How to do crypto - Crypto Wallet Reviewer

How to use Avalanche Wallet: 4 tips you should know

Crypto KP Free crypto research, How to do crypto November 30, 2021November 30, 2021avalanche wallet, AVAX, top cryptocurrency wallet

If you haven’t heard of Avalanche during 2021 you must have been sleeping on your crypto investments. The Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and price alongside it’s growing on-chain ecosystem. To get to know your way around the Avalanche ecosystem, use its NFTs stake your AVAX, you’ll need the native Avalanche wallet. But the Avalanche wallet itself has some unique features that others don’t. So in this guide we step through how to access Avalanche wallet, how to use it without losing your AVAX, and some of the best dApps to get into on Avalanche.

What is Avalanche and why do you need to know about Avalanche?

Avalanche is a rapidly growing blockchain and crypto ecosystem. It bills itself as a network of blockchains with blazing fast speeds and better decentralisation (more validators) and scalability than other blockchain networks.Avalanche has a fast growing ecosystem with loads of DeFi protocols and dApps, tonnes of exchanges and swaps, as well as a growing NFT dApp presence. If you’ve been sleeping on your crypto Layer 1 projects, here are some fast facts about Avalanche:

Avalanche’s Total Value Locked (in DeFi) has gone parabolic since August 2021. It’s grown from $300M to $11B!
Avalanche’s total market cap is up 85% in the 30 days, hitting $23 billion at the time of writing
Avalanche recently announced $600 million in funding to encourage development on its network. That equals more ecosystem growth.
Avalanches native blockchain token AVAX is used for network fees, capped at 720 million, and burned (on creation of blockchains, assets, subnets and payment of transaction fees). If the AVAX burned is larger than AVAX rewarded (to validators) the tokenomics are deflationary.

It’s growing popularity and attention makes it a crypto project worth following and an ecosystem worth exploring.

What is Avalanche wallet and why would you use it?

Avalanche is the native wallet for the rapidly expanding Avalanche ecosystem. You might use Avalanche wallet to do any of the following:

To stake your AVAX and earn rewards (you need a minimum of 25 AVAX to delegate for staking).
To run an Avalanche blockchain validator node (you need to hold a minimum 2000 AVAX in your wallet to run a node).
To mint and store AVAX NFT collectibles.

Staking and validating inside the Avalanche wallet earns attractive returns of between 9% and 11% depending on how the term you choose. Read this to learn more about staking and validating opportunities using Avalanche wallet.

Avalanche has a fast expanding NFT scene, with several new and popular NFT marketplaces. We look at the most popular Avalanche NFT dApps below. Avalanche wallet is where you mint and store NFTs for the Avalanche blockchain.

Getting started with Avalanche wallet

Avalanche wallet is a web wallet so you’ll need to be on a browser to use it. You can access Avalanche wallet here.

The first thing to do when you access the webpage is create a new wallet. The software will generate a seed phrase for wallet security for you. If you don’t know what a seed phrase is and why it’s important, check out our quick explainer here.

You’re going to want to write the seed phrase down (in order) so that you can recover your crypto if anything happens to your wallet.

The next step in creating your Avalanche wallet will require you to fill the missing blanks (words) in your new seed phrase – so make sure you don’t skip this first step or you won’t be able to complete the wallet set up process.

Once you’ve gained access to your newly created wallet, you’ll come to a screen that looks like this:

Before you complete any transactions you need to finish setting up the wallet security. There are two steps:

1. Set up wallet name and passphrase

Scroll down to the bottom left of the wallet ‘Portfolio’ screen and you’ll see an orange warning symbol. Click on this symbol to set up a name for your Avalanche wallet and to set a passphrase to access the wallet. You will need to use this passphrase to access the web wallet in future. It’s critical you do this to help with online security as the Avalanche wallet is a ‘hot wallet’.

2. Set up Avalanche wallet security

The next step is to set up your Ledger hardware wallet to secure any crypto you hold inside Avalanche wallet. Hot wallets are vulnerable to cyber hacking and theft. The best way to secure a hot wallet is by protecting it via a cold storage wallet connection.

The best cold storage wallets are the Ledger and the Trezor. To learn more about cold storage wallets, have a read through our article “Getting started with cold storage wallets: all you need to know.”

We review the top cold storage wallets here if you’re wondering which is best for you.

If you’re interested in buying a Ledger to secure your crypto, we recommend the Ledger website.

If you’re interested in a Trezor, Privacy Pros authorize dealer is a great site to get one from.

The great thing about Avalanche wallet is you can easily connect the Ledger cold storage wallet to it. You should do this before you put any funds in the Avalanche wallet.

Connecting ledger to Avalanche wallet

To connect your Ledger, you’re going to need to have the Ledger Live app installed and add both Ethereum and Avalanche wallets inside the Ledger Live app. You can add new wallets through the ‘Manager’ function inside Ledger Live.

Once you have Avalanche wallet set up inside Ledger Live, you can go to Avalanche wallet web version, select ‘Access wallet’ and select Ledger as the device you want to use to access your Avalanche wallet. After you confirm a few transactions on your Ledger, you’ll be given access to the Avalanche web wallet with Ledger security.

We recommending setting up Ledger wallet security for your Avalanche wallet BEFORE sending your funds to the web wallet. This way you’ll know your funds are secure.

4 unique Avalanche wallet features you need to know

Avalanche wallet is a little different from other wallets. You need to know how it’s different so you can use it fully, without worrying about losing your funds. Here are the main differences:

1. It’s three blockchains in one

Avalanche composes of a few blockchains together. So you’re going to need to deal with 3 different ‘chains’ inside the Avalanche ‘primary’ network. There’s three you will come across:

X chain – Exchange chain – is where you first receive your funds (AVAX token) into Avalanche wallet.
C chain – Contract chain – is where you find most of the decentralised finance applications.
P chain – Platform chain – is where staking and validating takes place.

