Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S3W3 - The Wallets by @janeo42
Introduction
The advent of crypto currency brought about a new form of money, that is digital in nature. With it, you can easily bypass the problems that are currently faced by banking and financial institutions.
One of these problems have to do with having to go through a bank which acts as an intermediary and has the power to control decisions regarding saving and transferring our monies.
With crypto currency, we don't need an intermediary (or bank as the case may be), but we need a means through which we can store our crypto asset safely. This is where wallets comes in.
In the following words below, I will talks about Wallets based on the given points.
What are wallets?
A wallet is a software program that allows holders of crypto currencies to store and mange their assets efficiently and safely. With it you can perform certain functions such as storage, transfer, and management of your crypto currency.
Transactions that are carried out with wallets are safe because those transactions are signed cryptographically.
The wallets aren't physical as in the normal wallets we are used to, but are digital because they are created using software programs and can only be accessed through digital devices. For it to operate, you need to be on the internet. With it the privacy and identity of the wallet holders are maintained.
Think about how you transfer funds with your ATM card, through the use of mobile merchants like PayPal, the only difference is that you are dealing with crypto currency not Fiat currency.
It consists of two important key pairs; public and private key pairs.
The public key is an address, which is derived from the private key, that acts as a storage or account where crypto currency can be sent, received, and stored. While the "private key* is liked your signature and identity, it grants you access to your funds and also helps you make transfer of your funds conveniently. If another person other than you has the private key, then you gain control over the funds in the respective wallet.
There are also custodial and non-custodial wallets. Custodial wallets are wallets that are hosted by third parties, commonly crypto currency exchanges. Non-custodial wallets are ones that are not hosted by third parties, but you become the sole owner of these wallets.
Some examples of wallets are Trust wallet, Blockchain.com wallet, MetaMask, Steemit, etc.
Why do you think wallets are important?
Because crypto currency aren't actually stored 'in' your wallet, just like the way you put cash into your physical wallet, but are stored in a certain blockchain.
The blockchain has a record of all the transactions, balances found in a given address, and those that have the keys to those balances. The wallet just helps you interact with the balances that is held on the blockchain, by storing the addresses.
So without a means of accessing you holdings that is held live on the blockchain, it will be difficult to access your crypto currency. In addition, you can perform certain operations like transfer and receiving of funds easily without the need of a third party using a wallet.
Which wallets do you own? Why did you choose those wallets?
Presently I own three wallets. They are Steemit wallet, Trust wallet, and Huobi wallet. I own each of these wallets for different reasons.
Steemit wallet
Steemit wallet is where the rewards gotten from writing on the Steemit platform is stored. From there I can transfer my STEEM tokens to another wallet of my choice.
To operate it I need to use my active key. The active key serves as my private key, while my username serves as my address. So any operation like transfer or power up, I need to make use of my active key to help me perform the operation.
The Steemit wallet is part of the features of the Steemit platform. It becomes available upon the opening of new account. It is very necessary because it is where you STEEM tokens which are the rewards gotten from your post payout are stored.
So far I have transferred some STEEM tokens out for exchange to Fiat currency (Naira) and I have also powered up. These operations are free as they don't have any fees attached to them.
Trust wallet
My other wallet is Trust wallet. It is a non-custodial wallet that helps you store a wide variety of crypto currency. It has the ability to store many crypto currencies. You can also use it to connect with decentralized applications and exchanges.
I chose it because at the time I was involved in 'Airdrops' events. They made Trust wallet their preferred application where Airdrops won can be dropped into. I also use it to perform certain tasks like connecting with decentralized applications and exchanges.
I have connected with uniswap and the likes.
I have done other transactions with my Trust wallet. I have received funds and I have also transferred funds too.
Huobi wallet
Finally, I also have a wallet with Huobi. It is a custodial wallet as the wallet is hosted on the Huobi platform. I hope to someday start operations on the crypto currency market and the best way to do that is by using a crypto currency exchange.
Huobi is one of the many exchanges out there and it has it's unique wallet. There I can store any crypto currency that o hope to use for trading and investing.
As of yet I haven't operated on my Huobi wallet as I lack the necessary funds to operate on the crypto currency market.
Have you suffered any theft in any of your wallets?
Yes I have suffered theft from my wallet (Trust wallet). It wasn't in the usual way whereby your Trust wallet get hacked and you funds gets missing.
What happened was that I got introduced to a channel on YouTube where they talk about making some cryptos on their recommended sites. So I decided to give it a try, lo and behold it was an outright scam.
What I realized was that those recommended site were fake, and when you try to do as they have said, the site would take operational cost from you after that you are left with nothing.
