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Wallet

Definition

An application that holds, sends and receives a user’s cryptocurrency.

Understanding the Term

When you buy cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, it gets stored in what’s called a wallet and has a unique private key associated with it. This private key is sort of like a password with a long alphanumeric string of characters that is specifically assigned to your wallet. Therefore, if you want to keep your coins safe, you must keep your private key safe.

There are a few different types of wallets to store crypto on like:

?   Exchange wallets; which are wallets on crypto financial platforms that hold on to a user’s private key,

?   Cold wallets; store private keys on a device that’s not connected to the internet, like a separate thumb-drive

Takeaway

If a wallet is somehow deleted, and or if the private keys were forgotten or never saved, asset ownership is gone forever.

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