All three chains – X, C and P – can be accessed from within one place – the Avalanche wallet. Check out the rectangle in red on the right:

2. Your public address is different for each chain and changes with each transaction

Each of X, C and P chains have different public addresses. If you don’t know what a public address is, check out our crypto wallet FAQs here. It’s basically like a public facing email address for your wallet…

What this means is, to use Avalanche wallet you need to know which chain to use before you transact. Once you’ve worked this out, then click on ‘X’, ‘C’ or ‘P’ inside Avalanche wallet, to get the right public address.

The X chain address starts with ‘x-avax’,
the P chain address starts with ‘p-avax’ and the
C chain address starts with ‘Oxb’ (like an Ethereum address).

Your public address on each of these chains will also change with each transaction. It’s an extra layer of security in the wallet. But don’t worry, because sending your crypto to an old address from a previous transactions will still get them to your wallet!

3. You send your AVAX to different chains for different uses

The Avalanche wallet ‘cross chain’ tab (see the red rectangle on the left menu bar above) allows you to transfer funds between X, C and P chain. You need to do this to use your AVAX for different things.

For example, if you want to stake AVAX token, you will need to send it from an exchange (where you bought it) to your Avalanche wallet using the X chain public address. You then use the cross chain tab (left of screen) to transfer your AVAX from X chain to P chain so that you can stake it.

4. Avalanche wallet is not set up for dApps

Avalanche wallet is not set up to interact with dApps built on the Avalanche blockchain, from inside the wallet. For that you will need to use MetaMask wallet, with the Avalanche C chain set up inside it.

To set up Avalanche C chain in MetaMask, you need to go to the Metamask menu (red square) and select ‘settings’, then ‘network’. From there, follow these directions to add C chain network to your Metamask.

How to get funds into the Avalanche ecosystem

There are two main ways to get funds into the Avalanche ecosystem so that you can interact with NFTs and DeFi products on the Avalanche blockchain.

1. Send funds to Avalanche wallet

You might send AVAX to you Avalanche wallet if you want to set up a validator node inside the wallet, or you want to stake your AVAX. Returns for staking are currently around 10%.

If you want to send AVAX or NFTs to your Avalanche wallet, you need to send them to Avalanche X Chain.

You can buy AVAX on Binance and send it directly to your Avalanche wallet on X chain. Simply open your Avalanche wallet, click on ‘X’ from the portfolio tab and hit the document icon to copy the address. You then past this address into the Binance ‘Withdraw’ screen and chose the ‘AVAX chain’.

If you are in the US, you can buy AVAX on Kucoin and send it directly to your Avalanche wallet for a small fee. Remember to select X chain.

2. Send funds to Avalanche network on MetaMask

You’re probably going to use Metamask if you want to use DeFi on the Avalanche ecosystem. If that’s the case, you’ll need to send your AVAX to Avalanche C chain.

You can send AVAX from Binance directly to C Chain – just make sure you select this network when you withdraw from Binance. The public address you send your AVAX to is the Avalanche network address copied directly from your MetaMask wallet. Remember you may have to add the AVAX token in your MetaMask for your token to show up.

Once you have AVAX in your MetaMask wallet, you can connect MetaMask to a growing number of dApps on Avalanche and start using their products and services.

If you are in the US, you can buy AVAX on Kucoin and make sure you select C Chain when sending your AVAX to your MetaMask wallet.

5 Best dApps to use on Avalanche

This Avalanche projects webpage is where you can find and explore the long list of many dApps built on Avalanche network. Here’s our highlights on some of the best dApps to use on Avalanche if you’re into DeFi, NFTs, exploring the metaverse or shopping with your crypto:

Avalanche Bridge – you can use this bridge to transfer ERC20 tokens from Ethereum to Avalanche’s C-Chain and back. It’s fast and low cost to bridge to Avalanche. In fact, bridging to the Avalanche blockchain from Ethereum can be a cheaper way of executing a trade than doing it on the Ethereum network.
TraderJoe – is a decentralised exchange to swap crypto quickly and cheaply. It also has lending, borrowing, liquidity farming products available. It’s probably the most popular dApp on Avalanche as we write and well worth checking out.
Wonderland – DeFi staking dApp where you can stake $TIME and earn 86,000% APY at the time of writing. And yes, you read that correctly. 86,000%.
Curate – DeFi Shopping App with AVAX Payments. You can also Mint and sell NFTs using the Curate gasless NFT Marketplace (charges 4% commission instead of gas fees).
Kalao – There are 7 NFT marketplaces on Avalanche network all vying for what has become the hottest sector in crypto bar metaverse gaming. Our favourite is Kalao NFT marketplace where you’ll find the cool Party Animals NFT collection among others. Not as big as the ETH NFT marketplaces, but a lot cheaper to buy into, mint or swap if you’re just getting into the NFT scene.

Why a seed phrase is the key to crypto security

Crypto KP How to do crypto October 8, 2021October 11, 2021

A seed phrase is a randomly generated sequence of words that you need to restore your cryptocurrency wallet if you forget the password. This post will cover what this means, when it needs to be used, and how to use it!

What is a seed phrase?

A seed phrase is the private key to your cryptocurrency, in word form.

Let us explain what this means.

In crypto, ‘digital assets’ (cryptocurrency) are recorded on a public ledger called a Blockchain. If you own crypto assets you have a private key to those assets. Your private key authenticates you (using cryptography) as the owner. You can’t access or transact those digital assets on a blockchain (a digital ledger of transactions) without your private key.

Your private key is a 256 bit string of binary code (256 1s and 0s in a certain order).

Even though blockchains are public ledgers and transactions can be viewed, your private key for any transaction you make (like buying a coin) is never revealed publicly. This is what makes it secure.

