Ultimate Guide to Cryptocurrency Wallets for Developers & Investors

What are the best cryptocurrency wallets for investors?

Core Wallet Features

The core foundation of every blockchain wallet technology, requires functionality by establishing security, performance & reliability. For the modern cryptocurrency developer, security is the top focus, to make the use of any wallet safe & reliable.

Scaling performance across the full node gives increased security to each wallet in the network. Together this creates the formula for increased reliability & blockchain network performance. Today’s top tier wallets must present a high degree of functionality through security, performance, reliability designed together with a full feature UX/UI, offering token creation and smart contracts registry.

Developers seek to optimize the cryptocurrency experience, through providing ease of access to each platform. Every technology must continuously adapt in order to create the opportunity for improvement. Upon every update and iteration more features can be supported to further increase the network value.

Key Features

• PERFORMANCE - Blockchain Performance, Light vs Full Nodes
• SECURITY - Hot Wallet vs Cold Wallets
• RELIABILITY - Centralized vs Decentralized
• FEATURES - Cross Platform, Token Creation, Future proof
• ADAPTABILITY - UX & UI, Community
• TECHNOLOGY - Proof of Stake vs Proof of Work

Software Wallets - (Hot Wallet)

Software wallets, are easy to install and configure for cryptocurrency. There are several types each with unique features. The security of your wallet is dependent on the storage of your private key. Certain wallets can provide the feature to abstract your private key into a seed, or a set of 12 to 24 randomly generated words.

Hardware Wallets - (Cold Storage)

Hardware wallets, offer offline storage for cryptocurrency & claim to have the highest level of security. Hardware wallets are purchased separately & configured with software on your computer. Certain wallets offer features of storing multiple currencies.

Paper Wallets - (Cold Storage)

Offer the ability to store your public and private key, paper wallets provide safe and easy to use storage. Low cost & high secure solution to securely allocate your Bitcoins, Ethereum, Litecoins & more.

Bitcoin - https://bitcoin.org/en/

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, that started the worldwide money revolution! Bitcoin is well known & is distributed across the world throughout several cryptocurrency exchanges. Built on blockchain technology, allowing for the ability to scale into a world wide payment network, through P2P protocol. Currently offering the most cryptocurrency wallet solutions, Bitcoin is exponentially growing.

Blockchain.info - https://blockchain.info/wallet/#/

Blockchain.info offers an easy to use cryptocurrency wallet, to store Bitcoin. Simple & secure, the wallet they feature works across the world. Desktop, iOS and Android apps allow you to access your Bitcoin wallet from any device, anytime, anywhere.

Bitcoin Core - https://bitcoin.org/en/download

The original Bitcoin full node, you can download and sync with the bitcoin blockchain. Send and receive BTC, from your desktop computer.

Litecoin - https://litecoin.org/

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized without any central authorities.

Litecoin Wallet - https://download.litecoin.org/litecoin-0.13.2/win/litecoin-0.13.2-win64-setup.exe/

The Litecoin wallet is a great lightweight solution, for streamline fast blockchain transactions anywhere in the world for a low fee. Litecoin has fast blocktimes to help the network scale transactions quickly into the blockchain.

Ethereum Platform - https://ethereum.org/

The Ethereum platform pioneering development in the current cryptocurrency market, with token creation and dApps at it’s core functionality. Although every blockchain technology is unique, Ethereum works on the Proof of Work model and offers room for innovation on across the platform. Through its distributed, turing complete - virtual machine providing key functionality to developers. Let's take a look at some of the best wallets for the Ethereum Platform.

Ethereum Mist Wallet - https://github.com/ethereum/mist/releases

The Mist wallet offers a feature rich, full node wallet for the Ethereum platform. This wallet has maintained a high degree of security & reliability. Built upon the Go language, performance is fast as the blockchain syncs with the network. Included with the wallet is the ability to launch smart contracts into the network, allowing for cryptocurrency token creation.

Parity Client - https://parity.io/parity.html

The Parity wallet is a high performance, cryptographically secure wallet built on the Rust programming language. Design to stabilizing the network with full nodes including, smart contract features & multiple wallets. Offering the fastest sync speeds of any Ethereum wallet, Parity stands to be a great choice for developers.

MyEtherWallet - https://www.myetherwallet.com/

MyEtherWallet is a great solution open source solution to the aspiring developer, offering the combination of features through a client-side Ether wallet & token creation. MyEtherWallet allows for high performance functionality & secure interaction with the Ethereum network.

MetaMask - https://metamask.io/

MetaMask is great, as it allows you to run an Ethereum client right inside your browser! Designed for Ethereum, easily recognizable by the iconic fox. This Ethereum client allows you to send and receive transactions across the Ethereum network quickly and efficiently.

WAVES - https://wavesplatform.com/

The WAVES platform is a high performance decentralized, financial trading platform written in the Scala programming language. Offering token creation, non turing complete smart contracts & a full feature decentralized exchange. WAVES is built on the Proof of Stake consensus model & offers cryptocurrency leasing services.

