Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S3W3 - The Wallets by @rafk
Warm greetings great members, professors of the Steemit-crypto Academy. Hope we all doing fine. I bring to you my entry post for the season 3 week 3 contest : The Wallets. Before I begin I will call on @benjamin09, @goodybest, @majerius and @b-naj to join me participate in this contest.
INTRODUCTION |
|---|
Money and liquid assets need to be properly stored for fear of several reason, theft, hacks and scams. let's say for example I have money in my hand and I want to keep it somewhere safe, now I am wondering whether whether store it in my house in the safe or keep it in the bank. It's quite a big decision for me as I will be judging on which place is the safest and quick to access. If I put it in the bank it's safe, but less convince to access and I keep it in my safe, I can quickly access it but it's less secure. At this point I might want to think of a more advanced way of keeping my money and performing transactions at the same time. This is where the wallets come in. I can keep and perform transactions with my liquid asset, anytime anyway. let's discuss on The wallets.
The Wallets
A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium,program or a service which helps stores the public and/or private keys of owners cryptocurrency transactions. Crypto wallets allow you to send and receive crypto transactions. With cryptocurrency wallet it's possible to encrypt and sign informations such as executing a smart contract, a cryptocurrency transaction.
A crypto wallet consists mainly of two key pairs: private keys and public keys.
Private and public key
A Private key is utilised by the owner to access and send and receives cryptocurrency and it's unique to the owner. Public keys are derived from private keys and serves as the address used to used to perform transactions. That is the address you send out to others to receive cryptocurrency into your wallet. Private keys consist seed phrase, login or master keys sending or receiving keys. A private key is synonymous to the key of a safe box. Anyone who has access to the private key of a wallet can take control of all the available balance or holdings in your account. The use of private keys is to sign transactions and one of the most interesting thing is that it's user friendly.
How The Crypto Wallet Works
Blockchain is like a public ledger that stores data in a form known as "blocks." These are records of all transactions, the balances held at any given address, and who holds the key to those balances. Crypto is not stored in wallets, The coins exist on a blockchain and the wallet only allows you to interact with the balances held on that blockchain. The wallet helps to stores addresses and allows their owners to move coins elsewhere on the blockchain while also letting others users see the balance held on any given address. With Crypto wallets, We can send, receive, and even store crypto.. while some wallets allow It users to buy and spend crypto, other advance wallets permit options such as swapping between coins with minimal fees and also link access to dapps build on the network. The main use of wallets are:
- Receiving funds: it's quite a simple step, all we need to do is copy the wallet address of the coin you are to receive coins from and send to the network or block performing the transaction and your done. confirmation are required on the blockchain before you finally receive your coins.
- Sending Funds: This action required the receivers address. simply copy the receiver's address and paste. input the amount of fund to transact and then click on ok. Your transaction is processed.
Types of crypto wallets
generally crypto wallets exist in two categories: software wallet and the hardware wallet.
Software wallet : Software wallets comprises of desktop programs or browser extensions that make it easy for people to send, receive, and store crypto. the are often time refer to as hot wallet since their funds are stored online and
Hardware wallet: These are physical devices that can be plugged into a computer. the are commonly called cold wallet because their funds are stored offline.
More details will be given on wallet types in the context further.
Importance Of Cryptocurrency Wallet
Cryptocurrency been part of us for the pass decade and we are becoming so much involve in the crypto space that it's become part of our daily activities. as a user and owner of crypto wallet. I will cite the following benefits to crypto wallets.
- Crypto wallets are unique and specifically owned by one user with the help of private keys.
- crypto is rapid and transactions take few minutes or hours to complete.
- it can be access any where and transactions can be process to any wallet across the globe.
- Holding funds in some wallets generate income with time.
Which wallets do you own? Why did I choose those wallets
I use software wallets.
Software wallets are blockchain applications which are downloaded to a desktop or mobile device or even located in a browser extension. I currently used and prefer online wallets because of the speed of its transaction and user friendly interface. Online wallets are available on phone, tablets and desktops. Private keys here are stored online and manage by a third party. Examples of online wallets include. Coinbase wallet, blockchain wallet, steemit wallet and trust wallet. There exist several others not mention here.
