Bitcoin Forum

What crypto mobile wallet can you suggest for newbie who doesn't know anything about Bitcoin and blockchain.
Wallet needs to be very simple to use, non-custodial and with Android OS.
(This is not for me but for my family and friends)

Do you need just a bitcoin wallet or a wallet that supports multiple blockchains?

They would still need some basic knowledge about wallets such as knowing what private keys or seed phrases are, how to safely back up and store them etc. At one point in time, each one of us were newbies and had no much knowledge about BTC or blockchain, the difference between then and now is the knowledge we have acquired through learning, reading and watching tutorials. Even when suggesting wallets for them, you still have to encourage them to learn, so they avoid making mistakes newbies usually make such as downloading malicious software, exposing private keys online etc

They need at least a basic knowledge. Try to tell them some information even the basics. It should be simple with a little effort on your side, well, only if you are interested to do so.

I believed the majority of mobile wallets (Android OS) are simple and user-friendly, either custodial or non-custodial. The interface is just the same in most cases. Maybe at the start, try to refer them to the mobile wallet you are currently using or used before. Then teach the basics of sending and receiving coins. From there, it's a good start in gaining knowledge then slowly climb the ladder until they learned the difference between using a custodial and non-custodial wallet plus all the risk associated with using them.

If you've got some time to go through the wallet and show them the basic features then most mobile wallets tbh are pretty good. I was going to suggest some but realised I'm biased based on familiarity.

Bitcoin wallet from Andreas schildbach was the first one I used on my phone and it has a pretty nice interface and has fee control options (I think they're normal, economy and low)..
Electrum is also pretty good for mobiles and has a few extra features but for fee control you light have to put more effort in so they know what blocks mean and how the estimates could be out.

Éclair is also quite nice but it feels like it has the same features as Andreas schildbach but both eclair and electrum have built in lightning network support too.

If you are looking for a non-custodial wallet it would be a hard one since even the mobile version of Electrum looks complicated if you will start from a custodial wallet, basically you will have this options and adjustments for the transaction fee. If you really want a wallet for your family for transaction purposes I think custodial wallets are the best thing to go, some custodial wallets also have off-chain transactions where you won't have to pay any fees on sending money to them or vice versa.

You can get list of wallets and reviews with Cryptowisser.com (https://www.cryptowisser.com/wallets/)

If what you need is only for Bitcoin, Electrum (mobile) can be considered.

If what you need is for multi cryptocurrency, take a look at Infinito wallet, or Coinpayments wallet.

I think digital wallet is better than crypto mobile wallet a digital wallet is an electronic version of a simple wallet through the use of this technology consumers can solve the hassle of paying the price through virtual instead of paper currency. The transaction of the country's conventional currency not the virtual currency is done through virtual electronic means the main difference between this technology and electronic payment systems like debit card credit card online banking is the spontaneity of digital wallet in retail transactions.

i can not find the source code of Infinito wallet as it seems like it is a closed source one which means it is not safe to use.
Coinpayments is a custodial wallet where you create an account and you have no control over your private keys or your money.

both suggestions should be discouraged.

I use coinomi, it's non-custodial, customer support is good, supports tons of coins, ui easy to use only con is its not open source.

Is the wallet need to support different coins? or just a bitcoin-only?.
For me, one of the best is the electrum also they have a mobile application with their bitcoin wallet and it's easier to use, also you can configure if you want to mBtc or just BTC only but unlike the electrum on the executable file you cannot adjust the transaction fee manually instead you will use the lever on the transaction also its included too, some of the features, is not applicable on electrum wallet.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.electrum.electrum

Some of my friends are using a Mycelium wallet too they have a mobile application wallet.

For me I think, trust wallet, metamask and imtoken. For bitcoin, I just stack up the wrapped bitcoin since it can be easily be converted into bitcoin blockchain into binance exchange.

All of these are non custodial. Trustwallet too have their own bitcoin wallet supporting native segwit. Imtoken too on their version 2.0 already have own bitcoin segwit wallet. These are good wallets and never been have any issue since using them.

I was going through the replies above and surprised to see that no one suggested Mycelium before you.

