What’s the Best Crypto Wallet for You? (Explained in Cartoon)

By 7000GB™ on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

Published in

The Dark Side

4 min readDec 8, 2019

It’s important to bear in mind that when dealing with crypto, you are solely responsible for it. If it gets sent to the wrong address or you accidentally lose your wallet, that’s your fault. There is no 1–800-BITCOIN hotline you can call to fix that!

Now that you understand that, let’s talk about the five types of wallets to store your cryptocurrency. When it comes to choosing a wallet for your crypto, there is no single right answer. Each of them have their own pros and cons and will depend on how much you’re looking to store.

Let’s start with wallet type number one.

Hardware Wallets

Once you’re ready to step it up and play with the big coins, you should only consider getting a hardware wallet.

These are the safest form of wallet there is, they usually come in the form of a battery-operated USB looking thing with a few buttons and a small OLED display.

These hardware wallets are always being updated by the hardware companies and allowing you to store different cryptocurrencies on them.

Prices can range from $70-$180 depending on how fancy you get.

Warning: NEVER buy a hardware wallet USED or online UNLESS it’s directly from the manufacturer’s website.

Previous owners can still have access to the private keys and therefore hack into the wallets after being sold to you!

Personally I like the Ledger Nano S, it’s simple and gets the job done. They have great support and helped me out through a minor bug I had with viewing my funds.

Security Flaw: If you buy used, the previous owner can purchase a new one of the same wallets, restore their old private keys on it and gain access to your funds sitting on the one they just sold you.

Safety Rating: 5/5 Stars

Paper Wallets

For the most hardcore Bitcoin fanatics, the paper wallet is arguably one of the most secured forms of storage. It’s just a piece of paper with your private keys and public address on it.

There is absolutely no way to get hacked unless someone physically takes the paper with your private keys on it. This is great if you’re a 7-foot hulk and everyone’s scared of you.

But not so much If you have a bad memory and misplace things, ha.

Security Flaw: Human nature.

Safety Rating: 5/5 Stars

Mobile Wallets

If you’re storing a small amount of crypto a mobile wallet will probably suit you just fine. These types of wallets offer the most convenient and easiest user interface. Careful though, these “hot wallets” are always connected to the internet and as such cause for some extra things to consider:

The Developer Community: How frequently is the wallet updated? Is there active support from the dev community?
- Private Keys: Are you given control of your private keys or are they stored by the company?
- Backup: What are the backup and security features of the wallet in case you lose your private keys or accidentally delete the app?
- Compatibility: Will it work only on iOS? Android? BlackBerry? GameBoy? (Uh…. I think I lost my private keys…)

Security Flaw: You are at the mercy of the developer community and online hackers.

Safety Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Web Wallets

Similar to hot wallets, these are always connected to the internet. Some web wallets have pretty UI’s and host the private keys for you while others are a little uglier but are non-hosted and give you full control of your keys.

(It’s okay MyEtherWallet, I like you for what’s on the inside :-)