Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S3W3 - The Wallets by @chenty.

It’s another week and a chance to participate in the steemit crypto academy engagement challenge. We’ve been tasked with once again writing on an interesting topic, **“wallets”**.

Let’s get into it.

What Are Wallets?

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With the inception of a digital cryptocurrency in 2009 called bitcoin with aims to be completely different from the existing financial institutions, there needed to be a system where bitcoin users would be able to store their assets and keep them safe.

This led to the introduction of cryptocurrency wallets. These wallets initially had one aim; to keep or to store the assets.

With this brief introduction, the whole concept behind cryptocurrency wallets is to provide a means of storing and keeping of cryptocurrencies safe. However, that’s no longer the only use of wallets. Wallets like everything else have evolved into performing a lot more functions than just keeping coins or assets safe.

Wallets now are also exchange platforms where users can trade their cryptocurrency assets. Wallets are very important to crypto users and so their security are of utmost importance.

Users first of all venture into the crypto world because they’ve been promised security and decentralization. Decentralization in the sense that they have total and complete ownership of their funds and can access them anytime they so desire.

Security in the sense that they’re the only ones with access to their coins. Wallets are very safe because they provide users with private keys. These keys are auto generated , very long and consist of several letter and numbers. Letters appear in both upper and lower case characters.

Before you create some cryptocurrency wallets, you are given a seed phrase that you can use to retrieve your account should you forget your password. This helps so much in the security department which cannot be found in the traditional financial institutions.

So if you ask me what wallets are, I would say wallets are platforms that crypto users can use to store their assets and also engage in more activities like trading.

Wallets are of two types; hot and cold but I would explain what they mean later in this post. Examples of wallets are, trust wallets, metamask, TronLink, among others.

Why are wallets important?

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After getting the general idea behind what wallets are, it’s important to know why they are important.

Wallets are important because they help users keep their assets safe. Cryptocurrency wallets help users to store and keep their wallets in a place that is easily retrievable. The crypto space although very safe can be compromised. It’s therefore important to have assets stored in platforms that we have access to.

Wallets are important because they allow users have access to dApps. DApps are decentralized applications that crypto users can use to access and unlock more opportunities in the crypto space. Wallets like trust wallet allow you to easily connect to dApps like pancake swap, uniswap, etc to stake cake and earn passive rewards. These dApps also allow you to engage in team battles and other events so as to earn more.

Wallets are also important because they allow us to trade or to swap our tokens for others. Like already stated, wallets provide so much more than just storing coins. Wallets like TronLink app provide us with direct means of exchanging our trx for assets like usdt and btt, etc.

Wallets I Own And Why I Choose Them.

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There are a lot of wallets in the crypto space of which a lot are very common. I own 3 wallets; metamask, trust wallet and TronLink.

I’m not gonna lie but the reason I own these wallets is primarily because of steemit crypto academy. Crypto academy exposed me to a lot of knowledge in cryptocurrency.

We were often required to download these wallets in order to complete our tasks. I could have deleted them after the tasks but after realizing how useful they are.

I still own a trust wallet because it allows me to connect to decentralized applications (dApps). After learning about pancake swap, I became intrigued and so decided to explore the platform. I did this using my trust wallet depositing some Bnb and purchasing CAKE tokens. I also have some METAMUSK, BNB and smart chain tokens.

I own metamask wallet because I have used it to create my own crypto tokens; CYT tokens. After being taught how to create our own crypto tokens using metamask and listing them on decentralized exchanges. I have my CYT tokens on metamusk.

source
I have a problem with my pc and so can’t access my metamask wallet right now that’s why the image here is a reproduction of the one I used in my entry to the homework task in the academy sometime back.

I own TronLink app wallet because it allows me to explore the tron ecosystem. After earning so much trx on steemit and misusing them, I got to realize how benefits the TronLink app is and since then I’ve been using it.

I can connect to platforms like sun swap and I can also directly trade my trx tokens for others like usdt. With TronLink app I am also able to stake my trx tokens and vote for super representatives while earning passive rewards.

For about 5 weeks now I stake my trons and vote for different super representatives.

An image of SRs I’ve voted for.

Have You Suffered Any Theft In Any Of Your Wallets?

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The cryptocurrency space gives pride to its security however a lot of people have suffered from hacks.

Fortunately, I have been one of the lucky ones who haven’t suffered from thefts in any of my wallets. I try my best to be as careful as I can by not leaving my keys vulnerable.

What I Do To Protect My Cryptocurrencies.

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Like we know, our wallets are protected by passwords and private keys. Private keys are supposed to be known by just us and no one else. I try my best to be the only one that knows where my private keys are and the passwords that protect my account.

I do not save my passwords and prefer keying them in any time I am to explore my wallets. Saving your keys can leave you vulnerable because that way, anyone with access to your device can perform transactions.

Hot Wallets And Cold Wallets, Which Do I Prefer?

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Before I make my choice, it’s only right I explain to you what hot and cold wallets are.

Hot wallets are the cryptocurrency wallets that are connected to the internet. They’re always connected to the internet and have their private and public keys also connected via the internet.

Hot wallets allow easy and fast transactions of assets because they allow easy access to assets at anytime. It therefore allows users to sign for transactions using their private keys.

This form of wallets uses a blockchain system that records and stores all transactions promoting transparency. However, there’s one big issue this form of cryptocurrency faces. That is, security breach or hacks.

Since keys are stored or connected via the internet through web servers, it is easier for bad people to hack your account leaving your asset vulnerable.

That is why it’s often advised we keep just small proportions of our portfolio in hot wallets.

Examples of hot wallets are; metamask, wallet of Coinbase, Binance wallet, Electrum, Edge wallet, Exodus, Trust wallet, among others.

Cold wallets are the second type of cryptocurrencies that are not connected via the internet. They’re therefore referred to as offline wallets.

What differentiates cold wallets from hot ones is that before you can make a transaction, you retrieve your keys from it’s offline storage and sign transactions. You connect your wallet to device and assets you have are stored offline for sometime.

You then sign for the transactions but your cold wallet doesn’t come into contact with the servers. It therefore protects your assets from cyber attacks or theft.

Cold wallets can be very expensive and are not generally user friendly. Examples of cold wallets are paper wallets, USB wallets, Trezor wallet, Ledger Nano X, among others.

Because of how the cold wallets have been designed, it’s very tiresome when performing transactions.

Which do I prefer?

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I prioritize my security over everything. The crypto space takes pride in that and that’s why we have moved our assets from the traditional banking systems and are making use of cryptocurrencies.

I do not 100% understand the use of cold wallets and how they work but I’m hoping to get that soon. Although it’s not very user friendly and difficult to perform transactions, there’s no doubt it’s very safe.

I do not use cold wallets but I prefer cold wallets to hot wallets which I hope to be using soon.

Thank you.