Mycelium is easily the best Android wallet out there. Some of the reasons I prefer Mycelium:

• Open-source code (which I manually reviewed and compiled),  
• HD Wallet supporting Legacy (44'), P2SH (49'), Bech32 (84') and Ethereum (60'). One click change between the address formats so you can use any format depending upon the need.
• generates new receiving address if you already received output on the current receiving address (great privacy)
• You can manually set the transaction fees unlike most of the Android wallet which don't give you the option to set custom fees or at maximum give you the option to choose between Low, Normal and High. But in Mycelium, you can set the definition of Low, Economic, Medium or High on your own by choosing custom sats/byte.

And most importantly if you don't care/understand the features I just said, you can still go for Mycelium because it has one of the best user-friendly UI so it's surely a noob-friendly wallet.

Using Trust wallet here,serves me well for the last few years.I used blockchain wallet before but i had issues,transactions often got stuck for some reason so i ditched that and never looked back.

Recommend a wallet that you have tested or you are familiar with. They will be asking you tons of questions anyway even if the wallet seems friendly for beginners.

Have you seen this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0#post_mobilea ?

If they are in it for the long run, I think they should just invest in a hardware wallet and understand why it is important to have the hardware wallet. The key thing here is you own the coins and you value your private keys and know how to use the basic features on the application.

Remember, nobody is a newbie forever, and if they are interested, they should learn why it is essential to have their wallet. Maybe you could help them out, OP.

For Bitcoin wallet i prefer to use electrum mobile, for ethereum i'm using metamask mobile since both of this apps and developers are trusted by most of community. Also both of them have a simple UI for every user who want to start to use a mobile wallet. Also don't forget to install trusted anti virus and anti malware for mobile to prevent unwanted app installed on background without permission to hijack crypto wallet. I think suggest both of this wallet is better than non-custodial wallet. maybe you can guide him how to keep their Private key safely.

Electrum for bitcoin only and then Coinomi for multiple cryptocurrency support based on my experience, it's an easy wallet to use. Although it was reported to have some issues but for studying purpose, I think it's a refresher for starters. But before suggesting them a wallet, I agree that they have to be informed what they are accepting and how it works.
But with most of the wallet applications that are pegged in local currencies, they can easily understand how these wallet works. They just needed to some debriefing before you send them any amount.

Like some have mentioned above, Electrum is a good choice. Their recent update has also enabled Lightning Network support.

I can only suggest two wallet that I use the first one is coinomi and other one is mycelium both working fine for me and never have any problem using the wallet .

Reminder before creating a wallet make sure you save your pass phrase in secure place so if you experience problem its easy for you to recover back the wallet  make more backup if you can.

Another reminder double check the application before downloading make sure that it's downloaded by million users . there are many fake wallet in Google store thats why you need to be much more careful .

Aside from Coinomi, you can use Bread Wallet.
This wallet for me is really newbie-friendly, their mobile application is really nice, the user interface, and also it is an open-sourced cryptocurrency wallet.
A quick tip: always have your seeds backed up, especially offline backup.

Repeating previous poster's advice: go for electrum...

Why? Well, it's a stepping stone...

If you advice your friend to use electrum on his mobile, he can start his learning curve. If he decides to move to a desktop wallet he can restore his mobile wallet on his desktop and have more or less the same features as he had on his mobile. Or, even better, he can create a brand new electrum wallet on his desktop...

IF, one day, your friend decides to go secure with an airgapped setup: electrum :)
IF he buys a ledger or a trezor: electrum :)

Electrum is open source an peer vetted, it can be used on your mobile, on your desktop (linux, windows and mac), it can be used as a daemon or with a gui, it can be used in an airgapped setup, it can be used together with hardware wallets... Do your friend a favour and point him in the right direction :)

I realise that many people are advising a multi-coin wallet, but this thread was generated in a bitcoin-related subforum, so i'm giving a bitcoin-related advice...

the first question you need to ask is whether you need this wallet for your work or for personal puposes only? and the second question is that what money does your destination wallet use frequently?

Coinomi and ImToken, which in my opinion are easy to use in terms of appearance compared to other wallets, are the Android versions that have been widely used since they were launched.

I have advised many of my friends for beginners to use this wallet and it is easy to understand with the many coins and tokens that have been supported, I have accommodated a lot of tokens / coins or transactions easily and also have no problems.

I think you should try it for your family and I am sure that you have heard of or tried this wallet app.

