Quote from: Python86 on December 30, 2017, 01:29:32 PM

Quote from: mjglqw on December 30, 2017, 08:42:06 AM

"if you don't control your private keys, you don't have any bitcoin"

Coinbase is a centralized wallet, meaning, if they wanted to lock up your account for some random reason, they can. If you're only going to invest like £200, then use Exodus wallet[1] instead, so you can hold most of your coins on a single wallet. If you're going to add up some funds in the future though, I suggest purchasing a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S[2] and Trezor[3]. I can't stress this enough, a hardware wallet is an essential in terms of securing your investments.

You can only buy bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum through Coinbase. To purchase ripple, send some BTC/ETH to an exchange like Bittrex[4] and or Binance[5] and exchange those coins for some Ripple.

[1] https://exodus.io
[2] https://ledgerwallet.com
[3] https://trezor.io
[4] https://bittrex.com
[5] https://binance.com

Thank you to both responses, I appreciate the advice. Just to add to this response in particular, I've checked out the sites and didn't realise a hardware wallet was what it is. I thought you buy software and install it to a normal external hard drive lol. Anyway, my other worry is, if you buy a hardware wallet, and the exodus wallet for that matter. If the computer has viruses will that still lead to the BitCoins potentially being hacked from the security keys being exposed etc? Also once you buy the coins, is it easy to transfer them to these wallets? Thanks again

Since Exodus Wallet is a software wallet which is installed on your computer, then yes your keys can be stolen, causing the hackers to steal your coins. Not with hardware wallets though, because in hardware wallets like trezor and ledger nano s your keys don't actually leave the hardware device. So yes, hardware wallets are miles safer than any other wallet.

And yes, transferring bitcoins is pretty easy, as long as you're 100% sure that you're sending the coins to the correct wallet address.