Everything You Should Be Using For Crypto: Part 2/4 - Wallets & Exchanges
What up crypto fam. Wow what a distasteful thumbnail. This is obviously the second in a four-part series. With this series, I hope that my experiences of trial and error will help you save time and prevent you from feeling overwhelmed with everything crypto has to offer. I especially want you to avoid the hassle of using protocols/services that are shit and not worth your time. So let's get into it.
*Be forewarned there are referral links in this bitch. Mostly all of them will benefit you in some way, a few of them will benefit the both of us, and the remaining few either benefit only me at no expense to you or don't have a ref program at all.*
And of course, none of this is financial advice, never invest more than you're willing to lose, not your keys not your coins, eat your vegetables, watch reruns of Dr. Phil for the lolz, and smile at strangers.
Wallets (Hardware & Paper)
Ledger Nano X - Widely regarded as the best, safest, and most secure hardware wallet. If you're serious about crypto then you should have one of these.
DIY Paper Wallet - The absolute safest and most secure way to store your bitcoin or other crypto coins if the option exists for that project. But obviously if you lose the piece of paper you're fucked. So maybe not so safe. The linked video will show you the proper way to make one. It's also a nice little way to make a gift for someone :)
Wallets (ERC-20 Specific)
MetaMask - The golden standard for web3 ERC-20 web wallets. If you don't have one of these, you don't even crypto bro.
MyEtherWallet MEW - A classic ERC-20 wallet that everybody should have access to. If nothing else, a secondary address for random shit like airdrops and flexing about how crypto you are.
Wallets (Multi-Crypto)
Portis - Just another alternative to the two mentioned above. Portis has ERC-20 compatibility and bitcoin. I have a few of my funds in here just as a way to spread things out and diversify a little bit. Don't want all your eggs in one basket.
Atomic Wallet - This wallet is okay and I primarily use it for staking dust which I turn into Tezos. Very simple and basic and defs worthy of a download in my opinion. Shoutout to Publish0x for the ref link.
Crypto.com - A centralized company with trading, a mobile app, staking, a native token, an excellent cashback credit card option (if available in your country), and a good referral system where if you sign up with my link both you and I get $50 USD. Some conditions may apply as they're updating their native token situation rn so who tf knows.
Wallets (Privacy & BTC Wrapper)
Incognito Chain Wallet- The ultimate privacy wallet. Make almost any crypto into a privacy coin with Monero-like privacy. I fucking love this project. Currently staking some bitcoin and XMR in a liquidity pool getting their PRV token rewards at 9% APY. When you first download the app you get some free PRV. Great community as well.
CoinList - A great little wallet service where you can also buy/sell crypto with fiat and it's a super great way to wrap/unwrap bitcoin. Super fast and user-friendly, this is where I wrap my bitcoin. Send bitcoin to your CoinList wallet addy, wrap it up, then send it wherever you want. Boom. Highly recommend.
Exchanges (Centralized)
Binance - I hate Binance (and all of the exchanges listed here, honestly) because of their centralization but it is still useful to have. The only reason I continue to use Binance will be explained in the next part of the series. So stay tuned.
KuCoin - Same deal I hate centralized exchanges but sometimes desirable and random shitcoins can only be found here.
Liquid - I used to think Liquid was decentralized for some reason but coingecko is telling me different. Again sometimes certain coins can only be found on Liquid so I recommend having an account just in case.
HotBit - Same shit as above. Except this one isn't as cold as the other two previously mentioned, this one is A BIT HOT. I'd like to thank the Academy.
LAToken - The first crypto exchange I ever signed up for. They quite often have some really interesting IEO projects - mostly for speculative shitcoins but sometimes they list super small cap gems that you can't find anywhere else until much later. ReFork being one of them.
Celsius Network - I wasn't sure where to put Celsius; it's a cefi mobile app that offers lending and borrowing for a few different coins with mediocre APY. I used it for a very long time but now I don't have anything in there except a bunch of CEL that I collected as interest rewards.
Exchanges/Swaps (Decentralized)
1inch.exchange - I have been using this site for a few months now and it is by far the best protocols in DeFi. No question about it. 1inch.exchange is a DEX price aggregator meaning you always get the best token swap rate for buying and/or selling. Their native gas token CHI can save you up to 40% on transaction fees which is fucking incredible and a huge reason it is a superior service. You can also yield farm with many different protocols here but we'll talk about that in the next article.
Uniswap - Before I found 1inch.exchange I would have three tabs open when making trading with ERC-20's: Uniswap V1, V2, and Kyber. But now 1inch.exchange literally finds the cheapest price for me automatically without three tabs being open. I include Uniswap in this list just for show, really. But what about the Uni liquidity pools? Oh yeah you can do all that on 1inch too. Except you cannot withdraw from liquidity pools on 1inch I should add.
Kyber Network - Same as above. I used to trade on this directly but not anymore. I still believe in KNC and Kyber in general (and pKyber the private version :P) so that is why I'm including it in this list.
Matcha.xyz - Another price aggregator dex swap similar to 1inch but with a very limited number of tokens in comparison. I include it here because it's made by 0x Protocol and I think they are doing a great job. It's never a bad idea to compare the 1inch rates with the Matcha rates. Super solid UI as well.
Incognito Chain/Wallet - I love this project so much I will mention it here again. A decentralized and completely private exchange. This is the thing that makes DeFi private.
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So there you have it. I use every single one of these resources in some capacity and I highly recommend everyone in crypto have some knowledge and experience with a wide range of wallets and exchanges both defi and cefi. In the next part of the series we will talk about everything DeFi. And because DeFi is getting fucking super over-saturated with nonsense recently, I will only include the protocols that are actually worth your time and have been proven to be useful and secure.
If you've found this article helpful please consider liking the post and commenting because both those things really help to fondle the algorithm so that more people can also benefit from these resources. If you've hated the article please give it a thumbs down and let me know why you dislike it so that I can improve. And yes, I know, the thumbnail is incredibly distasteful; please leave me a three paragraph essay on why you think the thumbnail is more of an artistic achievement than the Mona Lisa.
*This article will also be published to Publish0x, uptrennd, and Medium. Not steemit because fuck you steem.*