Are your Bitcoins safe? Are you using a secure wallet ? Have you got backups? 7 rules how to use bitcoin

Hey steemians, this is my first post about Bitcoin here on steemit. In this post i will show, how you can use Bitcoin (this can be adopted to other cryptos as well) without beeing hacked or get them stolen.

#1 store large amounts of your bitcoins only in offline, not on coinbase or something similar, so nobody else is able to lock your account/wallet. And keep in mind, it is easier to get hacked online than offline. Splitt very large amounts over different wallets. That means, for example if you own 10 or even 100+ bitcoins, don't store them in a single wallet.

you may check out following tools: Bitcoin Armory (lots of features, but requires to download the whole blockchain if i am not wrong), Multibit HD (very simple and lightweight), Electrum (this is my favorite one), there are many more wallets out there, maybe there are better ones too, but i used these three very successfully in the past.

#2 backup your private keys and store them offline on multiple thumb drives/discs/hard discs/ and use paper-wallets if possible (but store them somewhere safe). As well, a securely encrypted file (encrypted container file) can be stored online if you have your own server or  cloud space, but only if the file is not crack-able, otherwise it's just a matter of time.

#3 Never, and i mean NEVER connect this device to the internet, except for sending and receiving transactions. It's also possible to use offline wallets for even more security. (How to use offline wallets: link to bitcoinarmory.com)

#4 I suggest you to run a linux machine like ubuntu, linux mint, or debian on some spare hardware or an old notebook or something similar to virtualize Windows 10 on it. So after every transaction job you are able to rollback your Windows vm to a snapshot you have created in the past, so no maleware will be there after reboot for sure! But this point is optional, you may run it on a native windows too, but don't forget: do nothing else on this device, no installing of vlc player, no webbrowsing, no pornhub, nothing!

#5 Keep your Windows up-to-date, maybe you saw what happened with the wannacry ransomware. This was only possible, because of people were not updating their windows boxes. Yeah i know there was an exploit involved, but microsoft put out an update weeks before. If you are using a linux box or mac, this takes effect too.

#6 Use good and random passwords like She9FrHV31p9aWh8472. Pasword or password1234 are not good passwords! Store them also offline and secure in case if you may forgot one of your passwords. They have to be unique as well and don't use them for gmail, ebay or multiple wallets.

#7 Only use secure networks, preferably only your home network, if you have to use another wifi or so, please use a secure vpn like airvpn.

If you like this, feel free to upvote and follow me, thanks i appreciate.

martin.the.chef