In order to get started with crypto you need a good crypto wallet.
However, navigating through the sea of crypto wallets can be stressful at first.
So let’s try to figure it out together!
What is a crypto-asset wallet?
A crypto-asset wallet is a safe wallet that keeps your private/public keys. Essentially, it is sort of a bank account for your crypto-assets.
Crypto-asset wallets vary from traditional ones in that they don’t store currency but rather private keys. As a means to make transactions in crypto the private key contained in the wallet should correspond to the public address the crypto asset is assigned to. No real exchange of coins happens.
You do have the choice to keep your private/public keys in an exchange. However, it is highly discouraged, since you won’t be able to govern your private and public keys. The exchange functions like a bank in this case.
What types of crypto-asset wallets are there?
Paper Wallet
A paper wallet is a document that contains your public/private keys and can be used in order to participate in crypto transactions.
A great benefit of paper wallets is that they are highly secure from hacks, since they aren’t located in a piece of software. However, with that in mind you should be careful so that no one watches you while you generate the wallet.
Also, the wallet should always be carefully protected from damage. Paper wallet isn’t ideal for active traders and is used for storage of long term holdings.
Web Wallet
Web wallets work via the internet and are accessible from various browsers.
Web Wallets are regarded as hot wallets and are generally used to keep funds for short term. They are greatly prone to distributed denial-of-service attacks. Thus, web wallets should be treated with caution.
Coinpayments: https://www.coinpayments.net/
Desktop Wallet
Desktop wallets contain your private and public keys on the hard drive of your computer. As a rule, they are much more secure compared to web wallets. However if the computer gets a virus or gets hacked you can lose your funds.
Despite that wallets that operate on desktops are among the most convenient solutions for active traders.
Electrum: https://electrum.org/#home
Mobile wallets
These wallets are perhaps the most useful of the bunch for payments.
Mobile wallets for quite some time were thought to be less secure compared to desktop wallets and weren’t used for long-term holdings. This was because phones can take up viruses with ease.
However, this year CoinStats, a cryptocurrency portfolio tracker,also known as coin tracker launched their guaranteed Secure Wallet, which has military-grade security. It’s a hardware wallet phone application.
CoinStats Secure Wallet (iOS and Android): https://coinstats.app/wallet/
Hardware Wallet
The utmost secure way of storing your keys is no doubt a hardware wallet. Money theft incidents haven’t yet registered with hardware wallets.
Hardware wallets are USB-like devices with a screen. It also doesn’t require a battery and can be connected to a phone or a laptop.
Ledger Nano X: https://shop.ledger.com/products/ledger-nano-x?r=9621
Conclusion
Overall, there are various types of crypto wallets. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages and special use cases. However, it all comes down to personal preference and the reason why you use crypto.