Hello, and welcome to the Mega Crypto Casino website and this, the next in our series of articles exploring the topics of both crypto casinos as well as a range of associated crypto related subjects.
The original motivation for this series was the result of a recent survey which revealed that although many crypto casino players had already used some of the functions inherent within crypto casinos, such as depositing funds or crypto casino staking, a surprising 69% of respondents admitted that they actually knew very little about cryptocurrencies, or indeed, the blockchain.
In today’s article we will be looking specifically at the subject of cryptocurrency wallets.
But why cover such a seemingly ‘basic’ topic when the likelihood is that anyone visiting a crypto casino website will likely already have a cryptocurrency wallet and may already know all about them? Well, an aggregated-poll of several Crypto Casino website’s user-bases has revealed that, whilst users may already possess cryptocurrency wallets, their original choice of wallet was on-the-whole based, not upon detailed research, nor upon any pre-knowledge of the subject in hand, but usually upon either a suggestion or recommendation from a layman; alternately, their purchase was made impulsively, based upon the first internet search on the subject that they had made.
With this in mind, a review of the subject will, hopefully prove helpful and informative to both existing crypto casino users who already possess cryptocurrency wallets, as well as to potential ‘newbies’ to crypto casinos, just looking to start out and ‘dip their toes’ into the crypto casino and cryptocurrency worlds.
What Exactly Are Cryptocurrency Wallets?
So, you’re off downtown, you’ve got some cash, credit and debit cards and some pictures of your girlfriend, but what are you going to do? Stuff it all into your trouser pockets? No, of course not, you’re going to put everything into your wallet for safekeeping.
In a similar way then, you’re going to need some form of safekeeping for your cryptocurrencies…but that principle is pretty much where the similarity between a cryptocurrency wallet and a ‘pocketbook’ wallet ends…oh, and you also can’t stash pictures of your girlfriend into your crypto wallet!
You see, you are now dealing with the very latest, most advanced and futuristic form of money; cryptocurrency; additionally, it has no actual physical form. It makes sense then, that you’re going to need something pretty new and advanced in concept to handle this task…enter…your cryptocurrency wallet.
The first important principle is that your cryptocurrency wallet doesn’t actually ‘hold’ your cryptocurrency! If you lose your wallet, you haven’t necessarily lost your crypto!
Secondly, your crypto wallet does much more than your traditional wallet; you can not only access the value of your crypto but also send and receive crypto and also monitor the balance of your holdings, very similarly to the way you would operate a traditional online bank account…and that is the perfect analogy, as we shall see.
As we have mentioned, your cryptocurrency wallet does not actually store your crypto…so where is your crypto? Well, in essence, your crypto sits on the blockchain ring-fenced under the credentials of your crypto wallet. As in the analogy above, your crypto ‘account’ sits on the blockchain and is the equivalent of your online bank account, whilst your ‘crypto wallet’ actually fulfills the role of your online bank’s ‘digital key’, PIN or passwords, that actually enable you to access and control your crypto.
Under the Bonnet
As mentioned above, whilst your crypto wallet doesn’t actually store your cryptocurrency, it does store your private and public keys which then allow you to access your crypto. But what exactly are these private and public keys? Let’s take a look at these concepts as well as introduce the additional concept of your wallet address:
Crypto Wallet Address
Your crypto wallet address is a string of alphanumeric characters and is analogous to an e-mail address or a bank account number. It is unique to you and acts as a destination on the blockchain from which to send or receive cryptocurrencies; essentially it is the public ‘face’ of your crypto asset holdings, however, it also enables you to manage and control your crypto whilst maintaining your online anonymity, as no personal information is publicly tied to your crypto wallet address and you only need to give out this address to receive digital assets. Sharing your wallet address is often done in QR code format. You only ever share your wallet address publicly, NEVER your public or private keys.
For illustrative purposes, here is an example of what a bitcoin wallet address might look like:
bc1rw123c3lfjxtsf7y6r2vcbsrkw2c4zc6yhgt808
It is also worth mentioning here that your crypto wallet address is a somewhat shorter, hashed, and more secure sequence derived directly from your public key and whilst your crypto wallet address acts as the ultimate destination for any incoming funds, your public key verifies the transaction….but more on that later.
