I recently read a concerning and revealing post by the one and only @kingscrown offering valuable information about the Blockfolio app which I personally use A LOT. I saw several comments in his article asking what we could use as a replacement for Blockfolio but the questions remain unanswered.
This is a big concern for me as the main reason I got into cryptos in the first place is to stop having my whole life tracked by massive corporations who then sell data about me to other corporations. It's an especially big concern though because Blockfolio is incredibly practical and offers a fantastic overview of your current crypto assets.
Below is a picture of what it looks like. No it's not my portfolio and no I don't know who that random obese guy is in the messenger picture. :D
However, I have two solutions to solving these privacy concerns.
The first is extremely simple.
What likely worries some people is that hackers are tracking the BlockFolio accounts which have the largest overall value be that in Bitcoin or USD. Soo if your main concern is that you don't want people knowing how much money you have, then every time you add a buy or sell transaction to your BlockFolio, divide the number by 10. For example, you want to buy 133 Antshares - enter a buy transaction of 13.3 Antshares. If you want to sell 56 Antshares - enter a sell transaction for 5.6 Antshares.
If you want to go a level further then I can save you a bunch of time. I created an Google sheet with formulas where you can enter the exact amounts of whatever currencies you have in your portfolio as well as the USD/BTC price equivalents and the document will calculate the %'s and total value of your cryptocurrencies. This is perfect for anyone who makes trades irregularly and just wants an overview of how much they have of what and how much it's worth. Note that you will have to update the USD/BTC prices every now and then to get the true full value of your portfolio. This is what it looks like:
Here is the link to the Google Spreadsheet I created shown in the picture above:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zti8DqwCSBrxWjCch8NM53420u8Lt46aOhQj1WHGxnQ/edit#gid=0
Hope that helps!
Love,
Hooked2TheChain
Smart move. I actually divide my portfolio in the thousand so that owning 1000 steem looks like I own 1steem and having 10,000USD seems like having $10.00.
Good alternative. I like the spreadsheet one, that way no one can get access to your coinage. Keep up the great posts.
Nice! upvote and followed!
In case you didn't know, you can now use Google Sheets formula to reflect the current crypto prices.
Here is a sample:
=CRYPTOFINANCE("BTCUSD","price").
You can also replace "price" with "change", "marketcap", "volume", "total_supply", and I think a couple other options as well.
Addendum: Also, on Google Sheets, under the "MENU / ADD-ONS" you need to activate "CRYPTOFINANCE" in order to use in Google Sheets. I think it has to be activated for each individual Sheet that uses "CRYPTOFINANCE" formulas.
Happy Number Crunching!
Thanks for that Google Sheet tip!
Excellent tip! Thank you!
IMO, Google is the last entity I want knowing I am tracking BTC, ETH, etc.
Why the last? Seems there are way worse companies out there... Plus given how big Google is, I doubt they're interested in your portfolio, even if you had a $1mill worth of coins. I'm not too worried about Google. The information they collect on your everyday moves are way more valuable to them than what coins everyone owns. They're dealing with BILLIONS per day.
That's amazing, had no idea that Google Sheets was so extensible. Thanks for the tip bud!
I would like to recommend "Crypto Rewards" option of a spreadsheet tracker. He has great explanations on his Youtube site and the link for his spread sheet is here:
This is what I'm confused about: If I use BlockFolio as normal why does having accurate info about my holdings put me at risk? Wouldn't someone have to have my keys in order to access said holdings in order to affect me? Also whats wrong with changing the app permissions so that it can't leak information? Is that possible?
Not sure about changing the app permissions.
Put yourself in the shoes of a hacker. They can access a database of thousands of people's holdings. Knowing you have more than x amount of money in your accounts gives them good reason to hack into your phone.
In any case Blockfolio solved their security issue a while back.
Thank you
Nice One! :D Ill keep that in mind.
Thanks for the link, now I don't have to build this myself :-)
wow thanks! I just downloaded the excel sheet. :-)))
https://www.blockfolio.com/june_30_privacy_statement.html
I think Blockfolio is a great app. Yes, I've had concerns regarding data privacy, as we all should be these days.
Thank you for the detailed clarification.
I'd like to know know how Blockfolio is funded?
As with many apps, they have to get funding somewhere. Many are ad funded, but I don't recall seeing ads on BF.
I'd gladly pay for this app service if I knew my data was secure.
Very good minimalistic approach with the spreadsheet. Up voting for sure.
Hey regarding your spreadsheet, you mind explaining how we use the 2 rows BTC Unit Value & USD Unit Value ?
Unfortunately my investments are not large enough that it would be worth dividing :)
I'm new to this all. .. how do i actually purchase the coins off blockfolio or is it JUST a portfolio? I have coinbase but they only deal with 3coins. .. please help. .. thx
As simple as genius (y) get my up vote ;)
I recommend CoinTracking. I feel they are more responsible than Blockfolio
Good info to share with new coin holders who like the app but didn't consider the possible security risk. Thanks