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

[SFR10]

That possible. The reason is that your text might never enter the mempool. the network is busy and never get free. To put it simply, your transaction might never get processed at all because the average fees are always higher than your TX Fees. So, you'll never be able to send your things with $1 when the average fees are $5. that continues forever.

I'm not sure to who you're responding in this post, but it has a lot of inaccurate information! It seems that you think there's a continuous and static amount of traffic at its maximum capacity, but that's not the case ^{[check "this" website]}.
^{- In addition to that, it looks like you've been using a wallet that has limited capabilities in choosing the Tx fee.}

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[Charles-Tim]

That possible. The reason is that your text might never enter the mempool. the network is busy and never get free. To put it simply, your transaction might never get processed at all because the average fees are always higher than your TX Fees. So, you'll never be able to send your things with $1 when the average fees are $5. that continues forever.

Where did you hear that from? I have been reading on the news since like 5 months ago, how bitcoin transaction fee is low, example is this one week old news:

Average Bitcoin transaction fee drops under $1 as network difficulty recovers

SFR10 has given you the appropriate reply, bitcoin transaction fee is very low, cost far less than $1 if using a noncustodial wallet with good fee estimation, check the mempool link he posted above to see how low bitcoin transaction is, or you can click on the link below.

https://mempool.space

In addition to that, it looks like you've been using a wallet that has limited capabilities in choosing the Tx fee.

What I am thinking is that he may be using a custodial wallet or a custodial exchange, be it any of the two, they charges for withdrawal fee which is transaction fee plus additional fee the custodial wallet charges from users, unlike noncustodial wallet that charges only for the transaction fee which are rewarded to miners.

[PowerGlove]

It's no wonder that both SFR10 and Charles-Tim found zhtommyk's post confusing, because it was copied from a 2019 post by another member (joniboini).

I was a little lazy and reported the post earlier but without first documenting it in the plagiarism reporting thread, like I should have. Now I see that the post has been deleted but the user has not been nuked. Next time, I'll do it properly.

[riddick81]

For me LN wallets is best Phoenix. I am begginer with LN, Zap and others more complicated. The most difficult part was transferring BTC from the regular network to the Lightning Network (LN). Even with Phoenix, it was quite simple.

[MarissaLopez]

Talking about BTC wallets, how can I create one in my android.

[Poker Player]

Talking about BTC wallets, how can I create one in my android.

Just download one. You can use Mycellium wallet or Electrum for example. They are easy to download and install.

[Charles-Tim]

Talking about BTC wallets, how can I create one in my android.

Know that the most secure wallets are properly generated paper wallet, wallet on airgapped devices and reputed hardware wallets which are cold storage wallets. In short, offline or cold wallets are mostly secured.

Some people may validly argue that not all hardware wallets are cold wallets as users use it to make transactions, and it can also depend on how they are used to make transactions.

Online or hot wallets are not that safe, do not use online wallets to hold huge amount of money. Use cold wallets. For simplicity, you can use a hardware wallet.

The two Android wallets that I am using are Electrum and Bluewallet.

[estenity]

Talking about BTC wallets, how can I create one in my android.

Know that the most secure wallets are properly generated paper wallet, wallet on airgapped devices and reputed hardware wallets which are cold storage wallets. In short, offline or cold wallets are mostly secured.

Some people may validly argue that not all hardware wallets are cold wallets as users use it to make transactions, and it can also depend on how they are used to make transactions.

Online or hot wallets are not that safe, do not use online wallets to hold huge amount of money. Use cold wallets. For simplicity, you can use a hardware wallet.

The two Android wallets that I am using are Electrum and Bluewallet.

wise advice.
how do you consider the use of paper wallets presently ? how to generate securely ?

[Charles-Tim]

how do you consider the use of paper wallets presently ? how to generate securely ?

The best way I consider for now is the use of open source wallets like Electrum which can run offline on an airgapped device (a device that its Bluetooth and WiFi cardhas been removed) in which the OS is reinstall to make your certain that it has no malware. Some people generate paper wallet like this, delete the wallet on the device and use it as a paper wallet as they backup the wallet seed phrase and some addresses on paper.

For your coin protection, you can make use of passphrase (extended word) along with the seed phrase which will generate you different keys and addresses which will protect your wallet like BIP38 passphrase encryption.

[satscraper]

<snip>

I concur with viewpoint you have shared and would like to contribute a few of my own observations pertaining to both hardware and Android wallets.

Fot those who are technically adept and less concerned with company policies related to product licensing, the recent offerings from Canadian maker, Coinkite, might be an appealing option. Their latest model, ColdCard MK4, is currently available. However in the next few quarters one can expect the release of more advanced device, namely ColsCard Q1. This new model is designed to facilitate communication via QR code.

