Kraken is Also a Wallet?

[0RajA0]

Hi everyone,
I would like to know if Kraken or others exchange are wallets too?
thanks

Yes you would. some online wallets you control the bitcoins other they control the bitcoins. So kraken, circle, coinbase they control the bitcoins therefore you need total trust in them.
blockchain.info bitgo.com greenaddress etc you control the bitcoins so you need no trust in them because even they disappear you can still access the coins. The prior are more ideal for those who are new and unsure about security.

[fmboyzz]

Any exchanges are wallets too, but not secure as the default wallets. What I meant by default wallet is official wallets assigned by the coin.

[Rresty776]

This is a difficult question. And tbh, the idea of treating exchanges as wallets has been appealing to me for a long time.

I'll tell you why: Exchanges have 2fa and 2fa for sending out coins too. Your wallet and private keys don't have 2fa unless you're using an expensive hardware wallet.

So even if someone hacks your computer and puts a keylogger, they can't access your exchange without your 2FA.

But exchanges can get hacked, and that's how people can lose their coins.

I personally feel that Coinbase's Vault option is a good wallet. I believe you can't take things out of their vault without 2fa and some other security measure.

[DdmrDdmr]

A wallet is used to store the keys to your cryptocurrency, regardless of where you purchase the crypyo (be it Kraken or any other exchange).

When working with an exchange such as Kraken, you already have you crypto stored in wallets. Unfortunately, you do not have the private keys to them and so, therefore, are vulnerable to hacks such as what happened to MtGox some years ago.
In addition, there are some things that you cannot do such as participate in most ICOs since they require that you hold the private keys to your addresses.

If you want to have full control, you need to have both the private keys and public keys to your wallet. I assume this is the case, so I would recommend purchasing a hardware wallet such as Ledger Nano S or similar (only purchase from legit original store). Hardware wallets are much safer than software downloadable wallets.

What you have to know beforehand though is whether the Wallet you decide to use supports your crypto or not. Legder product page details for example what crypto it supports. On top of that, all ERC-20 tokens are also supported.

If this is all fairly new to you, I suggest you search through posts to find the conceptual background you need first, before moving on to using the wallet you decide to use.
Start by reading this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2852255.0

[cryptocurrencybazaar]

Hi everyone,
I would like to know if Kraken or others exchange are wallets too?
thanks

Not exactly. They provide you the address to store your coins but you don't have private keys of those wallets. So technically, they provide the wallet but you don't have full control over it. It's the exchange who has control over your wallet.
So, don't use them as wallets if you want to have full control of your wallet.