Quote:
Originally Posted by _dave_
If the coins are on Coinbase, they are Coinbase's coins - not yours. Like storing US dollars in Ultimate Bet.
So NO. Your coins are not safe on Coinbase, or any other place where you are not the sole person with access to the private keys.
"Invest in a cold wallet for my hard drive" doesn't make sense, please read up on this subject and ask more questions until you are confident you know all you need to.
However, of all the online exchanges you could store coins, Coinbase is supposed to be a pretty solid one. Still certainly wouldn't trust them (or anyone) with BTC if the chain-split wars start happening in a month or two.
Coinbase is probably the best and "safest" exchange to store your coins on, if you're not confident in your tech ability to store them offline without screwing it up.
They offer a vault, which requires two separate email confirmations and a 48 hour waiting period to withdraw from it. Coinbase store >95% of their coins in cold storage, at least this is what they claimed to me in an email, so if they were to be hacked, in theory, your account should be safe. If they were to become insolvent, well, that's another story.
It's not ideal to keep your coins on an exchange, but it's understandable if you're new to the crypto space and don't have a full grasp on how it all works.