[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why?

[Charles-Tim]

A thread was created yesterday about this:

Trezor hacked (again)

Problem is not only for Trezor but for most hardware wallets and devices that use STM32 microcontrollers and most wallets are using them.
They are used in  billions of devices around the world, not only in hardware wallets and it's scary when you think about it, even without flaws some agencies could add backdoor for spying inside this chips.

Trezor already fixed the issue in latest firmware versions and wallets no longer copy or move the key and PIN into RAM but in protected part of flash that is not affected by firmware upgrades.

---snipped---

We should always follow the appropriate way which is sending your coins to another offline wallet if your hardware wallet is stolen. Also the use of passphrase which is also advisable for Trezor users because passphrase are not stored on the hardware wallet device while also new different keys and addresses will be generated from the same seed phrase.

[Markinzo]

I must say this an eye opener for me. 
In the Advent of a stolen wallet what action then can one take up, ASAP?

[Charles-Tim]

In the Advent of a stolen wallet what action then can one take up, ASAP?

The best is to avoid your wallet device not to be compromised by avoiding malware that can compromise your wallet and steal your coins. There is no one way to avoid malware than to be very conscious about it and visit only legit sites, making use of ad blocks like ublock, stop clicking on ads and ad links. Stop downing pirated torrent files and the likes.

To learn more, you can learn more from some of these topics:
Good topics on security and privacy

In case your device is infected, you may need to erase your device completely to become like a new device, and reinstall your OS.

Know that a compromised wallet means a compromised wallet which may not be recovered back as the coin on it would have been stolen already.

[Lulu007]

Hello everyone,
I am new here, so welcome to all community member. Actually, I know several way to create bitcoin wallet.  But I can't understand which is the best option in 2022 and also secure plan. Can anyone give me some ideas or way the best plan. Many thanks in advance.

[Hispo]

Hello everyone,
I am new here, so welcome to all community member. Actually, I know several way to create bitcoin wallet.  But I can't understand which is the best option in 2022 and also secure plan. Can anyone give me some ideas or way the best plan. Many thanks in advance.

It depends on the quantity you want to secure, you are going to store about 1$-50$ worth of Bitcoin, you could use a good,open source mobile wallet like the Schildwach wallet or even electrum on your PC. YOu are storing more, let us say, over 200$, you should consider to use a Hardware wallet of good reputation.

[Lulu007]

Hello everyone,
I am new here, so welcome to all community member. Actually, I know several way to create bitcoin wallet.  But I can't understand which is the best option in 2022 and also secure plan. Can anyone give me some ideas or way the best plan. Many thanks in advance.

It depends on the quantity you want to secure, you are going to store about 1$-50$ worth of Bitcoin, you could use a good,open source mobile wallet like the Schildwach wallet or even electrum on your PC. YOu are storing more, let us say, over 200$, you should consider to use a Hardware wallet of good reputation.

Thank you for your suggestion mate.
Actually, I see the pattern of Bitcoin wallet is changed. Now most of the address start with "bc", but before 2, 3 year I see most of them start with number.
Can you suggest me some website or app for the best in 2022.
Cheers...

[Agathamay]

Hello Everyone
I want to ask as a newbie, what is the best wallet to trade ur coin  and  I will like to know more about bundle wallet and how safe and effective it is

[Hispo]

-snip-

Thank you for your suggestion mate.
Actually, I see the pattern of Bitcoin wallet is changed. Now most of the address start with "bc", but before 2, 3 year I see most of them start with number.

Bitcoin has gone through some soft-forks that have introduced more efficient type of addresses:

1... are called legacy addresses, that is the original format
3... Are called segwit
bc1q... Are NAtive segwit adresses are more efficient than legacy ones, are are prefered in order to save money in fees.

You can find more information here:

https://blog.trezor.io/bitcoin-addresses-and-how-to-use-them-35e7312098ff?gi=3ffdd5451624

Can you suggest me some website or app for the best in 2022.
Cheers...

I'd say you should get a Trezor One from the official web store, they support Bitcoin, Ethereum and its tokens. I personally consider it to be a good hardware wallet and most importantly, they use free software.

[nc50lc]

All good except this:

-snip-
3... Are called segwit

Those addresses that start with "3" aren't all SegWit.
"P2SH" (Pay to Script Hash) can also be MultiSig: "P2SH-MultiSig" or other scripts; in SegWit's case: "P2SH-P2WPKH" as mentioned in that article.

