· By Inês, wallet setups · 1 min read
Phone wallet or hardware wallet?
When an app on your phone is enough, when a small device is worth it, and the one thing both need: a backup you can find.
A wallet doesn’t hold coins. It holds the keys that move them, and whoever has the keys has the coins.
A phone wallet
Free, quick and fine for small amounts you might spend. Its weakness is the phone itself: lost, stolen or infected, and the wallet goes with it unless you have the backup.
A hardware wallet
A small device that keeps the keys off the internet. Every payment has to be confirmed by pressing its buttons. It costs between €60 and €200 and is worth it once the amount would hurt to lose.
The backup is the wallet
Both kinds give you a recovery phrase of 12 or 24 words. Write it down, on paper or steel, and keep it where you’d keep a passport. Never photograph it, never type it into a website, never tell it to anyone, including us.
Test it
Send a few euros in, then send them out again. If that works, you know the setup works before it matters.