Wallets

Need a bitcoin wallet? Don’t know where to start? Here’s a guide.

Bitcoin wallets are how you interact with the protocol. The average user doesn’t even need to know anything about nodes, cryptography or miners in order to send and receive bitcoin, and frankly, they shouldn’t.

Like Andreas Antonopoulos said years ago, bitcoin is as easy as sending money with an email.

But there are many wallets out there to choose from, so let’s break down what’s what.

Is it Cold or Hot?

What does that mean? It’s nothing hard to comprehend, on the contrary. Hot wallets are connected to the internet. Cold wallets are disconnected from the internet. But how can cold wallets work? Well, you connect them for a short amount of time to look up the balance or send a transaction. In Coldcard’s case, not even that, it’s completely air-gapped.

Keeping a wallet disconnected from the internet reduces the attack surface. Simply put, there are less things that can be hacked or go wrong.

Do You Hold Your Keys or Not?

The keys are the most important thing in bitcoin. In fact, as far as you’re concerned, they are your bitcoin. Anyone with access to those keys has access to that bitcoin. The keys, or seed words, come in either 12 or 24 batches. You should write them down and store them somewhere safe. But you do need to input them in a wallet so you can interact with the bitcoin network, and the safest place is to put them inside a hardware wallet.

Please try to understand that despite what bitcoiners like to scream about on twitter, there is nothing wrong with any option. In some cases, you need a custodial wallet. In others, you need a secure, cold wallet. Both are fine. What matters is that you understand what you’re doing and using layers of security appropriate for your use case.

Using a custodial, hot wallet like Wallet of Satoshi for example is perfectly fine for small amounts. Think of it like spending money, cash in your wallet. You wouldn’t mind losing a few.

But when talking about generational wealth and buying a house or a car, you should probably go with a cold storage solution that is safer.

Usability and security are on opposite ends on a scale, you need to sacrifice one to have the other. You wouldn’t want to bother with extreme security when transacting 20 times per day.

Everyone can use a software wallet

Just download and go! These are considered hot wallets, meaning that they’re always connected to the internet. They’re free to download.

Muun
  • Good starter wallet.
  • Spanish audiences like the localisation and the seed support.
  • Lightning payments.

Get it here https://muun.com/

Wallet of Satoshi
  • Best starter wallet, looks like a magic trick.
  • Custodial.
  • Lightning, and random lightning address.
  • Now with a POS included.

Get it here https://www.walletofsatoshi.com/

Breez
  • Self-custody.
  • Has fees, otherwise free.
  • Has a great POS for merchants to instantly start accepting Lightning.
  • Connects with apps and solves the issue of, “What can I do with my sats?”

Get it here https://breez.technology/mobile/

Here are the best hardware wallets to choose from

The hardware wallets afford a lot more security for your bitcoin. Think of it as a digital vault for your money. With bitcoin, the responsibility falls to you to secure your sats. The protocol and the cryptography will make sure it will never get hacked, but anyone with access to the seed words can simply use the coins. Not your keys, not your coins.

A cheap hardware wallet provides the maximum amount of security for the least possible cost. There are pros and cons to any one of them so it’s up to your personal preference. Here’s what we suggest.

Coinkite Coldcard
  • Considered the most secure option.
  • Need to buy an SD card separately.
  • Signing takes time.
  • Airgapped.
  • Not beginner-friendly.

Get it here https://loveisbitcoin.com/coldcard

Bitbox02 Bitcoin Only Edition
  • Very user-friendly while also having advanced features when you need them.
  • Can connect to your phone.
  • Bitcoin-only option.

Get it here https://loveisbitcoin.com/bitbox

Ledger Nano S
  • Popular, cheap and easy to use.
  • Small screen.
  • Affordable.
  • Supports shitcoins.

Get it here https://loveisbitcoin.com/ledger

Ledger Nano X
  • More features, better screen.
  • Still user friendly.
  • Bluetooth pair with your phone, which is useful but a serious security risk.
  • Supports shitcoins.

Get it here https://loveisbitcoin.com/ledger

Trezor Model One
  • Cheap and easy to use.
  • Has a ton of small but important security features.
  • Very simple.
  • Supports shitcoins (has a bitcoin-only firmware option)

Get it here https://loveisbitcoin.com/trezor

Trezor Model T
  • Touchscreen.
  • Still quite simple and easy to use.
  • Secure.
  • Open source.
  • Supports shitcoins.

Get it here https://loveisbitcoin.com/trezor

Blockstream Jade
  • Open source.
  • Supports Liquid, BTC sidechain.
  • Affordable.
  • Pair with phone.
  • Air-gap mode.

Get it here and add the coupon code LOVEISBITCOIN for 10% off. https://loveisbitcoin.com/blockstream