I’ve seen some posts around here recently about people wanting to take custody of their own coins. THIS IS AWESOME. Good job. I’ve also seen quite a few people delaying this action because they are either unsure of which hardware wallet they want, don’t have the funds to get a hardware wallet they want yet, are waiting to receive their hardware wallet in the mail, etc.
There is **NO** reason you need a hardware wallet to take your coins into your own custody. There is **NO** reason to delay such action. If they are available to withdraw. Withdraw them. They are A LOT more secure in your custody than someone else’s. It doesn’t HAVE to be a hardware wallet. Put them in a reputable software wallet until a time you can afford or receive the hardware wallet you want.
Don’t delay, take custody of your coins TODAY!
Reputable Wallets:
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
There are many more and the community here is more than happy to help and recommend other free options, but as always DYOR.
Don’t let elitists and purists tell you ledger is bad by the way. It’s still 1000x better than leaving your BTC on exchanges.
Absolutely, most wallets are safer than an exchange while you decide on whether you want to get into a hardware wallet. I’m so glad folks are finally starting to understand how Bitcoin is safe, but the exchanges that are trying to create a new crypto Wall St are not
I’m just worried that people are going to lose their keys via android or windows malware. Which is why I often tell people using a paper wallet is a decently easy way to make sure your keys were never exposed to any attack vectors if you take a few precautions. Just put Tails on a flash drive, download bitaddress from [github](https://github.com/bitaddress/bitaddress.org/archive/refs/heads/master.zip) onto another flash drive, boot up tails (preferably after disconnecting your hard drive… but I know I know this is already too much for most people), open bitaddress and print off a wallet and use that for cold storage.
Or even easier, just boot Tails, open electrum (comes with Tails), write down your seed words and put them somewhere safe, then transfer the coins to the electrum wallet. Just don’t lose that paper wallet/or those seed words (keep multiple copies and use a password when setting it up).
Relatively easy and still free, but far more secure than keeping any sizeable amount of coins on your daily driver android or windows system.
For a beginner this is bad advice. Storing your Bitcoin on your regular non-airgapped computer is very insecure and could easily be hacked.
Unlike US reputable regulated exchanges.
It’s just like saying alright guys everyone go to your bank and store all your money in cash under your pillow. Very silly.
IMHO you should get a hardware wallet first unless you’re using binance or some other shitty offshore exchange.