What if a crypto coin doesn't have a wallet? 💲💲💲
So call me dumb (No don't that's rude! ;P) but I honestly can't figure this out.
Usually when I research a coin I can find a place on their website where you can download a wallet or some link to github to download it...yada yada yada...
But what happens if you can't find a wallet? Am I now forced to leave this coin on an exchange?
Are there some coins that literally don't have a wallet yet?
If so, do I have any other options of where to hold the coin other than the exchange that trades it?
Crypto nerds panic button just got set off when I said "leave my coins on an exchange" LOL
But for real...is that my only option? Is there some way like bitcoin has where I could say transfer it over to a cold wallet on paper?
I'm just confused here and figure I MUST be missing something. Why would an exchange have a wallet option, but the coin itself not?
What happens if an exchange that hosts that coin decides to shut down (heave forbid) do I now lose all those coins I've invested in?!
I only started thinking about this because I've diversified my portfolio so much with random coins and realized I don't have wallets on my computer for a lot of different coins I've invested in.
Stage 2 = now I'm in a panic...what happens if I can't take it off the exchange?
You see my dilemma here.
Someone smarter than me please comment and let us know!
~nX
Hey nX,
So there are a couple of things that are useful to clear up in order to save you a massive amount of heartache in the future.
Firstly, every coin must have some method for accessing the coins, be it a wallet, central store, or some other system; There always has to be something. Just as Bitcoin uses a wallet - ripple uses a central store with an identifier that represents a sort of "wallet".
Steemit uses a wallet, if you look at your private keys, those represent you and your money on the network.
Cold storage (paper wallet) a lot of people mention, but fail to explain why you need (or don't) one. A paper wallet is an offline private key. On the network that private address can still receive coins (letting you store them), but it cannot write transactions as paper. This method is safe only if you generated your private key securely too. When you want to access your coins you "sweep" (load) that private key into an online wallet and can then write transactions to the network. This step invalidates the security of the key because it is now on a machine connected to the internet. The goal of a paper wallet is to be offline until needed, and emptied. It cannot be hacked if it doesn't touch the internet, it can still be stolen like any other physical item.
An additional note: some currencies don't support paper wallets because of how their signing works. Such as ripple, no paper wallets.
So exchanges are dangerous to use as storage. When you buy or sell currencies and are done trading, you should bring them to your wallets. This is because exchanges control the private keys. So imagine a paper wallet, but you're only allowed to use it when they say so. If an exchange dies, or deletes your account your coins are gone forever and cannot be recovered.
If you're looking for a wallet, I recommend a multi-coin wallet such as Coinomi. It is for mobile, so you can spend on the go. It also uses a phrase to generate your keys, meaning using the same phrase you can sweep you wallet into a different wallet in the future if needed. Meaning you need to protect that phrase with your life.
Does that answer your questions?
Kind of yeah I think so! Thanks for the thought out/detailed response man!
I currently use coinomi, jaxx, waves, myethwallet, multiple specific coin wallets and some exchanges. lol I'm all over the place, but would eventually like to become more centralized.
Oddly enough I know there is a downside to that, but it's so much to keep up with right now.
Anyways that helps me out a bit!
Yeah, the only major concern is that if the wallet is compromised, they get everything. The best wallet would be one where each coin has its own password to do anything. I would love that! Perhaps I should email Coinomi?
Not a bad idea! I mean wouldn't hurt, but doesn't mean they'll do what you suggest. But you never know!
Than is quite simple, it does not exsist?
Sorry maybe I didn't state my question clear enough. Are there some coins that literally don't have a wallet yet? If so, do I have any other options of where to hold the coin other than the exchange that trades it?
Some coins are actually coins on the Ethereum (or other) blockchain, so sometimes if it is an ERC-20 token (that's what Ethereum tokens are called) you can store it in an Ethereum wallet. My Ether Wallet is the most popular one that supports a wide range of popular ERC-20 tokens.
It really depends on the coin though. I imagine Binancecoin might not have it's own wallet, for example (not sure though) since the coin is part of the exchange. Which coin are we talking about?
Funny enough binance was one I was thinking about...but I guess if the exchange dies so does binance sooooo that one really doesn't matter much lol.
And now that I went back into https://www.myetherwallet.com/ I just realized a lot of the coins I thought had to stay on the exchange are available to hold on that wallet!
Thanks for making me double check @pandorasbox
Yes Binance I would assume does not have it's own wallet (yet?). They'd much rather you use the exchange instead!
I actually stay away from coins like that for this reason. I'd love to buy some WTC but I can't figure out what place I can store them that isn't an exchange..
My Ether wallet https://www.myetherwallet.com/ is the adress.. be sure to use that and not ethereum as you wrote, or you might end up somewhere scammy! :)
Agreed and good catch on the https://www.myetherwallet.com/
I switched it on my response too just to make sure I don't mislead someone! ;)
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