Anyone use crypto hardware wallets in Argentina?

[Brian_is_here]

What are the some of the most legit safest software wallets for your phone? Mercado Pago doesn't have an option to pay via BTC or receive BTC? I want to encourage people I know in Argentina to download something user friendly like whatever is the equivalent of Coinbase and then send around crypto.

Coinbase has a wallet: https://wallet.coinbase.com/

The biggest thing with crypto that you gotta understand... You are in complete control of the custodianship of your crypto. There is no one else protecting or helping you. If you lose your private keys and seed words, your money is gone and there is nothing you can do. And it is _very_ easy to either lose access forever or have all your money stolen from your own negligence.

Lets say you buy a hardware wallet... You write down your seed words and then keep the wallet and recovery words at home...
And your house burns down. That crypto is gone and never going to be recovered.

Or you lose the wallet and one day you got to recover your recovery words and can't find the paper your wrote it down on. POOF.

Or you leave your recovery words in your email and it gets hacked and the hacker sends your money out. POOF.

For some people, probably safer to leave your money on the exchange... unless you know the risks.

 

[Sequoia1321]

It looks like Gemini exchange is available in Argentina. https://www.gemini.com/areas-of-availability They seem like a reputable exchange.

 

[lunar]

What are the some of the most legit safest software wallets for your phone? Mercado Pago doesn't have an option to pay via BTC or receive BTC? I want to encourage people I know in Argentina to download something user friendly like whatever is the equivalent of Coinbase and then send around crypto.

If you are looking for a local equivalent of Coinbase, then Ripio is probably the closest thing. But again, keeping your crypto in exchange account is not safe.

You should probably start with small amounts, figure out how things work and only after that address your concerns about safety. Doing things in a safe way is pretty hard, especially if you don't understand the basics yet.

 

[Brian_is_here]

If you are looking for a local equivalent of Coinbase, then Ripio is probably the closest thing. But again, keeping your crypto in exchange account is not safe.

You should probably start with small amounts, figure out how things work and only after that address your concerns about safety. Doing things in a safe way is pretty hard, especially if you don't understand the basics yet.

Setting up 2FA and leaving on exchange is way safer in my opinion than trusting yourself to be 100% smart about the custodianship.

You can read article after article on how someone either lost their crypto, lost their computer, lost their wallet, lost their seed phrase, lost the wallet. Etc

You have way too much faith in someone going from 0 experience in custodianship to being a good custodian.

If you have 2FA (with either an Authenticator App or Yubikey) set up on a reputable exchange like Coinbase, I don't see that getting compromised. But I definitely feel like someone will lose possession of their keys before someone hacks their Authenticator App/Yubikey.

But then again, you don't need to be 100% in a hw wallet.. You could keep some funds around in various locations like a coinbase vault (has a time delay for withdraws), hardware wallets, and 2fa protected exchanges for varying levels of protection.

BUT again, i don't expect most people in the world to be experienced enough here.

I'll even ask this basic question: Do you use a unique password for every website you ever need a password for? If the answer is "Why would I want to do that" then you need to probably learn more about security essentials before you end up with too much money invested into crypto because that's just a recipe for disappointment.

Crypto is complicated yo.

 

[Sequoia1321]

Yes, there do seem to be lots of cases where people who kept their crypto in the hard wallet have then died or lost their seed phrase, and their crypto. For example, this article: https://thehustle.co/what-happens-to-your-bitcoin-when-you-die/amp/. I read somewhere that if someone passes away for example, the family of the person may be able to get the exchange to give them the crypto if the crypto was held by the exchange. Not an easy thing to do if that crypto was in a hardware wallet where nobody knows where the password is. If you put your crypto on a hardware wallet there’s also the issue of how well you can store your seed phrase, and who can you trust to keep it safe for you. Would you put that password in the will for example? Crypto is still in its infancy and I imagine these kinks will be be better worked out and there’ll be more options and common knowledge about how to go about it. I believe some banks might be getting into crypto custody, so I imagine that’ll be sort of like keeping your money in the bank, minus the FDIC insurance? The main issues I assume with trusting an exchange or some other third party to hold your crypto is fraud, some kind of accident or negligence, and hacking. But they may also have insurance coverage to protect you to some extent I assume if it gets hacked or something goes wrong. Just a matter of time probably before these things improve. I agree, for the average person might be a good idea to keep the crypto on one or a few reputable exchanges, maybe put the eggs in multiple baskets, including hardware wallets. And also having the 2 factor authentication and other security measures. Making sure your computer is clean and free from viruses, be careful of what apps you download and what websites you click on that are disguised as legitimate or even as another website, and be careful of emails and communications that look like they’re from a trusted source, have the same logo and design for example, but really are a disguise to hack your account. Or the account of someone you trust can get hacked and they might ask you for things. Or someone could post a link here saying this exchange is good, but really it be a fake site. So many ways one could get hacked, even very sophisticated people sometimes fall for them.

