For obvious reasons you cannot duplicate your digital wallet or cryptocurrency , but you can still ensure you do not keep it at your physical location and off the Internet .
Difficult market
But it is not only data that needs to be kept safe . South Africans recently joined thousands of people from around the world in falling prey to a Bitcoin scam that resulted in losses of more than US $ 50 million . Promising unrealistic weekly returns of 14 % in exchange for an investment of close on R12,000 , this turned out to be too good to be true .
Even before news of the scam broke , the South African Reserve Bank ( SARB ) stated its intention to review its position on private cryptocurrencies . This entails assessing the growth of FinTechs and to consider the regulatory implications of cryptocurrency .
Beyond that , investors should consider the consequences if exchanges should go down and they are left unable to trade their cryptocurrencies . One such recent example is the Kraken exchange that was taken down for scheduled maintenance but was only up and running after a delay of more than 48 hours , with investors unable to trade during a highly volatile period on the market , meaning they lost out on significant returns . Just imagine something like this happens on a real exchange operating in pounds , dollars and a myriad of other currencies .
Maintaining your strategy
Returning to our IT worker , he might eventually be able to find the drive and access those coins but the chances of that happening are close to zero . However , if the cryptocurrency had been stored in the cloud then he will always be able to access it ; if he hadn ’ t lost the wallet seed or access key to do so too .
Cryptocurrencies , very much like our reliance on data , are here to stay . It ’ s not just the trading aspect that poses a risk , it is about how best you approach your investment ’ s accessibility and backups . Putting the appropriate steps in place and ensuring the availability and continuity of access to your digital wallet will rely on proven strategic principles that big business adopt with their critical data . Much like the IT bubble of the 90s , users must resist the temptation to blindly adopt the ‘ shiny and new ’ if it is at the expense of traditional operating procedures . It is best to combine the strengths of both elements to keep that cryptocurrency safe .
Thankfully you don ’ t need to be a cryptography expert to take some of these basic security steps to protect yourself against most attacks . And if nothing else , don ’ t lose that wallet seed or access key , or risk taking a ride on not just a financial rollercoaster , but a security one too . u
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