Waves Light Wallet - https://waveswallet.io/

The WAVES light wallet is a great wallet to store and lease cryptocurrency, currently supporting the WAVES, Bitcoin, US dollar, EURO, & Chinese Yuan. Creating a cryptocurrency account is straightforward and offers you to store a “seed” combination of 15 randomly generated words to unlock your cryptocurrency account. Token creation is very intuitive & only cost 1 Waves. This light wallet is available on both the desktop & Google Chrome, in addition to offering support for Android and iOS.!

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STRATIS - https://stratisplatform.com/

The STRATIS platform offers development of native C# blockchain applications built upon the .Net framework. Offering a Proof of Stake model of consensus, Stratis seeks to make blockchain token creation & enterprise solutions easy and affordable.

STRATIS Staking Wallet - https://stratisplatform.com/wallets/

Offers a high performance, low footprint wallet to store your cryptocurrency. Features like send, receive or stake your coins available through your desktop computer. The main functionality of STRATIS, stands with the ability to stake your cryptocurrency for network stability & revenue.

STEEMIT - https://steemit.com/

The STEEMIT platform works on a high performance Proof of Stake blockchain. Content creators can submit posts about literally any topic that interests them. The community then helps to organize the most favorable content through voting. Notable posts can receive Steem for the interest & traffic created by the community.

DASH - https://www.dash.org/

DASH - Digital Cash is open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that offers instant transactions across the world. Operating through a decentralized governance model and budgeting system, DASH is built on a chained hashing algorithm called X11 for its proof-of-work consensus model. The DASH community is highly engaged for the widespread adoption of this technology.

DASH Core Wallet - https://www.dash.org/get-dash/

DASH Core wallet features the ability to store your cryptocurrency securely & stabilize the network through its use of a decentrialized desktop full node & with the capacity for masternodes. This wallet is also available across mobile platforms.

Jaxx Wallet - https://jaxx.io/index.html

Jaxx was known to be secure wallet, however recent security breaches have proven otherwise. Jaxx provides wide support for multiple forms of cryptocurrency. Including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, DASH, Litecoin & more.

CoinBase - https://www.coinbase.com/join/55ccba12caa7677030000302

CoinBase offers a unique wallet with fiat gateways in many countries across the world, allowing you to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum & LiteCoin. The wallet has streamline blue design with initiative an UI. The application offers purchase through a variety of gateways. Including direct transfer from bank account & even instant purchase from a credit / debit card. CoinBase also offers a great affiliate program for people to earn extra BTC!

Shift Card - https://www.shiftpayments.com/card

The Shift Card supports the CoinBase mobile application. The shift card allows use spend bitcoin through your VISA debit card. Only cost $10 and increases the functionality of your Bitcoin! Very practical & easy to use, definitely recommended!

Hardware Wallets (Cold Storage)

Trezor Hardware Wallet - https://trezor.io/

The original & secure hardware wallet. Supporting several cryptocurrencies & even ERC20 Ethereum Tokens. TREZOR Wallet is an easy-to-use interface for your TREZOR device. From this Wallet, you can easily control your coins, manage your balance and initiate transfers. Also featuring a Chrome Extension to allow TREZOR Wallet to talk with your device.

https://shop.trezor.io/

Ledger Hardware Wallets - https://www.ledgerwallet.com/

Ledger offers two unique solutions to cryptocurrency hardware wallets. Providing secure and reliable access to your account,

Ledger Blue - https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-blue

Ledger Blue is an advanced hardware security device. Featuring a multi application execution, and packs enterprise-level crypto-capabilities into a lightweight handheld device designed and crafted in France. Architected around a Secure Element, featuring a touchscreen and USB & Bluetooth connectivity.

Ledger Nano S - https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s

Ledger Nano S is a Bitcoin, Ethereum and Altcoins hardware wallet, based on robust safety features for storing cryptographic assets and securing digital payments. It connects to any computer (USB) and embeds a secure OLED display to double-check and confirm each transaction with a single tap on its side buttons.

Ultimately - The best wallets are platform specific

• The future of cryptocurrency development will be built upon the mass adoption of blockchain technologies by lowering the barrier to entry into the global currency market. Each cryptocurrency platform adopting new models of consensus across a growing community.
• Depending on model of consensus strikes interest in you, Proof of Work or Proof of Stake both technologies are proven reliable and secure. At the current moment, the performance of these networks is exponentially growing & the blockchain technology is scaling well, through an increasing amount of stable full nodes.
• The best software wallet goes to CoinBase. Offering practical solutions to investors & developers. Reliable fiat to crypto gateway and with selection of Bitcoin, Litecoin & Ethereum makes for an appealing application. Free to install & allows you to purchase cryptocurrency quickly.
• The best hardware wallet goes to Ledger, with a solid design & great features. Offering two types of backup solutions for secure & affordable storage solutions. Both the Ledger Nano S & the Ledger Blue excel at providing ease of access to your cryptocurrency.