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In this section, we are going to learn the process of choosing the bitcoin wallet. If you want to involve in bitcoin, you need to have a wallet. A wallet allows you to receive bitcoins, send bitcoins, store bitcoins. Here, I will take an example of a page called bitcoin.org to choose the wallet.
Bitcoin.org is a website that was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi. Now, Martti’s is no longer an active developer, but he maintains the Bitcoin.org websites. He is not involved in developing bitcoin. Bitcoin.org website is not tied into any specific core developers. It’s an open-source project which is handled by a global community.
Bitcoin.org is a very good starting point to explain how to choose your wallet because there is a lot of options available. In this page, we will go to an option called Choose your wallet. We can see this in the below image.
In the above image, we can see that there are different types of wallets that you can choose, like Desktop wallet, Mobile wallet, Web wallet, Hardware wallet, etc.
1. Mobile wallet
In the mobile wallet, you can run any type of application, whether it is on Android, iOS, Windows, or even on Blackberry. They are significantly smaller and simpler and serve as a convenient on-the-go wallet for daily usage.
Popular Mobile wallets are Bitpay, BTC.com, Edge, Electrum, Mycelium, Bitcoin Wallet, etc.
2. Desktop wallet
In the desktop wallet, you can run it on your desktop or laptop computer for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Generally, they are secure, but sometimes they are vulnerable to various malware and computer viruses.
Popular Desktop wallets are Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Knots, mSIGNA, Armory, etc.
3. Hardware wallet
In a hardware wallet, there are devices which contain your private keys. The hardware wallets are the most secure wallets, but it will also cost money.
Popular hardware wallets are BitBox, Keepkey, Trezor, Ledger Nano S, etc.
4. Web wallet
The web wallets are online wallets that are considered less secure than other types of wallets, yet they can be highly convenient.
Popular web wallets are Guarda, Coinbase, GreenAddress, Binance, etc.
There are multiple different wallet options available which you can have and install on your mobile device, or on your computer or a web one. There is not necessary to have only one wallet. You can have multiple wallets for different needs. It helps you to spread the risk by not keeping all of your personal crypto’s in one location but across different locations(wallets). You can create a wallet in any of these options that you find. If you wish, you can open up another wallet elsewhere and can send coins to a different wallet.
If you want to get started fast, select one of the wallet options that are available here. I would recommend you to try one of the web wallet options that are presented here. In the wallet, open up an account and try to send bitcoin to someone, buy bitcoin from someone, and store bitcoin into your wallet.
To select a reliable Bitcoin wallet, one should judge it based on the following criteria:
- Hot/Cold Wallet: Whether a wallet is a hot(Online storage) or cold(offline storage).
- Control private keys: A wallet where you own and control your keys.
- Backup & security features: Here, you can seed backup keys and pin codes.
- Developer community: It is an active development community for maintenance.
- Compatibility: It can be compatible with different operating systems.
- HD Wallet: It is a wallet that generates new addresses itself.
- KYC: A wallet that doesn’t require KYC.
