“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Once you’ve joined the crypto revolution, you should learn about the best way to store and keep your cryptocurrencies safe. This conversation shouldn’t be left for later down the road, so you made the right decision by reading this article.
To help you understand how things work in this space, we have to set one thing straight: cryptocurrencies aren’t stored in any platform or device.
Why? Because blockchain is a distributed ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions.
What truly determines your digital assets’ safety is the security of your private key storage because the private key verifies your ownership of the digital assets. It gives you access to them, and you sign transactions with it.
So what are the storage options?
1. Custodial wallet
This is a storage and security service provided by a third party. Their service might include hot and cold storage (We will elaborate on this later), but the main characteristic is that - as its name suggests - the third party has custody of your crypto wallet and keys.
One of the perks of custodial wallets is to regain access to your wallet even if you lose your access codes. The downside is that you have to trust that company’s security and that there’s a higher probability that someone will attempt to hack their system.
2. Non-custodial wallet
Two words: No middlemen!
Non-custodial wallets let you have self-custody of your keys. In other words, you are your bank, and this is precisely what you are looking for: independence and privacy. But, remember, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Non-custodial wallets can be broken down into hot wallets and cold wallets.
- Hot wallets - connected to the internet. It could be software you install on your computer or mobile phone or an online wallet you access with your browser.
The advantages are that you can access them for free, and crypto transactions can be easily done. The disadvantage is that they’re very vulnerable to remote attacks.
- Cold wallets - also known as hardware wallets, are physical devices for offline storage; if you’re looking for security, this is the best way to store your keys because they are invulnerable to remote attacks and malware.
Does this mean that hardware wallets are the ultimate weapon to keep my coins safe?
Unfortunately, no. Private key management is still complicated when using a traditional hardware wallet. You could fall into phishing attacks where a malicious actor poses as a legitimate entity to collect important data. Therefore, you need to be careful where you place your private key or recovery phrase.
So, if you are looking for a smooth and secure crypto experience, Tangem cards are a perfect solution. Here’s why...
Tangem cards
With Tangem cards, you can own and exchange digital assets very quickly and very safely that you won’t believe that you’re using crypto. Our hardware wallet lets you hold your keys in a sleek card that you carry with you, maintaining self-custody.
You won’t lose sleep over phishing attacks because your private key is generated and stored within the chip itself, so no one can extract it or copy it, not even Tangem can do that.
Our firmware is audited by The Kudelski Group, and the chip firmware cannot be modified afterwards. You will be able to verify the intactness of each Card in our App.
Finally, our App and the NFC communication protocol are open source, so you have complete control of your assets at all scenarios.
There’s just one thing that a Tangem cardholder needs to do to keep their funds safe: keep custody of it. “Your keys, your crypto.” This should be your new mantra.
See it as if Tangem cards were like driving an automatic car: the learning curve is slight, they are easy to use and secure. So keep it simple and enjoy the ride!