Analysis

How to keep your Cryptocurrency secure?

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This year has been the biggest ever in terms of a bull run and expansion of the crypto market. With the market cap of all cryptocurrencies exceeding $600 billion, it is become an attractive target for hackers. To be safe from such risks, cryptocurrency owners have been moving the coins away from exchanges to wallets.

What is a Cryptocurrency Wallet?

A cryptocurrency is a secure digital wallet which allows you to send, receive and store your cryptocurrency.

In this post, we bring you the details about available wallets in the market and how you can decide while opting in for one.

Types of Wallets

1. Online Wallets – are the wallets which store the private key on their servers like Coinbase, Bittrex, etc. As a result, these wallets are insecure.
2. Hot Wallets – are accessed via an app or software installed on your device and uses Internet to make payments. However, this is used for small amounts only and not you whole money.
   1. Desktop Wallets – original Bitcoin client
   2. Mobile Wallets – Bread, Mycelium, Xapo, Blockchain
3. Cold Storage – allows to keep a reserve of your cryptocurrency offline
   1. Hardware wallets – are physical devices like USB or another storage media which can store your private keys electronically and enable payments. E.g. Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey
   2. Paper Wallets – are the cheapest option to store your coins safely. The services providing this feature generate two QR codes, one of which is the public key to receive coins and the other is the private key to make payments or send coins. e.g. MyEtherWallet

Criteria to choose a Cryptocurrency Wallet

Based on the above information, you must be already inclined to make a choice. Wait, till you read more to know about the additional features which must be considered while choosing a wallet to hold your digital currency.

1. Cost – some of the wallets are expensive thus may not be economical if you don’t hold large amount of cryptocurrency
2. Security – should keep your money safe
3. User experience – is the UI intuitive? Is it accessible easily? Convenience to spend coins?
4. Design – if appeal of the device is important for you.
5. Currency Support – if it supports single or multiple digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Ripple, Dash, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, Namecoin, etc.

 

Below, we present a quick comparison of the popular wallets to help you make a choice:

 

We would love to hear your experiences of using wallets. Send a tweet to us @InstaCoinNews