Topic: Understand your wallet (Read 405 times)

It's true. Sometimes your mentor could be wrong too. But, as a responsible person, you should research further to know more about it. You don't have to believe everything they say. Well, Now I remember one thing. ICT subject was included in our curriculum and one of our ICT teachers barely understood the html back then. Still, he was taking our class and I knew HTML better than him at that time. I saw that he made a mistake in the table code but he couldn't find where the typing mistake was. It is true that mentors or even teachers could be wrong, but it is our responsibility to do further research.

How did you come up with this, and how sure are you that what you said is accurate. So many people find out about Bitcoin online, without the help of anyone; they hear about the "internet money" that is Bitcoin and they become interested.
Trust wallet is not on the list of "best" wallets to use, it is non-custodial, but it is closed source, and trust wallet users complain quite a lot about bugs affecting their wallet.
I'd remove ledger from that list. Mind you that not all non-custodial wallets are good and advisable to use.

You could have cut your original post very short, just tell them to do research on crypto wallets before using them to store funds, as some are custodial, meaning that the wallet builders are responsible for keeping the wallet private keys which is a very bad sign.

I was once a victim of few custodial wallets too as I was unable to tell the difference, you could have also make few list of the best crypto wallets for storing assets, like Electrum and Trust wallet, the best type of crypto wallets are always open source and also non-custodial.

Examples of bad crypto wallets are..

Block chain wallet, Free wallet, BitMeX, BinanCe, BitGo, Xapo wallet and many others.

Examples of good crypto wallet aka Non-custodial are..

Electrum, Unstoppable, Wasabi, Ledger and Trezor, etc.

Most people who first learned about bitcoin and expressed interest in it were guided by a mentor. They tend to follow the mentor's instructions rather than conducting their own research. Bitcoin wallet will be the last thing they research after learning about bitcoin. A mentor will not want you to be vulnerable to attacks, but you should not expect him to explain why he chose this particular wallet for you until you conduct your own research. I don't blame the mentors, and I don't blame the new users for not knowing more about those wallets. Something will definitely occur at some point that will make them understand why a wallet is most preferred and more secured over the other one.

I am sure I haven't written that you should pick a mentor online or a stranger as a mentor. There is no reason I would hear what a stranger says about what should I do with my crypto. You may have a good friend who knew many things when you were a crypto newbie. You could have got some idea from him. It is never guaranteed that your friend will be right with the information. But, what I was saying is that it's important to have a good mentor when you start.

I understand that this is a debatable statement. Sometimes, we fail to learn everything on our own. Sometimes we learn new things online, from friends, and even from strangers. The good practice is, when you hear something new from someone, you should research further.

Your mentor could be wrong. I have this guy that was asking for my free time to teach him how to use P2P on centralized exchanges, particularly Binance. Due to my schedule, I was busy so we book a day to meet up by the weekend and we got into discusion and there is one discussion that really caught my attention. He was introduced to bitcoin true a blockchain wallet, many people like it because since they give you private keys and think it's decentralized but what they are doing isn't full ownership control. You may be asked to do KYC and that is completely different thing, I don't know if I should called it non custodial with Kyc  or custodial but the fact that your account can be seize is a useless wallet and I advise him to stop using the wallet because there has been report of wallet locked by the company.

No matter what they say to you on the internet about bitcoin, make sure you do more research about the statements, verify more if the information is legit or not accurate, this will save you from anything that will harm you because improper information will get you to places you're not meant to be in the first place. Even your mentor that is giving you all the information needed will could be wrong, don't trust but always verify.

Based on what do you trust strangers to be your mentor(s)? That was more or less my specific question if that wasn't clear.

I could ask this question myself, too. Well, what's my answer to it? I observe what some presumably reputable members here post. Based on their overall postings, opinions, knowledge (I can't read all, obviously) I assess their trustworthiness. Some of those users I assign some sort of virtual trust, some are deliberately in my trust list, I acknowledge their judgement and compare it with my own knowledge and opinion. I don't trust them blindly, it's just that I'd grant them more "weight".

