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The blockchain technology is absolutely contagious and it attracts more and more investors every day. If you are one of those investors a classic issue that you will face is discovering the right wallet. In my last post I’ve talked about the basics and the types of the digital wallets. Today I would like to say a few words about the safest wallets out there. If you are new to the cryptocurrencies always the best way is to:
- Download the official wallet from the coin, from their official website
- Purchase a hardware wallet or make a Paper wallet
- Hardware wallets
If you would like to have a maximum security of your investment and you are planning to deal with a lot of high value cryptocurrency, a hardware wallet is a must. Hardware wallets are known as cold wallets, because they are not connected to the internet. Hackers and malware will find it very difficult to access your wallet, even if they physically steel it from you. You can use your cold wallet to transfer funds to your online hot wallet, and then unplugged it again and keep it on a safe place. This wallets are not expensive, although some of them can cost more than 100$. So let’s have a look at some of the safest hardware wallets out there:
- LedgerNano
It supports Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Ethereum based altcoins. The Ledger Nano is a small USB device with OLED display to double check transactions. It has a pin code unlock system and 2FA authentication. His price is around 80$.
- Trezor
Is the oldest hardware wallet on the market.Trezor might lack some of the modern features that LedgerNano has, but it is still very secure than almost every wallets out there. Trezor also supports more cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash and a few more. His price is around 100$.
- KeepKey
It is considered one of the most safest hardware wallet on the market. It allows you to store unlimited number of private keys. With KeepKey you can store Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Dodge, Namecoin. His current price is around 120$.
- Software wallets
The software wallets are considered as hot wallets, because they are connected to the internet most of the time, and this makes them vulnerable to attacks. Here you have desktop, mobile and online wallets. Although the hot wallets are vulnerable, many of them are still safe. So the best thing is, as the saying goes: Do not keep all of your eggs in the same basket. A good balance is to keep your long-term funds in a cold wallet and the funds that are ready to use in a hot one. And the most important thing when you are using hot wallets is to implement a maximum security like: updating your software regularly, don’t keep your funds on exchanges, keep your keys protected, use complex passwords and 2FA factors. Now, let’s see some of the safest hot wallets:
- info
Blockchain is more for Bitcoin, BitcoinCash and Ethereum. It is mobile based app for both IOS and Android. It also acts as a web based wallet. The Blockchain wallet is free, and you can make account right away.
- MyEtherWallet
This wallet is specifically made for Ethereum currency. This wallet is user friendly as it allows you to create a new wallet without having to download the blockchain, as you simply use the web-based application. You do not have to create an account in their server. You must simply create a wallet, which is yours to keep, where you may broadcast your transactions on the blockchain through their full node
- Jaxx
The biggest advantage of Jaxx is that it supports many of the leading cryptocurrency platforms such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and many more. It can be downloaded on the mobile device or you can open it on the web. Jaxx has very good security and privacy settings as your private keys are sent to your local device and never to any servers. This means that you have full access to your crypto funds and Jaxx does not hold or have access to any of your funds.
- Exodus
Exodus is a very solid desktop wallet that lets you store Bitcoin, BitcoinCash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and many more. Like other desktop wallets, Exodus stores cryptocurrency assets directly to your machine. Exodus is a lite wallet, you never have to download the whole blockchain.
- Bread
Bread was previously known as breadwalletand it is a free digital wallet app for bitcoin. It is one of the easiest mobile wallets for beginners. All you need is to download the wallet, choose a passcode and you are ready to send and receive your currencies. There are no login names and passwords. For now it only supports Bitcoin.
- Paper wallets
A paper wallet is simply a public and private key printed together, usually in a QR form and the letters and numbers serving as the address. It is an offline wallet, and it is regarded as a type of cold storage. Some paper wallets have a nifty design that you can cut fold and seal. This papers are totally cold. If someone finds your paper, it can steal your finds. So you need to make sure that the paper printout is on a very safe place. Also you must be careful for the ink not to fade away with time, making the keys unreadable. No readable keys, no coins. Here are some good paper wallet generators:
- org and Walletgenerator.net
This wallets are open source random address and key generators that uses your browser’s JavaScript engine, so no keys are sent over the internet. By moving your mouse around you create entropy and mix up the characters even more is fun. That random sequence is then used to generate your public and private keys, which are displayed on the next screen for printing.
- Mycelium
Mycelium offers an original and even more secure way to generate paper wallets, that is with a USB dongle that you plug in directly into your printer. The device generates a paper wallet that automatically gets printed out, without ever having touched your computer.
These are some of the safest wallets out there on the internet. Please, do not mind if I have missed some wallets. Again, the security is all up to you. What type of security you are going to choose. The safest option are hardware and paper wallets. Although the hardware wallets may seem expensive at first, they offer the most complete cryptocurrency storage option, combining both safety and functionality. The paper wallets are also very secure, but you must take care of the paper printout.
You store it in a safe place, somewhere where it can’t be damaged. You can make even several copies of the paper. The least secure option is an online wallet, since the keys are held by a third party. It is the easiest way to set up and use. Nevertheless, there are some decent hot wallets as well. Whatever option you will choose, please be extra careful. The final decision is always yours and you should stick with the wallet which lets you get a sweet good night’s sleep.
Thank you for reading.
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