Best Ethereum wallets for miners and holders

Today we will go over what I consider to be the most secure way to make transactions and hold your Ethereum coins.

When it comes to securing our crypto gains be it the ones we mined, traded, or even bought there is never enough protection mainly because there are many threats and hackers that want our precious coins, in this article, I will try to explain the best to my knowledge to be the best options for securing coins safely.

Type of wallets

There are many types of wallets out there, but today we will try to divide them into two categories, the hot and the cold wallets. Both of them have pros and cons, and it all depends on the type of use you want to give them.

Hot wallets

These wallets are called hot because they connect to the internet and are usually installed into our devices such as a computer or phone, exchange wallets are also included in this category.

Hot wallets are not secure at all and most of the time the owner doesn’t even have the private keys given to them or when they are given by the exchange or website that of course is connected to the internet, so it can easily be registered by a keylogger or hacker and not to mention the fact that these keys come from other sources that can easily store them.

Pros of Hot wallets

• easy to make transactions from anywhere in the world
• easy to check the balance
• accessible from any device or website

Cons of hot wallets

• easy to lose access to because of wrong passwords or forgotten phrase
• easily exposed to hackers and other users of the devices they are installed on
• if the device is stolen or damaged there are rarely any backups saved by the users

Cold wallets

Cold wallets are exactly the opposite of the ones mentioned above, these are not connected to the internet at all and don’t need to interact with any website or device. Cold wallets are very secure but remember that it comes to the owner of the wallet to keep it safe, do not write the 24-word phrase on your computer or on any device connected to the internet, write them down on a piece of paper and make several copies kept in a safe place.

Pros of Cold wallets

• perfect to store coins in a safe place and no need to carry them around you
• the wallet is owned by you, and only you know the keys and passphrase

Cons of Cold wallets

• hard to make quick transactions
• setup can be a bit hard for most beginners

How to pick a wallet

Of course, I would only recommend cold wallets to all miners and coin holders, but it’s not practical as mentioned above in the cons sections, and for that reason, I personally recommend that you own every type of wallet.

Use the exchange for making small transactions and keep a few coins there just so you can pay someone or the small Simple Mining fee, only keep there enough coins that if the exchange gets hacked or something happens it won’t make a dent in your portfolio. Exchanges are great when you are on vacation or on the road and need to make a quick transaction.

Use the app or desktop wallet applications instead of using an exchange as it’s usually a bit safer because you still have some control of it, and it’s less likely to get hacked.

Finally, use the hardware or cold storage wallet to keep your holding safe for a long time, keep the coins there, and don’t touch them for anything unless you plan to sell them.

Services recommend for each type of wallet

I am going to list a few services and websites that I use and used in the past with success and for that reason recommend that you use them also.

Exchanges: Binance and Coinbase

Desktop application: Exodus and Metamask

Websites: MEW — my ethereum wallet

Cold wallet: Ledger devices

Conclusions

All type of wallets have their place and time, but it’s important to remember to never ever share the 24-word passphrase with anyone, also keep these words in a safe place, don’t ever write them on a PC or device especially if it’s connected to the internet.

Use applications and exchanges only to trade or send/receive a small amount of coins as these can easily be hacked. If you use exchanges, set up 2fa authentication and have strong passwords that you never used on any other website.