Wallet advice?

[danieleither]

I am new to Bitcoin and in the process of setting up a small farm in the basement of my business premises here in the UK. Obviously I need to open a wallet however there doesn't seem to be much discussion or advice available on wallet providers. I've read a few reviews doing a Google search but these often seem biased. I've read some glowing reviews about Blockchain, Coinbase and ZenGo on some sites, however when you read the Trustpilot reviews (a popular review website here in the UK) the ratings are very bad for these wallet suppliers with lots of horror stories.

Can anyone make some recommendations for safe and reliable wallet providers?

[1715255521]

1715255521

[Velkro]

I am new to Bitcoin and in the process of setting up a small farm in the basement of my business premises here in the UK. Obviously I need to open a wallet however there doesn't seem to be much discussion or advice available on wallet providers. I've read a few reviews doing a Google search but these often seem biased. I've read some glowing reviews about Blockchain, Coinbase and ZenGo on some sites, however when you read the Trustpilot reviews (a popular review website here in the UK) the ratings are very bad for these wallet suppliers with lots of horror stories.

Can anyone make some recommendations for safe and reliable wallet providers?

You setting up mining operation while having no clue about what wallet actually is? :O im shocked
There are 3 kinds of wallets, desktop wallet, online wallet and mobile wallet.
To keep any serious Bitcoin i suggest desktop wallet, but you need to keep your desktop secure.
Online wallet can go puff during night and you don't have access to your funds anymore.
Mobile wallets are risky due to spyware in apps, good for pocket change.

I hope i helped a little, good luck doing mining operation you will need it!!

[ChiBitCTy]

I agree, you shouldn't be mining if you aren't aware of how wallets work and which ones are good. You need to master the basics first.  When it comes to wallets you'll likely need a couple different types.  An exchange to purchase/sell coins and a hardware wallet such as ledger or trezor is where you'd want to start.  The safest wallet of all is going to be a cold storage paper wallet.  These are not simple to make though, and you really need to know what you're doing.  My recommendation would be to pick up a copy of Mastering Bitcoin. Andreas Antonopolous does a great job of explaining this kind of stuff ( there is also a ton of really technical stuff in that book that is far too advanced for most, however).

[danieleither]

I'm not mining...yet. And when I say I'm in the process of setting up a small farm, I mean I'm in the very early stages (research) hence I'm here to learn and ask questions. I prefer to interact with actual people, ask questions and discuss on a forum as opposed to trusting website articles which are often biased or have ulterior motives.

Based on your reply, would I be correct in thinking I should have an online wallet (for regular pay-outs) but transfer regularly from the online wallet to a hardware wallet (to store larger amounts and or longer term storage) as this is safer than the online wallet?

[cafetools]

I was keeping my funds on Coinbase, but have switched to Exodus desktop wallet. Its free and is very user friendly and easy. Save your info on a piece of paper somewhere safe.

[akamit]

Based on your reply, would I be correct in thinking I should have an online wallet (for regular pay-outs) but transfer regularly from the online wallet to a hardware wallet (to store larger amounts and or longer term storage) as this is safer than the online wallet?

Online/web wallets are risky as you don't have access to the private keys. Not your keys, not your coins.
If the wallet owner/company runs away, then you will lose every single satoshi. However, people use it for small amounts of deposits, transactions...

Better use hardware wallet if you can, otherwise desktop wallet.

You can transfer whatever amount from hardware wallet to online wallet or vice versa. You can send from any wallet to any wallet within the bitcoin network.

[TravelMug]

I was keeping my funds on Coinbase, but have switched to Exodus desktop wallet. Its free and is very user friendly and easy. Save your info on a piece of paper somewhere safe.

Again, if you really wanted to be safe, you should store your bitcoin to a wallet that will give you control control of the private keys like Bitcoin Core and Electrum. Free and easy to use doesn't equate security. And to give you an another advice, look for a wallet that is open source, so that you can see what is going on inside. Exodus is not open source:

Is Exodus open source?

Although Exodus is built on many open source components, there are components of Exodus that are not open source.

Exodus publishes the open source work used in the Exodus wallet on Github under the official company name "Exodus Movement". Individuals can view the source code, history, and continually published updates by visiting https://github.com/exodusmovement.

https://support.exodus.io/article/89-is-exodus-open-source

To the OP, I would recommend using Bitcoin Core or Electrum (https://electrum.org/#home) or go get a hardware wallet.

