Wallet or Exchange?

[david1971]

New to this. Is a trading account on an "exchange" the same as having a "wallet"? No mention of wallets in my trading account. Any simple answers?
Cheers

[nandibear]

New to this. Is a trading account on an "exchange" the same as having a "wallet"? No mention of wallets in my trading account. Any simple answers?
Cheers

An exchange and a wallet are two different things although your account at an exchange may function as a wallet as you may be able to send and receive coins. However, at most (perhaps all) exchanges you wont have access to privates keys. At other exchanges your account balance may be nothing more than numbers displayed from a database while coins are pooled together.

Best practice is to only use exchanges when you want to buy, sell or trade coins.

Other than that I recommend using your own wallet and one that you have access to the private keys.

There are different types of wallets. For example:

(a) web wallet - a website which you log into - not very secure.

(b) software wallet - you download this onto your machine - relatively high secure

(c) hardware wallet - these are devices similar to thumb drives which you connect/disconnect via usb - extremely secure

(d) paper wallet - you generate a public key and private key offline and don't use it online until you want to access the coins - if done properly perhaps the most secure of all

Hope that helps a little. Please ask others too. Errors, if any, in the foregoing are mine alone.

[rpggal33]

I prefer wallet to exchange.

[rekonwriter94]

Both are different, a wallet is your personal storage to keep your crypto tokens like I recently purchased tokens from GigTricks and for that, I was required to have a wallet, while an exchange is where you sell your tokens. Some wallets have exchanges too.

[DilanBrown]

Of course, a wallet, for increased security.

[Priyankasharma1]

When I was new to cryptocurrency, I was also very confused with these two terms. But now I got to know the difference between wallet and exchange. According to my understanding, Exchange is where you go to trade Bitcoin into either Cash &/or a different Cryptocurrency. Whereas, a wallet is where you store your bitcoin like having money in a bank.
Here are some wallets for you mentioned, which are simple to use and understand-
• Ledger Nano S
• Trezor
• Metamask
Source- http://www.unkrypted.com/top-crypto-res ... rting-out/

[jitenrajput]

Wallet and Exchange are altogether different things.

An exchange is an online trading platform where you can buy/sell and trade cryptocurrencies. A few may allow you to deal with fiat while others are simply trading with cryptocurrencies. While trading on an exchange, your possessions are stored on exchange's wallet. The private key of this wallet is not shared with you. All you have is password to your account. In case something undesirable happens, you are likely to lose all your coins. Because you don't have the private key.

Wallet is like an application installed on your phone through which you can send/receive bitcoins. You own the private key here. There are other types of wallets as well like hardware wallet, paper wallet and desktop wallet.

So, it is advisable to trade on an exchange and then transfer the additional funds to your personal wallet.

[MintDice]

When I was new to cryptocurrency, I was also very confused with these two terms. But now I got to know the difference between wallet and exchange. According to my understanding, Exchange is where you go to trade Bitcoin into either Cash &/or a different Cryptocurrency. Whereas, a wallet is where you store your bitcoin like having money in a bank.
Here are some wallets for you mentioned, which are simple to use and understand-
• Ledger Nano S
• Trezor
• Metamask
Source- http://www.unkrypted.com/top-crypto-res ... rting-out/

They store the private keys that allow you to access and thus send the btc elsewhere--the keys prove you have the "funds." That's why it is imperative to use a wallet that allows you to have control over your private keys. If you leave them on an exchange, you essentially are giving the platform the control over your funds, as you do not possess the keys.

[Baloo]

I would recommend people to use cryptocurrency exchanges instead of wallets as the process of transactions in exchanges is much easier to understannd. I have seen many people have many issues with their wallets as lost of keys. This is not the case for exchanges.