Cryptocurrency Wallet

Abstract

This chapter discusses various types of cryptocurrency wallets from the personal wallet to cold storage used by exchanges. A wallet is a place to store the required public and private key pairs that give access to cryptocurrency. A wallet can be of different types: software, hardware, physical or even a brain wallet. A web wallet is an online account with an external provider where users deposit their keys to interact with the blockchain to access their funds. A software wallet, as the name suggests, is a desktop or smartphone application to store the public–private key pairs on the local computer. Hardware wallets often come in the shape of flash drives with a screen to display the transactions. Cold storage in the context of cryptocurrency refers to keeping a reserve of tokens offline. This is often a necessary security precaution, especially dealing with large amounts of funds.