A wallet (portfolio in French) is a secure solution in the field of cryptocurrencies. It allows you to exchange cryptos securely thanks to private and public keys.
How does a wallet work?
a classic wallet store and protect your coins on your smartphone as an app-managed wallet. Nevertheless a Crypto Wallet does not contain your cryptocurrencies but secures them. In fact, Wallet stores the passwords (keys) of your cryptocurrencies in order to be able to interact with your cryptocurrencies in complete safety.
Crypto wallet works with keys. the public key Authorize payments from the cryptocurrency wallet address. It’s kind of what identifies your account in a simple way (a bit like a RIB).
the private key authorizes spending from this address based on a transaction signature. Certify your property. You must never lose this key. If someone took it, they could recover your digital assets.
Transactions are made through block chain.
Every cryptocurrency has particular encoding and cannot interact with other cryptos. But a wallet will still allow you store several different cryptos (Bitcoin, Ethereum, …).
types of wallets
There are several types of wallet and it is very important to know how they work because it is variable in terms of practical use and security.
desktop wallet
System : It is an offline and online system.
Desktop Wallet (or Desktop Wallet) is software designed for desktop computers (PC, Mac, Linux) and for laptops to hold your cryptocurrencies. the software is very sure. It protects very well against computer attacks such as viruses and malware. Also, a recovery code allows you to find your data in case of a problem.
hardware wallet
System : This is an offline system
The hardware wallet (or hardware wallet) stores your crypto data in a device with access password. The most used material for this is the USB key.
The advantage is that this system is very sure since little data is transmitted online.
The bad thing is that this not very convenient to use in an era where more and more things are done online. In fact, you must have the key with you and access is a little slower than an online solution (insertion of the key, entry of the password, access to the data through the software, etc.).
web wallet
System : This is an online system.
The web wallet (or online wallet) stores the data in the clouds of a website. To use it you must create an online account with username, password and email.
The advantage is that you can access from anywhere regardless of the device used (PC, Linux, Mac, smartphone, tablet).
The disadvantage is that the account can be hacked. It is not the most secure wallet.
Coinbase uses this system because it is mostly made for merchants (many fast transactions).