If I lack the knowledge to do my own research and make up my own opinion on a subject my next steps are clear for me: brush up my knowledge unless I fail to comprehend something too complex for my brain.

You do not have to trust anyone with your seed phrase or any sensitive data. I was talking about a mentor who will help you to know which one is correct and which one is not. You don't have to provide any kind of information to know the better option between Binance and Electrum. Right? Some people use Binance as a wallet and they think it is better than Electrum because they can exchange whenever they want. But they do not think about other circumstances. I don't know if you got me wrong when I said it's important to have a good mentor. There are hundreds of people online who help without taking any benefit. You are one of them as far as I know you.

How does a non constodial wallet look technical to people, the difference there is that you're in control of your Bitcoin so you have to keep the seed phrase safe, the wallets are as easy as other wallets to operate. Everything is basically spelled out for you so you don't have to be worried. Using a hardware wallet isn't that difficult as well, we have videos on the net that can teach you how to use any wallets so there's no excuse for saying a self constodial wallet looks difficult and that's why you're using a constodial wallet. The developers of the wallets has made them very simple that if you get directions on how to use them one time, they becomes very easy to use.


Exchange wallet should never be an option for using to store your Bitcoin. Exchange wallet should only be used when you're trading. If you trust the exchange then use them to trade, you don't need to dig deeper for any other functions the wallets has. Only use them for trading and that's all, don't keep your coins in them for too long as a problem to the exchange automatically affects your Bitcoin. Exchange wallets are constodial and they aren't the best options to use when it comes to storing your Bitcoin.

What do you call a "strong" wallet, call a wallet safe, secure, non-custodial, etc, but not strong, and it does not make sense in this context.
You haven't heard of what, many early adopters lost their coins and people still lose Bitcoins till this day, but mainly because of their bad security practice and lack of knowledge about Bitcoin.
What "powerful" wallets are you talking about, any wallet that you use should be non-custodial and open source. Electrum wallet is a good wallet because it meets all the criterias of a safe and secure Bitcoin wallet.

Exchange wallets are not 100% safe, they are prone to be hacked and hijacked by hackers so it's most safe to only trade with them while you keep or stack your coin in secured wallets where you alone have the seed phrases that gives you access to the wallet. Most times it's important you understand the dynamics of various wallets and the possiblity of how safe they can be but I will not recommend an exchange wallet in any case.

Absolutely, as a newbie I have just understand about crypto wallet regardless of which will be more safe to store. Almost 90% youtubers recommend Trust wallet to new user which is very bad advice (I learned here in Bitcointalk). We have to select wallet with a open source code and trusted previous history.


I know some people who are keeping their fund in Exchanges (Binance) with the mind that it is secure place. They don't know that exchanges could anytime stop withdraw and he will loss fund in blank of eye.

BTW if anyone want to know how to choose best crypto wallet then read below thread, Your 5 minutes will help you a alot .

GUIDE:Important factors to take into account while choosing a wallet

How do you decide whom to trust and why? Bitcoin was designed to avoid having to trust other parties as long as you own and hold your private keys in your own wallet.

I agree with OP that it's beneficial to know as much as possible how a wallet works and what a crypto wallet actually is. Your coins are not in your wallet, only your private keys are in your non-custodial wallet. Coins only "live" in the blockchain and the private keys give you the ability to move coins around. That's a very short answer to it. The devil lies in details...

In custodial wallets, like those on exchanges, you don't have and own the private keys for your coins, therefore: not your keys, not your coins. With a usually closed-source custodial wallet the only thing you have is a promise of the wallet provider to eventually give you the coins that you're promised to "own" (you own them only at the moment when you've successfully transfered them into your own custody!).

