Introduction

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This week professor @allbert has introduced us to cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges.
And he looks to explore the difference between these two terms.
After going through his lecture , I will now complete my homework task.

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In a world where cryptocurrency holders and traders look to sometimes exchange their cryptocurrency assets into fiat or other cryptocurrency, wallets and exchanges become very important as without these tools It is very difficult to make transactions.

Not everyone will like to always exchange their cryptocurrency into fiat so there is a need for wallets where we can store and hold our cryptocurrency.

Explain differences between wallets and exchanges as well as mention which operations should be performed in an Exchange and which operations should be performed in a wallet (in terms of fees).

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Cryptocurrency traders,miners and holders use two very important tools in their day to day activities in the world of cryptocurrency.
This is why exchange platforms and wallets are very important to their use.

Cryptocurrency wallets are simply platforms where we can safeguard our cryptocurrency assets.
Wallets are not meant to be used for trading, it is advisable to use wallets as they are very secure.

Basically wallets are classified into two types known as hot and cold wallets.

Hot wallets are wallets that work online.
We can say they need internet access before the user can access them.
Because of this hot wallets are mostly regarded as less secure.

Cold wallets are wallets that store cryptocurrency assets or information about assets offline.
You do not need internet access to be able to access them.
And because of this they are considered to be more secured than hot wallets. As they are less vulnerable to attacks from the internet.

Basically cryptocurrency wallets are meant for keeping your assets.
These platforms are not used for trading cryptocurrency in the market but for users who intend safe keeping their assets.

Exchanges in simple terms are platforms where cryptocurrency users can make transactions with their assets in the internal market.
To explain further; if I want to acquire some bitcoin I have to use an exchange platform where I will go into the cryptocurrency market with the exchange platform and then buy or exchange my coins or fiat with the bitcoin I am looking to acquire.

There are different types of cryptocurrency exchanges, some are
•Binance
•Houbi Global
•Poloniex
•Bittrex
And many others.

These cryptocurrency exchanges mostly have internal wallets but these wallets are not that secured.
When someone is able to hack your exchange he or she will have access to your wallets as the password for the exchange and wallet will be the same.

Difference between Wallets and exchanges.

Cryptocurrency wallets are platforms which are meant to be used storing and holding of cryptocurrency whilst exchanges are used for trading of cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency wallets are more secure than exchanges.
In the situation where your exchange platform is compromised you will be more vulnerable to loosing your assets as it is more easier to attack an exchange platform because it is online but when you have a wallet it is not easily hacked and so your assets are more secure.

A user has more control over his cryptocurrency wallet than the internal wallet provided to him by the exchange.
As the wallet looks to be more decentralized, the user has full control over his account but the exchange is not decentralized but rather centralized so the owner does not have full control.

In your own words, Why You think people should have more than one exchange account?. Do you have an exchange account? and Why that specifically?

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Exchange account is a vital part of a traders work and it is very important for a trader to have a cryptocurrency exchange account so that he can trade his cryptocurrency assets and also be able to acquire some assets too when needed.

Before I started cryptocurrency trading I had only one exchange account which was with paxful, but with time I have come to realise that you should not put all your mangoes into one basket and you should have a variety of exchange accounts.

Personally I have about 3 exchange accounts, and I have that because of the variety in fees with the exchanges, the liquidity and then I do not want to be compromised and damaged easily.

I personally love transacting with binance exchange because of the low fees that they carry, paxful has generally higher fees than binance.

I prefer using binance too because they have more cryptocurrency listed on the platform than paxful.
Paxful only has 3 cryptocurrency listed on their platform which are btc,eth, and USDT but binance has over 1000 cryptocurrency listed on their platform.

I think people should have more than one exchange account, as I explained exchange platforms are not very secure because if you put all your coins in one exchange and you have been compromised you will end up losing all your coins.

But when you manage different exchange accounts when one is compromised you wont loose all your assets.

Also because the exchange platforms are centralized they decide whenever they want to have maintenance of their platform without informing their customers so when you have multiple accounts this checks wont affect you the user.
Remember last month when many steemit users were complaining because binance had gone on a maintenance for some days and they were no more accepting steem deposits and people who wanted to sell their steem were stranded because most of them had only registered on binance.

But those of us who had an account with houbi global did not face this scenario as they were still accepting steem deposits.

What are better? Wallets or exchanges.?

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As I have said already, wallets and exchanges are two of the most important tools to a cryptocurrency asset holder or trader.

Having a wallet is crucial to a cryptocurrency holder as he will like to keep hold of his coins for the future and it is more safe keeping it in a wallet than to keep it in an exchange internal wallet.

Even though we can transfer coins from our wallets to another user, I believe having a cryptocurrency exchange to be very vital to a cryptocurrency trader, as the trader is able to find suitable offers in the exchange's internal market.

When you are using a wallet you are not able to access the market to find suitable offers for the one buying or selling.

For me having both a wallet and an exchange wallet is ideal but if I am to choose between the two it is better to have an exchange account.
I go for the exchange account because it can do both.
The exchange account has an internal wallet were you can store your coins even though it's not secure and you can also make your trades using the exchange account.

Create an account in a wallet and in an exchange of your choice and show screenshots of the process.

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Creating an exchange account on poloniex

a)I opened poloniex official site on Google here

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b) After the site opens, at the top right corner click on the sign up button.

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c)it takes you to another menu, where you will be asked to enter your details.

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d) Enter your details.
(Email address and a password)

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e) after entering your details, confirm that you agree with their terms and conditions and click on the "click to verify" space.

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e) After verification, click on the signup button.

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f) An email is sent into your email for you to confirm that the account is actually yours.

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g) After verifying in your email, you can now login into your account.

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i) Now my account has been created and ths is what I see when I login.

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Creating a wallet(Binance chain wallet)

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a) I first opened the binance chain wallet on Google here

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b) After opening it, I then installed its chrome extension because I dont have the wallet.

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c)After installing the wallet extension, I then pinned it.

d) I then created my wallet using the "generate speed phrase".

e) After entering my password, and then clicking on the continue button I was presented with a back up seed phrase.

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f) After securing the phrase I click on continue.

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e)Then my account is then created as seen from the screenshot below.

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Conclusion

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In my own opinion having a cryptocurrency wallet and a cryptocurrency exchange account can be really confusing and I think they should be simultaneous and can all be found in one as we can find wallets in the exchange accounts but because of safety we cannot trust them fully.

In all this was an informative lecture as I am now able to distinguish between a cryptocurrency wallet and a cryptocurrency exchange account very easily.

Thank you.

Note-All pictures which have not been cited are screenshots from poloniex and binance