SELF CUSTODY It’s important that we have a good grasp of what self-custody really is if we are to fully understand how to safeguard our coins. There’s a classic phrase “not your keys, not your coins”, what this means is when you download a wallet app to your phone, or a desktop browser extension, you are the only person who ever has access to the private keys that holds the assets contained in that wallet. Nobody else has the ability to move the coins or any other assets contained in the wallet except YOU. If for instance, you create an account with Binance, Coinbase or any other CEX, you can buy/sell tokens on their platform as long as you are logged in, but in reality, you do not actually have the “keys” to any of the token or coin you have purchased on their platforms, what happens is that on the basis of you been being logged in to the platform with your password and all, you are granted access to the keys of the coins or token. This is why experienced traders prefer to keep their tokens in private wallets and only move to an exchange when they are ready to sell or buy as the case may be. This minimizes the time and exposure to third party risks while your coins are out of self custody.
Tip number one is to always feel confident in your ability to practice safe crypto storage and management and to mitigate the risk associated with not practicing self custody. In essence , self custody is having control of your coins or token fully, by having them in private secure wallets. A good example of one is the phantom wallet.

SETTING UP YOUR PRIVATE WALLET(S) Like I have stated earlier, self custody wallets embodies the true tenets of crypto, relying on no centralized party in between you and your very valuable assets. The catch here is that you must be able to move your assets off an exchange and into your wallet. The following section would be a brief walk through on the basics of using a browser wallet for storing funds, sending them to another wallet and the difference between hot and cold wallets. The wallet of interest here being the PHANTOM WALLET.
To really secure your assets when creating a wallet, a random string of 12 to 24 words known as seed phrase are created, this can be used to restore or transfer your wallet to another device in case of theft or loss. Next you should be familiar with your public wallet address, this is the address you share to receive tokens on the Solana blockchain… Thankfully, your wallet address can be used to receive token native to the Solana network including: STEP etc. It is important to note that a wallet for a network will not receive tokens not belonging to it, i.e. a BTC wallet address cannot receive STEP and vice versa.

In other to compensate the validators of the decentralized networks that aid and make transactions possible, a little fee known as “gas token” is usually paid on every transaction. On the Solana blockchain, SOL is the token used for the gas fee. This means that before using your newly created wallet, you should send a minimum amount of SOL to your wallet to cover for your initial transactions (about 0.1 SOL is alright).
Special care should be taken when copying the wallet address, as tokens sent to wrongly copied addresses cannot be recovered. It is advisable to send a little token (< $1) to test the address before sending the main funds. With this few tips, you are now on your way to fully practicing self custody and to fully enjoy the crypto universe. Keep STEPPING.