[SFR10]

what is the best wallet to trade ur coin

It depends on choosing the most convenient one ^{[online wallets]} or a somewhat safer route that's a bit complicated ^{[hardware wallets]}.
^{- Regarding the former, "most" of them can freeze your funds or a hacker might access your wallet and as for the latter, most [if not all] of them rely on third-party providers for offering such features [in other words, they can also freeze your funds and ask for some information]!}

and  I will like to know more about bundle wallet and how safe and effective it is

If you're referring to multi-cryptocurrency wallets, always go with a hardware wallet that supports various cryptocurrencies.
^{- It gets the job done, but I prefer to not say they're 100% risk-free!}

[Charles-Tim]

I want to ask as a newbie, what is the best wallet to trade ur coin  and  I will like to know more about bundle wallet and how safe and effective it is

To trade, for privacy, you will best use decentralized exchanges like https://localcryptos.com/, https://hodlhodl.com/, https://bisq.network/ or any other decentralized exchanges.

For convenience, you can use the so called centralized wallet if it support swapping or conversion, or use centralized exchanges, but you have no full control of centralized wallets and exchanges, the coins on it can be hacked and no privacy.

About Bundle wallet, according to what I saw on Playstore:

About this app

Bundle Africa is a social payments app for Cash - NGN & Crypto - BNB, BTC & ETH

Note: Bundle is currently available in Nigeria  and Ghana . We'll be in more countries soon!

I downloaded the app, it requested for phone number and I decided not to proceed because it is already obvious that the app is not noncustododial wallet and it is just a payment app.

Best wallets

Full client
Full node wallets, Bitcoin Core, not for newbies and require learning very well about the full node, requires up to 5 to 10 gigabyte monthly to say updated and require almost 400 gigabyte to download the full bitcoin blockchain. Only for those that want to have their own node but most people use SPV light client wallets which are the ones I will list below.

Best light clients
Electrum, but an online wallet
Open source hardware wallet
You can also go for airgapped wallet which are also cold storage: Electrum cold storage

[dkbit98]

I want to ask as a newbie, what is the best wallet to trade ur coin  and  I will like to know more about bundle wallet and how safe and effective it is

I don't know what ''bundle wallet'' is exactly, but if it is wallet for storing Bitcoin with other altcoins than I would use some hardware wallets like Trezor, or open source mobile wallets like Unstoppable.
Wallets are generally not used for trading, only for storing secret keys for your coins, but there are one dex exchange Bisq that you can use for both use cases.
One more option is AtomicDEX, that can be used as a wallet and for atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other coins.

[Hispo]

All good except this:

-snip-
3... Are called segwit

Those addresses that start with "3" aren't all SegWit.
"P2SH" (Pay to Script Hash) can also be MultiSig: "P2SH-MultiSig" or other scripts; in SegWit's case: "P2SH-P2WPKH" as mentioned in that article.

Thanks for pointing that out, I forgot that little detail.
I was kind of just explaning the basics so the new users lurking this thread could have a grasp of the differences among the type of Bitcoin addresses one can use and I decided to share that article about the subject published by Trezor which I recalled it was quite good explaning the basics to newbies within the crypto community about addresses, that why I included it, in case someone wanted to read further my short asnwer.

[MrSlippage]

I think that this post needs an update... 

Anyone expert, Could say main wallets to use for example;

- Computer/PC

- MobilePhone (Android & IOS)

About HardwareWallet like Trezor, Ledger or SafePal. Anyone knows about "ColdCard Mk4" 

Thanks, regards 

[OmegaStarScream]

-snip-
Anyone expert, Could say main wallets to use for example;

- Computer/PC

- MobilePhone (Android & IOS)

About HardwareWallet like Trezor, Ledger or SafePal. Anyone knows about "ColdCard Mk4" 
-snip-

I wouldn't label myself as an expert but, here's what I'd personally go with (for bitcoin):

Desktop: Electrum
Mobile: Blockstream or Samurai wallet (the latter is privacy-focused).

As for the HWs, then since I'm not that familiar with the MK4 model, I would go with either Trezor or Ledger. SafePal might be cheap but it's definitely not something you should be using for your life savings (closed source, backed by Binance, bad UX, etc.)

[MrSlippage]

-snip-
Anyone expert, Could say main wallets to use for example;

- Computer/PC

- MobilePhone (Android & IOS)

About HardwareWallet like Trezor, Ledger or SafePal. Anyone knows about "ColdCard Mk4" 
-snip-

I wouldn't label myself as an expert but, here's what I'd personally go with (for bitcoin):

Desktop: Electrum
Mobile: Blockstream or Samurai wallet (the latter is privacy-focused).