Turning numbers into passwords

Because humans don’t use the language of 1s and 0s, there’s a technical standard called BIP 39 that everyone uses to turn your private key from the binary language of computing (1s and 0s), into English. BIP 39 is the standard used to do that translation.

When that translation happens, you get a mnemonic phrase (12 or 24 word phrase) in a language humans can understand and recognize. The private key is no longer in 1s and 0s.

In practice, mnemonic phrase (called ‘seed phrase’) is just a phrase made up of either 12 or 24 words generated according to the BIP 39 standard. The phrase and words in it represent the binary form of your private key.

It’s important that humans can recognise and understand the private key to access their cryptocurrency, incase they need to use that key. That’s why we use a seed phrase of 12 or 24 words – we can write down or record words more easily than a long string of 1s and 0s.

Where will you come across a seed phrase in crypto?

You will come across a seed phrase wherever you set up a new crypto wallet, whether it’s a cold storage wallet or a digital (hot) wallet.

The wallet will generate the phrase for you as part of the wallet set up and present it on screen.

What is a seed phrase used for?

Seed phrases are used to recover ‘lost’ cryptocurrency from a cryptocurrency wallet.

Things can and do go wrong with cryptocurrency wallets. Cold storage wallets can be stolen or lost. Digital (hot) wallets can have software bugs or no longer be supported by companies or developers.

Seed phrases allow you to trace and recover any crypto you cannot get access to as a result of using a lost, stolen, or failed crypto wallet.

What to do with a seed phrase

When you first set up a crypto wallet, you create your password to access it. This is wallet layer security, so no one can access your wallet.

The next step will be to access and record (somewhere safe) a 12 or 24 word seed phrase that is generated by the wallet set up process. The wallet should prompt you to do this.

The seed phrase secure’s your actual crypto asset because it authenticates your ownership of that asset. If you ever have problems with your crypto wallet you must have this seed phrase to prove that you own your crypto and can then recover them to another wallet.

If someone else gets hold of your seed phrase, they can steal your crypto assets.

5 tips to keeping your seed phrase secure

Here are 5 tips you should always follow when it comes to your cryptocurrency seed phrase:

You should never forget or lose your seed phrase. You MUST record it somewhere safe.
Never share your seed phrase with anyone.
Record all of the words, in the order they are generated. Double check this.
- As stated above, seed phrase is the word form of your private key which is a string of 256 1s and 0s. The order of the words matter. You must write down each word in order starting with the first word, at that exact order.
- Do not try to change any words around because this will cause your wallet to fail when trying to recover your wallet.
You will have one seed phrase per crypto currency wallet. You need to keep records of the seed phrase for every crypto wallet you use
Always keep your seed phrase somewhere separate from your crypto wallet. If you lose both together, your coins are lost with no hope of recovery.

Where to safely store your seed phrase – metal storage wallets

The safest place to store a seed phrase is in a metal crypto wallet.

A metal crypto wallet is a physical device that looks like a cash wallet but is made of metal like stainless steel. The wallet comes with engraved tiles. Each tile features a letter of the alphabet. You arrange the tiles in order to form the words of your seed phrase. You arrange the tiles and secure them inside your metal wallet.

Metal crypto wallets are designed to be indestructible – fire proof, flood proof and shock proof – and many are lockable. This is why they are the best form of storage for your seed phase. Writing your phrase down on paper risks loss, damage and access by prying eyes.

We’ve reviewed and rated the best metal storage wallets on the market for their construction, security and ease of use. The BillFodl wallet comes out on top in our view. It’s durable, sleek and well designed. It’s also a pretty good feeling to have your crypto private key backed up safely in one of these chunks of metal!

Check our our metal storage wallet recommendations here.

And don’t forget – if you’re hesitating about needing a metal storage wallet – you lose your seed phrase and something happens to your crypto wallet, your coins are gone!

How to use your seed phrase with a metal storage wallet

The thing to understand about using your seed phrase is this: You only need to record the first four letters of each word in the phrase.

You can absolutely recover your crypto using just the first four letter of each word. Here’s why:

The words of your seed phrase are taken only from a specific list of 2048 words used in the BIP 39 standard. The words in this list all share one characteristic: the first 4 letters of each word are unique to that word. No two words in the list share the same first 4 characters.

For example, for the word “apple” the first for letters “appl” does not come up anywhere else in the list.

What this all means is, if you have the first 4 letters, you know the rest of the word by looking for those first 4 letters in the BIP 39 word list.

You simply need to arrange the first four letters of each word in order, inside your metal storage wallet. Knowing this saves time setting up your metal storage wallet and some metal storage wallets only provide room to hold the first for letters of each word.

For words that only have 3 letters, you just use record the 3 letters. For example the words “add” and the word “addict” are both in the list. You would use ‘add’ and then “addi” for “addict”.

Conclusion

Your seed phrase represents the private key to your cryptocurrency. You should always keep it secure from hack, theft, destruction or loss. The best way to do that is by storing it in a metal storage wallet like the BillFodl wallet. These are made of titanium so they can withstand almost any disaster! They’re also stylish as well as functional and will protect your crypto assets for years to come.

Top cryptocurrency wallet – best to secure and invest your crypto

Crypto KP Free crypto research, How to do crypto September 7, 2021best crypto wallet, top cryptocurrency wallet

With the number of cryptocurrency wallets already in the market, choosing the top cryptocurrency wallet is not an easy proposition. But having the right cryptocurrency wallet for the right purpose is critical to protecting your money. In crypto, you are your own bank. This means the safety of your assets is up to you! But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

Whether you’re a cryptocurrency trader, an investor, or a beginner, you will need a cryptocurrency wallet to store your coins securely, transact, and recover them. There are several options out there, and they all offer unique features which makes choosing the best crypto wallet an arduous task.

