A Bitcoin wallet helps you protect your private key, not storing your Bitcoin. If you are fairly new to cryptocurrencies you might still be struggling with the concept of private key and why it’s so important. Perhaps you just get into cryptocurrency by purchasing coins on an exchange platform but didn’t even realize that they hold the private keys to your cryptocurrency.

When you own cryptocurrencies, what you really own is a “private key”, a critical piece of information used to authorize outgoing transactions on the blockchain network. Holding the private keys gives you access to your crypto, like holding a pin code to your debit card; in short it gives you access to your funds.

« If you are keeping your crypto assets on an exchange, you are entrusting a third party with these private keys and mandating them to serve as a safeguard. »

Being a crypto investor requires taking security seriously and owning your private keys gives you much more power and control. The main principle behind hardware wallets is to provide full isolation between the private keys and your easy-to-hack computer or smartphone. The only people you can trust for storing your crypto assets is yourself.