The 10 best cryptocurrency wallets for 2020
What is cryptocurrency?
We keep our money in wallets, what about digital currencies?
How does it work?
Top 10 best crypto wallets
Top 10: Blockchain.com Wallet
Top 9: eTorox
Top 8: Coinbase wallet
Top 7: Argent Wallet
Top 6: DApper
Top 5: Electrum wallet
Top4: MetaMask
Top 3: MyEtherWallet
Top 2: Nimiq safe wallet
Top 1: Exodus wallet
What is cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is secured by cryptography and based on blockchain technology, which is a large distributed ledger managed by a disparate network of computers (nodes). It is also a peer-to-peer payment system in the sense that these currencies enable secure online payments.
In fact, crypto secures the transactions which are all verified and recorded in a public domain, ensuring both confidentiality and authenticity, thanks to blockchain technology.
We keep our money in wallets, what about virtual currencies?
Actually, we put crypto currencies inside special wallets in which information about your savings in cryptographic digital money is stored in the form of a code.
Thus, a ‘wallet’ is a digital, secure storage designed for cryptocurrency. This ‘wallet’ is therefore in fact the equivalent of a bank account. It allows you to receive bitcoins and other tokens (Ethereum, XRP, BNB, XTZ to name a few) to store them, then send them to other people or to a service platform.
How does it work?
It is important to know that wallets contain ‘keys’, these secret codes that allow you to access your wallet, view the different amounts and use your tokens by almost invariably integrating two elements:
- A public key: it’s a long sequence of letters and numbers that constitutes the address of the wallet. Thanks to it, people can send money to your wallet. It is similar to a bank account number as it is used to send ‘money’ to another account.
- A private key, known only to the owner of the wallet. This key is used to sign transactions and to prove to all peers in a network that you are the owner of an amount of a cryptocurrency.
Encrypted wallets work as communication interfaces with the blockchain of the different cryptocurrencies, allowing you to check your balance and send and receive funds.
They can take the form of a software that you install on your personal computer (desktop wallet) or on your smartphone and they also exist in hardware form:
- Hardware / Cold wallets (local / physical device / paper)
- Hot wallet (web / software)
But whether it is a software or hardware wallet, to choose the right wallet it is essential to think about several elements:
- Private Key control: A wallet where you own and control your keys. The key of your encrypted wallet is the only way to access your wallet and the currencies it contains. If you do not have your key, you cannot access your money.
- Security features: Learn about wallet security features such as two-factor authentication and multi-sign-on functionality.
- The Multi-Currency or Single Currency Capability:
There are now wallets that accept multiple currencies. However, some popular crypto-currencies, such as Ripple and Monero, are not well supported by current multi-currency wallet options, creating the need for a separate wallet for these currencies. - Ease of use: Convenient user interface adapted for quick and easy use. Your wallet should match your technical knowledge and experience in cryptography. For example, crypto novices will strive to find a wallet that is simple to set up and use.
Based on these criteria, you can then choose which the best crypto wallet is for you. In our guide, we offer you our top 10 for 2020 of the best performing crypto wallets on the market:
Top 10 crypto wallets to use in 2020
Top 10: Blockchain.com Wallet
Launched in August 2011 and founded by Nicolas Cary and Peter Smith, the Blockchain.com wallet is a wallet of cryptosystems supporting Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Stellar. An open source API (a publicly available application programming interface) is also provided so that you can modify your wallet according to your request.
Blockchain.com features an easy-to-understand interface, two-factor authentication and various other security options. It comes with a built-in ShapeShift trading system for easy conversion of Bitcoins, Ethers and Bitcoins. It allows users to send or receive payments directly and instantly in the mobile application but the private key is never exposed.
Blockchain.com is supported in more than thirty-five countries and includes more than 50 million wallets with $200 billion in transactions.
Top 9: eTorox
Launched in March 2019, the eToro x wallet comes from the broker eToro, a trading platform with 11 million users. eToro was the first platform to support Ethereum and Ripple.
The eToro wallet supports Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) and offers immaculate protection for users with 2-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-signature security to ensure the safekeeping of your assets. The wallet is directly linked to the eToro trading platform.
Top 8: Coinbase wallet
Coinbase, which today is one of the most popular and respected exchange platforms, was created in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.
Coinbase is basically a global digital asset trading company (GDAX), which provides a trading platform to buy and sell digital currencies, as well as to send information about these transactions to the blockchain network to verify these ones. Coinbase also serves as a wallet, where digital currencies can be stored.
When you buy your crypto on Coinbase, it is stored in the coinbase web wallet. It offers a rich user interface, easily understandable by beginners, and supports digital financial instruments as well as popular crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and many others.
You can store more than one signature, and two-factor authentication ensures the security of your wallet. Coinbase has a large number of investors and is supported by multiple reputable stock exchanges. According to its website, Coinbase has served more than 10 million customers and has facilitated the exchange of more than $50 billion in digital currency.
Top 7: The Argent Wallet
Founded in 2017, Argent is an Ethereum wallet. It is one of the first smart wallets for crypto-currencies and decentralized applications and one of the only non-custodial wallets that offers the ease of use and security of the best new banking applications.
With Argent, you control the keys. Argent cannot initiate a transaction without your authorization. This wallet focuses on the Ethereum blockchain and plans to support everything Ethereum offers.
The Argent wallet offers a feature called ‘Guardians’, which allows you to define a hardware wallet, a Metamask wallet or a trusted individual to retrieve your funds in case of the loss of the phone, without the need for a seed phrase or the private key.