Closed-source wallets, regardless of non-custodial or custodial type, always have the trust issue that you have to hope they work properly and don't screw up. You can't verify what a closed-source wallet does in its code. Why do you trust the wallet provider, based on what exactly??

Verifiable open-source wallets on the other hand show their code to those who can read and understand what's going on. That doesn't make them more secure per se and automatically. But they are verifiable by others and hopefully some knowledgeable code readers will spot flaws and suggest fixes. Open-source also allows participation and improvements by other contributors.

Personally, I would never choose a closed-source wallet for my coins, maybe for 2-figure fiat equivalents only if I had to. And because I don't care about shitcoins/shittokens, I have enough options of reputed open-source wallets (Bitcoin Core, Electrum, Sparrow, BitBox02, Foundation Devices Passport).

This is why it's important to have a good mentor who knows good things about crypto or Bitcoin. If you start learning wrong from the beginning, you will have this wrong thinking for a while before someone corrects you. You may start debating with other people without knowing that you are wrong. It is essential to make sure that what you have learned so far is not incorrect.

There was a time when I engaged in debate with people while I was wrong. I felt shame when they corrected me and then I realized that I was wrong the whole time. That was annoying as fuck. So, even if you know that you are right, always double check from other sources too.

A strong wallet is definitely needed to keep the precious resource bitcoins, wallets are a must watch as I deposit bitcoins but if the wallet is not strong it is more likely to get lost. So previous experienced investors should follow what kind of wall they have been using to deposit bitcoins for a long time. Because I haven't heard of people who have used bitcoins in the past losing their bitcoins. Since you mentioned non custodial wallets, these wallets are suitable for bitcoins but here later more powerful wallets have come in the market.
Currently Electrum wallets are strong enough, as I use this wallet.

I just want to point out that it is not some of them but all of them. That is why they are called custodial wallet.

On custodial wallet, you will be charged the network fee and their own fee, making the fee higher. So using only noncustodial wallet is better. You will also be able to have full control of your coins.

The previous-gen coinbase wallet comes along with an exchange that we use to login via email and password. They only launched their wallet in recent years which provides seed phrases but I am not using any coinbase-related service anymore when I was literally new to the crypto the coinbase was the most popular and we know what we get from Google search so it will be in the list of every wallet that we can use.

I don't know what wallet you used when you started your crypto journey. But, in my country, most people start with popular exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, or Kucoin. Because these are the popular exchanges that almost everyone knows about. Sometimes, someone who hasn't used crypto knows about Binance or Coinbase because they saw that their friends are using it. Another reason why they use exchanges is because they can buy/sell their coin easily with the exchanges. But they don't know the possibility of being hacked, their accounts being frozen, and most importantly, they do not have control over their funds.

I have spent much time explaining why they should not use exchanges as wallets, but I was mocked instead. When I am alone, and trying to explain to ten people who are fanboys of those exchanges, and they always end up insulting me, saying they know better than me 

every custodial wallet does that.. some of them even keep the private key to themselves and don't let you import your wallet anywhere else. you just have to login with email and password and use them forever that's what they want.
this is the reason why it is always advised to use a non custodial wallet for your holding and storing purpose. custodial wallets are only good for keeping a small portion of funds which you intent to use regularly in various payments/expenses. and trading.

Downloading from Google Playstore is pretty safe . you just need to verify app developer and make sure you are downloading the correct wallet.. I prefer playstore because Google also does it's verifications before allowing apps to be public in playstore for download.

Close source, custodial according to Wallet scrutiny.
https://walletscrutiny.com/?platform=allPlatforms&page=0&query-string=coinbase
The provider, Coinbase, holds the keys and we know "Not your keys, not your bitcoins".

We can use Coinbase with small money to purchase some products from Merchants websites that accept payment from Coinbase. We should never use Coinbase wallets to store all of our cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase noncustodial wallet? Be it custodial or noncustodial, Coinbase is one of the wallet I can not recommend for bitcoin users. It is close source, not having replace-by-fee or child-pay-for-parent feature. Recommending online seed phrase backup, not having multisig. Can you connect it to hardware wallet? I do not think so.