On the other hand, for those who place importance on a company's licencing policy and seek a user-friendly device with top-tier security, Passport 2 developed by Foundation would be an ideal choice. Personally, my preference aligns with Passport2.

As to Android wallets. While not discounting your choices, I would steer users towards another opt - AirGap Vault.   

[crypto_imey]

I came through this thread, when i am searching for recommended wallets to store coins. Since it was written a while back, I felt that some updated details are required. If any one can suggest latest recommended wallets to store coins for long term and short term holding, It would be a great help for me.

[JayJuanGee]

I came through this thread, when i am searching for recommended wallets to store coins. Since it was written a while back, I felt that some updated details are required. If any one can suggest latest recommended wallets to store coins for long term and short term holding, It would be a great help for me.

Did you actually read the thread?

How about other related threads?

As far as I can see this thread is active, even though OP is from 2016 and surely Lauda has not been around the forum for a few years.. but still maybe you should describe which aspects of OP or other parts of the thread that you want to know about?  Yes, maybe you do not need to read the whole thread.. but still.

How about describing efforts that you made to research into the topic, and also providing some details regarding how much experience you have in regards to buying BTC and the various ways that you might store it - including some ideas regarding how much you might want to store in various places (of course, you should not be giving up information regarding your own BTC holdings, but just to give some ideas regarding your own situation)... and maybe some guys might want to delve into such vague and incomplete scenarios, even though you seemed to have had done little to no actual work - which appears that you might not be a serious poster.. or at least not someone that anyone here should take seriously.. or maybe I am already treating you too seriously by actually responding.

[Charles-Tim]

I came through this thread, when i am searching for recommended wallets to store coins. Since it was written a while back, I felt that some updated details are required. If any one can suggest latest recommended wallets to store coins for long term and short term holding, It would be a great help for me.

It is not about long term or short term. If you have huge amount, use offline wallet. Offline wallets are safer and are the most secure. Their keys are generated offline, unlike online wallets which their keys are generated online.

For offline wallets:
Electrum cold storage wallet: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

For a paper wallet, you can use airgapped device for it too, just like Electrum cold storage. Airgapped devices are secure because no internet connection, no Bluetooth or WiFi card as you would have removed them. The difference is that you will make it a paper wallet after you backup the seed phrase in like two or three different locations and deleted the wallet from the airgapped device.

Or you can buy a hardware wallet. The most recommended for now is Passport. Others may be good for you but I will not recommend Ledger Nano at all. Also I will not recommend close source hardware wallets, like Safepal. The one I can recommend is Passport, it is a bitcoin only wallet.

Other hardware wallets that I can recommend as they support multicoins and their cons:

Trezor. With the help of Wasabi, they make coinjoin possible, but Wasabi is censoring bitcoin transaction and also spying. People have preferred to use Whirlpool from Sparrow wallet or Samourai wallet from coinjoin. Or Jointmarket if you run your own node.

Bitbox02. But because of AOPP, bitcoin community do not support such wallet again. Read more about AOPP online. If you are not from Switzerland, you are not affected. I will not support such wallet for them and their government in Switzerland for invading their citizens privacy.

I still prefer Trezor, but I will advice you not to use its coinjoin.

For online wallets:
 They are used for low amount of coins. The ones I can recommend you are Electrum, Sparrow and Bluewallet. Sparrow only has desktop versions. Mobile Electrum do not have coin control and fee customization, but it has fee slider which is not accurate like customizing the fee. Bluewallet wallet is not having Windows and Linux OS.

[crypto_imey]

I came through this thread, when i am searching for recommended wallets to store coins. Since it was written a while back, I felt that some updated details are required. If any one can suggest latest recommended wallets to store coins for long term and short term holding, It would be a great help for me.

It is not about long term or short term. If you have huge amount, use offline wallet. Offline wallets are safer and are the most secure. Their keys are generated offline, unlike online wallets which their keys are generated online.

For offline wallets:
Electrum cold storage wallet: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

For a paper wallet, you can use airgapped device for it too, just like Electrum cold storage. Airgapped devices are secure because no internet connection, no Bluetooth or WiFi card as you would have removed them. The difference is that you will make it a paper wallet after you backup the seed phrase in like two or three different locations and deleted the wallet from the airgapped device.

Or you can buy a hardware wallet. The most recommended for now is Passport. Others may be good for you but I will not recommend Ledger Nano at all. Also I will not recommend close source hardware wallets, like Safepal. The one I can recommend is Passport, it is a bitcoin only wallet.