The very top cryptocurrency wallet should offer their users safety, security, a great user experience, excellent technical support, and customer service, among other things. We’ve researched the market and have rated the top cryptocurrency wallets in three categories to help you protect your assets and make money from your investments.

What Is a Cryptocurrency Wallet?

Cryptocurrency is not like fiat money. You can neither hold nor see it in its physical form. However, you can still lose it. Like the traditional wallet that holds your valuables, a cryptocurrency wallet works similarly, albeit with more advanced security features.

A cryptocurrency wallet helps you to store the information with which you can access your cryptocurrency. The crypto wallet keeps private keys that give you direct access to your cryptocurrency on the blockchain.

As a trader or an investor, you should be ready to invest significantly in getting the best crypto wallet because the safety of your coins should always be prioritized.

Types of Cryptocurrency Wallets

There are three things we consider when classifying a cryptocurrency wallet. Firstly, a cryptocurrency trader or investor needs a place to store his coins securely. There is no better place for that than a hardware wallet. Hardware wallets or ‘cold wallets’ remain the most secure options for storing cryptocurrencies.

Secondly, like with fiat money, cryptocurrency users may not want their coins to keep sitting idly in their hardware wallet. There will always arise a need to transact with the crypto. That’s where the crypto wallet app or the ‘hot wallet’ comes in.

Finally, if the user loses his hardware or software wallet, a seed phrase recovery wallet acts as the last resort. To match these three use cases for crypto wallets, there are three types of wallets you will need.

Hardware Cryptocurrency Wallet (Cold wallet)

This is the most secure type of cryptocurrency wallet. It is a storage device that you can handle physically and keeps your private keys to access your coins offline. This feature makes it unsusceptible to internet-based hackers.

Mobile Cryptocurrency Wallet (Hot Wallet or mobile crypto apps)

Every cryptocurrency trader wants to transact cryptocurrency daily without stress. While owning a hardware wallet is perfect for security, they are secure because they’re not connected to the internet. Hot wallets offer convenience in daily cryptocurrency transactions. However, they are susceptible to attacks from internet hackers so you need to know you’re using mobile crypto apps that are safe.

The top cryptocurrency wallet in the mobile category may have several security features, but its ratings are more concerned with the ease of use and speed of transactions. For this reason, we advise readers to employ a hybrid approach of storing most of their crypto (or their private keys to access it) securely in a hardware wallet and keep private keys for the coins you want to transact with in a mobile app or ‘hot wallet’.

Seed Phrase Recovery Wallet (metal crypto wallet)

Because in crypto you are your own bank, it is critical to have a last resort when dealing with the security of your cryptocurrencies. While hardware wallets are almost impervious to attack online, they are still susceptible to physical attacks, loss or technology failure. Seed phrase wallets serve as the means of recovering your coins from the blockchain if you lose access to your hot or cold wallet. For optimum security, ensure that you have a seed phrase recovery wallet for each hardware wallet you own.

Top Cryptocurrency Wallet – our pick for your crypto

All three types of wallets we explain above have different specific functions that cannot be understated. Because of the distinct roles played by each type of wallet, we have chosen the top cryptocurrency wallet in each category.

Whether you are a cryptocurrency trader or a long term investor, you should consider getting the best crypto wallet in each category. With all three, you can be sure you’re using our ‘crypto safe system’ and doing everything you can to protect your investment.

Top cryptocurrency wallet – hardware

The most important reason for having a hardware crypto wallet is the security it guarantees. The rate at which users lose their hard-earned cryptocurrency to fraudsters, hackers, fake app wallets is alarming, and cryptocurrency owners should spare no effort to secure and manage their cryptocurrencies safely.

The hardware crypto wallet offers the highest level of security among the other types of wallets. Although security is the most critical feature of a hardware wallet, several other factors also come into consideration. They include the number of cryptocurrency options available, user experience, mobile apps and third party integrations supported, connectivity, size, and cost.

After considering all these, our top cryptocurrency wallet (hardware) is the Ledger Nano X.

Ledger Nano X

Selecting Ledger Nano X as the best crypto wallet (hardware) wasn’t an easy choice. Although Nano X had a wide variety of unique features that make it stand out in its field, several worthy alternatives like Trezor T lost out narrowly. Ledger as a brand stands out among its peers in the hardware wallet sector. Its latest product, Ledger Nano X, is significantly better than Ledger Nano S in user experience, user interface, and security features.

Ledger Nano X is 7.2 x 1.175cm in size. It has top security features with a pin code, secure element chip, and seed recovery phrase generation.

Nano X also has a ledger software validation process used to verify the authenticity of the Ledger device when you buy it. This differentiates its security offering from other hardware wallets.

The Leger Nano X wallet is very versatile as it supports the most coins and integrations with third-party wallets and crypto exchanges. Ledger Nano X also allows you to connect to mobile devices via Bluetooth and cable. Nano X offers Bluetooth mobile connection for both iOS and Android.

Finally, Ledger Nano X has a mobile application called Ledger Live App. The app allows users to monitor and manage their accounts on both mobile and desktop, as well as perform a number of transactions (buy, sell, trade, stake) through its native features and third party integrations. The Ledger Live is the heart of the Nano X wallet and its greatest feature.

Purchase a Ledger Nano X to protect your cryptocurrency.

Top crypto wallet app (software wallet)

While hardware wallets are essential for enhanced security, software wallets are also necessary if you intend to transact regularly or remotely. Software wallets are apps that you can download to you rmobile phone or iPad. Since software wallets are used for transactions, the best crypto wallet in this category was selected based on the security of the wallet, native features, variety of coins and third party integrations supported, transaction fees, speed of transaction, and ease of use.

After weighing up these features across the extensive crypto wallet app market, our top cryptocurrency wallet (software) is the Binance wallet.