But just for now, in summary:
- When receiving funds, you give your crypto wallet address to the sender and they send to that address on the blockchain.
- Similarly, if you are sending funds on the blockchain, you will need the receiver’s crypto wallet address.
- Remember; just like a bank account number, your crypto wallet address is the destination for your crypto.
NOTE: Every blockchain will have its own unique wallet address, thus your wallet address will be different for example, for Bitcoin (on the Bitcoin Blockchain) than for Ether (on the Ethereum Blockchain); all sitting, however, under your overall ‘umbrella’. But note; currencies that share blockchains such as USDC and USDT (ERC20) both on the Ethereum blockchain, or SOL and Raydium, both on the Solana blockchain, will all share the same wallet address.
Public Key
As briefly mentioned earlier, your crypto public key although mathematically linked to your crypto wallet address is not exactly the same thing. Your public key is a set of alphanumeric characters which in its turn is derived from your crypto wallet private key (more on that later). Its exact position in the overall scheme of things is that it mathematically provides the source for your wallet address whilst functionally, it helps the blockchain to verify incoming or outgoing transactions securely whilst also avoiding revealing any details of your private key. When you sign off on any transaction with your private key, the blockchain will utilize your public key to verify the veracity of the signature.
As an illustration, here is an example of what a bitcoin blockchain public key might look like:
02a3c9l8g4b3f4c7a6g5a9d7f1c4e6a2f2g7n8b6e4b6c1d4c8e9f9f5z4
As a point of interest, this is a compressed version, most commonly presented to end users; often public keys are actually approximately 130 characters long but for convenience are rarely presented in full format.
Private Key
So as mentioned previously, your crypto wallet private key forms the top layer of security for your crypto assets and must NEVER be shared with anyone in whom you do have one hundred percent faith, trust and confidence. It is literally ‘The Keys to the Kingdom’. Whoever has your private key, controls your digital assets!
We earlier outlined that it forms the mathematical basis of your crypto wallet public key, which in turn forms the basis for your crypto wallet address.
Its role besides the baseline generation of the above-mentioned codes is:
- Ultimate proof of ownership of your digital assets.
- Ultimate access to your digital assets, functioning exactly like a bank PIN or password.
- Transaction control; when you send digital assets, your private key creates a digital signature evidencing authority for the transaction, which is subsequently verified on the blockchain.
In keeping with our earlier format it would be interesting to illustrate some examples of a crypto wallet private key; there are, in fact four discrete formats of same:
Firstly, a long, 64 character, alphanumeric, hexadecimal string…for example:
A2a6c2e16c4d8a0f9e6f1d2a9c0b7e4f12a8d3c7h3e9b6a74c2d1e706b5a6f4s
The second possibility is formed by a 256 character binary sequence such as:
1101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101011101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101011010010101010101010101010100010101010101010101010101010101010111010011010100010101010101010100
As you can see, both of the above formats are not only very long and unwieldy, but easily prone to transcription errors. Fortunately, the remaining options are far more user-friendly.
The third format comes in the form of a QR code; a fast and easily scannable visual representation of one’s private key.
The final format of private key and easily the most popular, comes in the form of a seed phrase; basically a twelve or twenty-four mixed-word combination taken from an internationally codified and standardized list (BIP-39 Standard) of 248 words. This may not at first, sound very impressive, however, this can generate word combinations of approximately 5.44 x 10³⁹ and 2.96 × 10⁷⁹ in magnitude respectively…more than enough to secure your wallet!
Choices of Wallet
So, having taken a thus far, slightly technical look at cryptocurrency wallets; what they are and how they operate, let us now explore some of the several options of wallet that are commonly available. As mentioned previously, aggregated crypto casino user data suggests that many crypto casino members did not necessarily make a researched initial selection of crypto wallet, so by covering the various types available, potentially more utilitarian options might be highlighted and thereby, a measure of service rendered to readers.
Firstly, cryptocurrency wallets can generally be divided into two general types; ‘Hot Wallets’ and ‘Cold Wallets’ and as you will see, the specific examples of wallet types that we will highlight shortly, will fall neatly into one of these two categories.
