Good morning fellow steemians. I joined Steem just this month and my first surprise was realising my wallet was open for anyone on or off site to view and see exactly how much I earn and how much I’m holding. This is highly unusual for many in the crypto game.
The very nature of cryptocurrency is that the owner is 100% responsibly for the security of their funds, so having them on display for me at least is counter intuitive.
In the few weeks I have been on Steem I have noticed many people holding their hard-earned Steem on the Steemit platform. As much as I love Steem, I would never hold any amount of Crypto (steem) on a platform I wasn't willing to lose. As from my 2-year experience in the crypto world I have learned that if you are not in full control of your crypto i.e holding it in a personal wallet, then you don't really hold it at all.
The good thing is there are ways to fully secure your Steem.
Having your own personal crypto wallet is the best bet. I learned this the hard way. Last year I made over $1000 on a platform only for it to disappear one day when that platform got up and left with everyone's funds. I am not suggesting that Steem will do the same. But in the crypto game I trust absolutely NO ONE.
(Mt Gox) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox
(bitconnect) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitconnect
So if you hold more Steem than you care to lose get it in a personal wallet.
Personally, I trade my Steem for Bitcoin and hold that in my personal bitcoin wallet. Then if I ever need to power up I can just trade back to Steem and send it back to my Steem account.
I realise that for many people Steem is their first encounter with cryptocurrency and may not be aware of the risks of holding your funds anywhere other than in your personal wallet. Also not having the knowledge or confidence to move it to a personal wallet.
There are many ways to do this. Personally I prefer to send my steem to a trading exchange, trade it for bitcoin and then send that bitcoin to my personal wallet. I do this as I prefer to hold bitcoin than any other currency ( waiting for that ETF)
So if you have never considered this, here are some links to help.
Personal Wallets
https://sites.google.com/a/cloudriser.com/blockchainbruvahz/wallets
Trading exchanges
https://sites.google.com/a/cloudriser.com/blockchainbruvahz/exchanges