying a hardware wallet first only buy hardware wallets from the real manufacturer do not buy used hardware wallets and do not buy from other companies or individuals this is because hackers may buy a hardware wallet tamper with the software and resell the hack device to steal your funds and number two as with all crypto-related activities make sure you double and triple check the URL you're accessing to buy the hardware wallet also make sure the address is correct and that it has an SSL or secure sockets layer which uses the HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP there are a ton of phishing scams online that pretend to be the real website you intend to access.
if you access a fake website you may lose your funds or receive a hacked wallet so again if you're interested in my recommendations using the links below to get you where you want to go safely all while supporting the channel cool I will link step-by-step cold wallet setup guides here for you guys so stay tuned for that in the meantime let's set up some simple mobile wallets together so I can further illustrate how private keys work I think a lot of us are about to have a eureka moment we've all been waiting for about what happens.
if your phone dies or if your hardware wallet breaks or if it's stolen etc so let's hit it how to set up your own wallet in this video we are going to set up the coinbase wallet together on our mobile device step by step navigate to the app store or google play store and type in coin base wallet then download the coinbase wallet app with the blue icon with a white circle and blue square in the center once the download is complete open the app next.
we are going to create a new wallet together so tap create new wallet next review and accept the terms of service by tapping accept nice now you can pick a username this is one way how other wallet users can easily find you and send you payments versus using the long string of characters or QR codes when you're finished tap done,
now you can set your privacy preferences you can always change this later in settings but for now, you can choose public which just allows other coinbase wallet users to search for you by your username and send you crypto or you can choose to remain private so people cannot search for your username to send you crypto again this is only for receiving crypto users cannot take funds from your wallet using just your username make a selection and then tap next now it's time to protect your wallet by adding an extra layer of security to keep your crypto safe.
if your phone has it you can choose to use face id which is recommended or you can choose to set up a six-digit passcode either way make sure you take the time to add an extra layer of security for good measure sweet now it's time to back up your wallet this is the part where your software wallet on your hot cell phone device hot meaning it's connected to the internet created your private key in the form of the recovery phrase you'll be shown a secret recovery phrase on the next screen the recovery phrase is the only key to your wallet it will allow you to recover access to your wallet if your phone is lost or stolen you will then need to tap the box acknowledging.
I understand that if I lose my recovery phrase I will not be able to access my account right so you can't contact coinbase support if you lose the recovery phrase and your phone is stolen or similar this was a software wallet created by coinbase but it's just a software wallet that allows you to store and manage your cryptocurrency off of the exchange for yourself after these next few steps it will become clear how our crypto is on the blockchain and how private keys or recovery phrases are merely keys to access our funds that are on the blockchain.
and how anyone with these words can steal all of your funds if you do not properly secure these words okay so tap the box and tap back up now and here we are the 12 words or recovery phrase that represents your private key and your access to your funds these 12 words are the keys to your wallet literally by memorizing these 12 words you can carry access to hundreds and thousands of millions and billions of dollars right here in your brain stay tuned for the end of this article when I tell you how it can be used to gain access to your funds these 12 words anytime anywhere regardless of whether you lose this particular phone or not it's for this reason.
I do not recommend backing this phrase up to iCloud which is something that could also be hacked I don't recommend ever storing your wallet private key on any device connected to the internet password manager or similar the best way is using a good old-fashioned pen and paper for now securing it in multiple geographical locations in case of fire flood or similar in this video since we are just doing a simple short-term solution for storing our own crypto together to get it off of exchanges until we can get a hardware wallet I'll save a more robust solution for securing our funds for another article.
so for now I recommend writing a recovery phrase on paper and storing it somewhere extremely secure like a safe or somewhere inconspicuous in your house like in a book and a bookshelf or similar so tap back up manually and then write down the 12 words when you're finished tap next with a manual backup you will need to select the words in the correct order to verify you've written them down correctly the spelling in order of words is extremely important.
otherwise, you can lose access to your funds tap them out in the correct order and then tap done sweet now we have our own cryptocurrency hot wallet that is in our complete control, not the exchange before transferring our crypto for safekeeping first let's tap on the cog in the bottom right-hand corner then tap app lock select to require a lock to access the app for transactions and biometric change protection to further secure your wallet then tap the back arrow in the top left corner to go back to the main dashboard nice and next here comes the part that will probably be a lot easier than you think transferring your crypto from the exchange to your new self-custody mobile wallet for simplicity.
