Bitcoin and Ethereum are so slow and have such high fees that they actually actively encourage centralization by way of leaving your coins inside exchange wallets you do not actually own.

Transferring it to your wallet takes the energy equivalent of burning like 20 gallons of gasoline or something, instead of just updating a micro penny database transaction.

This is such a trope.

Do you pull your funds from interactive brokers after you're done trading?

What about vanguard? 401k?

I don't know about your brokerage, but my fidelity cash management account sweeps money into a set of FDIC insured bank accounts, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for your coins. And anything that is parked in a security is protected by SIPC from the brokerage going insolvent.

What will happen to your assets if coinbase's systems become inoperable or if customers try to withdraw more coins than coinbase has on hand? Ask Mtgox customers how they feel about where to park coins.

> Ask Mtgox customers how they feel about where to park coins.

Your crypto is _not_ yours unless it is "kept" on a hardware wallet. End of story.

You don't need a "hardware wallet" for this. You just need your private keys.

If I could withdraw thousands of dollars in cash from IB instantly and put them in a secure hardware wallet where they take no space, you bet I would do it every time I was done trading.

In many cases it is probably goood choice to keep the coins in custodial, but the fact that you have a possibility for self-custody is great.

It’s not a trope. It’s being realistic about the problems and advantages of crypto. Problem: Counterparty risk from crypto exchanges is much, much higher than that of traditional banking. Advantage: Self-custody of crypto is much more secure than stuffing stock certificates under your mattress. Solution: Exchange crypto on crypto exchanges. But, don’t rely on them for custody any longer than necessary.

The amount of bitcoin on exchanges - including Coinbase - is at an all time low.

People are learning the paradigm of self-custody, which the blockchain supports.

You can stick with DTCC freezing markets, we arent.

I trust Vanguard.

I don't trust the exchanges in the cryptocurrency world, coinbase maybe excepted.

I'm not sure how you can pull stocks from an exchange once you're done trading.

Personally, I deposit coins into an exchange, do my trade and withdraw it as soon as possible. Not just because I think there's a risk they might get hacked, etc, I also don't want them to hold my funds later on for reason x,y,z.

You can move them to the DRS (https://ibkr.info/article/2192) but then it while take a while to move it back to your broker if you want to trade.

In practice, you cannot take ownership of your certificates any more. There may still be brokers that do it, but fewer all the time. Stocks are held in street name and the brokers like it that way.

It's great that you _can_ do this, but... a lot of times it does not make sense.

Still, the option to do so is very important and valuable.

Would you ever want a paper stock certificate? https://www.giveashare.com/stock.asp?buy=google-stock

Obligatory: https://notyourkeys.org