With the little research I have carried out so far I learnt that without ETH or BTC wallet one can not trade or invest here in the crypto world because those wallet serves as bank account for every member and each member is in full control of his/her wallet. How do we generate or get this wallet and secure our funds in it since crypto is full of risk and we are responsible for anything that happen to our funds?? please I need more emphasis on this I will be grateful if you can help me and my fellow beginners to learn more about this thanks....
that's a thorough text for such a simple request! you need to know more about crypto I judge, from what you write.
the easiest way if you just want to 'trade' btc/eth/few others, is just sign up on
www.coinbase.com. they provide you with a wallet, however (as I mention in the thread I linked to earlier), you don't have full access to it, you have to go through them. but it's not too bad if you're a beginner since it's otherwise quite easy to make mistakes. I suggest doing more research about how wallets function so you understand the differences.
Wallets are essentially a Private Key, and a Public Key, where the Private Key is in ways a "password", and the Public Key is "username".
If you wish to receive crypto, someone sends it to your Public Key.
if you wish to send crypto, you must 'authorize' using your Private Key.
that is the simple way to put it.
Different blockchains has different wallets, you can't use a BTC wallet to receive ETH, but you can use ETH to receive lots of popular tokens, since tokens live on an existing blockchain(such as ETH tokens).
So, when obtaining a wallet, you will be provided with a private key in some form, if you don't choose to use an exchanges provided wallet.
https://wallet.bitcoin.com/ <- bitcoin wallet with actual username/password, simple but then not 100% in your control.
https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/ <- literally just gives you a generated public and private key, which is up to you to keep safe.
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet <- lots of choices, Desktop, Hardware, Web, etc
hardware wallets such as Trezor or Ledger are safe and very easy to use and you can't lose your funds, so it's a good investment.
for ETH, you can use
www.myetherwallet.com or find a paper-wallet generator.
the same goes for other blockchains.
If you go the route of generating and holding your own Private Key, ensure you are generating it safely(virus at any time when generating/using your private key = funds gone), and keep backups like a printed copy or backup seeds or encrypted files. In general, I really do suggest getting a hardware wallet because it removes the whole layer of human mistake from the equation! I suggest reading the thread I linked earlier!
But, if you have little interest in crypto and not too used to computers, for your own safety you might want to just start with
www.coinbase.com or another fiat-exchange, put in your money, buy btc/whatever you want, let the site "hold" them for you, until you figure out fully how it works with your own wallet. too many people lose their keys, or have viruses or gets hacked over and over and lose all their money. Even if relying on a third party(a site) isn't the brightest idea, it atleast doesn't put you at risk for yourself!