I'm just going to assume your crypto is on coinbase in this guide however no matter which exchange you use you should be able to log in choose a send function and follow similar steps to move your crypto on your computer or phone log into your exchange in this guide I'm accessing the coinbase exchange app on a mobile device tap the center blue round button to open a menu that allows you to buy sell convert send or receive crypto and tap send choose the cryptocurrency.
you want to send to your wallet in this article we are sending bitcoin now I always recommend that beginners and seasoned crypto investors alike send a small amount to a new wallet first to make sure everything goes smoothly before sending large amounts so we are first going to send ten dollars worth of bitcoin tap in ten dollars then tap continue you may see an option to send crypto to a friend but we are going to tap not now to continue next in the to field we have several different ways to send crypto but for this new wallet.
we set up we will use the QR code or we will paste the address if you're using the same phone and not a computer it will be easiest to copy and paste the address but if you are using a separate device QR code is much simpler and faster so let's go back to the wallet we set up together unlock it then tap receive in the top corner of the screen you will see a list of several different cryptocurrencies as well as a search bar you can use to find a cryptocurrency in this article I'm choosing to receive bitcoin cool so for bitcoin you can receive bitcoin to a segwit or legacy address.
but we don't need to worry about that if your crypto is on an exchange using the default segwit option from here you can either scan the QR code or tap share address to copy it and paste it to the to field on the exchange nice now that we have our bitcoin address in the To field we can choose to type in an optional note in the note field I'm just going to leave it blank here and we are ready to tap preview send to ensure the amount looks correct check out the fees looks like it'll be about 11 cents to transfer the 10 to our wallet finally tap send.
now if you have two-factor authentication on your exchange account which you definitely should for extra security enter the two-step verification code from your authenticator app and then tap submit to start the transfer awesome it was successfully sent a note that says here this transaction usually takes about 30 minutes from here you can either view the transaction again or tap done now we wait a few minutes to ensure the transaction was successful.
here we are the price of bitcoin appreciated a bit during this process and is now worth ten dollars one cent hell yeah giddy we are now in complete control of our bitcoin and it's stored on the blockchain where we are the only ones with keys to access it rather than it merely being an amorphous pool of bitcoin controlled by the exchange so secure your private key recovery phrase and repeat these steps to transfer all of your cryptocurrency on exchanges you're looking to hold for the long term to your new mobile wallet that is until your new hardware wallet arrives amazing now time for the eureka oh my god I finally get it a moment.
so let's just say I come across your 12 words in just your 12 words, not your physical phone, not your email address no passwords no pin codes anything that has any connection to you at all if I found a piece of paper in the middle of the street with these 12 words and I wanted to take your crypto this is how it can be done you can use almost any other mobile crypto app to do this very quickly in this example I'm going to download another great mobile wallet option called trust wallet next I'm going to open the app but instead of choosing to create a new wallet.
I'm going to select I already have a wallet then it asks which type of wallet I want to import and since I don't know what it is as I just have your 12 words I'm going to select multi-coin wallet now I'm going to name this new wallet stealing then I'm going to enter in the 12 words on this paper I found randomly in the street note that wallets like ledger create 24 words and you can do the exact same thing here if I found your 24-word ledger private key.
I can do the exact same thing and take your fonts also here's a fun fact notice as I'm typing the words once I get to the fourth character the wallet guesses the word so actually you don't really need the full word to gain access to the wallet if you just use the first four letters of each word in a recovery phrase they can be projected full words just make it easier for memorization and simpler for people to understand cool.
so all 12 words are entered and now I'm going to tab import here's a message saying your wallet was successfully imported and lo and behold the ten dollars and from here I can simply tap the send button and send all of your funds to another wallet that you do not have access to that's how fast and simple this is that's why it's so important to guard your private key recovery phrase 12 24 words whatever you got and to consider getting a hardware wallet that generates a private key offline and stores it offline for maximum security awesome
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