Do you prefer hot wallets or cold wallets, give your opinion about.
At this time I prefer a hot wallet. The main reason is that I have very low funds that would make me thing of using a cold wallet. Other reasons why I opt for hot wallet is that they are easy to use as I can easily perform a transaction without having to transition between offline and online before performing any transaction. And since I have low funds, I can easily transfer funds to others without batting an eye.
Of all the types of hot wallets, I prefer mobile wallet because it is one that is stored on my phone as an application. I can easily access it at anytime I want as long as my phone is charged. It is less vulnerable to attacks unlike web wallets. The functions it give are user friendly and easy to use.
It is important to note that when storing you crypto currency, you have to find the right balance between functionality and security with respect to the wallet you want to use.
Conclusion
Wallets are very important for the storage of crypto currency. It also brings about ownership of crypto currencies as they ar stored on a blockchain.
Aside storage, you can also do normal activities like transfer of funds akin to that of a bank. One major benefit is that you don't need a bank when transferring, you just need to hop on your wallet and do that.
Your private key is basically your digital identity. It is these keys that allow you to participate in the cryptocurrency market. You can only buy and sell your cryptocurrency via your private key. If you lose this private key, you basically lose access to your crypto assets.
And if somehow this key falls into the wrong hands, the holder of this key can at any time access your crypto wallet and make fraudulent transactions that you cannot. Hence the importance of your private key cannot be overstated.
Cyber criminals on the other hand are always looking for your private keys. They use advanced techniques where they want to hack your crypto exchange or gain access to your private keys. This is the main reason you should always be vigilant and ensure that your crypto wallet is secure at all times.
Thanks for sharing, I also share about the wallet. If you have time please see my post.
Thank you @amryksr for taking the time to go through my post. Everything you have just said is valid.
Cyber criminals are smart enough to go after your private keys. But they also use other alternatives.
We are smart in working around so that we don't concede.
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I also thank you @reminiscence for your kind contribution.
Yes,you have made the points clear on why you choose hot wallets than the cold one.
It's true that your assets are low but for me I will rather prefer the cold one because of its high standard in security and also it can be opened sometimes offline.
Sure cold wallets have high standards. I can always change to cold wallets when the need arises.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful knowledge on wallet. What i really like in your post is, Aside storage, you can also do normal activities like transfer of funds akin to that of a bank.
This is a great way of encouraging Crypto.
Thank you too @justiceanietie for going through my post.
You are right my friend that transactions in the crypto wallets are cryptographically signed which makes it secured. I also prefer mobile wallets like you because I can easily have access to my wallets.
Yes dear, mobile wallets are ideal and very convenient, especially crypto currency wallets because they are secured by cryptography.
I don’t know why so many platforms do airdrops via the trust wallet. Do you know why? I’ve always wondered this but feel too lazy to search for reasons.
It’s very sad to hear you were a victim of a YouTube scam. The kind of courage these fraudsters have now is so alarming. It’s all part of reasons we do not use the crypto space to its full potential because you don’t know what to believe and trust. We just have to be careful in the future.
I believe it's because Trust wallet is easily accessible and anyone can create a 'token' in the guise of creating a new token and doing an Airdrop.
My dear you have to be very careful out there. A lot of scammers use the ignorance and impatience of people to run scams.
You just have to be careful when doing crypto related stuff.
One rule of thumb i use is if it is easy, then it's a scam. Also, if it is too good to be true, it probably isn't.
The cryptography technology has secured our wallets from theft related issues. It provides us with public and private keys to securely transfer assets from one address to the other without it being compromised.
This wallet is automatically generated when we create the steemit account. We also have an extended Trons wallet created to receive TRX as one of the rewards earn of steemit.
😂😂 I have also created a lot of wallets because of Airdrop. The most recent airdrops are all fake. You find time to refer several people and at the end gain nothing new return.
Sorry to hear that, I always avoid this links and people claiming to be given free tokens. As you know, the free things always comes with cost. I downloaded trust wallet sometime back but it was for a particular assignment.
Please do find time to visit my post as well. Good luck..!!
https://steemit.com/hive-108451/@sadiqxylo/steemit-crypto-academy-contest-s3w3-the-wallets-by-sadiqxylo
Thank you @sadiqxylo for going through my post in details.
😁😁 It was something I realized very late after doing a lot of Airdrop, inviting people and getting nothing. The truth is All Airdrops are fake.
What surprises me at times is the one you see on the website of the crypto project organizing the Airdrop, only to find moments later that it is fake.
I have stopped anytime related to airdrop. Some use it as fishy links to comprised our wallets. Good luck again.
Yeah, I have stopped too.
Thank you.