Not your keys not your cryptocurrencies
Today we all talk about cryptocurrencies, that decentralized digital money that we try to acquire to give value to our savings. As we know, Bitcoin is the king of cryptocurrencies and therefore, it is the object of desire of not only millenials and computer geniuses, now your grandparents, parents, neighbors and any of your contacts on Whatsapp or Facebook also join the club of hunters of Satoshi's masterpiece.
Everyone wants to accumulate BTCs but very few worry about how to safeguard them or if the way they acquire them is the right one. The first thing we must consider is the fact that BTC and decentralized cryptocurrencies were conceived to bring freedom to the people who use them, a way to untie human beings from the yoke and abuse of banks as well as to offer a secure alternative to make direct payments between people anonymously.
Based on the previous point we must keep in our memory the following phrase as a tattoo in our brains: If they are not my keys, they are not my cryptocurrencies. But what does this mean, well, it is as simple as considering that if you keep your cryptos in online exchanges you run the risk of having your funds confiscated or seized by the central power at any time. Also, keeping cryptos in these online exchanges is not the safest way to keep cryptos safe, as there is a possibility that accounts can be hacked by criminals who specialize in cyber theft.
Do not misunderstand, the blockchain is inviolable, it is a technology impossible to breach, but the accounts in the exchanges do not enjoy this quality, so if you keep your funds in these centralized wallets and whose keys are not in your possession, the possibility of losing your funds is very latent, regardless of the technology or software used to strengthen security.
So how do I manage my funds? The safest way to manage your own cryptocurrencies is through the so-called coldwallets, specifically those devices or hardwares in the form of flash memory where you can place your cryptos without them remaining online. The way to access them is by connecting it to a PC, laptop or tablet requesting an alphanumeric key that only the owner of the device knows (or should know). On the other hand there are also the paper wallets, these you print them directly on a web portal and use them as before, being careful to keep the printout and its password in a safe place (the same with those wallets that are USB devices).
On the other hand, there are also the hot wallets, those that you can download as an app or online on a website. Although this type of wallets are not as secure as the cold ones, some of them give you the possibility to be the custodian of your cryptos by providing you with the keys or seeds of your wallet. The best ones are those that do not ask for KYC (Know Your Customer), a step in which your personal data is at risk of being transferred to a central power, so there is the possibility of transferring information to another entity. Usually decentralized wallets do not require this personal data and provide you with the keys and seeds, on the other hand it is also possible to buy and exchange cryptos and more, just like centralized exchanges.
To conclude I must say that BTC has become as valuable as gold, therefore large institutions will always do their best to take them away from you, they will create fabulous investment instruments in BTC that will sound very attractive but in general they will keep the cryptos and you with paper or fiat money, so it is important that the user knows these intentions and is willing to be the lord and master of his own funds, without delegating the safeguarding of them to third parties.
