5 Best Cryptocurrency Wallets to Store Your Coins

If you have been researching for the best cryptocurrency wallets to store your funds, hopefully after reading this article you will be able to decide which is the best wallet for you.

A cryptocurrency wallet is a software program that stores your private and public keys and interacts with various blockchain to allow users to send and receive digital currencies/tokens all around the world and also track their balances in the public blockchain.

A typical analogy is having a physical wallet in a digitized form online.

It is not the best option to use only one type of wallet. It is recommended you diversify the storage of all your cryptos and tokens to different storage locations and platforms.

Here are the different types of cryptocurrency wallets:

1. Desktop Wallet

This type of wallet can be downloaded on your laptop or PC and can only be accessed from the computer they are downloaded on.

This type of storage offers a good security of your funds since they are stored offline, but the downside is that it can only be used on your desktop.

Another downside to using this type of wallet is that if your computer is infected with malware, the virus can hack your wallet and hackers can, in turn, have access to your private keys and your funds.

Electrum, Armory and Bitcoin Core are among the best hardware wallets available out there.

Pros:

* Can be easy to download and use.

Cons:

* Can be accessible to hackers if you connect your PC to the internet and it gets infected by malware.
* You can lose your funds if you don't backup your wallet.

2. Online Wallet

This is also known as a Web-based or cloud-based wallet. This type of wallet runs on the cloud and can be accessible from any device anywhere in the world.

Though cloud-based wallets offer ease of access, they store your private keys online and this makes you susceptible to security issues like getting your password hacked.

Examples of cloud-based wallets are Coinbase and Blockchain online wallets.

3. Mobile Wallet

Mobile wallets can be downloaded on your mobile phones and there are several mobile wallets available.

They run on an app on your mobile device and are simpler than desktop wallets.

Pros:

* They can be used anywhere in the world because of their mobile nature.
* Multi-signature accesses
* Most have backup features
* Quite Safe and secure

Best Mobile Wallets to Use:

Mycelium

This is kind of an advanced mobile wallet with advanced security features and it's available on Android and iOS.

Currently, this wallet is only used for bitcoins but they have plans to include other cryptos and tokens in the nearest future.

This wallet is free and has rich features but doesn't have a web and desktop version.

4. Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallets are quite different from cloud-based or mobile wallets because they are on a physical device such as a USB key or other drive devices.

This type of wallet is stored offline which guarantees optimum security. Storing your cryptocurrencies on cold storage (hardware) devices will keep you from losing any of your funds.

The idea is to store any amount of cryptocurrency you can't afford to lose on a hardware wallet and keep those you can afford to lose on your other wallet types - online and mobile wallets.

Best Hardware Wallets

• Trezor 

This is a hardware bitcoin wallet that cannot be infected by malware. It offers good privacy and security, beginner friendly and is best for storing large amounts of bitcoins.

You must have access to a device before you can use the Trezor hardware wallet to send bitcoins and it currently costs about $100 to purchase this wallet.

• Ledger Nano

 This wallet is built with a similar technology as the Trezor but offers a better user experience in my opinion.

This wallet offers multi-currency support and it's quite inexpensive compared to its competitor Trezor.

The Ledger Nano is an easy to use hardware wallet that is ideal for non-tech savvy people that even my grandma can use it.

5. Paper Wallet

This type of wallet provides a very high level of security and they are quite easy to use.

Paper wallet allows you to literally print your private keys on a piece of wallet and store your tokens and cryptocurrencies on it.

A hardware wallet is more recommended than a paper wallet

Recommendations for Keeping your Cryptocurrency Wallets Safe and Secure

* Always backup your wallet
* Always keep your software updated
* Ensure you add an extra layer of security to your wallet like incorporating Google 2FA (Two-factor authentication)

I would love to know what your favorite wallets are in the comment below and if you have any question for me I will be glad to respond.