Hello everyone to my entry post for the first week of steemit crypto academy season 3.

Introduction.

I designed this image on Snappa

I must say I am very excited to be a part of this week's first lecture on " A World of wallets and exchanges" taught by prof @allbert. I would now present my answers to the questions asked.

Question 1: Explain The Differences Between Wallets and Exchanges As Well As Mention Which Operations Should Be Performed In A Wallet ( In terms of fees ).

What is a wallet ?

Wallets in the cryptocurrency world are platforms or safes used to store or keep cryptocurrency tokens. Wallets are of two types which are cold and hot wallets.

Cold wallets are offline wallets whilst hot wallets are online wallets. Cold wallets are considered more secure because private keys do not reside in the user's device liable to hack.

Examples of wallets include; trust wallets, binance smart chain wallet, among others.

What is an exchange ?

Exchanges in the crypto world are virtual platforms that allows users to trade a wide range of cryptocurrency tokens on the platform. There are wallets within these exchange platforms

Exchange accounts must be verified by the system when the user presents correct legal documents like ID cards.

Examples of exchanges include; binance, bittrex, poloniex, huobi global, among others.

Differences Betweeen Exchanges And Wallets.

Like I already said above, wallets are to be used to store or keep crypto tokens where as exchanges are used to trade cryptocurrency tokens.

The differences between the two are listed in the table below.

Exchanges	Wallets
Exchanges are used for trading cryptocurrencies	Wallets are used to store cryptocurrencies
Exchanges are not entirely decentralized and so exert some kind of control over your wallet	Wallets are decentralized and as such the user has complete freedom over assets.
Exchanges are not very secure and as such liable to hacks	Wallets are very safe and almost impossible to hack
Exchanges require account validation where users submit important information	Wallets do not require validation by providing important legal information.
Exchanges supports trading of cryptocurrencies	Wallets do not support trading of cryptocurrencies
Exchanges have more user friendly interface	Wallets have less user friendly interface

Operations Performed In Wallets In Terms of Fees

Wallets are primary for storing cryptocurrencies but there have been some new operations over the years.

You can now swap crypto tokens for others, stake and add liquidity. An example of this kind of wallet is the trust wallet that allows you to swap coins like BNB for cake or other tokens at low fees.

Operations Performed In Exchanges In Terms Of Fees.

Exchanges allows traders to trade in cryptocurrencies but also now allow other operations like staking, swapping and also saving cryptocurrencies in mining pools while making profits.

Exchanges allow traders to trade at low fees while some others like huobi-pro exchanges require large fees to transfer currencies to different exchanges.

Question 2: In Your Own Words, Why Do You Think People Should Have More Than One Exchange Account? Do You Have An Exchange Account? and Why That Specifically?

Having more than one exchange account is good in my opinion for a lot of reasons.

The primary reason is that not all cryptocurrency coins are listed on an exchange platform. Different coins are listed on different exchanges.

Also, some crypto pairs are not listed on some exchanges but can be found on others. An example of this is the STEEM/USDT pair found in huobi-pro but not on binance.

I have two exchanges, that is huobi and binance and I sometimes find that fees for transactions differ. Withdrwal fees, deposit and trading fees have good differences.

Also, in our part of the world here, were we use mobile banking like "momo"
and vodafone cash, it is good that exchanges accept P2P transactions in mobile banking.

Binance supports mobile banking which is a good plus for me but huobi doesn't accept mobile banking here.

Also, for security reasons, having more than one exchange is very good. This is due to the fact that exchanges are not very secure and one of your exchange accounts could get compromised. So in terms of a hack at one end, you have funds available in the other exchanges.

Another reason I think having more than one exchange is good is because of low market price of assets on exchanges. Most at times, we enter into the crypto world to trade cryptocurrencies and make profit so it is sometimes necessary to look at the price assets on exchanges before purchasing.

When you buy an asset at a lower price, it can later be sold higher to make profit.

A screenshot of my verified binance account

Question 3: What Are Better? Wallets or Exchanges?

Regardless of which I choose, it is important to note that both wallets and exchanges have their positive and negative sides. Choosing one could be down to personal preference.

First of all, wallets are decentralized platforms that gives traders or users complete freedom over their crypto assets. Wallets in the past allowed just saving crypto assets but currently, you are allowed access to Dapps like Pancake Swap.

Wallets also allow users to connect to exchanges and transfer assets are quite low fees.

Wallets are also more secure and difficult to hack. One negative aspect of wallets is that, when you lose your private keys or forget your password, it is usually unlikely yo will gain access to your account again.

Exchanges on the other hand are mostly centralized. Although cryptocurrencies have been created with the primary aim of making trading decentralized, a lot of exchanges are centralized. But there are decentralized exchanges as well.

Exchanges have large cryptocurrency trading volumes and liquidity and have been created with the primary aim of making trades.

Because exchanges are centralized, there are financial authorities to monitor and check activities of these platforms. Exchanges are good for everyday traders.

Some negative aspects of exchanges is that they could go bankrupt, they are liable to hacks . Another problem is that you could lose your assets because your keys are not completely in your hands.

With the points I have stated above, I would say wallets are better to use than exchanges because you're mainly in control of your accounts among other reasons.

Question 4: Create An Account In A Wallet And In An Exchange Of Your Choice And Show Screenshots Of The Process.

How To Create An Account On Kraken Exchange.

For the purpose of this task, I would be creating an account on Kraken exchange.

To create an account on Kraken exchange, follow the following steps;

Step 1: Visit kraken website or click on the link here.

Step 2: Click on Create Account from Kraken homepage.

Step 3: Enter username, email, password and accept terms and conditions. Click on create account from the new page.

Step 4: Click on confirm and enter code sent to email and click on activate account to confirm.

Step 5: Click on verify account.

Step 6: Click on starter to verify personal details and intermediate to provide ID.

Fill personal Id details and click on continue

How To Create Trust Wallet.

To create a wallet, follow the following steps;

Step 1: Open google play store on mobile device and search for trust wallet.

Step 2: Trust wallet is displayed and click on install to start installing.

Step 3: The downloaded wallet is verified and installed. The downloaded trust wallet is shown.

Step 4: Launch the trust wallet.

Step 5: Click on create new wallet and tick "I've read and accept the terms of service and Privacy policy".

Step 6: A new page is displayed where you have to back up your wallet. Click on "I understand if I lose my recovery words, I will not be able to access my wallet" and click on continue.

Step 7: The recovery phrase was displayed but due to security reasons i could not screenshot. So I copied the phrase and saved in a secure place.

Step 8: It is then necessary to verify the recovery phrase. I verified and clicked on done.

Step 9: The new wallet was created.

Conclusion.

I would like to say a big thank you to prof @allbert for this informative lecture. I learned about the differences of wallets and exchanges, the benefits of both and how to create an exchange platform account and a wallet.

I also compared exchanges and wallets and made my choice on which is better.

Thank you.