Other hardware wallets that I can recommend as they support multicoins and their cons:

Trezor. With the help of Wasabi, they make coinjoin possible, but Wasabi is censoring bitcoin transaction and also spying. People have preferred to use Whirlpool from Sparrow wallet or Samourai wallet from coinjoin. Or Jointmarket if you run your own node.

Bitbox02. But because of AOPP, bitcoin community do not support such wallet again. Read more about AOPP online. If you are not from Switzerland, you are not affected. I will not support such wallet for them and their government in Switzerland for invading their citizens privacy.

I still prefer Trezor, but I will advice you not to use its coinjoin.

For online wallets:
 They are used for low amount of coins. The ones I can recommend you are Electrum, Sparrow and Bluewallet. Sparrow only has desktop versions. Mobile Electrum do not have coin control and fee customization, but it has fee slider which is not accurate like customizing the fee. Bluewallet wallet is not having Windows and Linux OS.

I greatly appreciate your valuable insights and I'm thrilled to have your assistance.
For my bitcoin holdings, I will go for Electrum bitcoin wallets. I feel it is the safest way for holding.
For other coins, I already have safepal hardware wallet that you are not recommanding. Therefore I will conduct further research about its security measures.
Trezor Model T is really attractive. I will take the time to seek out others feedback before making a final decision.

[Charles-Tim]

For my bitcoin holdings, I will go for Electrum bitcoin wallets. I feel it is the safest way for holding.

Yes, if you use it offline. But if it is online, it is vulnerable like other reputed open source wallets. Online wallets are more vulnerable to hack, only recommend for low amount of coins.

[JayJuanGee]

For online wallets:
 They are used for low amount of coins. The ones I can recommend you are Electrum, Sparrow and Bluewallet. Sparrow only has desktop versions. Mobile Electrum do not have coin control and fee customization, but it has fee slider which is not accurate like customizing the fee. Bluewallet wallet is not having Windows and Linux OS.

Thanks for your outline.

Within this category of online wallets, I don't really claim to know very much about the comparisons of these, even though I have been using Bluewallet for a bit over a year.. and was glad to be able to have both lightning and the Blue wallet thorugh the same interface (until they took their own lightning node out of the loop, so now my lightning wallets are currently Phoenix and Breez).. so I still use Bluewallet for their onchain wallet.. and I suppose it is a replacement for some of the other centralized wallets that I had been using.. which maybe I should not even mention the name..but I was using a couple of different ones,

but anyway, I was wondering why Specter is not in your list.. when you mention Sparrow and Electrum.. what about Specter?  Do they have issues to cause them to fall off of your list,  or you have not looked into Specter?  

I downloaded both Specter and Sparrow, but I have not used either of them.

I had been considering whether I should look further into comparing Sparrow and Specter in terms of hooking it up to a Bitcoin Core node, which I ONLY recently started running BC on a couple of computers.. even though I don't exactly know what Bitcoin Core is doing beyond taking up 1/2 TB of space on each of the computers and showing me how many peers (usually between 10 and 30) are connected to each of these two nodes, but it seems that a lot of members in the forum are not even mentioning Specter anymore, but I frequently see Sparrow mentioned and praised.. while suggesting that there are "technical" aspects with any of these wallets.  

I also have not used Electrum (besides downloading it), even though I know it is quite popular due to its being open source and having had been around for a long time.

By the way.. I do use a Trezor one (since 2017) and a Trezor Model T (since about 2019?) .. and I had used Ledger in 2017.. but I got really frustrated with it.. and even seeming bugs, so I just stopped even trying to use the Ledger.. maybe I used it for around a year before I just couldn't be bothered screwing around with it.. and I did not really like the idea that they were not open source.. even though people frequently applauded them for their secure element.. but of course their reputation got a bit worse with their dancing around firmware updates and then even the discussions that caused questions about how much anyone should have had been trusting them in the first place.

 I have tended to like Trezor because of its being open source.. and even using common hardware.. even though surely it does seem that there might be some newer hardware devices that might be better, as you mentioned passport. .and yeah, I don't like the idea of Trezor's mixing service with Wasabi or their teaming up with that Wasabi service.. so I hope that they are not otherwise compromised since I am aware of some of the concerns of the Wasabi coordinators (or whatever they are called)... so yeah, if I were to end up using Electrum, Sparrow or Specter, then I would want to be able to connect my Trezor to my Bitcoin Core Node through one or more of those interfaces, whether it would be Electrum, Sparrow and/or Spector.. not that I am exactly sure about how to do any of that hooking up; kinds of things, yet.. just besides thinking about the possibility of using my Trezors in that kind of a way... or any other hardware wallet that I might get in the future.

