I bought 5$ worth of bitcoin a few years ago. It's now worth around 200$, wish I bought more LOL.
So I'm trying to learn how to use it. I understand that a bitcoin wallet consists of the public address that you use for payments, and a file containing private key information.
The exchange at which I purchased bitcoin will not export my private key information for me. They do, however, allow withdrawing and sending to another bitcoin address.
Why do some exchanges not allow import/export? As I understand it, if I knew what I was doing, I could interface with the bitcoin network without going through an exchange, is that correct?
Sorry, total newb here!