Even the WestWorld AI cowboys know how to protect their crypto

We’ve all seen the horror stories on Reddit; where some poor unsuspecting noob tries to access their cryptocurrency holdings, only to find they’ve been looted by dastardly cyber-criminals.

And it’s not just new investors who fall victim to bad actors in the blockchain space. Many crypto influencers, including Ian Balina and Dallas Rushing, claim to have lost their own holdings in online heists too.

Well… that really takes the biscuit!

A recent report also revealed that hackers have stolen more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency exchanges in 2018 alone.

And even the popular decentralised liquidity network Bancor was targeted by thieves this month, but fortunately their emergency security measures allowed them to stop the criminals from hijacking all of their coins.

“The Wild West attracts cowboys. A sheriff is a good thing.” — Cameron Winklevoss

Okay so we get the picture: there are lots of baddies in crypto.

However, security is not just the responsibility of the big corporations anymore. As individuals, and pioneers of the Cryptosphere, we must be our own sheriffs and secure our personal holdings by taking preventative measures to ensure bandits can’t take control of our funds.

What is Cold Storage?

At some point or another we’ve probably all had our cryptocurrency on exchanges for longer than we’d like.

Whether you’ve just purchased a new coin and aren’t sure where to put it, or if you’re planning to swap your holdings for a particular coin once it reaches your desired buy-in price.

Sometimes online exchanges are convenient. But they are certainly not safe.

As one very wise cryptonian once said…

“If you don’t own your private keys, you don’t own your tokens…”

Exchanges and third-party wallets hold your private keys on your behalf.

This is a clearly big risk, as if they get hacked or something goes wrong with their servers, your coins will most likely be gone forever.

Cold storage refers to any cryptocurrency wallet that is not connected to the internet. And there are lots of cold storage options available, including:

So, my advice to anyone who holds even the smallest amount of crypto…

Buy a hardware wallet; Immediately!

The Trezor One model

Keep your coins safe with Trezor

Despite the fact that a blockchain is an open ledger, cyber-criminals still have the advantage of remaining anonymous, no matter how transparent their transactions are.

Don’t let anonymous hackers steal yo shizzz

Holding your crypto offline is the safest place you can keep it. Of course, in the real world there are real-life robbers to contend with, but at least you can karate-chop them in the face if they try to ambush you.

And even if they do manage to snatch your beloved Trezor from your grip and escape with your wealth, you still have a fighting chance of tracking them down — whether that means relying the government’s Orwellian camera surveillance network and “peace keepers”… or your own Liam Neeson-style vigilante methods.

However if you’re not very skilled in the art of combat, the great thing about Trezor is it offers a back-up seed (a randomly generated password of 24 words) which will allow you to reconstruct your Trezor wallet in case the device is ever lost or stolen. (It’s a good idea to only use a pen and paper to note down your seed backup; just remember to keep it somewhere safe.)



And now that decentralised platforms such as Bancor have Trezor integration, it’s even easier to keep your coins secure.

You can now use your Trezor with Bancor

Trezor is one of the safest ways to access and store your cryptocurrency, and it is very easy to use; you simply plug it in to your laptop or computer, the Bancor app recognises the device and you can carry out your desired transaction directly from your Trezor.

The combination of using a decentralised platform and a hardware wallet is one of the safest you can use, and I would highly recommend investing in a Trezor so you can protect your wealth — and sleep better at night too!

The Wild West may be lawless, but crypto doesn’t have to be…

One final note: Always make sure to buy your hardware wallets from trusted suppliers, as there have been cases where hardware devices were compromised by re-sellers. It’s always best to go direct, so I’d recommend visiting trezor.io directly to buy your hardware wallet.