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Hot Wallets Vs. Cold Wallets – Which One Should I Use?
In this article, I am going to dive into hot wallets vs. cold wallets – which one should I use? This is an interesting topic, and in fact, it was one of the first topics I started researching when I first discovered cryptocurrency and ultimately inspired me to create this website. As you can see, I have a bias towards cold storage wallets, but what exactly is the difference? I am going to discuss below what the pros and cons of a hot wallets vs cold wallets are and in what scenario you would need to use both. As cryptocurrency payments become ubiquitous, it’s important for your own safety and best security practices in managing your wallets and private keys on an on-going basis. Let’s begin.
WHAT IS A HOT WALLET?
In short, a “hot wallet” is a digital wallet for your cryptocurrency that is connected or is easily connected to the internet. This provides a lot of convenience for making day to day purchases as most active hot wallets are either on your smart phone or also on a desktop wallet on your computer for easy access for making online purchases. I always use the comparison of using your hot wallet like you would for a wallet in your back pocket that holds your credit cards, ID, and fiat. By a general rule of thumb, you should never hold more money on your hot wallet than you would normally keep in your leather physical wallet on a regular basis. Most people never keep any more than a couple hundred dollars in there at any given time, which is smart. The same applies to a hot wallet.
These wallets are designed for your average day to day spending. This could be at your local merchant down the street, or even if you’re browsing online at and trying to purchase gift cards at a site like bitrefill.com. This is done typically by scanning the screen’s QR code with your smartphone via your own wallet to make a quick transaction and simple transaction or even buy something off Amazon (like millions do everyday), but by using Purse.io, which is a platform that is built on top of amazon but accepts multiple cryptocurrencies as payment, and at a steep discount. Click this link to get some free BTC if you want to get started. Most purchase discounts range anywhere from 15-33% off anything at Amazon through this site.
These are just a few examples of how/when you would use your hot wallet for a simple transaction. You can also pre-load Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on Bitpay’s visa debit card. I will link my video review of this from Youtube HERE.
WHAT IS A COLD WALLET?
A “cold wallet” is also a digital (or sometimes physical, in the form of a hardware wallet) wallet that is kept completely offline. Why? Because any funds that are kept offline cannot be hacked or tampered with. You can think of this as virtual bank vault, that is very secure, hard to access, and is designed to store your larger amounts of crypto and primarily your longer term holdings. There are many advantages to having these wallets, and even safer to implement Multi-Sig wallets. It is also recommended to diversify your holdings between multiple hardware wallets when you start to accumulate a vast sum of crypto.
I have a soft spot specifically for hardware wallets as I’ve actually designed and built one for a prominent cryptocurrency company (although due to an NDA, I cannot discuss it yet). But the reason I think it’s important is because using and owning this kind of device is like putting up a nice big middle finger to the big banks and over-reaching governments that tend to control our money supply and bank accounts whenever they see fit. No “authority” should have that kind of power. Hardware wallets are symbolic of sovereignty and self-reliance. That is why literally “becoming your own bank” is so important. One of my favorite quotes in this space is “Whoever controls the people’s means of exchange, controls the people”. This is scary, but very true. When you use cryptocurrency, you are taking personal control and responsibility of your finances, and that is SO empowering. Just writing about it send chills down my spine, but I digress.
If you are new to hardware wallets, I recommend getting a Keepkey device for beginners. Why? I have been testing their closed beta of their new platform and it is by far the easiest and most user friendly hardware wallet platform I have used (and I’ve used almost every one of them). I think I could teach my grandma how to use it, and that’s saying something. The current platform works fine, but the future platform is very exciting and if you are brand new, you will be pleasantly surprised. I will be writing a review on this platform shortly and I will update this post with a link as soon as I do, so stay tuned.
WHY WOULD I NEED EITHER ONE?
As you can see from the examples of use cases listed above, it is important to protect your cryptocurrency and make it useful and convenient when you need it. But it’s even more important to protect it and secure it when it’s required. As the user adoption begins to snow ball, it’s crucial for everyone to understand that they will need both a hot and cold wallet for their various uses. You can even make transactions online with your hardware wallet connected via USB for even more protection. Most hardware wallets never expose their private keys to the internet when making the transactions by design. This is super helpful because you want to ensure that from every point in a given transaction, you do not want your private keys to be exposed in transit and potentially have your keys copied by a 3rd party before it reaches the intended destination.
Having said that, most digital wallets on your smart phone are typically secure enough for day to day spending and you shouldn’t be too concerned, so long as you have a trusted wallet for your phone. The top 3 I use on a regular basis is Bitpay, Jaxx, and Blockchain. These are all non-custodial wallets and have security features built in and can have 2FA or (two-factor authentication) enabled to confirm each transaction and will include Touch ID and Face ID, if you enable it.
