Your own wallet, short and sweet:
- You need a bitcoin address to purchase bitcoin. A bitcoin wallet has a bitcoin address
- We recommend that you keep your bitcoin and other digital assets entirely to yourself.
- This means that you should use a wallet that creates a “master key” for you, usually in the form of a dozen words that you should write down, by hand (!), On a paper. Keep the paper safe!
- Trezor is a safe so-called "Hardware Wallet" that you can order.
- There are many different wallets and it is not strange to test several different ones. We do not recommend that you use any cloud services or to store your assets with an exchange.
A wallet for the sake of safety
When you want to manage and store your bitcoin, safety and security are important. This is why it is best to choose your wallet with care and not think of it as any physical wallet, but more like a bank account. Always keep track of your password, and think of it more as a “pass-phrase”. Your wallet is as safe as the password you choose. Watch Edward Snowden describe how you might think about passphrases:
For extra safety, there are accessories in the form of hardware to the wallet that works almost like a bank’s security token device. Trezor provides a “hardware-wallet” with a USB connection. This might be worth investing in to keep your bitcoin safe.
Smooth
It should also be easy to access your bitcoin when you want to shop, buy or sell bitcoin. To make use of bitcoin as easily as other kinds of currency, you can store wallet in your phone. With an app you can always access your bitcoin and it will be easy to use them in physical shops, cafés and bars that accept bitcoin.
Different wallets
As mentioned above, there are both “hardware wallets” and virtual wallets. Local wallets are locally stored as a file and/or a program on your computer. Remember to backup your local wallet in case the computer crashes. Examples of this kind of wallet are Armory and Bitcoin Core.
Another kind are e-wallets. With these, you do not have to worry about taking care of the security, since it is managed by a company. It is important to be extra careful when choosing such a wallet, because you are giving the company access to your bitcoin. This is not the kind of wallet that we recommend.
There are also wallets that take advantage of the benefits of both, so-called hybrids. The perks of being able to access your wallet from any device exist, but at the same time you do not have to give out all control over your wallet to a third party. Here, your private key is encrypted before it is sent to the server. The server can thus never gain access to your password. It is also why it is not possible to reset the password on such a service, so if you forget your password, you will no longer have access to your bitcoin.
As previously mentioned, there are also mobile wallets that come in three different types: “local”, “e-wallets” and “hybrids”. Example of mobile wallet is Wallet of Satoshi.