[Charles-Tim]

but anyway, I was wondering why Specter is not in your list.. when you mention Sparrow and Electrum.. what about Specter?  Do they have issues to cause them to fall off of your list,  or you have not looked into Specter? 

I have not used Specter before, the reason I do not talk much about it on the forum. Electrum, Sparrow, Specter and Bluewallet are open source wallets.

I will try and download Specter and see how it is. I think it is desktop only wallet too. If you want to make transaction on it, there is possibility that the fee can be customized after clicking on advanced. It supoort replace-by-fee and coin control. It is much like Sparrow and Electrum in features and I think it would be one of the best bitcoin wallet. It has the necessary features and it is open source.

[satscraper]

but anyway, I was wondering why Specter is not in your list.. when you mention Sparrow and Electrum.. what about Specter?  Do they have issues to cause them to fall off of your list,  or you have not looked into Specter?  

I have not used Specter before, the reason I do not talk much about it on the forum. Electrum, Sparrow, Specter and Bluewallet are open source wallets.

I will try and download Specter and see how it is. I think it is desktop only wallet too. If you want to make transaction on it, there is possibility that the fee can be customized after clicking on advanced. It supoort replace-by-fee and coin control. It is much like Sparrow and Electrum in features and I think it would be one of the best bitcoin wallet. It has the necessary features and it is open source.

For a short while I have used Specter in conjunction with Passport 2. What was impossible to miss is its big gap limit set as large as 1000 addresses on default. From my experience Specter is the only wallet that sets such big gap limit on default, conventional value is 20 addresses in most wallets. All other functionalities are similar to Sparrow but the latter is a bit faster (at least, I found it was) so as a result, I settled myself on the Passport2-Sparrow-Bitcoin Core bond.

[Finbars1234*]

What is a General thread?
This is one of the first of (probably) many general threads that will be created in this subsection. A General thread will contain relevant information related to the question/subject of the title thus duplicate threads related to it are not allowed. Posts within a general thread will be harshly moderated and anything remotely useless will be removed. These threads are supposed to be informational, and reposting similar information multiple times is not allowed. You are free to discuss information that has been posted, but keep it short and civil (more than 5 replies is too much). Questions about information provided in this thread are not allowed either.

What are General threads for?
General threads are meant to be used as an overview of useful information and to prevent unnecessary duplicate threads within the section. After 10 pages this thread will be closed and a "[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Part n+1" will be created, which will contain an updated list of good information. This process will constantly be repeated. The reason that this approach was chosen is to prevent long threads in which people don't find what they are looking for and to provide the most up-to-date information.


Overview - Table of contents
Click the link to go to that part of the post

Types of Wallets
     Universal Wallets
     Desktop Wallets
     Mobile Wallets for Android
     Mobile Wallets for iOS
     Online Wallets (Web Wallets)
     Paper Wallets
     Hardware Wallets
     Lightning Network (LN) Wallets
Not recommended and outdated Wallets
Best practice handling Bitcoins
How to Store Bitcoins


Types of Wallets
There are many different ways to use Bitcoin and so there are many different types of wallets:

• Online bitcoin wallets. Wallets that can be accessed on the web from any internet connected device.
• Software wallets. Wallet applications downloaded to your phone, computer or tablet.
• Bitcoin hardware wallets. Physical devices designed to secure bitcoins.
• Paper wallets. Bitcoin private keys printed from an offline computer.

Here are some factors to consider when choosing a wallet:

• On the go? If you are making payments in person and not online then a mobile wallet like breadwallet (iOS) or Edge (Android) is a must.
• Frequency of payments: If you will need to make frequent payments then it will be best to keep your funds in wallet that is easy to use and accessible. Mobile wallets and desktop wallets are good options.
• Amount: If you are dealing with large amounts of bitcoins you will need a secure wallet. Hardware wallets and secure offline wallets like Armory are good options.
• Use combinations: Use a mobile wallet as your checking account, and a hardware or secure offline wallet as your savings account. Mix and match to find a combination that provides both security and accessibility.

Universal Wallets
Universal wallets are wallets that are available for Android, iOS, Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Jaxx Liberty
While not designed as a wallet only for BTC, this wallet has support for many altcoins and has many useful features. Excepting an user-friendly UI, the wallet offers a built-in KYCless exchange, powered by ShapeShift. The users can exchange their coins directly from the wallet, without any registration process. Besides, the wallet offers also a real-time price of crypto market, similar to CoinMarketCap and includes also a News section where the users can read various news from crypto sector. Security wise: Jaxx is non-custodial wallet, the users are in control of their private keys and are offered a 12-words recovery phrase, stored locally. Furthermore, the users can lock the wallet's funds with a password.


