The Essential Guide to Digital Crypto Wallets Like Petrachor

When trying to conceptualize how a cryptocurrency wallet works, it’s best to boil it down to the simplest comparison. A cryptocurrency digital wallet works quite like a physical wallet. Both allow you to hold and move your money. When you send someone digital currency, you sign off on sending your coins (like Petra) to another person’s address or wallet. In the crypto world, a wallet is an application or physical device that stores your private and public keys and communicates with various blockchains to process transactions.

These keys are essential to the trust system on which crypto runs. When you make a digital currency transaction, you need to sign and verify that you want to make said transfer. The public key is your signature that anyone can view to verify that it is you making a payment. That alone doesn’t sound too secure, right? So, this is where the private key comes in.

Your private key encrypts and secures every transaction that you make with cryptocurrency. Its main function is to ensure that you are the only person who can access and manage your funds. Your private key is a randomly produced string of characters that adheres to the requirements of the cryptography algorithm. A public key is then created from the private key and must also follow cryptography algorithm rules. You, as the blockchain wallet owner, use the private key to manage your funds. Then the public key is used to verify your ownership and transaction.

There are three different types of blockchain digital wallets: hardware, software, and paper. Each type of crypto allet works a bit differently, but all of them store your keys and allow you (or anyone with your keys) to have full control over the money in the wallet.

There are three different types of blockchain digital wallets: hardware, software, and paper. Each type of crypto allet works a bit differently, but all of them store your keys and allow you (or anyone with your keys) to have full control over the money in the wallet.

Hardware wallets hold all of your crypto information on an external device, meaning your keys are stored offline. These are USB devices that you can take and plug into any compatible device to manage your funds.

Software wallets are apps downloaded onto your computer or mobile device. To access a software wallet, you must be using the device on which the software is downloaded. These types of wallets are suitable for those on the go. Petrachor is an example of a blockchain wallet app for PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

If someone else gains access to your wallet/keys (this could be by seeing your written password somewhere or even by hacking your access to a key stored online), they can gain complete control of your funds. Sounds like a nightmare, right? It can be. So, if you take anything from this page, it’s to not lose your private key (and to store it in a safe place—think not on an easily hackable text archive on your desktop that reads Private Key!).

It is also essential to understand exactly how to recover your blockchain wallet (or if you can) if you misplace your keys. For example, some software and hardware wallets provide you with a mnemonic recovery password to allow you to access your wallet on another device in the case you misplace or lose access to your main device (or if you want to transfer it to a new device).

Each digital crypto wallet option offers a different way to create and manage your keys. Some wallet options don’t allow you to handle your own private key, instead, a third party manages it for you. This means that you are essentially trusting the security of your funds to another company. There are other options, though. If you use a secure web app wallet like Petrachor, your private key is created for you but is not stored by the application. It only keeps the encrypted version of the key, which can be used for transactions. This ensures that you have complete control over your funds—which is kind of the point of cryptocurrency, right?

Each digital crypto wallet option offers a different way to create and manage your keys. Some wallet options don’t allow you to handle your own private key, instead, a third party manages it for you. This means that you are essentially trusting the security of your funds to another company. There are other options, though. If you use a secure web app wallet like Petrachor, your private key is created for you but is not stored by the application. It only keeps the encrypted version of the key, which can be used for transactions. This ensures that you have complete control over your funds—which is kind of the point of cryptocurrency, right?