Not sure where to store your Bitcoin or Ether? We present six open-source crypto-currency wallets suitable for this purpose.
Leaving purchased crypto-currencies in a marketplace wallet is not a good idea. In the past, even the biggest crypto-currency exchange sites have repeatedly been the target of hacker attacks, sometimes losing millions in bitcoins and other digital currencies. Anyone who deals seriously with crypto-currencies should therefore do better to store them in their own wallet.
Hot or cold: these types of wallet are available
There are essentially two ways to store crypto-currencies like bitcoin. The first is to store your crypto-currencies in a hot wallet. This is a crypto-currency store that is connected to the internet. The advantage of this option is that you have quick access to your crypto-currency reserves. However, security suffers. In the past, there was malware for desktops and smartphones that specifically targeted the crypto-currencies stored there.
A cold wallet, on the other hand, is more secure, as it is not connected to the Internet. For example, a paper wallet can be used as a cold wallet for bitcoins. As long as you keep the document and its copies in a safe place, you don’t have to worry about hacker attacks. But as soon as you want to carry out a transaction, things get complicated. What’s more, a sheet of paper can easily be lost or damaged.
Hardware wallets are an alternative. These are small devices on which you can safely store your digital treasures. You only connect them to your computer when you want to carry out transactions. The rest of the time, they remain safe from unauthorized access.
Software wallets, on the other hand, are available from a variety of companies with varying degrees of reputation. However, many wallet providers won’t let you see the programs’ source code. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Supplier Exodus, for example, has a fairly good reputation, although it only makes the source code of certain parts of the program public.
But if you really want to be sure that the wallet software you’re using doesn’t contain backdoors, you should take a look at one of the many open-source programs in this field. The programs can sometimes also be used on unused computers or smartphones that are not permanently connected to the internet. What’s more, many of them also support common hardware wallets to easily transfer bitcoins or ethers from your own computer to the secure offline device.
Bitcoin and Ether storage: 6 open-source wallets at a glance
Wasabi wallet
Wasabi is an open-source wallet for desktop PCs. The software is available for macOS, Windows 10 and Linux. Wasabi only supports bitcoin, but has some interesting additional features. Firstly, the wallet supports Coinjoin, a mechanism for disguising the origin of bitcoin transactions. Coinjoin combines transactions from multiple parties into a single transaction. In addition, Wasabi automatically routes all traffic through the Tor network to create a higher level of anonymity.
Green Blockstream
The open-source Bitcoin wallet Blockstream Green is available for mobile devices and desktop PCs. However, the desktop version still lacks some features of the iOS and Android apps. The wallet can be protected against unauthorized access using two-factor authentication and also includes hardware wallet operation. Devices from Ledger and Trezor are supported. In addition, the manufacturer also offers its own fully open-source hardware wallet, Blockstream Jade.
Samourai
Samourai is an open-source Bitcoin wallet for iOS and Android. In combination with an unused smartphone, you can also use the software as a cold wallet, i.e. as a bitcoin storage not connected to the Internet. Samourai also supports Whirlpool, a Coinjoin variant for concealing transactions.
Mycelium
Mycelium is an open-source Bitcoin wallet from Austria. The software includes the Trezor and Ledgor hardware wallets. What’s more, you can view the value of your Bitcoin holdings in the application at any time, in various currencies.
Metamask
Metamask is a wallet for Ether and Ethereum-based crypto-currency tokens, such as ERC20 or ERC721. MetaMask does not support bitcoin directly, but will use the WBTC, an ERC20 token, for this purpose. The software is available on the desktop as browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave. Metamask is also available as apps for iOS and Android. Metamask also supports Trezor and Ledger hardware wallets.
My Ether Wallet
My Ether Wallet is an online wallet for Ether and Ethereum tokens. The software supports hardware wallets and there is an official browser extension. There’s also a marketplace for DApps, decentralized applications based on Ethereum, in My Ether Wallet. For a while, the manufacturer also offered open-source mobile applications under the name MEWconnect. However, these were discontinued in favor of the MEWwallet app for iOS and Android, which is apparently not open source.