Binance Wallet

Mobile wallets are not usually well known for their security features, but Binance Wallet offers a wide range of these features. Apart from the standard password protection, Binance wallet also offers multiple-factor authentication on login and transactions. Binance also has a security feature that whitelists unknown crypto wallet addresses to protect the wallet against hackers. The wallet user can input and see the list of devices allowed to access his account with the device management feature under the wallet settings menu.

In terms of versatility, performance, and function, Binance stands out among its peers.

Binance wallet provides 24/7 support and is compatible with Android and iOS. Binance also caters to beginners and professionals with two types of apps: Binance Lite and Binance Pro. Binance Pro has advanced features for traders with knowledge, while the Lite version is more simplistic to allow the beginner to trade efficiently. Binances range of native features is what makes its software wallet truly stand out from its competitors.

You can trade the spot, margin or futures markets direct from your phone. You can also stake your crypto, earn interest on it, participate in Airdrops and join rewards competitions. It’s a great place to engage in multiple different ways to earn cryptocurrency, directly from the one app.

Binance also allows you to customize the language and currency of the wallet application. Finally, Binance wallet has a QR code generator that will enable you to log in to your account from any web browser.

You can set up your Binance account and download their crypto wallet app right here.

Top Seed Phrase Recovery Wallet (metal crypto wallet)

In order of importance, the seed phrase recovery wallet (or metal crypto wallet) might just be the most important. It is the last layer of protection a cryptocurrency wallet holder has to restore access to their coins on the blockchain. If you lose your hardware wallet and don’t have your seed phrase, you cannot recover your cryptocurrency and it is lost for good.

Seed phrase recovery wallets must be both enduring and secure. In choosing the best crypto wallet in this category, we considered three things: the construction, security features, and ease of use. For the best type of construction, durable materials should be used to make the wallet. The best crypto wallet must also have excellent security features to prevent the loss of data. Finally, the recovery wallet must be easy to use.

Billfodl satisfied all these conditions with ease and was therefore chosen as the top seed phrase recovery wallet.

Billfodl

Billfodl is made from a combination of 316 marine grade stainless steel, iron, and steel. The security against both destruction and unauthorised use is strong as Billfodl wallet has a very thick protective metal casing that is fireproof and waterproof.

It’s also easy to set up the Billfodl wallet. There are tiles that you slide into the casing for each word in your seed recovery phrase. This is easy to do. Once the user slides the seed recovery phrase tiles in the wallet, the wallet can then be closed and locked with a padlock. Our advice is always to store your metal crypto wallet in a secure location separate from your hardware wallet. Remember, if someone has your seed phrase, they can steal your coins.

The best place to buy the Billfodl wallet is directly from the makers – here.

Conclusion

The three types of wallets have very distinct features, but they are all necessary to ensure the safety of your cryptocurrency. The three wallets together form our recommendation for your ‘crypto safe system’ – they give you the maximum protection available as custodian of your own crypto assets. Remember, in crypto you are your own bank. As a cryptocurrency trader or investor therefore, safeguarding your digital assets should be your top priority.

Backed by extensive research, we have selected the top cryptocurrency wallet in each category. Top cryptocurrency wallet Ledger Nano X, Binance wallet and Billfodl are the best of their kind in each category that the market has to offer. For your peace of mind, choose wisely!

What makes cryptocurrency prices rise and fall?

Crypto KP How to do crypto August 11, 2021August 24, 2021best crypto wallet, crypto wallet app, mobile crypto wallets

what causes cryptocurrency prices to rise and fall

If you’re crypto curious and looking to better understand how cryptocurrency works before you put your hard earned money in, then this post is for you. Crypto is the wild wild west of investing. While cryptocurrencies are traded like stocks in the stock market, the crypto market is nothing like the Dow Jones, Nasdaq or S&P 500. Crypto is unique, with prices driven by factors that don’t exist in other money markets. If you want to make money with crypto it’s critical you know what makes cryptocurrency prices rise and fall.

Cryptocurrency markets

Cryptocurrency is traded between parties in markets. The demand and supply of a particular cryptocurrency in a specific market will set a baseline for its price action, whether that be upwards or downwards. But did you know that unlike stocks, there are both centralised (CEX) and decentralised (DEX) crypto trading markets? It’s important to know this because the price is determined differently in each type of exchange.

How is the price of crypto set on centralised exchanges?

On centralised crypto exchanges, the price of a crypto asset is determined between two parties using the traditional order book model that conventional exchanges like the S&P 500 or ASX use. Order books are just a record of all open buy and sell orders for a particular crypto. The spread between buy and sell prices determines the depth of the order book and the current market price.

In this model, the CEX acts as an intermediary to clear trading transactions and provides custody services for your crypto assets.Trades occur on the CEXs server rather than directly on the blockchain.

The leading centralised exchange by volume is Binance. It’s also the one we recommend you get started on as covers more small cap coins than its rival Coinbase. Binance has a hot mobile wallet with all the bells and whistles you could wish for – check it out here.

If you’re in the US and you want to set up on Binance you’ll need to use BolsaDX which is a Binance brand that operates in Latin America and can be used by folks in the US. Binance is not available in the US.

How is the price of crypto set on decentralised exchanges?

Peer-to-peer trading occurs on DEXs through automated smart contracts (programs) that execute trades without an intermediary. DEXs use liquidity pool protocols to determine crypto pricing. These exchanges execute trades or ‘swaps’ between users directly and instantly from wallet to wallet. There is no intermediary like in a CEX.

Swaps are made in one of two ways: through an order book that interacts with the blockchain, or through an automated market maker (AMM) approach. Since we already know what order books are, lets talk about AMMs. AMMs remove the need for counter-parties to set the price. Instead, AMMs us algorithms to set the price, which means that you can trade a particular coin or token regardless of whether there’s someone on the other end of the trade. To facilitate this, “liquidity pools,” are needed. These pools pay users to keep some of their funds in a smart contract that can then be drawn on for trades to occur.