Desktop Wallets
Desktop wallets are software wallets that are downloaded and installed on your computer. The desktop wallets below are available on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Bitcoin Core
Bitcoin Core is the “official” Bitcoin client and wallet, though isn’t used by many due to slow speeds and a lack of features. Bitcoin Core, however, is a full node, meaning it helps verify and transmit other Bitcoin transactions across the network and stores a copy of the entire blockchain. This offers better privacy since Core doesn’t have to rely on data from external servers or other peers on the network. Bitcoin Core routed through Tor is considered one of the best ways to use Bitcoin privately.

Wasabi
"Wasabi is an open-source, non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet for Desktop, that implements trustless coin shuffling with mathematically provable anonymity - Chaumian CoinJoin". This wallet uses Tor by default.

Armory
Armory is the most mature, secure and full featured Bitcoin wallet but it can be technologically intimidating for users. Whether you are an individual storing $1,000 or institution storing $1,000,000,000 this is one of the most secure options available. Users are in complete control all Bitcoin private keys and can setup a secure offline-signing process in Armory.

Electrum
Electrum may be the most popular desktop wallet, due to its speed and ease of use. Electrum can also be used as cold storage if you have an extra computer that can be used offline. Additonaly, Electrum offers other features like connecting through Tor, multisiganture wallets, integration with hardware wallets, and more.

Bitcoin Knots
Alternative to Bitcoin Core, "Bitcoin Knots is a derivative of Bitcoin Core (since 2011 December) with a collection of improvements backported from and sometimes maintained outside of the master git tree".


Mobile Wallets for Android

Samourai
This wallet is very privacy-oriented and it also implemented many privacy features that were implemented by Amir Taaki inside his Dark Wallet. It is available for Android and it has implemented an own version of Chaumian CoinJoin. Additionally, it has built-in TOR support.

Bitcoin Wallet
Bitcoin Wallet was the first Bitcoin wallet for Android. It’s simple, easy to backup, and connects directly to the Bitcoin network with SPV.

Edge
Edge (formerly Airbitz) is another Bitcoin wallet that’s great for everyday use. Edge manages accounts with usernames and passwords, but doesn’t have access to your funds. This type of account creation is easier for less technical users who may have trouble backing up or understanding HD seeds. It is open-source.

BlockStream Green
BlockStream Green is the native version of GreenAddress. It’s fast, simple, and supports hardware wallets Trezor One, Ledger Nano S, and Ledger Nano X.

Electrum (Android)
Electrum is among the most popular wallets, due to its speed and ease of use. Electrum can also be used as cold storage if you have an extra computer that can be used offline. Additonaly, Electrum offers other features like connecting through Tor, multisiganture wallets, integration with hardware wallets, and more.

Unstoppable (Android)
It is easy to use, reliable, secure crypto wallet with focus on privacy. Truly decentralized, works directly with Bitcoin network. Open source, code is publicly available. One of few wallets verified by walletscrutiny.com to be exactly as published code on GitHub.


Mobile Wallets for iOS

Breadwallet
Breadwallet’s combination of simplicity and security has made it the most popular iOS wallet. iPhone users in search of their first Bitcoin wallet should findBreadwallet easy to understand.

BlockStream Green
BlockStream Green is also available in the App Store.

Edge
Edge (formerly Airbitz) is also available in the App Store.

Unstoppable (iOS)
It is easy to use, reliable, secure crypto wallet with focus on privacy. Truly decentralized, works directly with Bitcoin network. Open source, code is publicly available. One of few wallets verified by walletscrutiny.com to be exactly as published code on GitHub. Available on App Store. User-friendly design, non-custodial secure storage, privacy oriented features.


Online Bitcoin Wallets
Online Bitcoin wallets, or web wallets, store your private keys online. Wallets can only be accessed with a user-set password.

BitGo
BitGo is a high-security multi-sig wallet, which protects your bitcoin from theft and loss. You maintain full custody; BitGo cannot spend or freeze funds. BitGo wallets are easy to use and offer advanced security features such as spending limits and multi-user access

Coin.Space
Coin.Space HD Wallet is a free online bitcoin wallet, which you can use to make worldwide payments for free. It makes paying with bitcoins easy and secure available anywhere on your phone or desktop.

Xapo
Xapo combines the convenience of an everyday Bitcoin wallet with the security of an insured deep cold storage vault. Xapo Debit Card links to your Xapo Wallet and allows you to spend bitcoins at millions of merchants all around the world.



