Hardware Wallet

A hardware wallet is a wallet for cryptocurrencies that usually resemble a USB stick.

What Is a Hardware Wallet?

A hardware wallet is a small device, which usually physically resembles a typical USB stick, specially designed to store cryptocurrencies. A hardware wallet works by initially creating an isolated space that stores both public and private keys in order to track a user’s digital wealth on particular blockchains. In other words, the hardware wallet does not truly store the real coins, but only provides access to them.Hard wallets are also loosely referred to as cold wallets or cold storages and are in direct contrast to hot wallets. The advantages of this cold storage cryptocurrency wallet include providing native storage of private keys and offering more security from malicious codes. Private keys are crucial pieces of data that identify the real owner of stored assets and allow holders to send and transfer them at will.A hardware wallet requires users to provide a secure pin, safeguard a seed phrase, and physically protect the hardware wallet. Additionally, it helps not to keep all the funds on a single device.

A user-set PIN blocks unauthorized access to a wallet. However, a hardware wallet allows pin resets via a seed phrase, which is a list of words that needs to be memorized or securly saved by the user during the initial setup. 

Apart from securely storing cryptocurrencies, cold storages allow users to sign outgoing transactions by simply touching the “Confirm” option. And even with their heavy security, they are easy to use since there are apps that facilitate the transfer of funds for users who are not tech-savvy.

Some of the most popular hardware wallets in use today include Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey, CoolWallet, NGrave and SafePal Wallet , which have evolved to support multiple cryptocurrencies.