What is a Crypto Wallet

What is a Crypto Wallet

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

crypto, wallet, bitcoin, blockchain, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Kucoin, Ethereum, Eth, store, transaction, US dollars, Euro, British Pounds, Yen, Pesos,, exchange, cryptocurrencies, keys, paper wallets, ada, usb drive, crypto wallet

00:00

Welcome to the New to Crypto Podcast designed to guide you through the crypto landscape with pinpoint accuracy created for the new and intermediate crypto investor. Join your host Crypto Travels Michael as he takes you through the different facets of getting started and succeeding in your crypto journey. New to Crypto Podcast brings you new episodes daily Monday through Friday with surprise bonus episodes sometimes on the weekend. Let me ask you, are you new to crypto and don’t know where to start? Are you more experienced but have questions? Then you’re in the right place. This podcast is designed for you coming at you from the Trading Center and the lifestyle design studio. Here’s your host Crypto Travels Michael.

00:53

Today I’m going to go over with you What is a crypto wallet and I’m going to break it down in simple terms as possible. A crypto wallet is basically a place to hold or store your crypto currency. So a crypto wallet is basically like a software program which stores your digital assets. And you can use your wallet to send to receive and to spend cryptocurrencies. So crypto wallets store what they call private keys. And these private keys help keep your crypto safe. You should know that crypto wallets don’t technically store your crypto, your coins or your tokens; they actually live on the blockchain. 

01:47

So your cryptocurrency can only be accessed using a private key, you receive your private key through your digital wallet. So your keys basically prove the ownership of your digital money. So this is why it’s important to keep your crypto wallets and your private key safe. It’s important to use trusted wallets Of course. And these wallets can come in many forms. Some of the different forms are like paper wallets, hardware, wallets, online wallets, and we’ll cover what these different types of wallets are in in a little bit more detail in a minute. 

02:29

So what can you do with your wallets, you can basically manage all of your digital assets in one secure place. So you can control your own private keys. You can send and receive cryptocurrency to and from anyone anywhere in the world. And you can browse daps which are decentralized finance apps. And we’ll cover these in another episode. You can also shop at stores who accept cryptocurrency and I have an episode for that which breaks down all the different major places and types of things that you can buy using your crypto. 

03:06

But let’s circle back to the types of crypto wallets so let’s cover the three major types of paper wallets so what is a paper wallet right with paper wallets keys are written down by hand on paper and stored in a safe place. So this can add an extra layer of protection by physically hand writing down your key so they can’t get hacked or discovered in your computer. You know later What if your computer gets stolen or hacked, etc. So that’s paper wallets. 

03:39

Hardware wallets are basically keys that are stored in a thumb drive or a USB drive. And the owner of the USB drive keeps them stored in a safe place. So these USB drives are usually only connected to the computer using USB when the owner wants to to actually use their crypto. So this type of wallet can provide security and it’s convenient in the way that it’s designed. 

04:09

Lastly, on this list, we have online wallets so with online wallet keys are stored in an app or other software. So it should be mentioned that when you use an online wallet look for online wallets that use two step encryption. So what this does is this provides you with an extra layer of protection for your digital assets. Using online wallets makes sending, receiving and using your crypto as easy as using an online bank account payment system or even brokerage account is really simple. And I do it, you know all the time. 

04:47

Another place to store crypto is on a crypto exchange. And what an exchange is is that lets you convert real money into crypto. So in the crypto world this Real Money is commonly referred to as Fiat, or fiat money and crypto exchanges allow you to convert or onboard your US dollars, Euro, British Pounds, Yen, Pesos or what other currency you have into many different types of cryptocurrencies, if you would like, and Bitcoin, Ethereum, ADA, the list goes on and on. 

05:26

But four of the largest crypto exchanges are Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Kucoin. And so basically, to become a customer of these exchanges, you submit a KYC documents know your client documents that they ask for, it usually involves your passport or your ID, some proof of your address, such as utility bill, and usually like a selfie, a live photo of yourself to prove that you are the person. And so of course, the required list varies from each exchange to exchange. But overall, this is pretty much the general idea.

06:07

One important thing I’d like to mention is you will not have one crypto wallet for all of your different types of cryptocurrencies, for example, each crypto has its own wallet, meaning if I have Bitcoin, ether, and ADA, which are three different types of cryptocurrencies or tokens, I would store and keep my Bitcoin in my bitcoin wallet, I would store my Eth or ether in my ether wallet, and I would store my Ada in my Ada wallet. So you do not store different crypto asset types in the same exact wallet. And I’ll actually be covering this while doing screen share and a new course that I’m releasing. And this course will walk you through the entire process of just starting in crypto, and how to comfortably navigate through the entire crypto landscape, how to get started, how to buy and sell crypto, how to send from wallet to wallet, how to buy things with crypto, how to set the get set up on exchanges and created crypto exchange accounts, how to use different types of wallets because there are different types of ones. 

07:24

And so basically, I created this course, to help many people who are brand new to crypto and really want to get started but don’t know how. So I’m passionate about helping others with a crypto background. I’m a super techie by trade, and I love crypto. 

07:41

So back to storing three different types of crypto as I previously mentioned, Bitcoin, ether and ADA, you would have three different wallets if you were going to hold three different crypto assets in the wallet. And in each wallet, there is a send address. And in your Bitcoin wallet for example, if you were going to send Bitcoin to another wallet, you would click on receive, you should then see a code or a list of what looks like random numbers and letters. And this entire address would be your Bitcoin receiving address. If someone was going to send you Bitcoin, then you would copy this entire address exactly as it appears, be sure to copy it exactly as it appears, you would then send this information to whoever was going to send Bitcoin to your wallet. Once they send the Bitcoin to you, it will take a little bit of time to show up in your wallet. This is because the transaction needs to be verified on the blockchain by what’s called miners. 

08:57

So numerous verifications will need to be confirmed on the blockchain before your Bitcoin shows up and in and is in your wallet. So basically, this timeframe can vary. It depends on how busy the blockchain is, at that particular point in time of the transaction. But the average timeframes range from 15 to 20 minutes up to an hour. If the blockchain is very busy, it could take a little longer. So when a person sending the Bitcoin to you completes the transaction, and sends Bitcoin to you, they have to pay what’s called a gas fee in order for the transaction to be confirmed and sent on the blockchain. So this fee called gas is basically paid in Bitcoin by the person sending you the Bitcoin. So it’s basically a small piece of Bitcoin. a small piece of a fraction of a Bitcoin is what results in the gas fee. The gas fee varies and changes depending on how Busy the blockchain is, so Bitcoin miners receive a small fee for each transaction they confirm or verify on the blockchain and the transaction. It’s all transparent and visible for anyone to see. And you can watch on the blockchain as each additional verification happens. 

10:23

So this process is secure in the fact that you do not have to worry about anything or anyone altering or affecting your transaction on the blockchain. It can’t be hacked or changed on the blockchain. The miners can only verify the transaction. So see the episode, in which I talked about gas fees on the blockchain more in depth. I hope this episode has helped you better understand what a crypto wallet is. And we look forward to listening to the other episodes. So from now, from Crypto Travels Michael, have a wonderful day.

11:08

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