In my opinion, we cannot use wallets if we don't know anything. At least, we must know the basic knowledge about crypto wallets.
Commonly, most mobile wallets are created with a friendly way to use. So, don't worry to use it, brother. However, I suggest checking the review of the crypto mobile wallets before you choose it, then you can get the wallet that fits for you.

If you are looking for Bitcoin Wallet for Android, here are some options that may be suitable for newbies.

1. Zengo (https://zengo.com/)
- easy-to-use
- simple for back up dan restoring

2. Blockstream Green (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greenaddress.greenbits_android_wallet)
- easy-to-use
- available fee estimation excellently

3. Atomic Wallet (https://atomicwallet.io/)
- user-friendly
- More than 500+ assets
- instant exchange
- custody-free app

I think that these three are easy to use. But of course, they have pros and cons. So, better to study them first before using and ensure that you conform with it.

Link sources:
- https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/wallets/android/
- https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-for-beginners/what-is-bitcoin-wallets

I'd advice to use trust wallet (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details%3Fid%3Dcom.wallet.crypto.trustapp%26hl%3Den_ZA%26referrer%3Dutm_source%253Dgoogle%2526utm_medium%253Dorganic%2526utm_term%253Dtrust%2Bwallet%26pcampaignid%3DAPPU_1_akihX7rYJZCr1fAP_5S5gA8&ved=2ahUKEwi6tfPZq-bsAhWQVRUIHX9KDvAQ5IQBMAF6BAgUEAQ&usg=AOvVaw0ColkJH9Wt8iFuErG1tBQu). It is simple and easy to use

Trust wallet is what i recommend to my newbie friends if they are looking for mobile wallets, and also i always give them advice that never download on playstore without reading comments or feedbacks, because most crypto wallet on playstore will only steal their crypto.

Try to check my thread. Those wallets are listed in top when you search for mobile bitcoin wallets. Yes, usually wallets now are compatible with smartphones may it android or iOS. There are many actually and had found non-custodial wallet. Meaning that you own your key and your bitcoin and no one could access it for you except your self. Check it here in my thread posted in this section below,

For your ready reference on mobile bitcoin wallet (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5275461.msg55185049#msg55185049)

First of all I would advise your family and friends to study bitcoin and blockchain first, how the system works etc. (ps: I don't know if they already know)

I used MyCelium for a while and really liked it, some features that I prefer Mycelium

• In my opinion it has a user friendly interface
• You can manually change the transaction fee
• Open source code
• The wallet supports, Legacy, P2SH, Bench32 addresses

Various variants of the wallet application have been suggested based on their respective advantages. But hey, we are beginners, and do we need all those features without any knowledge of bitcoin and we only use to receive and send just typical of beginners. Electrum and ImToken are beginner-friendly apps that are easy to introduce to beginners and easy to learn.

There are multiple wallet choices

If you're looking for bitcoin wallet, you can choose Electrum or Mycellium wallet. Mycellium gives you segwit and legacy address. But if you're looking for a multi wallet, go for Trust wallet. It supports coins like BTC, ETH (including ERC-20 tokens) BNB and some others.
Do not leave your coin on exchange, it's not safe there.

My first android Bitcoin wallet was Mycelium wallet. In my opinion it has one of the best user interface and simple menu option for anyone to understand easily. I have used other Bitcoin wallets but this one for me is the best.

Another important aspect of this wallet is that you donot need to register or go through KYC and setting up pin or creating backup is not mandatory.

Although it is advisable to always create a backup and add an extra level of security to the wallet by adding a pin number.

I was also a newbie at that time who do not know about bitcoin and also blockchain. In case, I have to know if I want to enter this crypto world.
Well yeah, it may be not easy for them at first to learn about bitcoin and the crypto world, moreover about the wallet.
If they need to get an easy wallet, I think that Trustwallet is the best option, this is what I use for the first time. Moreover, it is a multi-wallet in which we can store not only BTC but also more altcoins. We can also swap the coin or event exchange it in that application. In addition, if we want to use such certain DAPPs, there is also available by searching on the Dapp button.

