How Do I Create my First Bitcoin Wallet?
A bitcoin wallet is just like an online bank account, but for bitcoins. With your wallet you can receive, send and manage bitcoin. You can download a bitcoin wallet on your PC, mac or on your smartphone. The wallet makes contact with the block chain and shows how much bitcoin is yours. This is how it works: you buy bitcoins from BTC Direct. These are sent to your wallet. You manage your bitcoins from your wallet. Do you want to send them? Then enter the receiving address of the person to whom you want to send your bitcoins in the shipping option of your wallet. The coins are then sent from your wallet to the final recipient.
Which bitcoin wallet should I choose?
If you search on the internet for bitcoin wallet, you will find countless providers. Which bitcoin wallet you can use best depends on various factors. Are crypto currencies completely new to you or do you already have more experience? Do you want to invest a small or large amount? Creating a bitcoin wallet is easy. There are roughly three types of wallets. Each type of wallet then has a lot of providers. Each wallet has its own characteristics and properties, has its own characteristics in terms of ease of use and safety. The three types of wallets are: mobile wallets, software wallets and hardware wallets. In the overview below you can see which wallet is most suitable for you, or you can visit Bitcoin Official website for more information.
How do I create a bitcoin wallet?
Which bitcoin wallet suits you best? That depends, among other things, on what you use bitcoins for and what your buying needs are. Have you just started buying bitcoin? Then a mobile wallet is the simplest and most user-friendly way to manage your coins for your smartphone. Use your receiving address to receive bitcoin.
What is a bitcoin receiving address?
A bitcoin receiving address can be compared to your bank account number. Each bitcoin wallet has a unique bitcoin receiving address. You can share this address with others so they know how to send coins to you. A bitcoin address always starts with a 1, a 3 or with bc1, and is a combination of a minimum of 26 and a maximum of 36 characters (numbers and letters). That looks like this: 3FZbgi29cpjq2GjdwV8eyHuJJnkLtktZc5. Pay attention! This is just an example address. Always copy the receiving address from your own wallet.
A new bitcoin address is not only generated during creation. This also happens automatically after every transaction, or after a while. And that is for good reason. By changing addresses often, your privacy on the network is better guaranteed. Do you still want to use your old bitcoin address? That’s just possible. Any address at which you have previously received bitcoins can be used again to receive bitcoins. It doesn’t matter if someone sends bitcoin to your most recent or your oldest receiving address. The bitcoins come in the same wallet. In almost every wallet you will find all your old recipient addresses in your transaction history.
Pay attention!
It is important that you copy the receiving address when receiving and sending bitcoins. Do not type or copy the address. This prevents you from making typos. Did you accidentally send cryptocurrencies to the wrong address? Then this is often not recoverable.
How do I receive or send bitcoin?
To send or receive you need your personal receiving address. We cannot say it often enough but copy this address Do not manually copy the address! The receiving address is really nothing more than a unique account number where you receive your coins. But where can you find this address?
The receiving address
Open your wallet. In almost every type of wallet you will find the receiving address under ‘Receive’ or ‘Receive.’ There are wallets that create a new bitcoin address for you every time you receive something at one address. They do this for privacy reasons. But you don’t have to worry: your old receiving address will also remain valid. You will also find your bitcoin address in your transaction overview when you log in to your BTC Direct account.
Received
Copy the receiving address from your wallet or from the transaction overview on your BTC Direct account page. You can paste this address in the BTC Direct order form. This way we know to which wallet the coins must be sent.
Send
Do you want to send coins to someone else or maybe even sell them? That is very simple. You need the receiving address of the receiving party for this. Navigate to ‘Send’ or ‘Send’ in your wallet. Enter how many coins you want to send and enter the receiving address of the receiving party. Then click on ‘Send’ or ‘send’.
Safety
Do you carry cash in your wallet? Then you prefer to do that as unobtrusively as possible. Even if you do not have any money in your wallet, you will keep your wallet in a safe place. In short: you are not for sale with your physical wallet. This also applies to your crypto wallet: if you do not properly secure your wallet, it is easier for criminals to hack your wallet. Fortunately, there are enough ways to secure your wallet. So take a moment to read the following tips:
Never store your backup data digitally
Write the login data of your wallet (login name, password and recovery seed) on a piece of paper, and then store it securely. Do not take a photo of this with your mobile phone. This is in fact constantly connected to the internet.
Via SMS
One of the options is to receive the code via SMS. Enter your telephone number at the security settings of your wallet. Every time you log in to your wallet afterwards, you will receive a text message with that extra code. So you can only log in to your wallet if you have your phone handy.
Via Google Authentication
Another possibility for a 2-FA security layer is via Google Authentication. This is an app that you can download on your phone. You can find the app in the App Store (Apple) or on Google Play (Android). The Google Authentication app generates a six-digit code every so often. You connect this app to your wallet. For example, you must log in with your regular password, but you will also be asked for this six-digit code. To activate this extra security for your wallet, go to your security settings. Choose 2-FA via Google Authentication here. You will see a QR code that you must scan. After scanning, the app is linked to your wallet. You now also see the code of your wallet in the overview of Google Authenticator. Note: the QR code is also a backup in case you lose your phone. Therefore, print the code after use and safely store the printed paper. This way you prevent you from being able to enter your wallet if your phone is stolen or lost. Do you have more questions about securing your wallet or about wallets in general? Then please contact us. We are happy to help you further.
If you are ready for it, you can buy bitcoins immediately via this button. Good luck!
Barry Lachey is a Professional Editor at Zobuz. Previously He has also worked for Moxly Sports and Network Resources “Joe Joe.” He is a graduate of the Kings College at the University of Thames Valley London. You can reach Barry via email or by phone.
