An Introduction to Cryptocurrency wallets

In simple terms a cryptocurrency wallets used to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies and tokens anywhere around the world that's what it is.There are different types of cryptocurrency wallets available now a days.Let's go through them below.

Desktop Wallets

The first type is a desktop wallet. As the name implies,it can be downloaded and stored in your desktop , whether it's on your PC or what is on your Mac and you can only access it only from one computer.It offers pretty good security however the downfall is you can only use it on your desktop.The second downfall is if you do get a virus, it has a potentiality to hack your wallet with which hackers can access your private Keys therefore they can access your funds.It is quite accessible by hackers to put Trojan or some type of fishing attempt to get your private Keys. A lot of people actually don't back up your wallet. As well as keep in mind to do the backup if you are using a desktop wallet because if your hard drive crashes and you can’t retrieve the data stored, then you can’t really do anything much about it..

Cloud Wallet

The second type of wallet is an online wallet that's a cloud wallet.Now the pros for a cloud wallet obviously is, It is easy to use, you can use it anywhere and you can use it on different devices however the problem with these wallets are there is a security issue.People can hack you private keys, they can clone your phone etc.Online wallets store your private keys online.

Mobile Wallet

There are many different Mobile Wallet which you can access on your mobile devices.Some have very strong security features like multi signature accesses.Lot of then has backup features like mnemonic phrases, that helps to access your funds even when you lost your phone.Mnemonic phrases are widely accepted as an excellent way of backing up and storing cryptocurrencies.

Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallets are quite different than the online or desktop wallets.It stores your private keys on a different physical device like a USB or other hardware device.The pros of these types of wallets are security.Although hardware wallets make transactions online, they are stored offline which delivers increased security.These types of wallets are also called as the cold storage.if you don’t want to lose your funds, it is always recommended to keep then in a hardware wallet.the most known hardware wallets these days are ledger nano S and tracer wallets.

Paper Wallet

This wallet which personally I am not a fan of just because it is very easy to lose.Here essentially you are printing out your private keys on a piece of paper to store your cryptos and tokens.This wallet is easy to use and provide a high level of security.Paper wallets can also be referred to a piece of software that is used to securely generate and print a pair of keys for your funds.

Couple of Recommendations to Keep Your Wallets Safe

Always backup your wallets no matter which type of wallet you are using.
Keep your software up to date so that you have all the latest security enhancements available.
Add extra security if it is available like 2 factor authentication.I recommend to use google authenticator.
Use multi signature wallets if available.