Mycelium or Coinbase wallet

[Tfolger]

Which would be best for holding Bitcoin?
Thanks,

[ChuckBuck]

Welcome to this forum  
First of all, I must assure you that neither of them are really good to use. For most of the people who use Bitcoin here, they are not a Bitcoin wallet. We have a definition, a Bitcoin wallet is a wallet over which you have control it, a Bitcoin wallet is yours if and only if you own the private key or its seed. Do you understand these? Each Bitcoin address has a private key that you are the only person who owns it, the same applies to seed.

With the two wallets you mentioned above, they are just holding your Bitcoins. You are not in control of your BTC. In some cases, you want to make transactions immediately, which is not possible. Because the transaction will be queued in their system and executed when their conditions are met.

Anyway, my advice is Electrum. With it, you really have control over your money  

[Charles-Tim]

It depends on the amount you want to hold and how expert you are to protect your coins. The recommended wallets for hodl are cold wallets (paper wallet, airgapped wallet, or electrum wallet in cold storage form, and for ease of use a hardware wallet like trezor and ledger nano).

There are two types of coinbase wallet, the coinbase.com is a api wallet which is custodial, in which you will not have the private key to your coins, coinbase will have the private key, which means you are not the owner of the coin on bitcoin blockchain, in this case, they will tell you that you have the full control over your coins, but it is not true, they can freeze your account, make some certain inconveniences at times in a way you will not be able to withdraw your bitcoin, I will not consider it at all in this case. The other one is the coinbase wallet app, you will have private key on the coinbase wallet app, and have the full control, but there are some reasons I do not like the wallet, like encouraging people to save their seed phrase on online cloud, while it is easy to do but not recommended for safety reasons. Seed phrase or other backup are safest offline.

Mycelium is a good wallet, it is noncustododial, and one of the best mobile wallets, but it is online. You will have full control over your coin as you have the private key which will be generated through the seed phrase, but using it to hold small amount is not bad, but if you want to hold huge amount, it will be good to consider paper, airgapped or hardware wallets to hodl.

[NeuroticFish]

Which would be best for holding Bitcoin?

Since you want to use a mobile wallet, I'd start by warning that mobile phones are quite often stolen and if you want to keep big amounts of money you would need something better than a simple software wallet.
I would advise Mycelium. It's not the best mobile wallet, but it's not bad either and it supports hardware wallet (which I recommend you consider).

[hosseinimr93]

With the two wallets you mentioned above, they are just holding your Bitcoins. You are not in control of your BTC.

Both Mycelium and Coinbase wallets (the non-custodial coinbase wallet, not the custodial one) give you full control over your coins. In both of wallets, you can export your seed phrase and recover your fund in the case they are not available for any reason.

The post was edited to add information about coinbase wallet.  
Thanks Charles-Tim for clarification.

[Charles-Tim]

Both Mycelium and Coinbase wallets give you full control over your coins. In both of wallets, you can export your seed phrase and recover your fund in the case they are not available for any reason.

I know you know about this, but for mistake to be avoided, we need to let OP have some certain information about Coinbase. There are two types of coinbase wallet, and also Coinbase have an exchange.

For Android

Coinbase.com wallet which as no private key given to users, the exchange manage the private key. Users do not have the full control over their coin. Not recommendable.

Coinbase wallet app has a private key, but the risks of cloud backup should be reiterated as the wallet encourages online backup, offline backup should be encouraged.

Coinbase pro (Coinbase exchange), exchanges not recommendable.

And for holding, paper, airgapped and hardware wallets are recommended because they all safe private key offline while hardware is easier to use among the three.

[jossiel]

Haven't used both but I think it's better if you'll choose Mycelium.

But don't you have any other choice just as what others are suggesting to you? There are other better wallets there to choose from. And be wary with mobile wallets, there were a lot of reports about fake ones uploaded that you might fall to download.

[TheMimic1]

Which would be best for holding Bitcoin?
Thanks,

Mycelium of cos, why? Because coinbase is a centralized wallet that gives no private keys to their users so you aren't in total control of your bitcoin if you choose coinbase, very risky if you ask me

[Chikito]

Because coinbase is a centralized wallet that gives no private keys to their users so you aren't in total control of your bitcoin if you choose coinbase, very risky if you ask me

They give you a private key, the users can control the coins.

on Phone, go to coinbase wallet setting > Recovery Phrase > 12-word Mnemonic phrase.

on PC, Open and Save as https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ tool locally (offline), Insert 12-word Mnemonic phrase on BIP39 Mnemonic box > you got the private key on Derived Addresses below.

About risky, there is only a human of carelessness.

[Welsh]

Basically,

if the wallet software does not give you your private key, then you never use them for storing coins. The only instances you should consider using a wallet which doesn't give you the private key, is if its an exchange, and if you don't intend to keep your coins in it for long. That's the only reason.

Otherwise, when it comes to those that give you complete access, and doesn't share your private key with themselves or anyone else, but you it comes down to preference. Most wallet software out there today have the same functionality. However, I only ever really recommend using the following:

- Bitcoin Core
If you don't mind downloading the whole Blockchain. Essential, if you intend on contributing to the Bitcoin network by running a Bitcoin node.

- Electrum
If you don't want to download the Blockchain, and want quick access to your coins.


Another noteworthy mention would be a hardware wallet which does require a little investment to acquire. I would probably recommend Trezor over Ledger personally.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Links to download and guides to verify wallets for Bitcoin Core and Electrum.

