Tokenview Blockchain Knowledge Q&A (1): What is a Blockchain Wallet?

What is Blockchain Wallet

What is a blockchain wallet, many people still don't know this concept. Wallet, as the name suggests, is a place to store your coins like BTC. Under normal circumstances, our digital currency is either stored in a wallet, such as ViewToken, imToken, or stored in a trading platform, such as Huobi, Okex, etc.

### What is the Difference between Cold Wallet and Hot Wallet

And wallets are divided into hot wallets and cold wallets. What is the difference between them? To put it simply, a cold wallet is hardware that can be held in your hand, so that your private key can never be connected to the Internet, so you can avoid the risk of being stolen by hackers. The hot wallet is an App or web program, once connected to the Internet, there is a risk of being stolen by hackers. This is why most wallets suggest that we write the mnemonic phrase and private key on paper instead of storing it in a computer memo. Under normal circumstances, only large-value assets that do not require high liquidity will choose to deposit in hardware wallets, while small-to-medium-value assets that require frequent transfer transactions often choose hot wallets.

Usually, the wallets we talk about mostly refer to hot wallets, which are also divided into decentralized wallets and centralized wallets. What is the difference between the two? If it is a centralized wallet, it means that you do not have control of this wallet because you do not have the private key of the centralized wallet. And a decentralized wallet, also known as an on-chain wallet, you own the private key of this wallet, and you have absolute control over every address it generates for you. The risk of centralized wallets is that if the service provider crashes or runs off, is stolen, etc., your funds may face the risk of loss. For decentralized wallets, as long as you keep your private keys, your funds will be Will be safe. However, centralized wallets can often provide users with a variety of derivative services, such as financial management, deposit and generation of currency, mortgage lending, and fast exchange.

What is a Wallet Mnemonic?

The wallet also has the concept of a mnemonic, because the private key is not convenient to write and remember, and the mnemonic is easier to write and remember, and has the same function as the private key. If your mnemonic phrase is leaked, the consequences will be the same as the private key. Others can also gain control of your wallet through the mnemonic phrase. Some wallets only support the import of mnemonic words, while decentralized wallets like ViewToken support dual import of mnemonic words and private keys. Since a set of mnemonics can generate multiple sets of private keys, the ViewToken multi-currency wallet can manage the private keys of multiple currency addresses through a set of mnemonics.

Why backup mnemonic words? Because if you choose to change to a new wallet, then you need to import the assets in the wallet to the new wallet through mnemonics (but these addresses are the same). The decentralized wallet does not retain the user's mnemonic for the safety of user assets. If your phone is lost or damaged, you often need to download this wallet with a new phone, log in, and re-import the mnemonic to obtain the asset Control. If you don't have a backup mnemonic phrase, then even though these assets are still there, you cannot perform transfer operations, which is equivalent to losing those assets.

To summarize, a wallet is a tool for managing one or more cryptocurrency addresses. For the safety and complete control of assets, try to choose a decentralized wallet. If you choose to use a wallet, please back up your mnemonic phrase and private key at the very beginning, because if you forget the mnemonic phrase or get stolen, or your phone is stolen, or your App is reinstalled, your assets will be Face the risk of loss.

Decentralized multi-currency wallet ViewToken download address: https://tokenview.io/en/download

The centralized wallet Mixpay download address: https://mixpay.com/