 

[Brian_is_here]

ive even heard of someone getting robbed by a 'friend' who got into their house, found the wallet, found the passcode of their wallet and then transferred the coins out.

at which point. proving a crime happened is pretty tough and finding someone to prosecute the crime is tougher.

At any rate, I don't think most people are ready to be their own custodian. Use 2FA with an app like Microsoft or Google Authenticator. And your exchange account is ... pretty secure and at least won't be lost due to your own negligence unless you do something silly like give someone your 2fa code over phone. At least with Gemini, Coinbase, and Binance all require _multiple codes_ and sometimes difference apps for 2fa.

I have little confidence in Joe Schmo holding his coins in a hardware wallet in a way that is both safe and secure. Coinbase isn't going to disappear like MtGox. If Coinbase were hacked, most of their coins are in cold storage so they'd only be able to take the circulating supply. It'd be a haircut for sure.. but not everything.

If your coinbase account were hacked even though you had 2fa set up... well. That's probably a phishing problem, which could easily be phished even if you had coins in a hardware wallet (people put their recovery phrase into websites...)

 

[Fiscal]

Coinbase has a wallet: https://wallet.coinbase.com/

The biggest thing with crypto that you gotta understand... You are in complete control of the custodianship of your crypto. There is no one else protecting or helping you. If you lose your private keys and seed words, your money is gone and there is nothing you can do. And it is _very_ easy to either lose access forever or have all your money stolen from your own negligence.

Lets say you buy a hardware wallet... You write down your seed words and then keep the wallet and recovery words at home...
And your house burns down. That crypto is gone and never going to be recovered.

Or you lose the wallet and one day you got to recover your recovery words and can't find the paper your wrote it down on. POOF.

Or you leave your recovery words in your email and it gets hacked and the hacker sends your money out. POOF.

For some people, probably safer to leave your money on the exchange... unless you know the risks.

I have Coinbase but it won’t let me use it when I’m in Argentina.

 

[Fiscal]

I think you need to break the concept of a wallet. The wallet is a piece of hardware (or software) that protects your private key to your cryptocurrency address.

A hardware wallet is more secure because its designed in such a way that your private key only exists on the hw wallet. Whoever wants send crypto from that wallet has to have physical possession of the wallet to send it.
A software wallet is less secure but more useful in that it can be installed on your cell phone, but then again, your phone is more of a risk because it can be hacked, stolen, or broken.

the typical path for people to "buying and selling" crypto currency is to find an exchange that they can transfer USD or ARS or what have you to. Exchanges are like... Coinbase, Binance, Ripio, etc. Once bought you can then transfer the crypto to "cold storage" which is usually your private wallet. this wallet could be a software wallet or a hardware wallet. From there you "hodl" the coins until they appreciate in value until you want to sell them. In which case you transfer back to an exchange, sell, and then transfer the proceeds in USD or ARS back to your bank account.

I personally buy on Coinbase, Cash App, and Robinhood. But these aren’t available to Argentinians.

 

[lunar]

At least with Gemini, Coinbase, and Binance all require _multiple codes_ and sometimes difference apps for 2fa.

He wants an exchange that operates with Argentina which is a quite different regulatory environment.

Coinbase isn't going to disappear like MtGox. If Coinbase were hacked, most of their coins are in cold storage ...

Or at least they say so.

The whole idea of bitcoin is to provide an alternative to traditional banking system and give you a freedom to do whatever you want with your money. If you replace Bank of America with Coinbase, you are just changing one organization you decided to trust with another one. So, it kind of undermines the idea.

 

[Brian_is_here]

I personally buy on Coinbase, Cash App, and Robinhood. But these aren’t available to Argentinians.

My recommendation is to stop buying on Robinhood. i don't think they let you move your keys out.

It looks like Coinbase only supports convert in Argentina. Which means you can buy BTC or whatever on CashApp, send to your BTC address in coinbase and then function as normal. If you ever want to convert back to USD or ARS, you need to send to an exchange that connects to Argentine banks (like ripio).

Although, i don't know your immigration status, but if you're a US resident, you should be able to buy/sell globally. So if you set up your coinbase appropriately that should work. If you set up your coinbase on an Argentine identity, i could see that being fundamentally limited.