Bitcoin wallet – which one should I choose?

What is a Bitcoin wallet? Before choosing the best Bitcoin storage, you need to learn more about its nature. It is also important who owns full control over the coins (the owner or a third-party service). The cryptocurrency is based on distributed ledger technology, and the Bitcoin wallet is an area of the Blockchain that contains a record of the amount of funds in the account and the transaction history. Bitcoin wallets have two types of keys, which consist of alphanumeric combinations.: The public key is an address (like an e–mail) from which the owner makes payments, and other participants in the transaction send their tokens to it. A private key is an analog of a password, in the absence of which it is impossible to gain access to coins. Types of Bitcoin Wallets To answer the question of which Bitcoin wallet to choose, let’s look at the possible types. Some experts identify two large groups, while others add an intermediate option. Hot ones This type includes software, mobile applications, and cloud services that are constantly connected to the Internet. All of them involve password access and instant transactions. Many mobile applications send notifications to traders about price changes or trade completion. Mobile wallets load quickly and have a user-friendly interface. A distributed Blockchain registry can work in two ways: download all transactions (smartphones don‘t have enough resources for this) or only the latest transactions. To lighten the load, mobile applications use only the last links of the chain and simplified transaction verification. Therefore, mobile wallets are more susceptible to hacker attacks than others. Web wallets are better protected from hacking. They are also easy to use and allow you to make a deal instantly. The danger is that the secret key is available to a third party, the server owner. This group includes Accounts of clients of cryptocurrency exchanges and also belong to the group of web–wallets. The desktop wallet is stored on the computer‘s hard drive. A light (or thin) client is a simplified version with downloading only the latest transactions. It is more susceptible to hacking. If a full Blockchain node is downloaded for a desktop wallet, such a client is called a fat one. And some classify the wallet as warm. It is the safest in the hot group. Cold ones A cold wallet for Bitcoin is not connected to the Internet, so it excludes hacking. A paper wallet is a sheet with public and private keys written on it. Hardware wallets look like a USB flash drive or a credit card that can be connected to a computer to make transactions. Some models have a display for entering a password. Additional virus protection is responsible for the security of the Internet connection. The best are: Ledger Nano S, TREZOR, KeepKey. Which Bitcoin wallet should I choose? The choice depends on the goals of the owner of the cryptocurrency. It is convenient for active traders who operate with relatively small amounts of Bitcoin coins to use exchange or mobile wallets. The latter option is one of the most unreliable, as the application is the easiest to hack. Cryptocurrency exchanges install multi-level protection and place 90-95% of funds in cold storage without Internet access. The only risk for investors is that the management of the exchange may disappear along with the platform. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to carefully choose a trading platform with a good reputation. Hardware wallets are a reliable way to store large amounts of BTC. But this method is not the best for trading, as you will have to connect to the Internet and make deposits on exchanges, and then withdraw funds again. Part of the amount will be lost on commission payments. Paper wallets have the same disadvantage. A wallet on a computer‘s hard drive with full or partial loading of the transaction chain requires a lot of PC power. It can take a long time to install the software. The software also needs to be updated regularly. The wallet address is linked to a specific computer, so if something happens to it, access to the coins will not be possible to return. Transparency of the wallet code Despite the saturation of the market with various types of cryptocurrencies, users‘ confidence in the absence of bugs and software bookmarks plays an important role in the popularity of certain representatives. This can be verified if the open source code is published, which anyone can study. Rather, it‘s not even about the deliberate leaving of loopholes and vulnerabilities by the developer (although this should not be ruled out either), but about the likelihood of accidentally missing some bug during testing, which fraudsters can later take advantage of. As a rule, only official wallets from the creators of cryptocurrencies can boast of open source code. This is partly why hacking cases are almost unknown. What type of Bitcoin wallet should you choose? The choice of the type of crypto wallet depends on many parameters: For what purpose are you planning to start a Bitcoin wallet? If you are going to use bitcoin as a store of value or as a long-term investment, then you need to opt for cold wallets. If you often need to make a lot of small transactions, then hot wallets are out of competition. How much money do you plan to keep? For a large number of coins, it is worth using cold storage; for small amounts, hot types of wallets are suitable. I need a bitcoin wallet in Russian. Most bitcoin wallets have support for a Russian-language interface, so there are practically no restrictions on the choice. If you are going to make money on exchange rate fluctuations, then there are no alternatives to an exchange wallet. When choosing a storage facility for your coins, the most important thing is to comprehensively study the advantages and disadvantages of existing wallets and sеlect the appropriate one based on its overall characteristics. There is no definitive answer to this question. Therefore, choose wisely. Security measures when storing Bitcoin! What rules should be followed to minimize the risk of losing your Bitcoin coins? –Never trust anyone with the private key to your wallet. –Try to connect all available protection methods: a complex password, a seed phrase, 2FA authorization, SMS alerts, a list of allowed IP addresses, etc. –Use hot wallets only in cases where you have planned any actions with your bitcoins: transfer, trade, etc. –Keep large amounts only on cold wallets. –Make multiple backups of your keys and store them in different locations. –Don‘t keep all the coins in one place. Following these simple rules does not guarantee absolute protection against theft, but it can significantly reduce its likelihood. As you can see, there is nothing difficult in creating a bitcoin wallet. Using the information obtained after reading this article, you will be able to choose the type of Bitcoin wallet that meets your requirements and set up maximum protection on it. Also, if you need to buy or sell bitcoin, it will not be difficult for you to use the services of our Bitcoin exchanger. TREDDR.org , who has been working for 5 years and has one of the best reputations on the Runet