But. please note to your friend, if he really wants to enter the crypto world, for the sake of security he needs to learn more about BTC and this crypto world. Learn more than one wallet, of course, it may not be easy, but it needs to be learned.  

i would recomend to use Trustwallet for newbies. friendly UI easy to use

Hi! notblox1,
In my opinion, this should be a personal decision when you have experience. Recommendations of course the experience of other users helps in the final decision, but when you have no idea about what a cryptocurrency is, it can bring you problems with the family, I would recommend the reverse process, that is, that the person (family / friend) is the one who tells you which wallet they want to use.

This has something fundamental, it takes it out of the information gap "0" according to your criteria in the context of the question.

Based on how you propose it in the OP, I would not recommend any Crypto Mobile Wallet to anyone.
Rule sine equa non they must first document to use Crypto Mobile Wallet.

This type of recommendations that with good foundation and intention is made in a thread, cannot be taken so happily to third parties, in fact it is preferable that you send them the link to this post or suggest opening an account in the forum.

G.B.  :)

When I was just starting to use cryptocurrencies and bitcoin, I used two wallets that were stored on my phone. The first was a wallet from Xapo. And the second is Coinbase. By the way, even then Xapo suggested that everyone use their own credit card. At that time it was the most convenient for me because now I can also recommend these wallets.

I assume you're using coinbase exchanges, both Coinbase (but now coinbase has releasing non-custodial wallet) or Xapo are custodial wallet where you don't own your private keys. So it's wrong to recommended these wallet to OP.
Not your keys, not your coins.

OP if you decide to use electrum as suggested by most users that have previously replied to your questions you do have to understand how the apps works especially when setting the transaction fees. While the obvious option would be to reduced the block confirmation time to 25 so to reduce the fees you'll pay, but it doesn't always means you'll be charged less especially when the mempool are congested.

It discovered that the hard way when I have to pay a $10 fees on a $20 transaction irrespective of reducing my transaction targeted block to 25. Read below to understand how to read the fees.

I know that most of the people here are using Coinbase which is what I'm also using.

It is a user-friendly platform that everyone can use when they are looking for a trusted and quality wallet for their assets. Many bitcoin investors are using this wallet and don't hesitate to try it because it has a lot of features where you will feel security and comfort on all your bitcoin.

It offers a lot of cryptocurrency that you might use, not only bitcoin.

Coinbase is not really a wallet and it sucks to be honest from my personal experience, their support is the worst of all exchanges and you may never get any response most of the time. If you are still using coinbase then its time for you to move to better wallet like electrum for bitcoin or coinomi,jaxx,exodus,trust wallets for multi cryptos storage.

There is a coinbase wallet application, which indeed is a mobile wallet.



I would definitely not recommend coinomi, jaxx or exodus.
All of these wallets have their own problems. And the developer of jaxx and coinomi are extremely incompetent and had severe vulnerabilities in their wallets without properly acknowledging them.

I'd keep away from those wallets.

Used Coinomi in the past for some altcoin storage and never had any issues with them personally, probably they have bugs but, Do they really have vulnerabilities? Then how these wallets are considered as best crypto wallets for everyone even in 2020?

Thank you for the great feedback. We have always been totally open and transparent about any issues with our wallet, but most importantly, no user has ever lost money with Coinomi due to these "bugs". Of course people are entitled to their opinion and it's not our job to prove them otherwise. Coinomi has a great reputation and track record and if these claims were true we wouldn't be here almost 7 years after the wallet's inception and we would definitely not have millions of happy users.

In this case, it might be much easier to explain to a newbie, especially if he is going to store a large amount of bitcoins on his mobile wallet, that all wallets that can be installed on a mobile phone are less reliable than, for example, hardware wallets, or than an official bitcoin wallet from development teams. But for ordinary expenses (no more than $ 100 per day for example), he can safely use almost any mobile wallet.

Coinomi had a really severe vulnerability where they sent the mnemonic code to the google server to check the spelling of the words.
While mistakes can happen, the developer claimed that this isn't as sever since google employees stealing funds would be unlikely. They completely ignored any other attack surface coming from that vulnerability.

The really important thing is not that the vulnerability existed, but the missing competence from the developer to acknowledge it. There are better wallets with more competent developers available.




There is no central authority who gives out a prize for the "best wallet".
People might choose them as the best wallets for random reasons (e.g. good UI and easy to use), they don't necessary have the technical knowledge to question it form a technical perspective.

