Crypto Wallet 101
A very simple guide about crypto-wallet
What is a Crypto Wallet?
Wallets are software that can be used to store cryptocurrency you own outside of crypto exchanges. Essentially a wallet is like your online bank account platform, your address is like your account number, the blockchain is like the bank’s ledger, and with custodial wallets the custodian is a bit like your banker.
What kind of Wallets are there?
— Desktop Wallets: The most common type
— Web-based Wallets: The convenient type
— Smartphone Wallets: The accessible type
— Physical Wallets: The most secure type
Why use a wallet?
Too keep it incredibly short: Your wallet, your money! This means that only you have access to your wallet and unless you give your key away, it will continue to stay in your possession only. Personally i keep my long term crypto investments in wallets and everything else on the exchanges.
Safety
Whatever you do, do not give your personal key to anyone, EVER! Your key is your password. However, do not confuse this with the wallet Address, which you can give away safely.
A metaphor for this is: You need to give your address to the postal company so that they can send you your packet, but you do not want to give them the key to your house, car, and safe.
Another important thing to note is that you should always ensure that you are sending your crypto to the correct addresses. Due to the nature of blockchain, bitcoin needs to be sent through the bitcoin network and land on a bitcoin address. If you send your bitcoin to an address on the ethereum network you may lose whatever you send. You do not want to do this because there are no customer service that will assist you in restoring this.
So always make sure that you use a Wallet that supports whichever crypto it is you want to store, and also always ensure that you use the correct exchange wallet address when you withdraw funds from your wallet to an exchange
What wallets should i look into?
This depends on which network your coin or token is associated with and which wallets supports this network. Do some research on what the various wallets support. Due to there being so many different wallets for so many different coins I will just list a few I have used and/or use for your convenience: Hardware (physical):
— Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/products/crypto-starter-pack?r=a6d031b96379
— Trezor: https://trezor.io/?offer_id=12&aff_id=7213&source=cryptohub Software:
— Exodus: https://www.exodus.com/
— Atomic Wallet: https://atomicwallet.io/
— Metamask: https://metamask.io/
— Daedulus (ADA wallet): https://daedaluswallet.io/
— Phantom (SOL wallet): https://phantom.app/
— Terra Station (LUNA wallet): https://station.terra.money/