With the exception of a few, I shied away from a lot of ICOs in 2017. Some stood out, but I mostly focussed on diversifying my portfolio with proven technologies (BTC, ETH, LTC etc) mixed with coins that were undervalued (XVG, NEO, XMR etc). I did very well in 2017 and now it’s time to expand my portfolio with some higher risk investments like Dadi, BCShop & ATFS.

Obviously, you’ll need some Ethereum to invest in the large majority of ICO’s so I wanted to share my favorite Ethereum wallets that I use in normal rotation. The reason I use so many different wallets is to reduce risk.. more on that later.

Personally, any wallet has to meet these criteria for me to consider

• Private Keys. “If you don’t control your own private keys, you don’t own your crypto” - @lukestokes
• Community. Does the wallet have a responsive development team or at least an active community?
• User Experience & Brand Experience. Is pleasure provided in the interaction with the wallet or do I want to throw my phone against the wall?
• Security. Does the wallet have backup and restore features when shit inevitably hits the fan?

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1. Ledger Nano S (Hardware Wallet)

This is a no-brainer. It’s one of the safest and most affordable hardware wallets on the market. Added bonus is that it stores ETH & ETC. It’s always good to have a mixture of hardware, software and paper wallets. You can pick one up here for $109 USD or £79.

DO NOT buy a used Ledger Nano .. you put yourself at risk of losing everything.

2. MetaMask (Desktop Wallet)

If you use the killer open source and privacy based browser Brave, then you have access to MetaMask. It ranks very high on my UX scale and I love how the little fox head follows your mouse activity. Not only can you easily store ETH, but you can access other decentralized Ethereum based apps as well. You don’t have to have Brave to use, it’s also supported on Chrome & Firefox.

Here’s a introduction video they posted at launch back in July of 2016.

3. Jaxx (Mobile & Desktop Wallet)

To be perfectly honest, I had some trouble with syncing some coins through Jaxx on my desktop, but when I downloaded the browser plugin, it cleared it right up. Reddit was full of folks willing to help me solve the issue with Jaxx. It’s a very popular wallet. It’s also a multi-asset wallet where you can toggle which coins you want to show. I store most of my longterm minor holds in Jaxx.

4. MyEtherWallet (Web Wallet)

Unlike Coinbase, you have complete control over your private keys. It’s an open-source wallet that can write smart contracts and connect to your hardware wallets through the MyEtH browser. I love how serious they take security and their website copy is great.

5. Trezor (Hardware Wallet)

Welcome to the O.G. of hardware wallets. It was originally invented for Bitcoin, but has been updated to include ETH via the MyEtherWallet web Interface (mentioned above). There’s not much to it, but it’s nice to have multiple hardware wallets for multiple locations.

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There are a few other Ethereum wallet options out there, but I haven’t used them. If you have any questions about setting one up or my favorites, shoot me a comment or find me on Discord under the same name. I’m also in The Alliance and will hopefully be a core member soon.

If you’d like to follow me, I will definitely follow you back. I’m here to build community and support my fellow earthlings. I’ll mostly be writing about my travels with @brandyb, crypto day trading, logo design, Squarespace website design & cryptocurrency. I promise to be polite (as possible).