Ethereum Official Wallet

There are a lot of different kinds of such wallets. Each of them offers you, the use, many advantages and many disadvantages. Some of these wallets are easier to use but at the cost of less security; meanwhile, some others are really good for you if you need a place to store your money that you are not going to need and use for a long time. Unfortunately, these wallets aren’t great for daily use.

Security is Important

Security is of utmost importance in the world of crypto currencies because we are constantly dealing with values. In the physical world, we treat our highest valued belongings with much care. Well, the same principle applies in the digital word as well.

When in the online world, we have to be very careful to protect our valued items just like we do in real life. Another example of this, would be when you park your bike in a busy street and want to leave it for a few minutes. You will use locks to protect it from being stolen. Or when you enter your PIN code at an ATM, you will hide the number from other people so they don’t access your account without permission. Just as we did in the examples above, when we leave our crypto assets somewhere, then we have to ensure that it is properly secured.

Just like many things in real life, security in the cryptocurrency world is your own responsibility since there aren’t any bank contracts in case your security measures fail and you get hacked. Ethereum cannot be returned back to the sender by a simple button press as they do with a simple transfer in a normal bank. In the crypto world, once you lose your coins, they are completely gone, forever! This is exactly why we suggest that the Ethereum wallet you use has to be very secure.

Why is Ethereum a Secured Network

Cryptocurrencies are special in terms of being decentralized. This means there won’t be a single point of failure. There also won’t be a single point of attack if someone is willing to cause harm and damage to the network or its users. This, by itself, makes the system’s security a lot stronger than some other networks. This also goes for the users only if they correctly keep their crypto coins.

It takes a very long time for a hacker to be able to get into a strong security system. What this means is that cybercriminals are better off if they try to break into large stores of crypto assets than just individual wallets (an example would be cryptocurrency exchanges). Wallets such as Coinbase, Kraken and Binance are all official Ethereum wallets and are really big targets for hackers. Despite this fact, all of these wallets offer great security so there shouldn’t really be anything to worry about.

Wallet Types

1. Paper Wallets

For now, one of the best Ethereum wallets in terms of long term storage of cryptocurrencies, is paper wallets. When created properly, they are completely offline and so they are impossible to access for hackers. Ethereum official wallets have such a high level of security in place and this makes them perfect for keeping a lot of crypto assets for a long time. Best paper wallets for Ethereum include MyEtherWallet, ETHaddress and Wallet generator.net.

2. Online Wallets

From the most secured type of Ethereum wallets to the least. These online wallets are found on centralized services like cryptocurrency exchanges. They are the least safe kind of wallet and are not as secure. Ethereum online wallets are mostly useful for traders of digital currencies and not much else. In general, the rule in an online wallet is to keep your coins for as little time as possible. There are a lot of real, greatly secured online wallets out there as well. Some good examples that are already mentioned in this article are Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex and Binance. With these wallets, you may buy more ETH directly from your wallet with a simple use of your bank card. You can also directly connect to Ethereum dApps which is really convenient.

3. Soft(ware) Wallets

These types of wallets give the user a balanced experience between ease of use and security. They offer you better security than exchange wallets and are much easier to repeatedly make transactions with than with paper wallets. Because of this, it makes more sense to store the amount of Ethereum that you will be using daily in a soft(ware) wallet. The main advantage this type of wallet has to offer over an online wallet, is that you will keep your own private key. With this, the risk of being hacked will be minimized. However, the security is still not nearly as secure as hardware or paper wallets. Examples of some great soft wallets for Ethereum are Exodus, Coinbase and Mist. With that said, similar to online wallets, you can always buy more currency when you are in need of some and it is also possible to buy a lot of them at the same time. Another good advantage of these wallets is that they let you connect to other dApps easily.

4. (Hard)ware Wallets

Hardware wallets are one of the most popular ways of storing crypto assets. Examples of Ethereum hard wallets are Trezor, the Ledger series and KeepKey. These wallets’ goals are to combine the usability of a soft wallet with the high security of a paper wallet. According to the people who use hard wallets, these are the best types of Ethereum wallets. The physical form of a hard wallet is basically a USB pen drive. In these drives, private keys are stored. In order to enter and access this USB drive, however, you need to enter the four-digit PIN number.

5. Mobile Wallets

Some of the cryptocurrency users tend to store their Ethereum on a mobile wallet. This is an easy way to store the crypto assets since the users can use their coins when they are away from their computer. Although this might be advantageous in many situations, they pose some risks the same as soft wallets. They are as secure as the mobile device they are on. The good thing is they let you buy an abundance of currencies directly from the wallets by using your bank card. You can also trade between tokens with these wallets. With that said, Ethereum mobile wallets are available for both android and IOS. Some of them, such as Guarda, which is one the best wallets for Ethereum, are available for desktop as well.