Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S3W3 - The Wallets by @nwabueze

I am really happy to participate in this contest and I hope to make the community better with my content.

• What are wallets? Why do you think wallets are important? Let's talk about it.

A wallet can be defined as any medium used to store money for the short-term or long-term, depending on the owner or custodian. Wallets can basically exist in two ways and they are physical and electronic. physical wallet can be kept in a pocket or anywhere that makes it handy for the user. On the other hand, electronic wallets are wallets that are used to store money or assets in a space that can only be accessed through the internet.

Wallets are important because we need to keep our money in a secure location where we can access it at will. A physical wallet can be used to carry money and cards; it is limited to that. But an electronic wallet can be used to store things like money and crypto currencies. Some people use electronic wallets to store the legal tender of their country but it is mostly used to carr out crypto transactions in our world today.

The main types of wallets are software wallets and hardware wallets.

Software wallets

A software wallet refers to an application designed to work on a laptop, desktop, smart phone, for the purpose of transaction and storing money. Software wallets usually come in the form of third party companies who offer their platform solely for the purpose of keeping money electronically, and also companies that serve as crypto currency exchange platforms and at the same time incorporate a wallet system to make transactions easier for their users. The company holds the private key of the wallet in this case and it is confidential. Software wallets are generally seen as hot wallets in the crypto society.

Hardware wallets

Hardware wallets are hardware devices that can store information of the owner like the private key. The private key is basically the authority that grants any transaction. The wallet address is known as the public key because everybody has access to it and the password is known as the private kek because only the user knows it. The hardware wallets are sticks that can be used to carry out transactions by attaching them in a USB outlet so that the content can be interacted with. To make payments, all that is needed is just to insert the stick.

Paper wallets

This can be seen as the earliest method of storage adopted. People were writing down their keys on paper to be used for transactions, but it can be very unreliable because any typographical error made will lead to misplacement of funds.

• Which wallets do you own? Why did you choose those wallets? Talk about your experience, show screenshots of your wallets.

I use a hot wallet that is controlled by an exchange. My exchange is Binance and I use it to buy and store crypto assets at the same time.

I really chose binance because of the peace of mind that comes with using it. With binance, I do not need to bother about my private keys because I know they are safe. My experience with the binance wallet has really been a good one because I have never had any problem depositing or withdrawing funds from the platform.

• Have you suffered any theft in any of your wallets? Tell us about your experience, what do you do to protect your cryptocurrencies?

I have virtually only used binance and I am very fine with it. The major thing I use to protect mhy wallet is the 4 factor authentication mechanism that requires password, mobile number, email address and fingerprint. With the security protocol put in place, it is virtually impossible for any negative thing to happen to any asset that is stored there.

• Do you prefer hot wallets or cold wallets, give your opinion about.

The wallet systems known are cold and hot. The cold system implies that they are not connected to the internet or any external device until they are inserted into a USB outlet for transaction, on the other hand, the hot wallet implies that the wallet is connected to the internrt by default and it makes transactions easier. Personally I prefer the hot wallet system because I don't like carrying hardware devices that can go missing at anytime around. The information in the cold wallet cannot be retrieved if it goes missing and I cannot risk that.

Conclusion

I really appreciate the creation of wallets for transactions electronically, especially for crypto. The hot and cold wallet systems exist but it is left for the users to decide which suits them best.