Thanks for the clear explanation, I didn't know that this vulnerability existed with Coinomi but luckily I am not affected by it. Still have that wallet but I don't think any considerable amount left in there. Still the vulnerability exists with it or they resolved it?

They fixed it.

That's one of the problems with closed-source wallets. You don't know what exactly they are doing.
For small amounts it should be fine, but definitely not for larger amounts.

This is a really weird misrepresentation of the facts. Did you even bother to read our official announcement on the incident? Apparently not. We totally acknowledged the incident and put together an action plan to make sure no user funds are at risk, this is why we were in contact with Google and the Police authorities from the very first day that this bug was disclosed to us. And since you brought this up it would be also nice of you to mention that this bug only existed in this very particular version of our then-newly-released desktop wallet so mobile clients were not affected at all and even in desktops it would only be present if the user would try to restore an existing wallet into their desktop app so it also wasn't present in newly set up desktop wallets. The most important thing that you also fail to mention is that no user lost money from this bug (or from any other bug for that matter) and that we went a really long way to make sure that sensitive user data was only available to their owners and nobody else. If you want to call this incompetence then so be it, we are here to serve the crypto community in the best way like we've been doing for the past 7 years, not to convince you or anybody else about anything but we would really appreciate it if you stopped misrepresenting the facts. It would also be nice of you to mention that there have been bugs in all wallet clients from every single vendor from time to time and that in most instances users have permanently lost their funds, and that includes many open-source wallets too.

We mentioned this in one of our recent posts on this forum and we do this again here: we are working on an open-source solution that will be released soon to address these concerns. Our 24/7/365 Customer Support will be happy to assist you along the way via Live Chat, email and on several media platforms. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a much better way to put it indeed. And like we said, we are working on a solution to address these concerns.

Ok. So only the destkop clients were affected.
At least your mobile wallet is open-source so everyone can verify the code and check that you don't have other blatantly retarded mistakes there, right? Oh i forgot.. it's not.

Also, i'd like to quote you here:

You were using HTTPS. Congratulations, that makes the vulnerability just a little bit less severe.
You see google as the only (?) person who can steal funds from this vulnerability because of HTTPS. This means you obviously don't have any clue.

There is no good reason to trust a closed source wallet from developers who have such a stance regarding this vulnerability.

I would recommend using trustwallet or imtoken. I have been using imtoken and trustwallet with no issues even used it to transfer some bitcoin and ethereum to my other wallet. I may have used a custodial wallet app for android and IOS (I think they support IOS too) but I think it's only available in my country but if that newbie is also where I from then I would suggest using it as I have been using it for almkst 3 years.

Trustwallet is my wallet of choice for beginners. Because trustwallet has many features and supports multi-coin wallets that support ERC-20, ERC-721, BEP2 wallets. Trustwallet also supports the main Blockchain in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Besides that, the trustwallet interface is also easy to use for beginners and supports the DApps Browser.

Trustwallet also prioritizes wallet security and user anonymity. Security standards continue to be improved so that assets remain safe.

I suggest trust wallet. This wallet is very simple to use. Good UI and easy to understand. Newbies in my country use trust wallet.

Only desktop version was affected and from their response article the vulnerability was in the plugin they used and not in wallet code itself.

You can read more here if you like: https://medium.com/coinomi/official-statement-on-spell-check-findings-547ca348676b

This doesn't really make it less severe.

Just don't use coinomi or any other closed source wallets and you are most likely fine.

Closed source software should be avoided whenever possible. This does not only apply to wallets. But especially with a decentralized payment network, open-source should be preferred.

Bluewallet: https://bluewallet.io/

It's pretty slick and straight to the point, and it's bitcoin only. Especially knowing that the people who are going to use your recommendation don't know much about bitcoin and blockchain, I don't think it's a good idea to overwhelm them with multi-coin wallets.

Blue wallet is also called Lightning wallet with lightning, segwit network and HD wallet.
Blue Wallet also has new features such as the Desktop App which is currently only available for Mac OS and will later be developed for Linux and Windows.

There is a Local Trader feature, namely the p2p trading marketplace which makes it easier to buy bitcoin without using KYC.

LNurl support, Cobo vault support, custom entropy, Coldcard support, Hardware Wallet and many others.

This is a fairly complete beginner's wallet that will support Multiple wallets later.