Don't forget to backup secret key because it's very important when you lose your device. Make sure it's well written on the piece of paper or make a backup copy in your USB device or PC.

I just want you to add this method because the android google authenticator doesn't have a backup feature unlike in laptop/PC.

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

• There is no 2FA option for Bitcointalk.
• Google authenticator 2FA (I think it's called time based 2FA?) is flawed as it assumes your computer is clean at the time of 2FA activation, if there is some kind of malware on your computer it could simply steal your 2FA key (secret key)

You should never use the same machine to log in and store 2FA keys. This is the whole point - your 2FA key is in one place, and your login/password in a completely different place. If your PC will be breached and login information was stolen - your account is still safe, and if you lose your device - auth codes are useless because nobody knows login/password or even what they suppose to open.

Even though you should not use the same device to get OTP and log in it is relatively safe to neglect this rule on mobile, since mobile environments often use means to isolate mobile apps from each other (Android phones are slightly more vulnerable compared to iOS but still mostly safe to use).

Stay safe!

I have already downloaded Google Authenticator and it seems it only works on smart phone. I have used the email which is connected to my phone.

Now it work even if I used my PC still ask for a 2FA google authenticator. However, I am only picking some website that should be used with 2FA google authenticator for it will be annoying also if it will be applied to all websites.

This is simplified enough , any newbie that have further questions can ask ,I'm sure many people are here to respond approximately.

It should also be noted that the 16Digits code should be kept safely

Consider this scenario:
1. Your computer is infected with malware.
2. You set-up account on exchange and enable 2FA.
3. You fund your account on exchange from another device/ hardware wallet - you think you're safe, you're using hardware wallet and exchange account is secured by 2FA
4. After few days you find out that someone stole your coins from exchange - how this could happen???

Well, the answer is simple, points 1&2 - you received 2FA secret key on infected PC, so 2FA won't stop robbers.

But 2FA job is to secure you account against malware, it doesn't protect from hacks etc. contrary to what many people believe.

I just want to add about my experience with 2FA Authenticator which gives me a problem (well because this was new to me), I wanst able to log in however I try to encode my code and discovered that the time settings in my phone is different from the net. i just changed my time settings to set automatically and viola! its good. Just sharing, maybe some can meet this problem.

I don’t know how anyone, but I don’t like Google Authenticator, problems with it alone, the code is not correct that time, and I came across a similar program but many times better is Authy, everything can be done easily and backups easily

Nice guide OP but imo I think Authy is a far much better alternative to the once popular Google Authenticator because

• Authy automatically backups 2FA data which google can not
• Authy has several ways of getting back onto your account unlike limited ways of Google 2fa
• Lastly the interface is user friendly too