Hot Cryptocurrency Wallets
These types of wallet store your keys online. The utility of this type of crypto wallet is that you can access your keys and your digital holdings from anywhere in the world; all that is required is a connection to the internet and your access credentials.
The downside of these types of cryptocurrency wallets is that should anyone gain access to your credentials, they would subsequently have full access to and control over your digital assets.
Additionally, a measure of trust in the organization storing your keys is required; should the organization go out of business or be hacked, you could lose everything; likewise, should the organization be the focus of an investigation, your assets could be frozen and subsequently sequestered.
Cold Cryptocurrency Wallets
These types of wallet store your keys offline and you would only ever need to provide your keys when you access your digital assets. They can seem to some, a little inconvenient, as you need to go through some additional steps when you wish to buy or sell cryptocurrencies or interact with smart-contracts, however, cold wallets are inherently very secure and you are in complete control of your keys. Subsequently, the security of your keys is your own personal responsibility and you need to ensure that the location where you store your keys is completely secret and secure.
Online Wallets
Online cryptocurrency wallets are a classic example of the hot wallets previously mentioned. Whilst potentially less secure than cold wallets, these wallets are, in fact, very well-known and used, and trusted by millions of users within the crypto community.
As mentioned, the major utility of these wallets is ease and speed of access; as long as you have an internet connection, you can access your crypto on-the-go and you can trade instantaneously, often in multiple cryptocurrencies.
Just as a reminder; the online wallet provider stores your wallet’s private key on its own server but gives you the ability to access your keys. Depending on the provider, they can usually offer utilitarian add-ons such as linking your wallet to multiple devices such as your mobile phone, your tablet as well as your desktop PC.
Some examples of online wallet providers are:
- MetaMask; a popular wallet choice accommodating many blockchains. It is available as a browser extension as well as a mobile app; it is estimated to have over 30 Million active monthly users and a total userbase of some 143 million users.
- Coinbase; a standalone wallet choice that allows users substantial blockchain interaction as well as interaction with decentralized apps. It’s wider platform, includes not only cryptocurrency exchange but also advanced trading, staking, institutional, professional and business services. Total users are estimated at some 120 million monthly, however, pure wallet app users are a smaller subset at some 3.2 million monthly users.
- Trust Wallet; a very popular mobile app choice within the crypto community, supporting multiple blockchains and crypto currencies and additionally providing staking and DeFi features. Estimates of active monthly users, range between 17 and 60 million whilst total downloads are estimated at some 200 million downloads.
- Blockchain.com; this is one of the very first market entrants, first incorporated in 2011 with their wallet offering starting in the following year. It is recognized for ease of use across devices and starting from a userbase of 10,000 post-launch, it now has an estimated 10 million active users.
Mobile Wallets
As the name implies, mobile cryptocurrency wallets sit on your mobile phone in the form of an App. Although the major advantage given for online cryptocurrency wallets is that of ease and speed of access, mobile wallets are the turbo-charged version of this; the ultimate on-the-go utility for instant access, any time, any place, anywhere. You may recall from the previous paragraph that various online crypto wallet providers also provide mobile versions of their wallets, however, some wallets have been specifically and solely developed for mobile phone usage.
Notwithstanding dual-version cryptocurrency wallets listed in the previous chapter, here are some of the most popular and well-known mobile only crypto wallets:
- Mycelium; initially released on Android in 2013 and later in IOS version, the Mycelium cryptocurrency wallet offers custody specifically for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other ERC20 (Ethereum blockchain) tokens. Although a non-custodial wallet, it offers robust security features such as local key control, advanced privacy options and support for cold wallet integration. Although no definitive figures are publicly available, aggregators report over one million plus downloads of the Mycelium wallet.
- ZenGo; the ZenGo wallet was released in 2019 on both the Android and IOS platforms. Its notable feature is that rather than rely on seed phrases it uses a unique keyless, self-custody format utilizing Multi-Party Computation (MPC). This is basically a mechanism allowing multiple input sources to compute a shared result collaboratively without disclosing those inputs to the input sources nor to any central control. Aggregators indicate something in the region of one-and-a-half million plus downloads of the ZenGo cryptocurrency wallet.