Paper Wallets
Paper wallets were the standard method of cold storage before hardware wallets were built. Paper wallets are private keys printed out on a piece of paper. If generated and printed with a secure, offline computer, paper wallets are secure cold storage.
The main problem with paper wallets is it can be inconvenient to create and print a new wallet each time you send funds to cold storage. However, it’s possible to bulk print paper wallets to save time and eliminate address reuse. Here's a cold storage guide which explains step-by-step how to create a secure paper wallet.


Hardware Wallets
Hardware wallets are small computers or smartcards built with the sole purpose of generating Bitcoin private keys offline. Hardware wallets securely sign transactions in the same offline environment.

Ledger Nano
The Ledger Nano is a smartcard based hardware wallet. Private keys are generated and signed offline in the smartcard’s secure environment. The Nano is setup using the Ledger Chrome Application. A random 24-word seed is generated upon setup and backed offline by writing it down on a piece of paper. In case of theft, damage or loss, the entire wallet can be recreated with the seed. A user selected PIN code is also assigned to the device to protect against physical theft or hacking. The Ledger Nano may be used on any computer, or Android phones with Mycelium or BlockStream Green.

Trezor
The TREZOR differs from the Ledger Nano in that it’s a very tiny computer rather than a smartcard. Private keys are still generated offline.
TREZOR also generates a 24-word seed upon setup. The TREZOR has its own built in screen where the seed is displayed and copied down during backup. Since the TREZOR is an offline device it offers extra security since the seed isn’t displayed on an online computer. An additional passphrase can be added to the 24-word seed. This provides extra protection, since anyone who finds someone else’s 24-word seed is free to access the funds. If the optional passphrase is added, an attacker still wouldn’t be able to access funds without both the seed AND the passphrase. If the passphrase is forgotten, it cannot be recovered.

OPENDIME
The first Bitcoin Bearer Bond or called a Bitcoin Stick. Opendime is a small USB stick that allows you to spend Bitcoin like a dollar bill. Pass it along multiple times. Connect to any USB to check balance. Unseal anytime to spend online. Trust no one. Acts like a read-only USB flash drive. Works with any computer, laptop, and phone. A QR Picture and Text file inside contain Bitcoin address and support. The private key is generated inside the device, and is never known to any human, not even you!

KeepKey
This hardware wallet is offered by ShapeShift, company which bought KeepKey in the past. It functions in a similar way compared to Nano and Trezor, but there are also some differences. Physically speaking, this is a very robust product. Twice as big as the Nano or Trezor, KeepKey's dimensions are 38 x 93.5 x 12.2 mm. The product is equipped with a large 256×64 3.12″ OLED screen, which is big enough for being able to display QR codes. However, due to its impressive size this wallet is not feasible to be carried out. It supports less cryptocurrencies compared to Nano / Trezor but as a plus it offers a built-in ShapeShift exchange, allowing the users to exchange their coins directly from the hardware wallet. Although KeepKey can be used on Windows, Linux and MacOS, on the official website it is stated that it is "optimized for MacOS. Not recommended for Windows".

Cobo Vault
This may be the safest wallet on the market as far as durability is concerned, being suitable for usage in extreme conditions. Literally speaking. The product meets the US military standard MIL-STD-810G regarding durability, temperature shock, salt/fog resistance, vibration, and high/low-temperatures usage and storage. It is also certified as IP68 water resistant and IK9 impact resistant. For improved security, the wallet is completely air-gapped and it works just in offline mode, as it has no connectivity (no USB / WiFi / 3G/4G / NFC / Bluetooth). Cobo Vault supports various cryptocurrencies and tokens and its enhanced security comes with an expensive price: it can be bought for 99$ / 149$ or 479$, depending on the chosen model.


Lightning Network (LN) Wallets

Eclair Mobile
Open-source, non-custodial wallet, available for Android. Eclair was coded in Scala by ACINQ and it is the first mobile Lightning Network wallet, this representing a huge advantage compared with its successors, at least in terms of usage. It can be used both as a regular Bitcoin wallet and as a Lightning Network wallet and it runs on mainnet.

Zap
A powerful tool for Lightning Network which is still in Beta stage of development. The wallet is cross-platform, being available on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS. It has open-source code and it is non-custodial, the users having control over their private keys. The users have the option to create multiple wallets and run LN transactions in privacy, on mainnet. Future developments will include connecting to Lightning nodes over Tor and running full nodes.

