When you connect a trading bot to your exchange, you do not hand over your password. You create an API key. That key decides exactly what the app can do in your account, and one setting matters more than all the others: whether it can withdraw.
What an API key is
An API key is a code your exchange gives you so that an app can act on your account without your password. It usually comes in two parts, the key and a secret. You create it in your exchange's settings, choose what it may do, and paste it into the app.
You can have more than one key, and you can delete any of them at any time. Deleting a key cuts off the app that used it straight away.
The permission that matters most
Exchanges name their permissions differently, but two of them decide how much harm a key could ever do.
| Permission | What it allows | What Atheron does |
|---|---|---|
| Trade | Place and cancel orders in your account | Asks for it |
| Withdraw | Send money out of your account | Refuses any key that has it |
A key that can trade but cannot withdraw can buy and sell inside your account. It cannot move your money anywhere else. If that key were ever copied, whoever held it still could not send your funds out.
Why we refuse, not just ignore
Some apps accept a key with withdrawal switched on and promise never to use it. We do not. If a key can move money out, Atheron will not accept it. A key that could empty your account should never be given to software, ours included.
That fits the rest of how Atheron works. We never hold your money. It stays with your exchange, in your name, the whole time.
Five habits that keep a key safe
- Leave withdrawal switched off. If any app asks you to turn it on, stop and ask why.
- Lock it down further. Most exchanges let you limit a key, for example to certain markets. It takes a few minutes and needs nothing from us.
- Keep the secret secret. Paste it into the app once. Never send it by email or chat, and never share a screenshot of it.
- Use one key per app, and name it. Then you know which key to delete if you stop using an app.
- Check after you save. Open the key in your exchange's settings and confirm what it is allowed to do.
If you delete the key
Atheron stops trading for you at once. Everything already in your account stays where it is, with your exchange. You can create a new key and connect again whenever you choose.
Try it with paper money first
Until launch, Atheron trades with paper money only, at real market prices. You can watch how it behaves before anything of yours is at stake.