It’s the hottest form of cryptocurrency on the market right now, with news publishers absolutely lapping up the stories of people making a serious amount of money courtesy of bitcoin.

However, while the rags to riches stories are obviously impressive, some doubts still linger regarding the security issues which can impact bitcoin.

Fortunately, there is hope. We will now take a look at some of the best bitcoin wallet steps you can take to ensure that your digital currency is as protected as possible.

Method #1 – Backing everything up

It sounds simple, but you might be surprised at the number of people who don’t opt to back up their bitcoin wallet.

When we talk about backing up, we’re referring to the process of duplicating the private keys that are stored in your wallet.

If you don’t follow this method, all sorts of things can go wrong. In the case of the paper or hardware wallet, there’s every chance that you might misplace the device and suddenly, your bitcoin currency is gone for good. Then, in the more technical wallets based on computers, corruption and hacking can occur. All of these issues can be mitigated if you at least place your keys in numerous other places, to guard against anything going wrong.

Method #2 – Encryption

Again, it’s another bordering on basic suggestion, but one that far few people implement. Even though you might have chosen a password that you don’t feel any of your friends or associates would be able to guess, this isn’t going to stop people who are actively hunting for weak passwords in a bid to break into bitcoin accounts.

A strong password is an absolute must with bitcoin. Sure, it’s not going to safeguard you against every possible eventuality, but it’s going to go a long way in doing so. If your password can be comprised of numbers, special characters, upper and lower case letters, you’ll be well on your way to creating a strong password. This will act as a deterrent to anyone who is looking for weaker accounts to pursue and ultimately, steal the currency from.

Method #3 – Multi-signature transactions

This final suggestion is a little more technical than anything else we’ve looked at so far, but there’s no doubt that multi-signature transactions can make a monumental difference to your bitcoin security.

The basis of a multi-signature transaction is in the name. If you want anyone to spend the bitcoins in your account, it will need to be signed by other people as well. These other people are assigned at the start of the process, but the principal is that it will be people who you have a lot of trust within, or who share an interest in the currency.

By requiring the input of several people at a time, it’s another way in which you can really push away potential intruders. Instead, it’s much easier for hackers to target those wallets who only have the minimum amount of security enabled.