Spark
Open-source, non-custodial, cross-platform LN wallet, available for desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac), Android and iOS. The wallet runs on c-lightning, which is a Lightning Network implementation in C. Users will face a simple interface and a near-zero configuration, while having their privacy enhanced: Spark installs Tor automatically. Do not confuse Spark LN wallet with IOTA Spark wallet, as the one mentioned here is a Lightning Network software developed by Nadav Ivgy, while IOTA Spark is a low-security and temporary web wallet named also a “burner wallet”, developed by IOTA Labs. The wallets are totally different and serve different purposes / cryptocurrencies (IOTA is a known scam coin).

General guidelines for LN wallets: except the three wallets listed above, be aware that several other LN wallets are available on Internet, including, but not limited to: LND Thin Wallet, Shango, Wallet of Satoshi, Breez, Blue Wallet, Bitcoin Lightning Wallet, Peach Wallet etc. However, we can only test and recommend so many. Use them only after performing a due diligence and also have in mind that not all of them are final products - some run on testnet and others on the mainnet.


Not recommended or outdated Wallets
These wallets are either not-recommended for some reason or outdated. You should not use them! Please note that here we only list wallets that were previously on the list, or were suggested to be included by others. This does not include ALL wallets that exist and are not recommended. Wallets that are strongly not recommended:

• Copay, Bitpay, Blockchain.info, BTC.com — untrustworthy, misleading customers, high fees, lacking implementation.
• Mycelium — iOS app has been abandoned. Mycelium team was involved in various unethical scandals, e.g. raising money from ICOs, partying with the collected money and more.
• Multibit — This wallet is discontinued: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2293714.0.
• Coinbase, Freewallet — Custodial wallets. Freewallet has also many scam accusations against it.
• Ledger HW.1, Ledger Unplugged — Discontinued hardware wallets.
• Bitfi - John McAffee's "unhackable" hardware wallet, named also as “the world’s first unhackable device”. Besides McAffee's notorious lack of ethics and besides the admitted vulnerabilities of this product, McAffee offered in 2018 a 100.000$ bounty (raised afterwards to 250.000$) to anyone able to hack the hardware wallet. One week later, a 15 years old teen cracked the wallet and launched Doom on it, but he never received a dime from McAffee.
• Coinomi — Initially open source, then changed again to closed source. Had controversial situations in the past. More information can be found here.
• Trust Wallet — Mislead users that it was open source (only iOS app was). Later both versions of the wallet became closed source. They have not provided a reasonable explanation for this. More information can be found here, and here.
• Exodus — high fees (not customizable), security flaws, sync problems.

Best Practices
Bitcoin lets you control your money, meaning you are responsible for both your money’s security and your financial privacy. Here are some steps you can take to ensure your privacy and security:

Control your private keys
Services like Coinbase and Circle offer “Bitcoin wallets”, but in reality control your private keys. It’s best to use a wallet where you control your private keys. This is the only way to have full control of your funds and not have to rely on third parties for security.

Protect your privacy
Each time you request blockchain data from a wallet, the server may be able to view your IP address and connect this to the address data requested. Each wallet handles data requests differently. If privacy is important to you, use a wallet that downloads the whole blockchain like Bitcoin Core or Armory. Tor can be used with other wallets to shield your IP address, but this doesn’t prevent a server from tying a group of addresses to one identity. For more information, check out the Open Bitcoin Privacy Project for wallet rankings based on privacy.

Don’t reuse addresses
Most Bitcoin wallets today automatically create a new address for each transaction. Since all Bitcoin transactions are public, address reuse makes it easy for others to group transactions and understand which payments are connected to one identity.

Use different wallets for different sums of money
Just like you don’t walk around with your savings account as cash, there are different Bitcoin wallets that should be used depending on how much money is being stored or transferred. Secure wallets like paper wallets or hardware wallets can be used as “savings” wallets, while mobile, web, and desktop wallets should be treated like your spending wallet.

Create multiple secure backups
Users should create multiple backups of their wallets. Backups should be kept in separate physical locations in the case of fire or water damage. Paper wallets can be laminated or written in metal for extra protection.

General guidelines
Web wallets, custodial wallets and wallets requiring KYC should be avoided. Wallets with a shady reputation or whose name doesn't tell you anything should also be avoided, at least until you do your due dilligence. Also, discontinued products should never be used. Additionally, be careful when using misleading services which make you believe you control crypto, but in fact you have CFDs (eToro, Revolut etc.).


How to Store Bitcoins
Earlier it was mentioned that there are four types of Bitcoin wallets: online wallets, hardware wallets, software wallets, and paper wallets. These four categories can be broken down further into different kinds of storage and security:

Hot Wallets
Hot wallets refer to Bitcoin wallets used on internet connected devices like phones, computers, or tablets. Because hot wallets run on internet connected devices there is always a risk of theft. Think of hot wallets like your wallet today. You shouldn’t store any significant amount of bitcoins in a hot wallet, just as you would not walk around with your savings account as cash.
If only used with small amounts, hot wallets should be used for your everyday Bitcoin needs. One may, for example, want to keep $200 worth of bitcoins in a hot wallet for spending, with $10,000 locked away in cold storage.

