How to Store your Bitcoins?
Bitcoin wallets are the place where you can store your Bitcoins. Every wallet has private keys that give you access to the bitcoin address. A wallet can come in many different forms and are designed for a variety of devices. You can even use paper wallet if you’d like.
There are five main types of wallets: hardware, paper, mobile, web, and desktop.
Desktop wallets:
These are stored on your computer harddrive, and you have to download the client from online. The wallet provides you a bitcoin address you can send your money to and from.
Some of our favorite desktop wallets are:
1. Exodus: The interface is beautiful, easy to understand and is great for beginners who don’t know much about bitcoin.
2. Electrum: A secure, robust and open source wallet. If a user can get over the 90s design aesthetic, it’s one of the best wallets out there. Recommended for more experienced cryptocurrency users.
Mobile wallets
As more and more people accept bitcoins for payment and use a mobile wallet becomes necessary. They run as an app on your mobile and also store your private keys enabling you to use your phone to pay directly. Some examples of mobile wallets are Mycelium and Xapo.
Online wallets
Web-based wallets store your private keys online. This variant is very common on exchanges however a major disadvantage is that the organization is in charge of your private keys essentially taking your bitcoins out of your control. Coinbase and Circle are examples of this variant.
Hardware wallets
This variant is a dedicated device that holds your private keys electronically. It is physical and is currently also the safest method to holding onto your bitcoins. A Ledger Nano and Trezor is recommended.
Paper wallets
Another popular option is using a paper wallet. You can find several sites that will generate a bitcoin address for you and create an image containing two QR codes: a private key for spending and a public key to receive your bitcoins.
