A hardware wallet is a storage device that physically stores private keys, tokens or cryptocurrencies. These devices can either be flash drives or hard disk drives. Hard wallets provide better security than soft wallets because of their physical offline nature and portability. They are also very difficult to access, unless you are the person who holds the private keys. A hardware wallet keeps your private keys offline and inaccessible to digital threats such as hackers, malware or viruses. Hardware wallets work by generating a set of private keys.
It is advisable to keep these private keys offline. A PIN secures the wallet itself, while another security feature that a hard wallet has is that the device will erase all data within after several failed attempts to access it. This is an effective stopgap in the event of physical theft of the wallet. With that in mind, there are several different hardware wallets you can consider to store your cryptocurrency. Some are more popular than others, and today we are going to explore the top three cryptocurrency hard wallets that are available.
Trezor
Trezor is widely considered the safest and most effective cryptocurrency hardware wallet on the market today. Cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts can use Trezor with the online Trezor web wallet on desktop or mobile, or via the downloaded Trezor suite app on a desktop.
It is always recommended that if you’re looking to hold your cryptocurrency for a considerable length of time, then the ideal thing to do is to take it off a server and use a cryptocurrency hard wallet. While it is rare that large exchanges can be hacked, holding the cryptocurrency in cold storage is the safest option to ensure there is no unauthorized access to your wallet. When large exchanges are subject to hacks or uncertainty, it can have a negative effect on cryptocurrency prices.
Cold storage is an extremely effective way of holding cryptocurrency tokens offline. This is a term that cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts use. By using cold storage, cryptocurrency investors’ ultimate goal is to ensure that hackers are unable to access their wallets via traditional means, usually via hacking or malware. These traditional methods of financial crime have garnered the most successful results for these types of criminals. However, despite being well publicized, cryptocurrency hacks are rare, especially considering the volume of crypto traded on a daily basis.
If your device is lost, damaged or stolen, you can use your recovery seed to restore access to your wallet and any data that is associated with that particular wallet. To gain access to your wallet, you must enter the seed phrase you got with your wallet when you first opened it. While Trezor is considered the best hard wallet, it certainly isn’t the only one available at the moment, and we will explore other options now.
Ledger Nano S wallet
This wallet provides a large number of secure options for cryptocurrency investors. Working in a similar way to Trezor, the wallet offers users the ability to store the cryptocurrency offline and not on an online server. There’s a vast cryptocurrency list that details all the types of coins and tokens you can hold on this device. According to information released by the company itself, they have more than three million hardware wallets in 190 countries to date. The company has provided wallets that store an estimated 15% of all cryptocurrency assets globally. Much like Trezor, cryptocurrency hard wallets are particularly attractive if you’re looking to hold crypto for an extended period of time.
Ellipal Titan wallet
The third and final wallet we will explore today is the Ellipal Titan wallet. This wallet is extremely secure and popular. It hosts various cryptocurrencies, and you can find this cryptocurrency list on its website. Established in Hong Kong in 2017, this wallet is considered safe among cryptocurrency enthusiasts as it is an air-gapped, cold storage wallet. There is no way users can connect the wallet itself to the internet. The Ellipal Titan Wallet is extremely safe from hackers and malware, using only QR codes for transactions. All the QR codes used are verifiable. It is considered an innovative and extremely secure method of storage.
The truth is that all of these wallets are very secure, and all do an excellent job of protecting cryptocurrency investments and any long-term holdings you have within the cryptocurrency universe. It is vital to have secure storage to avoid the possibility of your cryptocurrency becoming compromised and ending up in the wrong hands.