The Lemon Fool

HI

Any thoughts on the best Cypto exchanges and wallets, either software or hardware to use?

Thanks

Just to add to my initial post, I currently use coinjar as my on / off ramp but there is little else this exchange allows you to do other than buy and hold AFAIK.

I also use binance for staking which I am guessing is the best all round exchange but am looking to diversify a bit so that i don't end up holding everything with one exchange. I am really looking for others that allow you to earn passive incomes on a wide range of crypto currencies.

Thanks

I have bought on Coinbase in the past and found them pretty straightforward (albeit passing funds via banks in Moldova makes me feel a bit twitchy). I then moved holdings to a "cold" hardware wallet in the form of a Ledger Nano. While not exactly a simple procedure, I find it more reassuring than keeping it on Coinbase even though they have a pretty well-secured "vault" option. I also moved some Litecoin into a paper wallet as an experiment. Compared to a hardware wallet, that's even more of a faff though so wouldn't recommend really.

I see it as all being up in the air, similar to many choices of browsers that at some point consolidate into a more common/preferred limited couple/few. The most commonly preferred/used. Where shops/outlets typically quote prices in Pounds or XXX, and a tendency to a no contest preference for XXX ... that isn't controlled by the state/central bank where transactions can be blocked imilar to how the US is sanctioning Russia (SETS international trade settlement system controlled by the US) to instead preferring XXX that is secure, trusted, offshore and simple (touch phones to pay or whatever).

A critical point for the central bank/state, if a large proportion of the population are using XXX instead of Pounds then that leaves them control/power-less. Where the harder they push to only permit Digital-Pound transactions, as that would require some pretty hefty controls/restrictions, so the rise/popularity of XXX alternative is more likely, even though it might be considered as being a black-market.

A shopkeeper who only accepts Digital Pounds transactions is going to lose business to another nearby shop that has XXX app on their phone and permits its customers the choice of payment method and where many prefer to pay by XXX. And as they make it harder for Digital Pounds to be converted to/from XXX, so might more demand that they are directly paid/pay in XXX. Potentially leading to a major collapse in the Pound (period of very high inflation), which in itself is likely to drive even more into XXX.

And yet, in the 14 years that Bitcoin has been available, none of that has happened.

Consumers haven't chosen to use it, shops haven't chosen to accept it.

What has actually happened is that in those 14 years traditional payment methods have become massively faster and easier to use, so you can buy something by just waving your phone at a reader.