Congratulations! The day has come where you have decided to dip your toe into crypto and investigate what it’s all about.
As you start exploring this new world of crypto and begin to interact with all it has to offer, you will need to understand the specifics for one important aspect: wallets.
Interacting with crypto is not as complicated as it sounds, and in alignment with Wyre’s mission to make crypto accessible to the masses, we understand that education and learning is key for a smooth user-experience. With that being said, enjoy this quick walkthrough to give you a headstart.
If you want to jump to a quick overview of the different wallets we suggest, scroll to the bottom of this page.
What is a cryptocurrency wallet, and how does it work?
A cryptocurrency wallet is a software program that securely stores your public and private keys. A common misconception is that wallets store your actual crypto, but crypto is actually stored on the blockchain (for a deeper dive into that, read here).
These stored public and privates keys are digital codes that your wallet uses to interact with a blockchain. Having access to your keys allows you to transact with the blockchain, which includes viewing the tokens in your wallet, sending/receiving crypto and interacting with smart contracts (don’t worry about these for now).
You can think of your wallet like your banking app on your phone. In the app, you can see your balances that are in the bank, send and receive money or interact with whatever services your bank provides.
Wallets are merely a lens with which you can view the part of the blockchain that is yours. Again, wallets don’t actually hold any actual coins, because crypto is all stored digitally on a decentralized network of computers.
Public and Private Keys
We mentioned that wallets store your public and your private keys. Let’s dig into what these are.
Your public key is a string of letters and numbers that anyone can see. This is used only as an address to know where crypto will be sent from or received to. The public key cannot be used to access the funds in that wallet address or initiate any transactions from it.
The private key is what you use to access the contents of your wallet. The private key is something that you should take excellent care to protect. In the crypto world, it is highly recommended to write down your private key in multiple locations. By writing down your keys and storing them in secret and safe places ensures that you will always be able to access them when you need them. If you plan on getting into crypto more seriously, it is recommended to get what is referred to as a ‘cold storage wallet’, such as Ledger. More on hot vs cold storage wallets here.
To more clearly explain how these keys function, let’s use a familiar example — email.
In this example, your public key is your email address and your private key is your password. If you want someone to send you an email, you can freely give out your email address. Anyone can see you email address and use it to send our messages or receive messages from it.
Your private key is like your password. Having your password grants you access to your inbox and allows you to send emails, read emails, or interact however you see fit. You would never give out the password to your email address because you don’t want other people messing around with your stuff. It is important to keep your password, or in this case your private keys, safe in order to maintain the security of your assets.
How do you send and receive money with a cryptocurrency wallet?
It’s actually a lot easier than it sounds. Just like the email example above, all you need is the wallet address (public key) of the person you want to send crypto to (or if you are receiving the crypto, the sender must have your wallet address).
Most wallets have buttons within their interfaces that allow you to send any amount of crypto that you hold to another wallet address. There are a few things to keep in mind:
- The wallet you send to must be on the same blockchain as your wallet (ie Ethereum wallet to Ethereum wallet, or Bitcoin wallet to Bitcoin wallet)
- You will be charged a transaction fee which is commonly referred to as “gas.” Make sure you have enough crypto in your wallet to cover the gas fees associated with whatever transaction you are making.
It is also important to remember that any transaction is recorded on the blockchain. This means that all transactions are immutable (irreversible), so be sure to double check everything before confirming any transactions.
So how do I get money from my bank account into my crypto wallet?
Today is your lucky day, because Wyre is an industry leader in this exact thing. Using Wyre’s Checkout Widget, it is super simple to purchase crypto and send it to your wallet using the world’s most popular payment methods. Simply head to the Checkout Widget, enter your wallet address and choose how you want to pay. Wyre allows users to pay using debit card, credit card, Apple Pay or ACH transfer, so wherever you hold your money, you can move it on-chain!
There is so much that Web3 has to offer and securing your wallet and your first crypto purchase is just scratching the surface. Wyre is here to help you on your journey and very excited that you are joining the masses that are experiencing the benefits of Web3.
Below is a list of crypto wallet providers that Wyre trusts. Once you create your wallet, head here to easily and securely purchase crypto with Wyre.
Bitcoin Wallets
Bitpay is an all-in-one Bitcoin app that is downloadable to your phone (App Store or Google Play). You can buy, store, swap and spend cryptocurrency quickly and securely all in one app. It also touts the BitPay crypto debit card, which allows you to spend your crypto like cash.
Cake Wallet is a multi-currency wallet that allows you to safely store, send, receive, and exchange your XMR, BTC, LTC, and XHV (and exchange other currencies). It is a smartphone based app that is available on the App Store, Google Play, or Android AP and is also available in multiple languages.
BRD is a mobile cryptocurrency wallet that is simple to use and feature rich. Complete beginners will find this wallet to be an excellent gateway for the cryptocurrency world. The wallet supports BTC, BCH, ETH, XRP, HBAR and all ERC-20 tokens. BRD allows buying and trading of certain coins from within the app.
Ethereum Wallets
MetaMask is a software cryptocurrency wallet used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to access their Ethereum wallet through a browser extension or mobile app (iOS and Android), which can then be used to interact with decentralized applications. It is one of the most commonly used crypto wallets.
Rainbow is a fun, simple, and secure Ethereum wallet that makes managing your assets a joy. It is available on iOS and on Google Play, and prides itself on making wallet usage easy and enjoyable for the users.
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