[danieleither]

Some interesting feedback, thank you. My top priority is safety & security as I intend to keep the majority of the bitcoin for long-term investment.

With regards mining pay-outs, can these be made to a hardware wallet or do they need to go to an online wallet first?

[cafetools]

I was keeping my funds on Coinbase, but have switched to Exodus desktop wallet. Its free and is very user friendly and easy. Save your info on a piece of paper somewhere safe.

Again, if you really wanted to be safe, you should store your bitcoin to a wallet that will give you control control of the private keys like Bitcoin Core and Electrum. Free and easy to use doesn't equate security. And to give you an another advice, look for a wallet that is open source, so that you can see what is going on inside. Exodus is not open source:

Is Exodus open source?

https://support.exodus.io/article/89-is-exodus-open-source

To the OP, I would recommend using Bitcoin Core or Electrum (https://electrum.org/#home) or go get a hardware wallet.

Electrum wallet is only for Bitcoin. Exodus may not be perfect but its great in many ways. It also holds lots of altcoins. Theres also a trade feature built in (fees obv). Exodus is great if you just want to HODL several coins and check up on them on your computer, it has graphs etc.

[Little Mouse]

Some interesting feedback, thank you. My top priority is safety & security as I intend to keep the majority of the bitcoin for long-term investment.

With regards mining pay-outs, can these be made to a hardware wallet or do they need to go to an online wallet first?

To receive BTC, you do not require to go online. With Hardware wallet, you can receive payouts, also you can send without going online. Since you said you are planning long term, hardware wallet is the only wallet you should choose.

Electrum wallet is only for Bitcoin. Exodus may not be perfect but its great in many ways. It also holds lots of altcoins. Theres also a trade feature built in (fees obv). Exodus is great if you just want to HODL several coins and check up on them on your computer, it has graphs etc.

He is not talking about holding any shitcoin here. He is talking aboht bitcoin only.

[GreatArkansas]

Most of the advices are a hardware wallet, and indeed it is also my suggestion.
So, what kind of hardware wallet is advisable or recommended?
I am suggesting you to use Trezor Wallet (https://trezor.io/), visit their website for more information about this wallet, and always remember, avoid buying on some sellers, much better if you will purchase on trezor website.

[boyptc]

I was keeping my funds on Coinbase, but have switched to Exodus desktop wallet. Its free and is very user friendly and easy. Save your info on a piece of paper somewhere safe.

You better use a hardware wallet if you want to keep your several coins instead of Exodus. I have used it and I have no issues but for keeping purposes, I'll choose a better wallet than Exodus.

[pooya87]

With regards mining pay-outs, can these be made to a hardware wallet or do they need to go to an online wallet first?

mining reward is also like any other transaction when you want to receive it. and for that all you have to do is to share your address, there is no need to be online to receive bitcoin. it is because you aren't actually receiving any "coins". what happens is that the record of the money transfer is stored in the public blockchain that is stored by all full nodes.
the only difference between a mining reward (coinbase transaction) with any regular transaction is that you can't spend a coinbase tx right away, it needs to "mature" which means it has to be at least 100 blocks deep (have 100+ confirmations).

[davis196]

I am new to Bitcoin and in the process of setting up a small farm in the basement of my business premises here in the UK. Obviously I need to open a wallet however there doesn't seem to be much discussion or advice available on wallet providers. I've read a few reviews doing a Google search but these often seem biased. I've read some glowing reviews about Blockchain, Coinbase and ZenGo on some sites, however when you read the Trustpilot reviews (a popular review website here in the UK) the ratings are very bad for these wallet suppliers with lots of horror stories.

Can anyone make some recommendations for safe and reliable wallet providers?

You want to mine Bitcoins in the UK?After the BTC halving?!?How expensive are the electricity costs in the UK?
Anyway,Blockchain and Coinbase are secure enough,as long as you don't use your Bitcoin for activities such as gambling or using BTC mixers.I've used Blockchain.com wallet in the past 2 years and I never had any issues.I used Coinbase 5 years ago and I had some problems logging in,but that was my fault,because I deleted the email associated with the account back then.The Coinbase customer support was really helpful and I got access to my account.
If you are about to stake lots of BTC,having a hardware wallet is the best option and I think that Trezor is the best.