Custodial Services
Although often called Bitcoin wallets, services like Coinbase and Circle aren’t true Bitcoin wallets. Customers private keys are held by these third party services, meaning users don’t really have control of their money. As Bitcoiners often say: “if you don’t control the keys, you don’t control the coins”. Mt. Gox is an extreme example, but one that illustrates the importance of holding private keys. Gox was the first and largest Bitcoin exchange up until 2013. Thousands of users stored more than 800,000 bitcoins in their Gox accounts.

At the time, one may have claimed to have 1,000 bitcoins in a Gox account. While true at the time, as soon as Mt. Gox claimed to have been victim of theft users with bitcoins in their accounts were left empty handed. Services like Coinbase and Circle may in fact use good security practices and there’s a chance your bitcoins are safe. But by storing bitcoins with a third party you are always taking on additional risk.

Cold Storage
Cold storage is achieved when Bitcoin private keys are created and stored offline. Private keys stored offline are more secure since there is no risk that a hacker or malware could steal your coins.
There are three ways to create cold storage: paper wallets, hardware wallets, and software wallets run on offline computers. Think of cold storage as your savings account. Use it to securely store bitcoins that you don’t plan to spend.

Multisignature Wallets
Multisignature wallets like Electrum make it easier to share control of bitcoins between multiple parties. If created offline, multisig can also make cold storage more secure.
Multisignature wallets require multiple parties to sign transactions in order for funds to be spend. In a 2-2 wallet, for example, both parties must sign a transaction. In a 2-3 multisig wallet, two of the three co-signers must sign each transaction.

Armory Multisig
Armory offers a Lockbox feature that requires any amount of up to seven co-signers to approve shared transactions. A Lockbox is created by one party who adds additional public keys as co-signers. This solution provides a mix of flexibility and security for personal use or organizations.
Armory’s fragmented backups is another useful feature. Instead of requiring multiple signatures for each transaction, fragmented backups require multiple signatures only for backups. A fragmented backup splits up your Armory backup into multiple pieces, which decreases the risk of physical theft of your wallet. Without a fragmented backup, discovery of your backup would allow for immediate theft. With fragmented backup, multiple backup locations would need to be compromised in order to obtain the full backup.
Here's a look at some everyday use cases for multisig:

2-2 Wallet
Two business partners work together at a startup. They create a 2-2 multisig wallet so that no funds can be spent without the permission of both founders. If one tries to create a transaction, the other partner will be required to sign off on the transaction before money can be moved.

2-3 Wallet
A 2-3 multisig wallet could be used to create secure offline storage with paper wallets or hardware wallets. Users should already backup their offline Bitcoin holdings in multiple locations, and multisig helps add another level of security. A user, for example, may keep a backup of a paper wallet in three separate physical locations. If any single location is compromised the user’s funds can be stolen. Multisignature wallets improve upon this by requiring instead any two of the three backups to spend funds--in the case of a 2-3 multisig wallet. The same setup can be created with any number of signatures. A 5-9 wallet would require any five of the nine signatures in order to spend funds.



Disclaimer: All content provided herein is for general information only, and based on our opinion. Any use or reliance on our content is solely at your own risk and discretion. You should conduct your own research before relying on this information. No information here constituted financial advice and we can't be held liable for any losses that occur due to malicious, dangerous, deceptive or other wallets.

Credits: A huge shoutout to WeUseCoins for making an extremely detailed list which was used during the creation of this thread.
Additionally a huge shoutout to everyone who privately or publicly contributed to this thread.

I have a little question. Can you please explain a little more on how transactions are recorded on the bitcoin block chain.

I understand that each transaction is recorded on a block, and each block is linked to the previous block, creating a chain of blocks, but I'd like to learn more about the technical details of how the process works.

[Charles-Tim]

I have a little question. Can you please explain a little more on how transactions are recorded on the bitcoin block chain.

I understand that each transaction is recorded on a block, and each block is linked to the previous block, creating a chain of blocks, but I'd like to learn more about the technical details of how the process works.

You should have created a new topic about this because your question is not related to bitcoin wallets.

You supposed not to copy the whole OP post. It is a long post and not worth copying and pasting.

Read mastering bitcoin. I will give you two links which would be helpful:

The bitcoin network: https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/develop/ch08.asciidoc
The blockchain: https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/develop/ch09.asciidoc