I Currently use blockchain wallet, steemit wallet and trust wallets because they are multisign wallets and contain several coin variables.
 |  |
|---|---|
In the above mentioned screenshots, Blockchain and trust comprises of: Bitcoin wallet, Ethereum wallet, USD wallet, USDT wallet and several wallets just in one place. Which is the reason I choose them over individual wallets like BTC or ETH.
| Have I suffered any theft in any of My wallets? |
|---|
One of the first and famous warning before getting an online wallets is that it is vulnerable to attacks., hacks and other related frauds, these risk are much more limited with the cold wallet.
I have not been subjected to any form of theft in any of my wallets so far, reason being that I keep my private keys so precious that it for me and me alone. Not even my parents or most trust persons have access to my private keys. This is how I have manage to stay away from online fraud.
But apart from theft I have had really bad experiences with the wallets for this reason: I happens to uninstall my blockchain wallet during formating and after reinstalling the app I could not log in again. I was scared I lose my funds already until I remember I could recover them with my seed(backup) phrase. this went successful and I was live again. so we see the need of keeping our private keys right?. Had it been I didn't have them, that should have been all for my account.
And lastly there have been cases of delay transactions on the blockchain which required me to push the transaction to complete the transfer which is so disgusting. Pushing a transaction is creating another order larger than the first pool and executing on the same address to speed up the delay transaction.
Do I Prefer Hot Wallets Or Cold Wallets?, My Reasons
Hot wallets I prefer.
Online wallets are much more advantageous to me than cold wallets because I use them mostly on daily bases and timely. I can execute a transaction with ease straight from my mobile phone while taking coffee but with a cold wallet It will require me to boot the computer. Plug in the hardware wallet and connect the computer online before performing a transaction, which is strenuous and time consuming.
Nevertheless if you possess large amount of fun and which has to be preserve, I think the hardware wallet is the place for you to keep it. Online wallets are vulnerable to attacks and therefore, only minimal amount of transact able fund be present on the Hot wallet.
CONCLUSION |
|---|
Wallets are all around us and if you haven't started using them, here's the time for you. Read this post and learn about wallet. I have been using and enjoying from crypto wallets for a while now and I think it's the best experience of decentralized exchange so far. DeFi to the world. Thanks for reading and hope you do enjoy my entry.
Credit To: @rafk
I like the fact that you don’t trust anyone not even your parents and even you trusted person self you don’t even allow them to go near you wallet and this is the best way to keep your wallet and this will prevent people from getting in contact with you asset and thank you for sharing with us.
It is important to keep our private keys well protected and away from anyone, no matter how close they may be.
I also agree with you in the preference for the use of Hot Wallets because it allows me to access my funds anywhere or anytime I want, as I explain in my post, for which I cordially invite you to take the time to read it and comment on it.
Best regards and success!
Thank you for publishing an article in the Crypto Academy community today. We have accessed your article and we present the result of the assessment below
Comments/Recommendation
Overall, though decentralised wallets prove to be more secured, we still have to be careful in protecting our funds against internet fraudsters . Thank you for participating in this contest.
Total|7/10
We can as well buy and sell, swap, trade and even connect our wallets to DApps to explore important features of the crypto space. We can also mint and monetize our NFTs when we have exchange wallets.
I wanted to download the blockchain wallet some time back but a lot of friends have suffered theft cases with it. Though they said it’s user friendly, I can’t afford to lose my assets.
In the crypto space, there is nothing like parents or trusted people that why the keys or passwords are subjected to one person. You just have to make sure nobody have your keys.
Yeah that’s true, if you prefer cold wallets you still have to use hot wallets for your trade and other stuffs. Cold wallet is mainly for long term trade with large assets.
Please find time to visit my post as well.Good luck..!!
https://steemit.com/hive-108451/@sadiqxylo/steemit-crypto-academy-contest-s3w3-the-wallets-by-sadiqxylo
Wallets are more than storing our assets but also gives us ownership over them through the various keys associated with the wallet when it was created. I'm happy that you have not lost any asset to thefts because you have the knowledge of what it means to lost money to theft in the crypto space before you joined. I also prefer hot wallets for many reasons. Very happy to read your entry today.
Well done on your entry bro.
We can all see the true power of crypto wallets and how safe they make crypto transactions.
Good to know you’ve not been a victim of theft, shows how safe you keep your private keys.
Thanks for sharing.
Here’s a link to mine: https://steemit.com/hive-108451/@bolaji001/steemit-crypto-academy-contest-s3w3-the-wallets-by-bolaji001