- Coinbase Wallet; whilst already listed in the previous chapter as an online wallet, this listing is specifically for the standalone App which is completely separate from the actual Coinbase Exchange. To compare and contrast; whilst Coinbase itself is a full-blown platform, the Coinbase App is a standalone with key storage retained on your own mobile phone. Educated estimates put the total number of Coinbase App downloads at 100 million plus, with an estimated 3.2 million active monthly users.
- BlueWallet; focusing solely on Bitcoin, the BlueWallet cryptocurrency mobile wallet was first released in 2017 for OIS; an Android version appeared approximately one year later. Its major features were in offering complete control over users’ private keys and ‘Lightning Network Support’…which is basically an enabling system offering fast and low cost cryptocurrency payments by using ‘off-blockchain’ channels which sit layered ‘on top’ of the blockchain itself. Available figures for Android show one million plus downloads from Google Play, no figures are available for IOS downloads.
Desktop Wallets
In a similar way that you can download a mobile cryptocurrency wallet App to your mobile phone, desktop cryptocurrency wallets are also available as a secure option. In some ways, they can almost qualify as a ‘cold wallet’ but with some caveats; if your computer is not, or preferably, has never been connected to the internet, then this can be considered a secure ‘sandbox’.
This type of wallet is a useful choice if you prefer to trade cryptocurrencies from a home-office, desktop-based environment.
Some disadvantages to be aware of are; accessing and using your digital assets is more cumbersome when away from your desktop environment; should you connect your wallet to the internet then you ‘lose’ cold wallet status and your wallet becomes, in effect, a hot wallet and finally, if you have not backed up your computer and suffer a catastrophic event, you will lose all of your crypto assets.
The most popular examples of the above are:
- Electrum; designed as a lightweight non-custodial client, the Electrum desktop cryptocurrency wallet was first released in 2011and its use is solely for the Bitcoin blockchain. The Electrum wallet is reported by third party aggregators to have one million plus worldwide installs. Windows, Linux and MacOS versions are supported.
- Exodus; released in 2016, this self-custodial, multi-currency wallet supports a wide range of coins and tokens and also supports hardware wallet integration. The company itself reports over 1.5 million monthly active users. Windows, MacOS and Linux versions are supported.
- Atomic Wallet; released in 2017, this multi-currency (over one thousand coins and tokens supported), non-custodial wallet was designed specifically to support ‘Atomic Swaps’. Atomic swaps basically allow users to exchange cryptos across different blockchains without the need for intermediaries, through the use of smart contracts or ‘hashed, time-locked contracts; loosely analogous to a timed escrow mechanism. The company itself reports an estimated ten million users worldwide.
- Coinomi; this non-custodial multi-chain wallet was first released in 2014. It supports thousands of digital assets across more than 125 blockchains. Private keys are stored locally. The company does not ordinarily release user statistics and no aggregated user data is available.
Hardware Wallets
It is probably safe to say that cryptocurrency hardware wallets can be considered amongst the very safest of crypto wallets (see the next chapter for the ‘gold-standard’ in safety) and can be best conceptualized as analogous to a USB drive. This is cold-wallet self-custody in a very convenient and usable form and your private keys are stored on your device and your wallet remains offline most of the time. These are an absolute must if you have large value holdings of cryptocurrencies, as keeping such assets online is just plain recklessness. Additionally, if your holdings are very large, you would want to spread these across several wallets and even then, you would be best served having a ‘working wallet’ into which you ‘decant’ assets prior to moving them.
Some of the most popular examples are listed below, however, the selection of the ideal hardware wallet for your individual situation and requirements is a very personal choice. You are urged to assess the features of each wallet in detail (as well as others, perhaps not listed herein) in order to find the perfect match for your circumstances. This article, however, is not the appropriate forum within which to specifically list the aforementioned product detail and you are thereby urged to visit the appropriate company’s website for first-hand, detailed information on each device.
Additionally, it is worth noting that should you subsequently decide to purchase a crypto hardware wallet, for security reasons, do so only directly from the specific company, NOT from third parties; a notable exception, however, (not an endorsement, advertisement nor exhortation) is Amazon, which is generally considered a safe medium. Similarly, when downloading any associated software interfaces for your hardware cryptocurrency wallet, it is recommended that you do so via the URL information or the QR code within the instructional insert sheet which will be included with your purchase.