Top 6: DApper
Dapper is a wallet that combines the advantages of decentralization — control over its own data and assets, reduction of bureaucracy, intermediaries and overheads. It is an intelligent contract wallet for Ethereum that provides a mapping of authorizations, allowing a fine and sovereign control of the user over the funds and assets in the wallet.
This wallet implements multi-signature support with co-signature verification and a recovery operation that removes all existing authorizations to define a new device key as the sole administrator.
Currently, the wallet is integrated with five sets so far, Dapper users can play supported decentralized applications such as Axie Infinity, CryptoKitties, Decentraland or Etheremon, without having to worry about paying transaction fees on the Ethereum network.
Top 5: Electrum wallet
Electrum was created in November 2011 by Thomas Voegtlin, it is a lightweight Bitcoin wallet for Mac, Linux and Windows. Electrum is one of the most respected desktop wallets on the market. As Electrum is a wallet based on a downloadable client, you can download the software and run it from your computer.
Only one currency is currently supported i.e. you can keep any currency in your Electrum wallet as long as it is Bitcoin.
The main features of Electrum are: support for hardware wallets such as Trezor or Ledger and secure storage of Bitcoin using an offline computer. The main aspect is that multiple signatures are supported, so Electrum can be suitable for the wallets of companies using Bitcoin or of several people with common financial interests. Since only one currency is supported, no foreign exchange service is integrated.
With Electrum, users’ private keys are not sent to the servers, rather they are encrypted, giving you full control and ownership over your private keys.
Top 4: MetaMask
MetaMask is a bridge that allows you to run Ethereum dApps directly in your browser without having to run a full Ethereum node. In other words, it is an extension available for browsers including Google Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera and Firefox that allows web applications to easily communicate with the Ethereum blockchain.
MetaMask includes a secure identity safe, providing a user interface to manage your identities on different websites and sign chain transactions. It can also be used to store Ether.
Top 3: MyEtherWallet
Taylor Monahan launched MyEtherWallet.com (MEW) with Kosala ‘Kvhnuke’ Hemachandra in 2015. MyEtherWallet is not a ‘web wallet’. MyEtherWallet (MEW), gives you the possibility to generate new wallets so that you can store your Ether yourself, not on a swap. This process takes place entirely on your computer, not on their servers.
Therefore, when you generate a new wallet, you are responsible for backing it up securely. The advantage of the MEW is that it is anonymous and very easy to use. It is the most commonly used wallet to accept new Ethereum ERC20 tokens from any token sale.
You do not create an account and do not transmit your Ether to keep. If you want to transfer a certain token, you go to the website, choose an option to load your wallet (key file, private key, QR code) and execute the transaction.
Top 2: Nimiq safe wallet
Launched in 2017, Nimiq is a peer-to-peer payment protocol that aims to become the easiest to use payment protocol ever created to achieve mass adoption while remaining decentralised and censorship resistant.
Like Bitcoin, the Nimiq blockchain project is centered on internet browsers (Chrome, Brave, Firefox), allowing users to interact with the Nimiq blockchain without any additional software installation and without intermediaries. In addition, web developers can easily build on it in Javascript.
Development of the project began in 2016, and their ICO in 2017 raised $10 million in ETH and BTC. The team behind the Nimiq project is mostly of German origin with some Costa Rican elements, while the foundation is based in Switzerland.
Let’s also talk about the concept of the Cashlinks, a feature that has been part of the Nimiq blockhouse since the beginning of the project. Benefiting from the fact that Nimiq’s architecture is centred on the browser, users can use the Safe, Nimiq’s official wallet.
Nimiq Safe, a browser-based wallet that allows you to create an account in a matter of seconds, all without installing a Metamask extension; it works entirely client-side, just like MyEtherWallet. All you have to do is connect to a website to do so. The private key is hosted securely and decentrally in your browser thanks to the Keyguard (unlike a web wallet).
Top 1: Exodus Wallet
Exodus Wallet was co-founded in 2015 by JP Richardson and Daniel Castagnoli. Exodus can easily be considered as one of the best crypto wallets today since it offers its users different types of wallets: desktop, mobile and hardware.
Exodus is completely free to use and integrates the ShapeShift feature to facilitate exchanges between the different crypto wallets. The interface for your individual wallets is easy to navigate and well designed. Exodus is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux and also compatible with the Trezor hardware wallet for additional security. Again, it gives you the possibility to exchange between several platforms.
Exodus supports multiple crypto wallets, does not require the creation of an account, does not associate your information in exchanges; you have total control over your e-wallet and keep your private information private with the people you send crypto to and those who send you crypto.
Exodus also offers an exchange functionality: you can send money of any amount or select an amount in dollars, Exodus will convert the equivalent amount into the appropriate cryptocurrency. They offer 24/7 support via their helpdesk or email and a Slack channel for communication with other users.
Crypto wallets are essential for digital currencies users. We have reviewed 10 different wallets and with development and growing demand, each cryptographic platform is striving to offer the best services to their customers and investors.
This is the case of Cartam.world which wants to offer new innovative solutions to the crypto community by offering a free P2P (peer to peer) marketplace dedicated to crypto users, whether they are beginners or veterans.
On cartam.world, you can use your cryptocurrency with your own wallets to buy or sell second hand goods against cryptos and view other users’ offers through the map facilitating local meetings thanks to geolocation and also allowing more advanced searches thanks to advanced features.
Written by Laetisia Harson, Project Manager at Magna Numeris