I will advise people to download from the official website. Verify the PGP signature if available.

Non custodial wallet isn't technical, you can directly install the wallet from google play or apple app, write down the seed phrase and input your seed phrase, it's done. Of course it's way better if you buy a hardware wallet or create your own cold storage than use non custodial wallet as a hot wallet.

Most of the times why people choose exchange over non custodial wallet is they can stake their Bitcoin and don't need to spend more fee to move their coins.

You are quite good because you already know how to store the Bitcoins you have in your wallet from the start when you had Bitcoins. I'm different because I've kept my Bitcoins on exchanges for quite a long time. I thought it was normal and without problems because I didn't notice any problems. Moreover, if you want to withdraw fiat immediately, then it will be quite simple to do.
After I understood, finally tried several recommended wallets. I initially mixed my investment and trading assets in one wallet. and I seem to have difficulty controlling it. In the end, I chose to separate the Bitcoin I held for investment in a hardware wallet and store other assets in a different wallet.
I don't know if anyone here also does the same thing. but honestly, I don't pay attention to the features in the wallet.

They can choose a Bitcoin wallet to use from
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Read reviews from
https://walletscrutiny.com/
https://bitcoinbinary.org/

I agree that two main things for consideration when choosing a wallet to use is

Open source
Non custodial

Without these twos, I will ignore it and find another one.

"Not your keys, not your bitcoins" and use custodial and close source wallet is similar to it's not your bitcoins.

I don't think he has a problem with understanding since he's not the only one who pointed this out to you. Maybe you're having trouble explaining your point properly? What did you want to express with this topic, and was it really necessary to create a topic about it?



You see? Someone else needs to clarify your point instead of you making it yourself in your OP. Try to express your thoughts better next time so people here understand you. Just my two cents.

OP, what you say can, of course, be understood, but the logic itself is missing. How can you rely on the opinions of other people without knowing where your funds will be stored? You are on the Internet, and without your investigation and analysis, trusting someone is fraught with trouble.
Yes, there is a lot of information on the forum; moreover, there is a lot of it on the Internet, but any information must be filtered. I think any person who is worried about their money will be interested in complete information about storage and maintenance methods.

Look for trusted reviews and analyses of wallets. You can also ask users here for feedback and advice on certain wallets. There have been discussions here on different kinds of wallets. You just have to search for them. Keywords such as non-custodial and open-source are the most important things to consider. You can start with the most basic like making sure that your wallet gives you the private keys. That basically means it is non-custodial. Meaning, you have full control of your funds. Actually, you don't have to be an expert and do your own investigation on every single wallet option. A good research can make up for your lack of technical expertise.

I don't think using a non custodial wallet (no CoinJoin) is complicated and difficult in practice for many people. They only learn how to back up their wallet, seed phrase and it is easy enough to practice smoothly.

How to back up a seed phrase

Most of people use exchanges and exchange accounts, addresses from their exchange accounts for deposit, withdrawal and leave their coins on exchanges without fear of loss.

They believe exchanges are good at security and exchanges won't be hacked or won't scam exit.

They don't own private keys or mnemonic seed of their addresses from exchange account.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts

There are many factors to consider when we are going to choose a wallet. First of all, you always have to use a non-custodial open-source wallet, either a hardware wallet or a hot wallet. Based on your requirements, you have to choose what type of wallet you need. Even on hardware wallets, there are many types of wallets. So you have to understand your needs first and then search for what type of wallet you need. But the priority should always be to choose non-custodial and open-source. Otherwise, we aren't in a safe zone at all. Never use exchange or custodial wallets. Otherwise, you might lose your valuable funds at any time.

Your English is totally broken. I also had trouble reading your post. You need to improve your writing skills so people can understand what you’re writing about.


