Get the weekly summary of crypto market analysis, news, and forecasts! This Week’s Summary The crypto market ends the week at a total market capitalization of $1,070 trillion. Bitcoin is down by nearly 2% after intense seesawing this week. Ethereum increased by almost 2% over the past seven days. XRP lost more than 1% in value this week. Almost all altcoins are trading in the red, with a few exceptions. The DeFi sector decreased the total value of protocols (TVL)…
What Is Crypto Selfcustody?
Self-custody in cryptocurrency refers to individuals holding and controlling their private keys rather than entrusting them to a third party, such as a centralized exchange. This is important because private keys grant access to and control over a person’s cryptocurrency assets, so self-custody helps ensure the security and autonomy of those assets.
Self-custody aligns with the decentralized, trustless nature of many cryptocurrencies and can help protect against centralized custodianships’ potential risks and drawbacks, such as hacking, fraud, and loss of control over one’s assets.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Crypto Selfcustody
Benefits of self-custody in cryptocurrency include:
- Security: By holding your private keys, you have full control over your assets and can protect them from potential security breaches, hacking, and fraud.
- Autonomy: Selfcustody allows you to have full autonomy over your assets, making transactions and managing your investments as you see fit.
- Decentralization: Selfcustody is in line with the decentralized nature of many cryptocurrencies, which is one of the key advantages of digital currencies over traditional fiat money.
- Privacy: Self-custodianship allows you to maintain full privacy over your assets, as you don’t have to share personal information with any third party.
Drawbacks of self-custody in cryptocurrency include:
- Responsibility: With self-custody comes full responsibility for securing your private keys and assets. If you lose your private keys, your assets will be lost forever.
- Complexity: Self-custody can be complex, especially for those unfamiliar with the technical aspects of digital currencies.
- Risk of human error: Self-custody increases the risk of human error, such as accidentally sending funds to the wrong address or losing private keys.
- Limited accessibility to certain services: Self-custody limits access to certain services, such as lending through centralized exchanges.
Crypto Selfcustody Best Practices
Here are some best practices for proper self-custody of cryptocurrency:
- Keep your private keys safe: Your private keys are the most important aspect of self-custody, so it is essential to keep them safe. This can be done using a hardware wallet, a physical device specifically designed for storing private keys offline.
- Create a backup of your private keys: Create multiple copies and store them in different locations, such as a safe deposit box or a fireproof safe. This will ensure that you can recover your assets in case of loss or damage to your primary storage device.
- Use a strong password: Use a strong, unique password to protect your private keys and any other sensitive information related to your assets.
- Keep your software up-to-date: Always keep your software, such as your wallet, up-to-date to ensure that you have the latest security features and fixes.
- Be aware of phishing scams: Be aware of phishing scams, which are attempts to steal private information by posing as a legitimate service or individual. Be sure to verify the authenticity of any website or contact before entering your private keys or other sensitive information.
- Avoid sharing your private keys: Never share your private keys with anyone, no matter how legitimate or trustworthy the person or service may seem.
- Keep your private keys, and recovery seeds separate: Keep your private keys and recovery seeds separate. This will ensure that if one is compromised, the other will still be safe.
- Use multi-sig: In case you’re holding large sums of cryptocurrency, you can use multi-sig (multisignature) wallets which require more than one signature to authorize a transaction.
Following these best practices will help you ensure the security and autonomy of your assets and will help you to properly self-custody your cryptocurrency.
Advanced Tips for Crypto Selfcustody
Here are some advanced tips for self-custody of cryptocurrency:
- Use a cold storage solution: Cold storage refers to keeping your private keys offline, which is the most secure way to store them. For example, you can use a hardware or paper wallet or a physical document with a QR code containing your private keys.
- Use a hardware security module (HSM): A hardware security module (HSM) is a physical device that can securely generate and store private keys. HSMs can be useful for businesses or organizations that need to manage large amounts of cryptocurrency securely.
- Use a smart contract: Smart contracts can create multi-sig wallets or other secure storage solutions.
- Use a password manager: A password manager can help you securely store and manage your private keys and other sensitive information.
- Keep your private keys on a separate device: Keep your private keys on a device that is separate from the one you use for everyday activities. This can help to protect your keys from malware and other security threats.
- Use a hardware wallet with a display: Some hardware wallets come with a display that allows you to verify the details of a transaction before signing it. This can provide an additional layer of security by ensuring you are not signing a malicious transaction.
- Consider using a hardware wallet with a built-in camera for QR code scans.
These advanced tips can help you further increase your cryptocurrency assets’ security and autonomy and properly practice self-custody. However, even though these tips can provide additional security, you should always be cautious when self-custody.