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Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. Holding crypto in a wallet is the equivalent of keeping cash in your wallet. No bank in the world will ca

Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. Holding crypto in a wallet is the equivalent of keeping cash in your wallet. No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet.

sroussey 5y ago
True, but you can’t hold a billion dollars in the wallet in your back pocket.
bananabernhard 5y ago
yeah, but then you recreated traditional banking, just as they said. It's almost like there are reasons, as to why things are like they are right now.
- kyruzic 5y ago
  No. The person I replied to wanted a traditional bank in the crypto space. I told them how to replicate it. If you didn't notice the total crypto market cap is 2 trillion dollars. People are happy with the way crypto works, most don't want it to be like a bank, but for those that do there is ways to make it so.
arthur6667 5y ago
Right. I did that. And got scammed. I had my BTC in a trusted exchange at the time. Then they dissappeared on me. Then I was told it was my own fault for using an exchange. You just can't win this game can you..
- beardog 5y ago
  ding ding! If you keep it in exchange and it gets stolen, it's your fault for daring to trust your fellow human. If you keep it yourself and it gets stolen, it's your fault for not having a multisignature hardware wallet stored in 5 different countries with armed guards. Ok i'm exaggerating of course, it just seems like some people are not willing to admit that cryptocurrency does not address certain things that people want out of a money/payments system.
BoppreH 5y ago
Everyone should be worried about that, and if your suggestion is to use exchanges, that just makes them de-facto banks. Now you have a traditional banking system on top of a slow and expensive settlement layer.
- sroussey 5y ago
  Slow and expensive is relative… try transferring money internationally.
  - antognini 5y ago
    Even within the US, ACH settlement times are 3 business days. The settlement period for stock trades is 2 business days and there's a big push to reduce it to 1. Relative to that, bitcoin's 10 minute settlement time isn't so long.
    - astrange 5y ago
      ACH settlement is same day if you know the sender won't reverse it - that's why banks have been depositing paychecks 2 days early starting this year. It'll be faster next year with FedWire.
  - BoppreH 5y ago
    I do, regularly, and it takes a few dollars and a few days to arrive. That sucks. But this comes from following regulations, and fees for the useful service (e.g. protection). Right now international cryptocurrency transfers are a legally gray area, and have the aforementioned lack of protections. So the expensive and slow, but legal and safe, international transfers are a service that cryptocurrencies don't offer at all. No reason to think it'll be faster and cheaper when it's offered.
  - jcrawfordor 5y ago
    Is that really that true any more? From my podunk credit union I have used SWIFT to send overseas and it took under a minute and cost me $20. That's both faster and cheaper than Ethereum transactions. It's costlier than Bitcoin but not that much, and still faster. And that's wire transfer, the expensive bank to bank option... Western Union has been faster than Bitcoin for decades and cheaper for probably a decade now. The huge popularity of crypto is really eroding the tx capacity advantage. And even in the backwards US, ACH can now settle later same day and it's free. That makes BTC a lot less attractive.
acdha 5y ago
> Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. This doesn't protect against your credentials being compromised, and it's not useful advice unless you can explain your criteria for declaring an exchange trustworthy and how that would have excluded all of the exchanges which have lost their customers' money. > No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet. Yes, this is why most people use regulated banks which have the fraud handling and reversal processes which cryptocurrencies lack. It's not just that you don't have to carry it with you, it's that there are things like verification and reversal processes which mean that individual people are both less likely to lose money in the first place and more likely to get it back. If you've ever bought a house, the process of verifying a large amount of money being transferred is very different from writing a small check whereas all you need is a typo to lose cryptocurrencies without recourse.
lern_too_spel 5y ago
What "trusted exchange" will make you whole if their wallet gets emptied? There is nothing like FDIC or SIPC covering your assets.

Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. Holding crypto in a wallet is the equivalent of keeping cash in your wallet. No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet.

sroussey 5y ago

True, but you can’t hold a billion dollars in the wallet in your back pocket.

bananabernhard 5y ago

yeah, but then you recreated traditional banking, just as they said. It's almost like there are reasons, as to why things are like they are right now.

kyruzic 5y ago
No. The person I replied to wanted a traditional bank in the crypto space. I told them how to replicate it. If you didn't notice the total crypto market cap is 2 trillion dollars. People are happy with the way crypto works, most don't want it to be like a bank, but for those that do there is ways to make it so.

arthur6667 5y ago

Right. I did that. And got scammed. I had my BTC in a trusted exchange at the time. Then they dissappeared on me. Then I was told it was my own fault for using an exchange. You just can't win this game can you..

beardog 5y ago
ding ding! If you keep it in exchange and it gets stolen, it's your fault for daring to trust your fellow human. If you keep it yourself and it gets stolen, it's your fault for not having a multisignature hardware wallet stored in 5 different countries with armed guards. Ok i'm exaggerating of course, it just seems like some people are not willing to admit that cryptocurrency does not address certain things that people want out of a money/payments system.

BoppreH 5y ago

Everyone should be worried about that, and if your suggestion is to use exchanges, that just makes them de-facto banks. Now you have a traditional banking system on top of a slow and expensive settlement layer.

sroussey 5y ago
Slow and expensive is relative… try transferring money internationally.
- antognini 5y ago
  Even within the US, ACH settlement times are 3 business days. The settlement period for stock trades is 2 business days and there's a big push to reduce it to 1. Relative to that, bitcoin's 10 minute settlement time isn't so long.
  - astrange 5y ago
    ACH settlement is same day if you know the sender won't reverse it - that's why banks have been depositing paychecks 2 days early starting this year. It'll be faster next year with FedWire.
- BoppreH 5y ago
  I do, regularly, and it takes a few dollars and a few days to arrive. That sucks. But this comes from following regulations, and fees for the useful service (e.g. protection). Right now international cryptocurrency transfers are a legally gray area, and have the aforementioned lack of protections. So the expensive and slow, but legal and safe, international transfers are a service that cryptocurrencies don't offer at all. No reason to think it'll be faster and cheaper when it's offered.
- jcrawfordor 5y ago
  Is that really that true any more? From my podunk credit union I have used SWIFT to send overseas and it took under a minute and cost me $20. That's both faster and cheaper than Ethereum transactions. It's costlier than Bitcoin but not that much, and still faster. And that's wire transfer, the expensive bank to bank option... Western Union has been faster than Bitcoin for decades and cheaper for probably a decade now. The huge popularity of crypto is really eroding the tx capacity advantage. And even in the backwards US, ACH can now settle later same day and it's free. That makes BTC a lot less attractive.

acdha 5y ago

> Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. This doesn't protect against your credentials being compromised, and it's not useful advice unless you can explain your criteria for declaring an exchange trustworthy and how that would have excluded all of the exchanges which have lost their customers' money. > No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet. Yes, this is why most people use regulated banks which have the fraud handling and reversal processes which cryptocurrencies lack. It's not just that you don't have to carry it with you, it's that there are things like verification and reversal processes which mean that individual people are both less likely to lose money in the first place and more likely to get it back. If you've ever bought a house, the process of verifying a large amount of money being transferred is very different from writing a small check whereas all you need is a typo to lose cryptocurrencies without recourse.

lern_too_spel 5y ago

What "trusted exchange" will make you whole if their wallet gets emptied? There is nothing like FDIC or SIPC covering your assets.