How to store your bitcoins?

It is easy to get cryptocurrency today, in 2020. You should only register on a Stock Exchange with your credit card details and digital assets will be in your account.

If you are not an active trader or you buy cryptocurrency as a long-term investment you should be sure that processes are secure. It is common to think that Switzerland is a reliable country for cryptocurrencies. But in fact, the decision where to keep your Bitcoins is more about a particular way of keeping it rather than a particular place. That’s why the choice of the wallet for cryptocurrency and the way to keep them should be on the first place.

What is a cryptocurrency wallet?

Cryptocurrency wallet (or just a crypto wallet) is a service which allows to keep public and private keys, receive and transfer cryptocurrencies, control the balance and work with different blockchains. A cryptocurrency wallet is like a bank deposit or a bank account that you manage via your smartphones by making transfers and purchases. You need a crypto wallet to manage your digital assets and ensure their safety.

There are 2 types of cryptocurrency wallets: hot and cold.

Hot wallets look like webpages or browser-extensions (Blockchain.com, JAXX, MEW, Metamask). They could be represented by any online wallet, accounts on a cryptocurrency exchange such as Binance, the majority of mobile and software wallets, and also the wallets integrated into messengers, e.g. BTC Banker bot in Telegram produced by Bitzlato.

Cold crypto wallets have no access to the Internet or access may be limited if necessary, which allows to keep funds in autonomous and, hence, in a safer mode.

A Hardware wallet has a special place amongst cold wallets. It can be any physical device designed for cryptocurrencies storage (a USB stick or any other device). This type of wallets is regarded as the safest and the most secure ones.

A combined way of storing is not a common thing but Simba.Storage is one of it (though it can be considered as cold storage). You can safely store your Bitcoins in it and receive a Swiss stablecoin SIMBA for everyday spendings.

Hot wallets

A hot wallet is a more suitable option for active trading.
Traders constantly monitor different charts, analyze market situations and predict asset prices. It is reflected in the necessity of making a quick decision whether to buy or sell assets. Sometimes seconds matter.

In these situations all the needed funds and tools for trading should be at hand and therefore the best decision is storing crypto assets on Exchange which gives you access to all the necessary tools on your personal account. All the trade operations are carried out from that account. In rare cases, storing assets in browser wallets may be reasonable.

The advantages of these types of wallets include their speed and cross-platform usability.
You can always get access to your digital funds from any device whenever and wherever you want to.

Despite its convenience this option is also more risky compared to cold wallets. Many exchanges, online and software wallet developers assure us that their products and platforms are safe and secure although in rare cases wallets and accounts can be hacked with subsequent stealing.

Apart from fraud schemes and hackings, users can lose their passwords, keys or seed-phrases (the list of 12 words that retain information needed to restore the wallet). At this point you will NEVER be able to get access to your funds.

However, there are some exceptions like Simba storage which is not only secure but also provides an opportunity for a user to restore an access to SIMBA tokens (and thereby to Bitcoins) via KYC procedure (collection of personal data).

Cold wallets

Cold wallets are better for long-term storage of crypto assets. Using these wallets there is a high probability that you’ll forget about hackers, fraud and scam on Exchanges leading to loss of your funds.

An obvious drawback of a cold storage is a lack of opportunity to operate with the assets quickly. For instance, you cannot transfer funds immediately or exchange cryptocurrencies stored on a hardware wallet.

Let’s consider the options for cold storing of crypto assets:

• Desktop wallet
• Paper wallet
• Physical Bitcoin
• Hardware wallet

Desktop wallets

A desktop wallet is installed on a computer which should be prepared for storing cryptocurrency assets only. This computer should not be used for any other purpose.

Desktop wallets are divided into “thin client” and “full client”. For the first ones you need to download a specific software. They are supposed to be less secure as a proper connection to a remote server is required for working with them. “Full client” wallets are safer but they require downloading the whole blockchain on your PC.

Physical Bitcoin

Physical Bitcoin contains an open address of a digital asset and a hidden private key. The idea of a physical bitcoin use is that the value of the coin will not be spent till the private key remains hidden, which is achieved with a special tamper protection technology.

The first analog of Physical Bitcoin was Bitbill, which looked like a credit card. But the company that distributed these bitcoins was closed in 2013. Since then several new “coin” producers have appeared, one of which is Denarium Bitcoin.

Paper wallets

Paper wallet is a sheet of paper on which private and public keys displayed in QR-code form are printed. Being the easiest type of storage, paper wallet ensures a proper security level and, unlike hardware wallets, has no software failures but, as you understand, there are some other physical threats.

Hardware wallets

One of the most secure types of wallets is a hardware wallet.

Hardware wallets, which are produced in the form of USB sticks, ensure the safe storing of private keys.

Ledger Nano S, Trezor and KeepKey are the most popular hardware wallets. The wallets support all the main cryptocurrencies, in particular Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH] (and all the tokens of ERC-20 standard), Ethereum classic [ETC], Litecoin [LTC], Zcash [ZEC], Bitcoin Cash [BCH], Dash [DASH], Cardano [ADA] etc.

Special software is needed to work with these devices. A PIN-code is required to configure and confirm the transactions. In case of theft or loss, access to accounts can be restored with a back-up phrase.

Simba.Storage

Simba.Storage offers innovative services on safe and highly secure storage of your funds combining advantages of both cold and hot wallets.

Simba.Storage is a Swiss wallet in your pocket.

Your Bitcoins are highly protected in the centralized storage of Simba.storage. They are kept in cold wallets in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, whose servers are the most secure and have not been a subject of hacking yet. In return you will get SIMBA stablecoins backed by Bitcoins. Tokens can be used at your discretion: for purchasing as well as making loans and cross-border transfers.

The high level of storage safety is reached by multi-layered authentication and KYC according to the standard of Swiss and Liechtenstein regulators. By passing this process you will be able to restore the access to your funds in case of losing it.