Bitcoin Core
- Download: https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/ or https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/
- Guide to verify Bitcoin Core wallet: Read it on Verify your download

Electrum
- Download: https://electrum.org/#download
- Guide to verify Electrum wallet
- Don't search Electrum for Android on Google Play, you can get fake applications. In the download link, you will get the official link to download Android App. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.electrum.electrum

[hulla]

Mycelium or electrum is the only wallet I can recommend but you need to keep the seeds safe and offline cause losing the seeds is just like losing the coin.

Links to download and guides to verify wallets for Bitcoin Core and Electrum.

Bitcoin Core
- Download: https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/ or https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/
- Guide to verify Bitcoin Core wallet: Read it on Verify your download

Honestly, recommending Bitcoin core to a newbie can be problematic to the person cause he may try to download the whole blockchain when he's not going to use it mine and it nice to advise him to use a lite wallet or hardware.

[XUR_TIP]

With the two wallets you mentioned above, they are just holding your Bitcoins. You are not in control of your BTC.

Both Mycelium and Coinbase wallets give you full control over your coins. In both of wallets, you can export your seed phrase and recover your fund in the case they are not available for any reason.

I'm disappointed that this is coming from a high ranking member of this forum, coinbase gives zero control over your coins when you download and start using their mobile wallet, mycelium wallet is different in this area which makes it a better wallet over coinbase wallet

[Maus0728]

I'm disappointed that this is coming from a high ranking member of this forum, coinbase gives zero control over your coins when you download and start using their mobile wallet, mycelium wallet is different in this area which makes it a better wallet over coinbase wallet

Perhaps, @hosseinimr93 is talking about the coinbase wallet that we can download for free in google and apple store. It is also clearly stated in their FAQ's. It's definitely independent to Coinbase Exchange. However, of course, even if it claims to be a non-custodial wallet, storing a large amount of bitcoin on your smartphone entails a lot of risk.

Coinbase Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet and DApp browser controlled by you and only you. This means that the private keys (that represent ownership of the cryptocurrency) for your Wallet are stored directly on your mobile device and not with a centralized exchange like Coinbase.com.

[slackovic]

I'm disappointed that this is coming from a high ranking member of this forum, coinbase gives zero control over your coins when you download and start using their mobile wallet, mycelium wallet is different in this area which makes it a better wallet over coinbase wallet

Perhaps, @hosseinimr93 is talking about the coinbase wallet that we can download for free in google and apple store. It is also clearly stated in their FAQ's. It's definitely independent to Coinbase Exchange. However, of course, even if it claims to be a non-custodial wallet, storing a large amount of bitcoin on your smartphone entails a lot of risk.

Coinbase Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet and DApp browser controlled by you and only you. This means that the private keys (that represent ownership of the cryptocurrency) for your Wallet are stored directly on your mobile device and not with a centralized exchange like Coinbase.com.

True, storing large amount of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency on a mobile phone is a bad idea. But who says that OP has large amount of crypto? Maybe he invested few hundred dollars and is now looking how to get it off an exchange. In that case I would definitely recommend using a mobile phone wallet. Buying a hardware wallet as someone suggested it is not worth it because it doesn't make sense to pay $50 or more for a hardware wallet and then use it to store crypto worth $200.

[Darkelf11]

Hello welcome to the forum the wallet you would like to hold are depends on your purpose. If you want to use the coinbase to store your funds I think you need to pass their KYC but if you try to use their wallet like the trust wallet. Also, mycelium is a good wallet too but I just tried this once but if you want I recommend the use of the electrum. If you are getting trouble with their executable file you can use the application but be careful on the phishing applications.

[Insanerman]

Which would be best for holding Bitcoin?
Thanks,

Depending on certain categories. You must consider the categories in order to use a wallet that befits your liking and usage. The categories are; how huge your bitcoin holding was, how often would you transfer it, would you withdraw it onto your bank, or would you just hold it. If you have answers to those, then you can choose betweel Mycelium, Coinbase, Trustwallet, Ledger, Trezor, etc. If you answer you have huge holding and/or hold it, then you might wanna use hardware wallets or Mycellium. If you would often transfer using BTC, then Trustwallet, Mycellium, and Coinbase is fine. But if you would often withdraw it, Coinbase is your best choice (I guess).

[slackovic]

Which would be best for holding Bitcoin?
Thanks,

Depending on certain categories. You must consider the categories in order to use a wallet that befits your liking and usage. The categories are; how huge your bitcoin holding was, how often would you transfer it, would you withdraw it onto your bank, or would you just hold it. If you have answers to those, then you can choose betweel Mycelium, Coinbase, Trustwallet, Ledger, Trezor, etc. If you answer you have huge holding and/or hold it, then you might wanna use hardware wallets or Mycellium. If you would often transfer using BTC, then Trustwallet, Mycellium, and Coinbase is fine. But if you would often withdraw it, Coinbase is your best choice (I guess).

I would certainly add the option to use paper wallet. It's free and as long it is generated like it's suppose to, it's as safe as any other wallet. Maybe even safer if you use it smart.

[Bravehash]

I have used both wallet and the difference still stands, coinbase wallet is a fully centralized wallet, no private keys no recovery seed, you have no control over your coins, whatever coinbase team plans to do over your assets you can't overpowered them, this is what makes mycelium wallet a better option, stay away from any wallet that has no recovery or private keys

[khaled0111]

^^
Please re-read Charles-Tim's reply. There is a difference  between the coinbase app which is just a tool to access your coinbases's account and interact with it and the coinbase wallet app, a completely different product, which gives you full control over your wallets by allowing you to export their seeds (non-custodial).
You can read more about the difference between both of them from here:
https://wallet.coinbase.com/faq/