With AMMs there are no prior orders in an order book. There are only takers (buyers) looking to exchange a specific cryptocurrency pair.

DEXs are non-custodial, which means you are responsible for managing the safety of your crypto. You keep your crypto secure whilst trading on DEXs by using a hardware wallet and seed phrase recovery wallet. You can find the best hardware wallets to keep your crypto safe right here and the best metal seed phrase storage wallet for your private keys here.

UniSwap and SushiSwap are the two biggest DEXs in crypto at present.

Both CEX and DEX rely on the demand of buyers and the supply from sellers (or liquidity providers) to set the price of a trade or swap. So if crypto prices are determined by demand and supply in these markets, let’s look at the factors that influence the commitment of those buyers (demand) and of sellers or liquidity providers (supply) themselves.

11 market movers that cause cryptocurrency prices to rise and fall

What drives people to buy and sell their assets in different markets is a complex discussion. People can be influenced by the market sentiment, news, their own personal circumstances, market analytics, trading signals, etc etc. So lets look with more granularity at 11 factors that can move the crypto market and cause cryptocurrency prices to rise and fall.

Bitcoin
Whale manipulation
Trading patterns
Trading bots
The news that moves the market
Airdrops
Coin burns
Pump and dump groups
Major exchange coin listings
Rebranding
Project partnership announcements

1.Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the king of crypto and its price action in both directions moves the rest of the market. If you want to know more about when Bitcoin moves the price of other coins up or down, have a read of this great article on the crypto market fundamentals you need to know before investing.

2. Whale manipulation

Whales are crypto holders with very large bags of a particular coin. You can get Bitcoin whales, Ethereum whales etc. Whales can use their coin share to move the market with large buy or sell orders. Whales can do this in conjunction with options trades, to make profits. It is particularly easy in small cap coins as it doesn’t take much trading volume to spike or drop the price. One example of price manipulation might be if there is a lot of trading volume on a particular coin but the price is going sideways or downhill. It may be that whales are waiting in the water as the price sinks and weak hands hit the sell button.

3. Trading patterns

Crypto traders trade assets according to the same trading rules and patterns. They all use the same indicators. This makes the patterns they use to signal buy and sell trades self fulfilling. Everyone sees the signal and makes the trade. Trading patterns constantly influence whether the price will move up or down, depending on the volume of trades and traders.

4. Trading bots

This one is linked to trading patterns. Programs are now available so that traders can execute trades using bots (or automation) and based on conventional trading patterns and rules. For example, it’s common for trading bots to be set up to buy up a certain cryptocurrency when the price retraces to .618 of its previous high. This is based on the Fibonacci retracement rule and its application to market trading. Sometimes its possible to actually see trading bots provide price support at this level in trading charts and order books on centralised exchanges.

5. The news that moves the market

Crypto markets are very news sensitive. Project news and development milestones can and routinely do cause particular coins to pump or dump. Hardfork, testnet and mainnet release announcements will generally move the price significantly. In many cases the price of a coin will run up before the project testnet or mainnet date, and sell off just before the testnet or mainnet release.

Similarly, the price of a coin will tumble if a published milestone is missed or the project is hacked, experiences a development failure or is exploited in any way.

Coin Market Calendar is a great site to see if there is any upcoming project news for a particular coin or token.

6. Airdrops

Airdrops are a promotional event in crypto to raise awareness of a particular project or coin. They usually involve the project group sending free coins to the wallets of existing coin holders. So it’s basically a free money giveaway to reward project faithfuls. When it happens, the price of a particular coin can go thermal nuclear.

7. Coin burns

A coin burn is a process of intentionally destroying or ‘burning’ coins to make them unusable and reduce the total market supply of that particular coin and increase the value. It’s the crypto market version of a stock buyback in conventional markets. Coin burns are used to stabilise the value of a coin and they are often scheduled ahead as an incentive for buyers to hold the particular coin (and benefit from price rises when coin burn occurs).

8. Pump and dump groups

Pump and dump schemes are not specific to crypto but they are pretty common price manipulation attempts. Pump and dumps are a scam so beware. They go something like this. A group of investors (organisers) – usually on Telegram or other social platforms like Discord, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook – collude to buy a low cap coin slowly over time so as not to raise its price. The same group then pays an inner circle to promote the bejeezus out of the coin, convincing other investors it’s going to the moon. When those investors (the outer rim) jump in, the organisers sell causing the price to dump immediately. It’s the quick or the dead, the organises versus the bagholders.

9. Major exchange coin listings

This is a well know strategy for some traders – to buy smaller coins and tokens on DEXs or unknown, low volume exchanges and wait and hope that the coins are listed on large exchanges like Binance, Coinbase or Kucoin where most of the trading volume is. Because of the larger volume on these exchanges, newly listed coins can pump hard at the time of listing. This is when existing holders will sell, often causing the coins to dump again straight after. It’s a risky strategy but can be high reward if you know what you’re doing.

10. Rebranding

Rebranding can cause the price of a cryptocurrency to rise if there is significant social media to raise awareness of the event. Rebranding is seen as a move to popularise a particular project and cryptocurrency, driving demand for its coins and tokens and pushing the price up.

10. Project partnership announcements

When small crypto projects announce partnerships with established mainstream brands, the price will often pump. For example when Steller Lumens announced a partnership with IBM, boom the price when through the roof. The fastest way to find out about these announcements is by following the project on Twitter or on a site called cryptopanic. If you find out early enough you may be able to pick up some coins before the price pump and make a decent profit.

What does a crypto wallet do and what do you need one for?