So onward then to the wallets themselves:
- Trezor Model One; first released in 2014 as the world’s very first hardware cryptocurrency wallet. The Trezor Model One, is a classic and still highly trusted choice and accommodates both Bitcoin as well as assets on other blockchains. All ERC20 tokens are supported and it has compatibility with all Ethereum based networks such as Binance, smart Chain, Polygon and Avalanche. Note; Solana and Cardano are not supported neither is XRP. Worldwide sales across all Trezor models exceed two million units.
- Trezor Safe 7; this is the newest Trezor model and features both Bluetooth as well as magnetic wireless charging. Launched in late 2025, this model supports all of the blockchains not accommodated by earlier models and thousands of coins and tokens; additionally, coins not directly integral to the Trezor Suite can be connected via third-party applications whilst still retaining your private keys on the Trezor Safe 7 device.
- Tangem Wallet; launched in 2017 and releasing its first product in 2021, Tangem offers a convenient, roughly debit-card sized, non-custodial cold storage device. Progressing through ever-advancing hardware upgrades, the basic premise is of a tap-to-use physical hardware wallet with your keys contained within a chip on a tap-to-use card, resembling a debit card in size and dimensions. On initial setup you can opt to forgo a seed phrase in favour of the simple tap-to-use option, offering both speed and convenience. You can purchase a wallet and two card pack (one card plus backup), a three card pack, or most recently, a wearable ring for the ultimate access on-the-go. Multiple networks are supported and over sixteen thousand coins and tokens across these networks are accommodated. Additionally, native staking is available for certain cryptos as well as an exciting Tangem Pay option; which is basically a Visa approved virtual debit card integrated into the Tangem App which allows users to simply pay retailers using a range of cryptos via Apple pay or Google Pay, just like you would use any non-crypto bank or debit card. To date, over six million Tangem devices have been sold.
Paper Wallets
For technically, the absolute gold standard in secure, offline, self-custody cold wallets, this is it! To use these, you simply print out your private and public keys. To fund your wallet you simply transfer money to your wallet’s public address; to subsequently send or withdraw your digital assets you just enter your private key or scan the QR code located on your paper wallet.
The advantages of this type of wallet are that they are one hundred percent hacker proof and they are not stored outside your personal possession. Disadvantages include that they are not at all friendly for non-geeks, they are more cumbersome to use for day-to-day transactions…and finally, that paper is of course, highly inflammable!!
Some examples of paper wallets include;
- BitAddress; created in 2011 this paper crypto wallet utilises a browser-based Java Script to generate public and private keys, which are then physically printed, often in a QR code format.
- PaperWallet.org; first launched in 2011 and gaining the height of its popularity between 2011 and 2016, this paper crypto wallet generates solely a QR code containing your public and private keys which is then printed. Still used but considered somewhat passé.
- Paperwallet.Top; supporting a good number of major cryptocurrencies, this wallet was created to be simple and free to users.
Due to the inherent secretive nature of these wallets’ users, userbase information is scarce and we cannot therefore, provide any insight as to worldwide usage of these paper cryptocurrency wallets. Invariably no accounts, sign-ups nor user data is required and the paper wallet generators are invariably accessed anonymously via static webpages
Crypto Casinos and Cryptocurrency Wallets - Sum Up
So, having reached the conclusion of our examination into cryptocurrency wallets, a lot of ground has actually been covered. Stemming from our dual motivations for this article; to wit, that approximately 69% of crypto casino users admitted to knowing very little about cryptocurrencies or the blockchain, and that a good number of crypto casino users, although owning crypto wallets, had not made a researched choice into their wallet selection, I trust that this examination into the subject has proved useful, interesting, and above all, has provided something useful to readers. Whether you are a crypto casino client or not, it behooves you to make the very best choice of wallet for yourself, to secure your digital assets and secure your peace-of-mind.
Coming soon to Mega Crypto Casino; we will again be delving into all things cryptocurrency and crypto casino related and I trust that you will wish to join us in our deep-dive into these subjects.