I already recommended my top hardware wallet for beginners in the previous section, but any of the wallets that I offer through this website, are all trusted and good to use, it just depends on your needs and wants out of a secure air-gapped device.
Please sound off below! What hot and cold wallets do you like? Do you have any other wallets you can recommend not listed above? Let me know in the comments!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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How To Buy Bitcoins With Paypal Instantly (2020)
In this article, I will tell you how to buy bitcoins with Paypal instantly. Some of us on our journey for buying our first bitcoin, we look at the funding source from which we want to pay for it. In some cases it may be your bank account, in others it could be with a debit or credit card, but what if you have some funds sitting in Paypal and you would like to use that as a payment method directly?
hLuckily, this can be done and some methods are more legitimate than others. I am going to include the best ways (in order) to do complete this process, but keep in mind that Paypal will include additional fees to buy bitcoin that can range from 10-20% more than the actual price you agree to, as Paypal is factoring in the risk of a charge back into the purchase price. Let’s begin!
#1 BUY BITCOIN ON ETORO VIA PAYPAL
Step 1 – Open Your Account
– Visit the eToro homepage- Click the ‘Join Now’ button- Fill out the sign-up page, accepting the terms and conditions and privacy policy before clicking ‘Create Account’
Step 2 – Deposit Funds with Paypal
– Log in to your eToro account- Click on the ‘Deposit Funds’ button- Submit the amount you wish to deposit and select your currency- Select your deposit method – in this case, PayPal- You’ll then be redirected to the PayPal website- Log in to your PayPal account- Review your transaction details- Verify the details and complete the transaction by clicking ‘Pay’
Step 3 – Buy Bitcoin!
- Visit the BTC markets page on eToro
- Click the blue ‘Trade’ button in the top right-hand corner
- Alternatively, you can click ‘Buy’ next to Bitcoin if you have added it to your Watchlist
- Enter the amount of Bitcoin you wish to buy in fiat currency
- Set stop losses and ‘take profit’ parameters- Click ‘Open Trade’
#2 BUY BITCOIN ON COINBASE VIA PAYPAL
*Disclaimer: Using the e-wallet via Coinbase (web or iOS) requires you to be a U.S. investor. If you are not an American, you can still link your Paypal account to Coinbase, but you can’t physically buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum. In order to use PayPal for non-US customers is to swap your Bitcoin for a fiat currency and transfer this back to your Paypal account.*
- Visit the Coinbase homepage
- Click on the ‘Sign Up’ button in the top right-hand corner
- Complete the sign-up form and hit the ‘Create Account’ button
- Activate your Coinbase account by clicking on the confirmation link in your sign-up email
Step 2- Deposit Funds with Paypal
- Log in to your Coinbase account
- Click the ‘Settings’ tab on the left-hand side
- Click ‘Add a Payment Method’
- Click ‘PayPal Account’ and verify your PayPal account using the on-screen prompts
Step 3 – Buy Bitcoin!
- Log in to your Coinbase account
- On the Dashboard, click the ‘Buy/Sell’ button at the top of the page
- On the Buy/Sell window, click the Bitcoin button
- Choose your preferred payment method e.g. PayPal
- Specify the amount of Bitcoin you want in your fiat currency
- Hit ‘Buy Bitcoin Instantly’
#3 BUY BITCOIN IN PERSON VIA PAYPAL (LOCAL BITCOINS)
Step 1 – Sign Up (If you haven’t already)
Click this link for a direct way to do this! – SIGN UP
Step 2 – Filter for Paypal
Paypal Tips:
- High feedback scores are important. The closer to 100 percent, the better.
- Look at the number of trades and trade volume. Again, the higher, the better.
- Consider the trade limits to be sure the seller can fill your order.
- Look at the payment window to see how long you have to complete the transaction.
- Read any terms the seller might have. In some cases, the seller will also require a minimum reputation score for the buyer. If this is the case, you’ll have to make some small purchases to increase your reputation if you want to use that specific seller.
Step 3 – Confirm Transaction
This is documented in case of a dispute, but as long as you follow the tips above, that is unlikely. You can also negotiate to meet in person to initiate this process, if needed.
CONCLUSION
There are still other options to buy bitcoin with Paypal online, but those other options I have not personally used or tested and therefore, I cannot speak to how legitimate the entire process is. For your reference if you want to see what some other options are, I will link them below for you to take a look. Well, there you have it. Three tried and true ways to buy bitcoin online with Paypal and usually goes pretty quickly. This is a good option if you have funds sitting in Paypal and want to convert it into the far more valuable currency of the future.
NOTE: The other sites I will list below will allow other options for credit cards and other payment methods as well.
If you found this helpful or you have any other suggestions on other sources to obtain bitcoin securely and easily, please comment below!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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