Coinbase is an exchange I already reviewed. And it allows you to keep euros in your Coinbase Wallet. This may be interesting if you want to wait before buying Bitcoins (especially if you anticipate a drop in price). But is Coinbase Wallet safe? Let’s review this bitcoin wallet now.
Coinbase Wallet, a simple wallet for your altcoins
Coinbase offers an online crypto-wallet, which you can access from any web browser, or from your smartphone. Our opinion ? It is extremely easy to use. It not only allows you to store bitcoins, but also ethers, litecoins, euros…
You can have access to a sort of “account statement”, which will allow you to see at a glance your purchases, your sales, your Bitcoins received or sent. And yYou will have the ability to easily generate multiple Bitcoins addresses to receive payments.
Finally, you can easily transfer funds between accounts, with a low transaction fee (1%).
The safe deposit box of Coinbase Wallet
Coinbase offers a simple solution to secure your tokens Bitcoin: it’s the safe deposit box. It is always Coinbase that will host your portfolio, but with increased security.
On the one hand, it is possible to benefit from two-factor authentication.
In other words, each time a transaction request is initiated, Coinbase will send a confirmation link to two different addresses. This will require two confirmations to complete the transaction. These two confirmations may come from one person (you), or two people (you and a third party).
On the other hand, all withdrawals made may be canceled for a period of 48 hours.
The advantage? If you realize that a transfer was made without you being the originator, you have the option to cancel it – and thus avoid having your Bitcoins looted.
It is not advisable to keep your Bitcoins on one of these two supports.
Why? Just because you do not have access to the private keys of your wallet – it’s Coinbase that will keep them. And Coinbase teams could do whatever they want from your Bitcoins (which is still very unlikely).
But, rest assured: there are solutions to enjoy full control over your precious Bitcoins.
Use Coinbase to buy Bitcoins… but not to keep them
This solution consists simply of buying your Bitcoins on Coinbase, then transferring them to a “classic” wallet.
Many tools will allow you to create a free portfolio, independently to Coinbase (you can find them by clicking here).
You can also read this article to understand how to secure your wallet.
The multi-signature safe for maximum security
The most secure solution? Use a Coinbase multi-signature vault, so you can create and store your own private keys yourself.
The multisignature safe from Coinbase
What needs to be understood is that three keys will be created:
a Coinbase key, which will allow you to approve transactions from your Coinbase account
- a shared key (and encrypted with your password), which will be owned by you and pa Coinbase
- a user key, which only you
The advantage? You will need to have at least 2 of these 3 keys to be able to unlock funds.
So, if Coinbase closed the shop, you could still sign your transactions using your shared key and your user key. And Coinbase teams will never be able to dispose of your funds without your permission.
Midas
Crypto enthusiast who started from scratch. After a few years of hits and misses, I'm sure cryptos will change the world for the better (if we can manage to protect our privacy). As I learn, I'm building a portfolio of as many coins and tokens I can collect, including mighty bitcoin. Because who knows what lies ahead of us? I hope my articles will help you get started!