Crypto exchanges, whether centralized or decentralized exchanges should not be used as a storage for your coins. Always use a non-custodial wallet to store your coins and if you have a significant amount of hodlings, you should seriously consider buying a hardware wallet.

When I found out there a wallet has to be opensource so many developers could see some faults in the wallet. It became the primary reason to use the wallet. But before this, I just use any as long as it gives me a private key as I can import it to any wallet.

But is there an incident where private keys are copied by the developers of the wallet to which it's not just the user who has the private key but also them?

Maybe you are having problems in understanding thing's that's why it seems difficult for you to grab, it is just about needs why people should have more information about wallets.
Yes, this is exactly what I am talking about expecially exchange wallets , since it is a centralised wallet it is important for beginners to the exchange they use very well.

Personally speaking, I used coinbase wallet for a few years for the same reason, and also I had Electrum but I couldn't stop using coinbase wallet because I felt more comfortable with that so we may need a reason for the change even if we know what is the right thing to do. At least OP learned from the mistakes in the past and tried to pass them to new-gen newbies who might repeat the same.

I was also lost from what the OP was trying to pass. For someone who is currently at full member status he makes some unorganized post like someone who is a newbie.
From what I think I got is that the OP was pointing out that some people don't understand what a wallet is also they don't understand how to use an exchange, but if someone has gotten to the extent of knowing what sees phrase is all about then they should not have much problem.


Don't just use a wallet based on people's recommendations, it's not safe to save your Bitcoin in a wallet without doing your own personal research on the wallet.

As a beginner I think our focus at that time was following the instructions of those bitcoin experts who we held on high esteem and took their recommendations on what to do and what not to do wholly. It wasn't about what we wanted but which wallet they recommended. We trusted their judgement. It was about, securing the wallet as well as our coins.

I think that as we start becoming very interested in the wallets and other technical aspects of Bitcoin, we may now delve into the different wallets and bw finally able to make best decision about it. some would go on to prefer a hardware wallet to a software wallet or vice-versa.

Yes, this is almost what the OP is trying to say by citing his personal experience, leading to the importance of being convinced that one must know and understand how a private wallet works. This research will inevitably lead to identifying the various types of wallets and clarifying the differences between them, and therefore it will be useful to avoid centralized ones after getting to know about them deeply.

Today, no one anymore owns just Bitcoin or one cryptocurrency, so everyone is always looking for the safest multi-currency wallet. The best choice remains hardware wallets that have evolved and now support almost all or most networks. All other types of electronic wallets, even if they are completely decentralized, always support only one network, or if they are centralized, they support more than one network, and this type is never recommended.

If am been honest i couldn't
 learn anything from what you just said.
Let me assume what you trying to say is
Do your personal research why a wallet was recommended?
And that CEX is for trading while non custodial is for holding?
From what have learnt a good wallet for storing Bitcoin is an open sourced non custodial wallet
With good customer review.

Some of us that are investing  and trading bitcoin we just only have idea about the wallet which has a seedphrase for security, and which contains addresses that can be copied. We are so comfortable using wallets, and not going further to make research if the wallet is good for keeping your valuable coins.

In the early time of the crypto journey the wallets  introduced to some of us were recommended by experienced people who started the journey before us,  and we never made attempt of trying to know what could be the reason why the wallet was recommended to be a good one.

I have used several wallets since I started having bitcoin, some of these wallet were introduced to me by people who first me know bitcoin and I was told these wallets are good and I believe it because it is being used by majorities of traders and investors ,but I never tried on my own to do more findings about these wallets, I just go with what people have to say about these wallet.

Non custodial wallet is a good wallet for storing bitcoin,  but it can look technical for some people. it is important to get to understand the features of the wallet.

Also, exchange wallet some people don't even know about it, they only trade with it because peopple say something good about it, and no personal finding to know more about it.