As for the HWs, then since I'm not that familiar with the MK4 model, I would go with either Trezor or Ledger. SafePal might be cheap but it's definitely not something you should be using for your life savings (closed source, backed by Binance, bad UX, etc.)

Thanks for reply! @OmegaStarScream   

I'll try both Electrum and Samurai!   

Thanks for your time, 

[SFR10]

I think that this post needs an update... 

It does, but the OP/TS of this thread "permanently left this forum back in October of 2020"; hence the lack of updates since then.

Anyone knows about "ColdCard Mk4" 

I have limited knowledge about that particular model, so I'd suggest either creating a thread on the "Hardware wallets" board or reading some of the published threads/posts in regards to Mk4:

• Coldcard
• ColdCard: why would you create a backup file?
• ColdCard hardware wallet
• Coldcard Mk4 NFC Spec for developers

[Charles-Tim]

About HardwareWallet like Trezor, Ledger or SafePal. Anyone knows about "ColdCard Mk4" 

Trezor is a open source hardware wallet, it is completely open source. It software, the Trezor Suite is also open source. For bitcoin, you can also use it with Electrum wallet.

For Ledger Nano, it has a secure element which is used for seed phrase generation and storage. The secure element makes it hard for a physical attack that can reveal the seed phrase to anyone that steal the wallet to be impossible (or let me use almost impossible).

Trezor is completely open source but adding passphrase while generating wallet with it can be necessary in order to generate different keys and addresses in a way any attacker that steal the wallet will only know the seed phrase with the physical attack that can reveal the seed phrase but can not know the keys and addresses and will not be able to steal your coins if strong passphrase is used.

I will recommend Trezor if you can use passphrase along with seedphrase to generate the wallet. If you lose your seed phrase, you lose your coin, also if you lose passphrase, you lose your coin.

About Coldcard, you can read this:
https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/hardware/coldcard/#:~:text=Coldcard%20is%20an%20easy%20to,in%20a%20dedicated%20security%20chip.

About Safepal
The wallet itself is close source
The wallet software is also close source
It only has a mobile software, no desktop software
You can not connect it with wallets like Electrum
No means of generating multisig wallet
No coin control or address freeze
Safepal is not recommendable.

[MrSlippage]

About HardwareWallet like Trezor, Ledger or SafePal. Anyone knows about "ColdCard Mk4" 

Trezor is a open source hardware wallet, it is completely open source. It software, the Trezor Suite is also open source. For bitcoin, you can also use it with Electrum wallet.

For Ledger Nano, it has a secure element which is used for seed phrase generation and storage. The secure element makes it hard for a physical attack that can reveal the seed phrase to anyone that steal the wallet to be impossible (or let me use almost impossible).

Trezor is completely open source but adding passphrase while generating wallet with it can be necessary in order to generate different keys and addresses in a way any attacker that steal the wallet will only know the seed phrase with the physical attack that can reveal the seed phrase but can not know the keys and addresses and will not be able to steal your coins if strong passphrase is used.

I will recommend Trezor if you can use passphrase along with seedphrase to generate the wallet. If you lose your seed phrase, you lose your coin, also if you lose passphrase, you lose your coin.

About Coldcard, you can read this:
https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/hardware/coldcard/#:~:text=Coldcard%20is%20an%20easy%20to,in%20a%20dedicated%20security%20chip.

About Safepal
The wallet itself is close source
The wallet software is also close source
It only has a mobile software, no desktop software
You can not connect it with wallets like Electrum
No means of generating multisig wallet
No coin control or address freeze
Safepal is not recommendable.

Sincerely, very usefull! i'm so gratefull for this feedback about HW, Have a nice day, thanks! 

[MrSlippage]

Trying to share more usefull information to all;

After try on my mobile phone;

           - Samourai Wallet

           - Sentinel (Watch Only) -> Runs with out private keys, check balance and receive deposits on new addresses. 

Both apps works properly, very user friendly, but you need to know about how Bitcoin works to take really profit to these apps.

Points of interest;

           - Samourai Wallet -> Privacy connecting Tor Network, possibility of connect to own DoJo FullNode 

           - Sentinel -> Track any Bitcoin address having single address, XPUB, YPUB or ZPUB. With it, can generate new addreses to receive payments.

Both apps are protected by PIN and I recommed watch the options available to configure the app, very yummy apps. 

PD; Another HW checked by one collegue, it's BitBox 2.0, seems like very good alternative to Trezor and Ledger! Open source and nicely made.