Find out what crypto wallets are considered the best by the iGaming community and which can be considered as a best crypto wallet for gambling.
Cryptocurrencies by definition are assets that store value. Users need a reliable way to store their coins as they represent an important link in the store of value idea surrounding the technology. The rising interest in crypto has resulted in the creation of many different types of wallets such as web wallets, desktop wallets, mobile wallets, and hardware wallets. These applications are solely responsible for keeping your private keys and money safe. Whether you need the best crypto wallets or a simple Bitcoin wallet, the choice highly depends on your usage and type of transactions. Choosing a top-quality cryptocurrency wallet is paramount, especially for active online gamblers who are constantly depositing and withdrawing at gambling sites.
Why Even Get A Wallet?
Technically, a wallet isn’t necessary for crypto gambling. Most cryptocurrency exchanges will let you keep your crypto coins within a custodial wallet. This is essentially like an advanced bank account, with the style of online wallets, which many users are content with. However, this goes against the idea of decentralization, among many other downsides such as:
- Frozen funds - Although quite a cliche, the crypto community has a common saying - “Not your keys, not your coins”. When you leave your assets on an exchange, you’re relying on a centralized entity. They’re a third-party that could decide to withhold your coins for whatever reason.
- Safety - In a cast of a heist/hack of your exchange, you’re at risk of losing your funds. Many crypto exchanges have been breached in the past and only in rare cases customers received their money back from the exchange
- Overall control - Exchanges like Coinbase are notoriously known in the crypto community for rejecting crypto payments to online casinos. In extreme cases, people have had their funds frozen or confiscated.
Hot vs Cold Wallets - Which one is best for online gambling?
When it comes to non-custodial wallets, there are two types - cold and hot. Both have their upsides and downsides in the crypto world but for online gambling, a cold wallet is extremely inconvenient.
Cold wallets are physical computers or devices more commonly used for long-term safekeeping. Kind of like an unbreachable vault for your life savings. This is because they are completely disconnected from the internet and virtually impossible to hack which makes them very problematic for online gambling.
Hot wallets, on the other hand, are slightly less safe but easily accessible through your mobile wallet or computer as well as connected to the internet. In order to send or receive coins, you simply install an application on your phone or computer. This application will provide you with a wallet address, which is essentially your crypto passport.
Top Hot Wallets For Online Gambling
There are many convenient crypto wallets out there and there is no reason to only stick to just one! Many crypto users actually recommend using multiple wallets for different networks or purposes.
Exodus - Perfect For Beginners
Exodus is a highly reputable hot wallet perfect for beginners. The application is extremely user-friendly and supports 45+ different currencies. Their platform supports in-app cryptocurrency swaps and is available on both computers and phones. No registration or KYC is needed after installation so you can immediately receive or send coins. The only criticism Exodus gets is for its closed-source software. This is only a potential issue and is mostly pushed by blockchain fanatics who have been spoiled by open-source projects.
Metamask - Best Ethereum Wallet
The Metamask wallet is a slightly advanced open-sourced wallet designed to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. This includes all Ethereum Virtual Machine networks (EVM) such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon (MATIC), Fantom (FTM), and many more. The wallet is extremely easy to use and very secure. The main downside is that it cannot hold coins outside of the Ethereum network such as Bitcoin or XRP. However, you can work around this by using wrapped/pegged versions of these tokens, which is completely fine with many casinos.
Wasabi - Most Private
Wasabi is a great Bitcoin-focused wallet that is adored by users who appreciate privacy. The wallet has a feature called CoinJoin that adds an additional layer of anonymity. The feature gathers a pool of random coins from random users and mixes them up. This is done to make it more difficult for outside parties to determine where exactly coins are going. As mentioned before, Wasabi is a Bitcoin wallet that doesn’t support other coins, which is likely the biggest downside.
Blockstream Green - For Advanced Users
Blockstream is the go-to choice of many crypto veterans. The web application has a great user experience (UX) and countless useful features. These include the Bitcoin Testnet, which is a completely separate network for testing purposes, or access to the Liquid network. Their mobile app even has a ‘View Only’ mode that was developed to prevent hackers from accessing your funds.
Electrum - Best Bitcoin Wallet
Electrum is one of the oldest and most well-known Bitcoin wallets. It is an established brand that has been storing Bitcoin since the very beginning. The wallet lets users set a variety of security features that many other wallets lack. You can even adjust your fees depending on how long you’re willing to wait for a transaction to complete. The biggest draw of Electrum is its lightweight client that uses Simple Payment Verification (SPV). The SPV client only needs the necessary block headers to verify a transaction in a block. This method is more secure than regular web applications since there is no need to rely on servers for information.
If your crypto journey goes beyond just gambling or you happen to hit a life-changing jackpot sum, you should most definitely consider buying a cold hardware wallet. But for now, any of the mentioned wallets are a great choice. Remember, there is no reason to limit yourself to a single wallet and the ones listed above are all free.
// Richard