[pakhitheboss]

By now you might be aware that there are two kinds of wallet hot and cold. Hot wallet wallets are the ones that are always connected to the internet for example a mobile wallet and cold are the ones that are not always connected to the internet for example hardware wallet or a desktop wallet (if you donot connect your computer a lot to the internet).

Hardware wallet have to be purchase and software wallets are free to download. Software wallets support all major Operating system both mobile and desktop.

A wallet is considered to be best if it is open source, allows Private key access and backups. You can visit this cryptocurrency blog and check out the recommended list of crypto wallets for different cryptocurrencies.

[Yatsan]

Hardware wallet is the best! Just buy a ledger or trezor and I am sure that your going to be safe. All online wallets have a horror story and all of them are not  100% safe, only offline wallets and hardware wallets are safe and you can guarantee that your money is in your own hands. Coinbase is a good one but still it is a online wallet and your money is not in your own hands. Invest some money on hardware wallet if you want maximum security.

[TheUltraElite]

I am new to Bitcoin and in the process of setting up a small farm in the basement of my business premises here in the UK.

Well I hope you have chalked out a plan for how many miners you are going to install and how to maintain them and cooling costs. In general mining is a pretty difficult ROI game in this market. You dont want to end up with a bunch of heavy machinery and nowhere to make money without having a huge negative balance. I hope you know what you are doing, but if you need advice, you can talk about it in this forum's "Mining" section.

Obviously I need to open a wallet however there doesn't seem to be much discussion or advice available on wallet providers.

Go for a hardware wallet and not a web wallet. Web wallets dont give you full control over private keys. Even if they secure it well, it is questionable and you cannot completely trust them. We have had hacks of many exchanges several times and people have lost money due to them.

The idea behind the crypto scene is that one needs to be in control of their private keys to be in control of their coins. You should never reveal your private keys to wallet to anyone, whoever has it has control of spending the coins.

Also the internet search engines are made in such a way that if you look for bad points regarding a hardware wallet, you will only get the bad reviews and not a single website is going to give you a objective opinion about them. However they are most secure that you can unless you are tech savvy enough to keep an wallet in a ArchLinux distro airgapped from the internet.

[Assface16678]

I was keeping my funds on Coinbase, but have switched to Exodus desktop wallet. Its free and is very user friendly and easy. Save your info on a piece of paper somewhere safe.

@OP if you are trying to look for the wallet that is suitable for your needs it is better to go to the application or wallet platform that is already trusted and gained a lot of reputation into the world of cryptocutrency. In my opinion, most of the time I prefer for the use of the coinbase, from the previous months I used this kind of wallet it helps me a lot of times in trading and investment because this is one of the most secured platforms for me. Coinbase has an application that always notifies their users about the updated market price, an increase of their price and the percentage also coinbase has a good market cap than the others so I prefer to use this but they do not have the candlesticks on their graphs and for me, it is quite hard to know the open and close of the markets.

[Krislaw]

I was keeping my funds on Coinbase, but have switched to Exodus desktop wallet. Its free and is very user friendly and easy. Save your info on a piece of paper somewhere safe.

@OP if you are trying to look for the wallet that is suitable for your needs it is better to go to the application or wallet platform that is already trusted and gained a lot of reputation into the world of cryptocutrency. In my opinion, most of the time I prefer for the use of the coinbase, from the previous months I used this kind of wallet it helps me a lot of times in trading and investment because this is one of the most secured platforms for me. Coinbase has an application that always notifies their users about the updated market price, an increase of their price and the percentage also coinbase has a good market cap than the others so I prefer to use this but they do not have the candlesticks on their graphs and for me, it is quite hard to know the open and close of the markets.

For someone setting up a mining farm, which would be a lot a of investment and incoming transactions, using coinbase isn't safe because it's an online wallet here and they have a lot of con which includes not having access to private keys and lose of funds if there's an attack on their wallet provider's server.

I would advise getting an Hardware Wallet like Ledger and have it connected to Electrum or Mycellium Wallet.

[Lucius]

My top priority is safety & security as I intend to keep the majority of the bitcoin for long-term investment.

If you're planning to mine BTC, then we can assume that you have significant resources to invest in it. Mining devices themselves, electricity, soundproofing, cooling cost a small fortune compared to one hardware wallet that can give you optimal security.

However, keep in mind that receiving a very large number of transactions on your hardware wallet is not recommended, at least as far as Ledger is concerned. You can read more about this issue at the following link : Receive mining proceeds.