Create a crypto wallet & using Q.R. codes

Points to consider before you setup a wallet:

Is storing all your crypto in one wallet system a good move? Spreading your crypto coins over multiple wallets can add additional security and peace of mind against internal or external theft.
Writing down any pin codes, passwords, and recovery words when setting up a wallet is a good way to go, having multiple copies stored in safe secure places only helps.
Using a password that comprises of upper and lower case letters and numbers with 20 characters in it or more goes a long way to help security.
If you download a recovery file with security keys in it consider if it is safer to store it on a device that is not online.
When using a soft wallet make sure you download any software from the official website and make sure any website you go on to check your balance is the legitimate website rather than a dodgy website that looks like the real website.

Types of wallet:

There are two types of crypto wallet that are available to use - there are ‘hard wallets’ that you pay for that are arguably the most secure method to secure your crypto coins on then there are ‘soft wallets’ which are usually free and generally still quite secure.

Hard wallet setup:

Many prefer the hard wallet to store crypto coins on these days as they provide additional security compared to a soft wallet.

Several types of hard wallet are available to purchase, for example the company Trezor create two types of hard wallet, an entry level wallet called the ‘Trezor One’ which provides for many of the earlier and main types of crypto coins including:

Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), DASH (DASH), Digibyte (DBG), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Namecoin (NMC), Vertcoin (VTC), Zcash (ZEC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC)

While Trezor provide a more comprehensive wallet called the ‘Trezor Model T’.

There are several other hard wallets available for purchase including the ‘Ledger Nano X’ as well as the ‘D’CENT’.

Where to keep things simple I will focus on the Trezor One wallet here.

You can buy a ‘Trezor One’ from a few different places including Trezor’s home page trezor.io as well as off Amazon where it should retail from around £43 - £53.

When you purchase a hard wallet like the ‘Trezor One’ the first thing to check is that the box is sealed on all sides with its seals still intact so you have to cut in to the box to access the wallet that is inside, this is to ensure that no one has tampered with the wallet for security before you can set it up. Once you forcefully open the box up you will find the Hard Wallet inside that looks like a little USB device as well as a USB wire to plug it in to your computer, plus several pieces of card as to write down the recovery details in case you damage or lose the device, you will receive the recovery details as you go through the setup process.

The setup process starts with going to the setup address provided on the Trezor official website, where it will ask you to download ‘the bridge software’ that matches your operating system on your computer this is so your device can connect securely with the Trezor website.

After the ‘the bridge software’ has installed on your computer the web page will then walk you through the setup, it doesn’t take long to setup but it is worth taking your time with it.

In the setup process it will ask you to create a pin number for the device. A keypad will be displayed on the ‘Trezor One’ on its screen, type in a pin number of your choice on the website that corresponds with the display keypad on the device, click next then check the keypad again on the ‘Trezor One’ screen as it will have changed for security reasons then retype your pin number in to it again to confirm it.

Writing your pin number down on the paper cards provided with the ‘Trezor One’ is a good way to go as just because you remember the pin code today when you set the device up doesn’t mean you will down the line. Having it written down keeps it from being hacked off your computer and ensures that only you know it as to access your crypto addresses that you will store on it.

After you have added a pin number to your device to secure it you will see that the Trezor website will advise you to back up your device in case you ever loose or break it, this is worth doing for peace of mind and is a relatively fast process.

This process will ask you to write down 12-24 words on one of the paper cards they provides you. These words are randomly generated and are there in case you have any issues with your device. Your device will provide these words on its screen one at a time for you to write down then after you have wrote them all down will then provide them again so you can confirm you have not miss-spelt or misread any of them by accident.

With your pin code set for your device and your backup words secured and all written down you can now create your crypto addresses on the device as to share with others and to use when you purchase different crypto coins as to send them to your device.

You can create a wallet by choosing the crypto coin type you would like to receive on trezor.io web browser screen on the options bar of the left side of the screen then click ‘receive’ on the top bar and then click ‘new address’. After you have created a new crypto wallet the screen on the device will give you the option to view the address and QRcode for your new address where you can also view the wallet address and the QRcode for that address on the Trezor website as to copy and paste them to share with others.

If you are not familiar with why and how to use QRcodes (Quick Reference codes) you are can click here to learn more about them.

Most other hard wallets follow a similar process so if you purchase another wallet then you can then repeat a similar process on that device as to secure it.

Soft Wallets:

Software wallets come in a few flavours these days there are ones you can download to a desktop that are P.C. based and there are others that store your wallet online on company servers that can be accessed through a web browser direct online.

Web browser based wallets:

A lot of the web based wallets are designed just to work with one crypto type on one Blockchain. A good example of this is a Cardano wallet that is free to create at https://adalite.io/ this wallet just stores Cardano (ADA) coin.

To setup these type of wallets its’ often a quick simple process, for example here you can just visit the adalite.io website where you will have three options as to secure your wallet.

You can create a wallet using Mnemonic words where the website will provide you with a list of words that act as a randomly generated password as to access your wallet. You can hook up a hard wallet like a ‘Trezor T’ hard wallet to it as to access your wallet through there or you can create a key file that will provide you with an encrypted JSON file to download that you can then store on your computer or store offline on a USB flash drive or a hard drive or disc say.

Creating a wallet on these sites like on adalite.io is a really fast process you can just click ‘Create New Wallet’ choose a method to secure the wallet where you can then login to the website and view your wallet address as to transfer crypto to it and take and make payments.

P.C. based wallets:

There are a few types of P.C. based wallets, there are some that provide wallet addresses for many of the main crypto coins that are traded which connect up to a server, where others are Blockchain based which store the Blockchain on your computer.

P.C. based multipurpose wallets:

A quick, versatile and ‘lite’ (as to say it doesn’t use that much space on a hard drive) soft wallet for example is one called ‘Guarda’, this wallet downloads to your P.C. as a program then hooks up to the server online, there are quite a few similar wallets to this one out there that do the same job so you can always Google others and see what the reddit community and different communities online would recommend.

The Guarda wallet is a fast free setup, on the Guarda website https://guarda.com/desktop/ you can download the version that matches your operating system, where you then install it and setup a password as to secure and access it. Using a variation of letters and numbers in upper and lower case as well as creating a long password with 20-30 characters in the password helps secure it.

From here you can then open the program on your computer or device then check all the crypto coins that it supports and the addresses that are provided for them.

P.C. based Blockchain wallets:

A well-known old school example of a P.C. based Bitcoin wallet is one called ‘Bitcoin Core’. This wallet takes a lot of space up on a hard drive as it stores the entire of the Blockchain on your computer and it can take quite some time to download and update the Blockchain to your wallet but has its perks as it is a direct connection between your device and the network that gives you peace of mind compared to the server wallets that are an alternative as there is no reliance on the security of another system.

The software itself is available here at https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/ and is a fast download unlike the Blockchain that it will then download and sync with, just remember to secure your wallet after you download the program with a good secure password comprised of upper and lower case letters and numbers and to make a long password 20 characters plus as to aid it’s security.

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