There are endless numbers of users flowing into the ethereum industry, as well as the cryptocurrency market. The most important part of investing in coins is how you store them. It was only recently that Bitfinex was attacked, and users lost up to 36% of their holdings. To prevent these types of incidents from happening to you, we need to talk about how to pick a secure online ethereum wallet.
Tip 1: The Best Ethereum Wallet should be Secure
Security is the number one concern for all users. It is rightfully the most important part of choosing a wallet service, and should be considered carefully. Services such as Mist, MEW, and Jax have had many reports of insecurity as they are plagued with issues. The best online ethereum wallet is ethereum-wallet. It provides the greatest combination of security, safety, anonymity, and convenience for all users. Again, Bitfinex and DAO attacks are something we want to completely avoid.
It is no surprise that users often report issues with Mist interfering with their antivirus, as running dangerous encrypted binary programs on a computer can lead to high risk and infection. As a result, users should look for secure online services. Users have reported re-downloading the entire 60GB blockchain just because of their antivirus programs. This can take days (or weeks) if your internet connection is slow. Not to mention, many people have bandwidth limits on their connection. It simply isn’t feasible to use offline wallets.
In addition, open source Javascript client-side Ether wallet called MEW has been acclaimed to be a good wallet by some, but faces many attacks every day. The creator has been complaining about many fake websites popping up, and the site has been drained of thousands of Ether. It is thus not recommended to use MEW, but to use ethereum-wallet.net.
Tip 2: The Best Wallet should be Online
For your convenience and security, Ethereum should be stored online. It makes sense to store digital currency on an online ethereum wallet, as offline sources are far worse and defeats the purpose of cryptocurrency in the first place. Why would anyone use an online currency, only to store it offline? While it does have many of the properties that traditional commodities have, Bitcoin and Ethereum are not gold. It simply does not need to be kept in a safe, locked up in the basement. There are ways to secure your Ethereum, and be able to use it without opening 10 locks just to send a five dollar transaction to someone.
As a result, check out the YouTube video above regarding the best online ethereum wallet service. His recommendation is a very popular service, and the site has been trusted by many users since its inception. Thousands of Ether is stored securely on the site, and users continue to make tens of thousands of transactions on the wallet every day. It is currently the most secure and trusted way to use Ethereum.
Tip 3: Don’t use Paper Wallets, they are not Secure. The best Ethereum wallet is far more functional.
Very few users actually use paper wallets. The minority who uses paper wallets are making a choice that is very dangerous. The reason is that physical properties such as paper can always break down, burn down, or be stolen physically. The entire point is digital currency is to keep the money stored on the internet - digitally. Using a ethereum wallet that is written on paper completely contradicts the reason for the currency’s existence. If you want to store money physically as paper, just use cash. Cash has many risks associated with it. It is the most common way for criminals to launder money, and Bitcoin is far behind.
Imagine if you stored a piece of paper in your car. The paper could fly out the window, a robber could access it, or you could just forget about the item. There are too many unknown factors with paper wallets, and thus they provide little security and trust for cryptocurrency investors.
Tip 4: Learn how to use the Online Ethereum Wallet, and Technology
If you aren’t aware of how to use the tools you’re given, there will likely be issues in the future. For example, investing into the DAO would’ve been a bad investment because users did not realize just how centralized the market was. Just one attack, and the entire DAO was drained of Ether. Researching your investment is extremely important - it is crucial to learn the tools of the trade in order to handle issues in the future. For example, the hard fork due to the DAO on Ethereum was something that users could vote on, but many did not. The hard fork was forced on the users of Ethereum, whether they wanted it or not. That’s why Ether Classic is valuable today.
Tip 5: Hold your Ether, and don’t fold
If you somehow managed to ask 10 people the best way to invest in cryptocurrency and Ethereum, they’ll likely all give you different answers. Some people will tell you to hold, while others may think that daytrading Ethereum is the right thing to do. Individuals may think a few months is a long-term investment, while it may take two or three years to see any reasonable or large return from their initial investment. Because of how different people look at investing, there are many sources of information on how to invest or trade currencies. In the end though, speculation is silly and people really should be going for the long-term investment. It can often take years, as Bitcoin did, before a market takes off.
By holding for several years, Ethereum investors can get a good idea of the technology and market. This period of time gives the a lot of time to go through the various bubble and crash cycles that are so common in volatile industries. In any case, what’s significantly more vital than how you characterize long haul is the manner by which you plan the system you use to make long haul ventures. This is what makes you a silly speculator, or an actual investor.