Crypto KP How to do crypto June 15, 2021July 22, 2021best crypto wallet, crypto wallet app, what does a crypto wallet do

If you’re new to crypto you’ll be scratching your head trying to understand how the cryptocurrency ecosystem works, so you can navigate around it. One of the first questions you’ll ask yourself is – what does a crypto wallet do? In this article we’ll run through exactly what a crypto wallet does and what you’ll use it for, in non-tech head terms.

What is a crypto wallet for?

A crypto wallet is a way to store the private keys that you need to ‘unlock’, access and transact with your crypto assets.

The crypto ecosystem is very different to fiat currency coins and dollar bills that you physically keep in your wallet or purse and in the bank. Crypto is non-custodial and decentralised. What this means for you is that the security of your coins is up to you. No-one is going to look after them for you. There are no government guarantees like there are for fiat currency stored in the bank. On the flip side, you have complete control and autonomy over your finances.

The way you secure your coins is through your crypto wallet.

Another concept to understand with crypto is that your coins remain on the blockchain ledger and don’t actually exist in your wallet. Instead you wallet holds the private keys to any coins you own, and through those keys you can access the blockchain ledger and see – in your wallet – how many coins you have. Your wallet, which holds your private keys, allows you to securely validate and confirm the transactions you make with your crypto assets – like sending them to someone else’s public address on the blockchain. Anyone who has access to your private keys can easily access and steal your coins, so security is super important when it comes to a crypto wallet.

The last thing to understand about crypto is that there are different types of crypto wallets that you use for different things depending on the levels of cyber and physical security you’re after and what you want to do with your coins.

The different types of crypto wallets

If you think about fiat currency, there are a bunch things we do with our dollars and coins. We store some in the bank, we invest some, we use them to buy things, we carry them around with us. These same sorts of transactions are available with crypto and all require some kind or interaction with a crypto wallet. Lets run through a few of these under the two main categories of crypto wallets – offline (cold wallets) and online (hot wallets):

Offline wallets (cold storage)

These are the safest type of cryptocurrency wallets because your private keys are kept separate from the internet and not exposed to cyber attack. The biggest vulnerability with these wallets is physical security – either from theft or loss.

Crypto hardware wallet

This is the bank vault for your crypto private keys. It’s a physical device that you use to store your private keys offline and separate from the internet. This is the most secure and safest form of crypto storage because a lot of the cyber attack vectors for crypto come from connection to the internet.

Crypto hardware wallets are where you store your coins long term for the highest level of protection. You usually keep the device at home – somewhere hidden and safe.

If you’re looking for a great hardware wallet to store your crypto, then check out our review of the top cryptocurrency wallets for 2021.

Crypto seed storage metal wallet

This is a physical wallet too but usually some form of indestructible and engraved metal plate construction. You use it to store you seed recovery phrase for your hardware wallet. Your seed recovery phrase is like your spare house keys. If anything happens to your hardware wallet, you’re going to need your seed recovery phrase to recover access to your coins on the blockchain.

You should always keep your seed phrase storage wallet in a separate location to your hardware wallet.

We’ve also researched and reviewed the best seed storage wallets for you.

Online wallets (hot wallets)

These are less safe forms of storage, but they are necessary to interact with if you want to traverse the crypto ecosystem. They’re not for long term storage of large amounts of coins. They’re like the wallet in your pocket that you use daily.

Crypto wallet app

If you transact with your crypto on the go and use your mobile phone, then you’ll end up downloading a crypto wallet app. This is an online wallet – in app form – that you can use to check your crypto balances and receive crypto (through a public address that the wallet provides). As crypto becomes more mainstream, the features and functions offered by these wallets are expanding. Some crypto wallet apps allow you to buy, swap, stake and trade your crypto – all from within the one wallet.

You might also use a crypto wallet app to interact with Decentralised Finance protocols like Aave, Compound or with decentralised exchanges (dEX) like UniSwap or PancakeSway if you want to yield farm or participate in swap pools.

There are also apps that act like crypto wallets but are primarily a place to lend and borrow crypto – like the Celsius Wallet or BlockFI. If you want to earn interest on your crypto while you hodl it without the complications of using a dEX or DeFi protocol, you might use these wallets and their services.

It’s likely you’ll have several of these crypto wallet apps on your phone, depending on how active you are in the crypto ecosystem. One thing to remember is that because they are online, they’re not safe to store large amounts of crypto.

Crypto wallet browser extensions

These are crypto wallets that you download and take the form of browser extensions for popular web browsers like Chrome, Brave or Firefox. You’ll use these if you’re on your desktop a lot. They are a convenient way to interact with DeFI platforms and protocols (websites). The browser apps seamlessly connect with these websites directly in your Chrome browser and allow you to move your coins in and out of smart contracts that govern DeFi transactions like lending and borrowing.

Like crypto wallet apps, they’re online and have a larger attack surface than a hardware wallet.

Crypto exchange wallets

If you sign up to an exchange to trade crypto, then for any crypto you buy you’ll keep your private keys on the exchange. Centralized crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinspot provide their own coin wallets where your crypto assets will appear when you are using the exchange. These wallets are only as safe as the exchange itself and exchanges do get hacked from time to time, so you be aware of this.

More and more exchanges are offering DeFI products from within the exchange as a reward for keeping your crypto there. On Binance for example you can earn interest, stake, and pool your coins all from within the exchange. Exchanges often have a supporting app – for example the Binance Wallet – that you can use to transact your crypto on the go.

Hardware wallet and crypto wallet app integrations making it safer to transact your crypto

A new development in the crypto world is making transacting your coins safer. Wallet developers from the hardware and software worlds are getting together and partnering up their services so that you can transact with the convenience and flexibility of an online crypto wallet app, but utilising the safety and security of a hardware wallet.

