Choosing a wallet!
So you've gotten some bright and shiny new coins/tokens and you want to store them securely. Brilliant idea! The question now is where should I do this?
For any new person to the space, it is a very daunting task, people are telling me this, people say do this, don't do this, go here, click my referral link and on and on and on.
I'm only offering my advice as a fellow newb, so bear with me as we forge ahead and tackle this together.
There are a multitude of free resources that are at your disposal. It really depends on your preference of coin/token.
Now you might be wondering what in the world is an ERC20 token, ERC223 token, and what is the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin.
To explain those differences would take a little while, so for now lets work on getting your new tokens all bundled up and secure so you can use them.
If you are starting with Ethereum there is a transaction fee called gas. This is basically like how you drive your car, you need gas to get from one place to another. Some important terms to know about prior to sending those tokens to a wallet or an address for purchase:
gwei or wei - the price of gas to send a transaction across the ethereum blockchain. gwei = giga-wei --> 1,000,000,000 wei
Gas/gas limit - the amount of gas you want to provide to send a transaction from point A to point B, make sure you have enough because if you don't you'll be out the transaction fee.
Transaction cost - (gas limit * gwei)/(10^9)
So for example you want to send 1 ETH with 200,000 gas using a gwei of 70, your total transaction fee would look something like this:
(200,000*70)/(10^9) --> 0.014 ETH which would correlate to a specific dollar/pound/euro/whatever currency you use amount.
So that is the basics of Ethereum and how to interpret all of this new terminology and crazy stuff going on.
With Bitcoin, the transaction fees are a little more straightforward, however, they are quite a bit more expensive and are typically a lot slower to confirm (mainly because Bitcoin is maturing without scalability measures).
Now that you kind of have an idea of how to send things, you'll probably want a destination to send them.
If you are using Ethereum, I would recommend setting up a free MyEtherWallet (MEW) account, is pretty easy, just make sure that you copy down the address and private key somewhere safe! DO NOT, at all costs give anyone the private keys. Even if its someone you trust, do not give this out. It will allow full access to the wallet and they can clean you out.
MyEtherWallet - https://www.myetherwallet.com/
When logging into the site make sure the banner states MYETHERWALLET LLC, if it does not state this then it may be a scam or an imposter. So make sure that it says that before inputting any information.
There are other free wallets available, however, I primarily use MyEtherWallet due to simplicity and I'm familiar with how to navigate the wallet. If you don't like the format of MyEtherWallet then feel free to google ERC20 token wallets.
It is important to note that not all wallets are created equally. Some wallets will only allow you to store specific cryptocurrencies.
If you're interested in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) then MEW is a good fit as it allows you to store all of the ERC20 tokens. If you're more interested in buying and holding the tokens, then a hardware wallet or the next wallet I'll list may be the right fit for you.
If you're a bitcoin person or a litecoin person then I'd recommend using Exodus wallet, its got a nice interface, easy to use and is relatively easy to install onto your computer.
Exodus Wallet - https://www.exodus.io/
Exodus doesn't have support for all tokens, so I would recommend downloading it and setting it up before you transfer tokens into it. Their support staff is really friendly and is very helpful in resolving issues.
Hardware wallets are an option, I personally don't believe in using them as cracking a hexbin key is nearly impossible since its a random string of characters and numbers.
Some people like to have that sense that they have a physical storage of all of their tokens. If you would like one of those, there are quite a few different options, just make sure that they will support the type of tokens you will be purchasing and if you're interested in ICOs then make sure they will have support for those ERC20 tokens.
Cheers! Hope you enjoyed the article, if you liked it please give me an upvote and leave a comment so I can improve my content.
