What Is The Best Crypto Wallet For A Low Effort User?
Do I need a Crypto Wallet?
There‘s only one correct answer to this — Yes. Cryptocurrencies have already changed the order of things we are used to, and it is impossible to imagine the world of today without them. Plus, the crypto world gets more attractive since it promises us more financial freedom in the face of political and economic instability.
Now, that we clarified that, let’s dive into this beginner-friendly guide to what a crypto wallet is, why you need it, and which ones are worthy of storing your money.
How do Crypto Wallets work?
Unlike a physical wallet where you store money and cute family photos, your crypto wallet will not literally store tokens and NFTs; rather your funds are actually held on the blockchain. In essence, every crypto wallet provides a public address and private keys to access your funds kept on the blockchain.
What types of wallets exist?
First off, let’s draw a line between so-called hot and cold wallets.
🔥 Hot storage (software) wallet creates your private keys online and stores them on your computer or any other device;
❄️Cold storage (hardware) wallets generate and keep your private keys offline.
Custodial Hot Wallets
At the same time, hot wallets fall into two more categories — custodial and non-custodial ones.
- Hardware wallets (aka cold): Ledger, Trezor, SafePal
- Custodial hot wallets: Coinbase, Binance, OKX, etc.
- Non-custodial hot wallets: MetaMask, TrustWallet, Arctic Wallet
🏦 Custodial wallets are, essentially, exchange wallets.
- When you purchase crypto through an exchange it’s going to be stored on that exchange;
- Private keys will not actually belong to you;
- Such wallets often demand you to undergo a KYC procedure which is making your personal data vulnerable.
So we never consider it as a place to really store funds.
Non-custodial Software Wallets
📲 A non-custodial hot wallet is software that stores wallet private keys on your device connected to the Internet.
Let’s check what functions and features these wallets usually have taking the Arctic Wallet as an example:
- Allows you to store multiple currencies (e.g. Arctic has more than 150 most popular tokens);
- Enables cross-chain transactions;
- Includes exchange option;
- Integrates charts to follow the price in real-time;
- Offers lower fees than any exchange wallets;
- Has Mobile, Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) apps;
- Ensures privacy as all the data is encrypted and stored on your device, not authority servers.
Conclusion
If you need to ease your transactions, instantly buy/sell, and exchange crypto without moving your funds into exchanges and back a non-custodial software wallet is the best way to keep your funds.
