How to secure your Bitcoin

What is the best place to Secure my Bitcoin?
The most basic place to hold your Bitcoin is by downloading a Wallet. You can store your Bitcoin on your Desktop, Mobile Device, Websites, or via Hardware Wallets.

What are you storing?
Well, when you store your Bitcoin, you aren’t actually storing your cash on your computer per say. You are instead are securing virtual keys that allow you to prove to miners that you own the bitcoin you say you hold. The bitcoin is stored in the public ledger, but can only be accessed with these keys.

Public Key
Public and Private keys are encrypted 256-bit strings of characters and numbers that have a mathematical link to your Private Key using the SHA-256 Hashing Algorithm. More on this on a later video.

Private Key
While your public key is used to pay for things when using a wallet, your private key must always be kept safe. If not, other users can easily extract Bitcoin from your wallet. So keep it hidden.

Best Place to Store your Bitcoin?
So what is objectively the best place to store Bitcoin? Well, it isn’t all that simple. Everyone has their preferences, but let's go over the things you should look out for when choosing a Wallet.

Trust
If you had $20 in your pocket, you would most likely want to store it in a physical wallet. It’s much more secure. You can chose to do this with some of the Desktop, Mobile, and all Hardware Wallets. Some of these wallets store your keys on the device itself, giving you full control your Bitcoin. Meaning no third party, like the wallet developer can freeze your funds. However, you are still responsible for not losing the device, resetting it, or installing malware on it. Another option is to use a wallet that doesn’t give you control over your money to a third party like on most Website based wallets. Depending on the wallet, they may give you shared control, where they control it, but you always have access to it. Basically like giving them your $20, locking it a safe, and giving you the combination code. They own it, and you’re trusting them not to steal it.

Open Source
Some wallets are transparent with how they function, called Open Source. Meaning, anyone can look through the code and verify that everything is in order. A lot of wallets however, don’t share this with the public. This removes the transparency between the user and the developer. This is something to look out for because just like when Apple was nearly forced to put in a backdoor to unlock iPhones by the NSA, this same strategy can be done to create a backdoor into wallets that, while you control your money, they can secretly access it.

Secure Environment
Desktops PCs are prone to getting viruses. Some malware strategically looks for any Bitcoin keys stored on your device to steal. While some wallet apps are designed fully secure because no other app can access it, due to the controlled environment of most phones.

Conclusion
If you want ease of access, total security, and trust yourself, then downloading a mobile wallet app on your phone, may be the most secure way of storing it. Just don't reset or lose your phone.

If you want simplicity, less security, and don’t trust yourself, then holding your funds on a website based wallet, may be OK.

If you want medium security, trust yourself and the developers, but little ease of use, you can use a physical hardware wallet. Then lock it up in a secure place where you won't lose it.

As for Desktop wallets, I highly advise no. But that’s just my opinion, as I don’t know where they fit in to be honest.