MetaMask – the crypto wallet app and browser – now provides support for both Trezor and Ledger hardware wallets. Exodus wallet has an integration with Trezor. Your can move your crypto to Exodus easily from your Trezor Model T hardware device and use Exodus to manage the crypto in your Trezor.

For you, this means interacting with DeFi and making passive income on you crypto with peace of mind that your coins and tokens are as safe as they can be. So if you’re looking for the safest crypto wallet to use, check out our reviews of Ledger and Trezor, as well as the MetaMask and Exodus reviews here.

If you want to delve further into how crypto wallets work, have a read of our FAQs page here.

How to set up MetaMask crypto wallet to use DeFi protocols

Crypto KP How to do crypto June 13, 2021October 16, 2021best mobile wallet crypto, crypto wallet app, MetaMask crypto wallet

MetaMask crypto wallet is one of the most ubiquitous wallets in the crypto ecosystem. The reason is pretty simple – it’s got multi chain capability and therefore loads of DeFi integrations. Here’s a full review of what MetaMask cyrpto wallet is and what to use it for. One thing about MetaMask Wallet is that all of the big DeFI protocols interact seamlessly with it. And you can too, once you’ve got the hang of things. In this post, we’re going to take you through some key concepts to understand and 5 steps to take so that you can set up your MetaMask wallet to interact with DeFi and get on with your passive income earning!

This post is for non-tech heads starting out in crypto and based on some of the tech hurdles we faced when first trying out the Decentralised Finance space.

We’re going to assume that you have downloaded either the app or browser version of MetaMask, and created your wallet already which is a process of setting up your password and seed recovery phase.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Set up your blockchain networks in the wallet

The MetaMask wallet comes with the Ethereum Mainnet set up or ‘turned on’. But if you’re into DeFi you’re probably going to use some different networks to transact because of the high fees on the Ethereum Mainnet. The two alternative networks that are most popular at the moment are Matic and Binance Smart Chain.

If you want to use these other Blockchains and networks the first thing you need to do is manually add these different mainnets to the MetaMask wallet. To do this, you go to ‘settings’ -> ‘networks’ -> ‘add and edit custom RPC networks”. You can simply Google the settings you need to add the network, by searching something like “Matic Mainnet Settings for Metamask”. Make sure you land on the Matic developers pages to get these instructions.

2. Add your token types

You need to ‘add tokens’ to Metamask for them to show up once you have sent them to your wallet. There’s an ‘add token’ button in the Assets tab that you should use to do this. Tap the button, input into the search bar the ticker for the token or coin you want, and click ‘add’. It may take a while for your tokens to show up after you’ve done this so don’t freak out if they’re not there immediately.

3. Add custom token types

Sometimes when you search the ‘add tokens’ list you won’t find your token. If you hold that token, it won’t show up in your Metamask until you add the token type. But can still add the token to the MetaMask wallet manually, so that your balance in that token shows up in the wallet. You’ll need to go to ‘add tokens’ then select the ‘Custom tokens’ menu.

Then you have to go to Etherscan block explorer (or the block explorer for the network your token is on) in your web browser. In Etherscan, search on the token using its ticker (e.g. SUSHI). Once you find it, you grab the smart contract address for that token and paste it into the web URL field back in Metamask wallet. The other fields in your Metamask wallet should autopopulate if you have grabbed the right smart contract address. If so, just follow the prompts to complete the add token process.

Finding the smart contract address to add a custom token

4. Make sure you toggle to the right network before you connect to any DeFI protocol

Once you’ve got your coins and tokens showing up in MetaMask, you’re probably going to want to do something with them. Like lend or stake them in a DeFI protocol or Decentralised Exchange. When you use MetaMask wallet you ALWAYS need to double check you are on the right network for the crypto asset or protocol or exchange you are trying to transact with. You toggle this at the top of your screen.

For example, if you want to interact with PancakeSwap to stake some crypto, then that DeFI protocol is built on the Binance Smart Chain. So you open the PancakeSwap website, then from that browser screen you open Metamask broswer extension and toggle to Smart Chain. Then you jump back to PancakeSwap and hit ‘connect’.

5. Converting your tokens between Mainnets

One thing about DeFI right now is that the Ethereum Mainnet is expensive to transact on. So if you’re trialling DeFi with smaller amounts it becomes uneconomic to do so. But, there are options with much cheaper transaction fees. To use these options, depending on what tokens you already hold, you might need to convert your tokens to another form so you can use them on another cheaper network. In effect, you’re moving your tokens between networks.

If you want to move your tokens between Mainnets you’ll need to use purpose built ‘bridges’ like the Matic <-> Ethereum ‘Polygon bridge‘.

You can connect your Metamask to these bridges and convert the tokens using the bridges. This will make the tokens ‘move’ from one Mainnet to another in your Metamask wallet. This flexibility means you can transact between multiple Mainnets and their associated DeFI protocols/platforms.

This is one of the cool things about MetaMask once you get the hang of it.

The thing to remember is – always connect to the bridge with your MetaMask wallet showing the right mainnet settings. More often than not you’ll start with the Ethereum network. Then after you’ve converted your tokens, toggle to the other mainnet – Polygon or Smart Chain for example. The tokens you converted should show up under this network after a few minutes.

6. Disconnecting your MetaMask wallet

If you don’t disconnect your Metamask wallet from the different Protocols you use, you’re leaving yourself open to phishing and cyber crime.

But…It’s not always straight forward to find how to disconnect your MetaMask Wallet from a website or protocol when you want to. So here is how you do it.

You simply open your MetaMask browser extension, click on ‘Connected’ at the top left, then click on the three grey dots against the account you have connected. You should then be able to select ‘Disconnect this account’.

DeFi can be a bit scary for the uninitiated because interacting with the new blockchain and smart contract technology takes a bit of practice. Getting through these starter steps will ready you to use the MetaMask wallet with new DeFi services and hopefully make some passive income from your crypto!