Hardware Wallets

Hardware Wallets: Take Ownership of Your Crypto

Once you’ve decided to forgo keeping your coins on whichever exchange you might be using, you have three main options. The first is to store them on a mobile wallet – basically, an app for your smartphone, check out Guy's top picks for the top mobile wallets.
These mobile wallets give you more control over your crypto and allow you greater freedom to use it to pay for goods and services. They do, of course, have one major downside, which you will probably have spotted: they’re still connected to the internet and therefore vulnerable to attack.
The second option - and the one most likely to appeal to anyone born before about 1970 - is a paper wallet. Yes, paper… I seem to remember it now. Here you print out your private keys (usually in the form of a QR code) and keep them somewhere safe. There are benefits to doing it this way, of course. If you intend to hodl your coins for years to come then putting the keys in a drawer and forgetting all about them will stop you from ever spending or selling them.
1 Million Bitcoin Dollars!. Image Source
As long as the piece of paper is kept safe and not lost or stolen, or put in the recycling by a well-meaning partner who has finally lost patience with you for not clearing out the study, then all should be well.
The third option is the one which concerns us today and is by far the best for those who hold a decent amount of crypto and want to keep it safe. Whether you’re a minnow or a whale or somewhere in between (a barracuda?) then a hardware wallet is what you should be using to store those coins, hence why we put together this article on the best crypto wallets to help you figure out which is the best choice for you.
Hardware wallets are physical devices with a secure element that store your private keys offline in a secure manner and keeps them safe from any outside attack. They can be plugged into a computer, or connected to a mobile device to enable users to manage and spend their crypto, but all aspects of any transactions and validations are done on the device itself. Even if the device being used is infected with malware or is otherwise compromised, the hardware wallet remains secure and nobody else can get access to the private keys.
Each of the wallets mentioned here today comes with the vitally important feature of being able to back up your wallet so you will be able to restore your wallet, and your funds, should you lose or damage the wallet that stores your private keys, so please follow good crypto security etiquette 101 and always ALWAYS be sure to back up any wallet you use, software or hardware. Keeping those recovery seed phrases stored safely will likely be the only way to recover your funds should something go astray with your crypto storage method of choice.
I highly recommend checking out our article on How to Keep Your Crypto Safe for a comprehensive article on all the best practices and steps you can take to ensure you are using crypto in the safest and most secure manner possible.

Top 5 Best Hardware Wallets for Cold Storage Solutions

There are a number of hardware wallets on the market and choosing the right one can be tricky. That’s why we’ve put together a handy guide to our top five below. There are a few things to weigh up before choosing which one is right for you and we’ll consider all of these in relation to each wallet:

• Security: Although hardware wallets are the safest option out there, some are more secure than others.
• Coins supported: All hardware wallets will store BTC, ETH and most other top cryptocurrencies. However, if your portfolio includes some lesser-known altcoins, then some wallets may not be suitable.
• Price: If your portfolio is relatively small then chances are you won’t want to pay top dollar for a device to store it on. As with any product, prices for hardware wallets vary.

One final point to remember when buying a hardware wallet is to always buy it directly from the maker. There have been a few instances of unscrupulous types buying a wallet, extracting the seed words and then reselling the device. When the unsuspecting buyer then loaded their crypto onto it, the scumbags were able to remove their funds using these seed words.
Avoid buying your wallet from eBay or anywhere else where it might have been interfered with and order straight from the supplier’s website. Most of them also offer free shipping, unless you happen to live somewhere particularly exotic.
So, armed with this knowledge, in no particular order, let’s take a look at the best hardware wallets on the market. 

If you are interested in mobile or software wallets you may want to check out our Top 8 Mobile Wallets article.