A bitcoin wallet is a digital vault in which you can store, receive and send bitcoins. Digital wallets allow you to access your bitcoins without having to give your access key to third-party services. This unique 12- or 24-word key is needed to unlock the wallet and access your assets.

By definition, a bitcoin wallet is a program for computers or mobile devices that stores your bitcoin key for future transactions. The best cryptocurrency wallets are decentralized, which allows you to securely store your access key only on the user’s device without transferring it to any server. 

You can use a bitcoin wallet to pay for goods and services or store your bitcoins to sell later. Different wallets, regardless of the platforms they support, have different functionality – some have only basic functions, while others become almost universal tools for working with bitcoin, allowing you to not use third-party services at all.

One of these wallets is Trustee Wallet, which is a decentralized bitcoin wallet that allows you to safely store bitcoins and three dozen other different cryptocurrencies. And that’s not counting several hundred tokens and NFTs.

It’s not just a storage app, but a full-fledged toolkit for all occasions. With Trustee Wallet, you can:

• buy cryptocurrency with fiat money
• withdraw it to payment services
• create additional wallets for different tasks
• send coins to stacking for passive income
• connect to decentralized platforms
• exchange currencies on favorable terms

You can install the wallet on any Android or iOS mobile device. It only takes a couple of minutes, after which the wallet will be ready to use right away.

How does Bitcoin wallet work?

A bitcoin wallet is software for your computer or mobile device that stores your cryptocurrencies and other related information. At its core, a wallet is not a place to store cryptocurrency like a real physical wallet. It accesses the blockchain and allows you to use a unique access key (a one-of-a-kind phrase of 12 or 24 words) to access the cryptocurrency and write new data on the blockchain. 

A blockchain is a chain of blocks, a pool of information encoded by cryptographic principles that cannot be tampered with. When a transaction is made, such as receiving cryptocurrency, a new record appears in the blockchain, containing data about the top-up of a particular cryptocurrency address. 

The wallet accesses the blockchain and receives data about the status of your account or the status of an outgoing transaction. That is, in essence, a wallet is a door to the blockchain that is opened to access funds. The very notion of a wallet is a simplification that helps you more easily understand its main function, which is secure access to your bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. A bitcoin wallet allows users to control how their bitcoins are spent. 

Going one step further, a wallet doesn’t even have to have a software shell. A “wallet” is a simple piece of paper (or whatever you can write information on), on which is written the key – a seed phrase of 12 or 24 words. This phrase gives you access to the cryptocurrency when you put it into a program – a program wallet.

But in order to save funds, a wallet like Trustee Wallet must comply with the principles of cryptocurrency security. Namely: 

• Be decentralized, that is, run on a blockchain with no servers at all
• Publish the source code in open sources. So Trustee Wallet publishes the code on the GitHub platform, where you can also find bitcoin and Ethereum codes.
• Be non-custodial, which means storing the key to access the funds only on the user’s device and nowhere else.

How to access my Bitcoin wallet?

There are several ways to access your bitcoin wallet. But to do this, you must have previously created a wallet, which means you must have saved the Recovery Phrase of 12 and 24 words. 

To access your bitcoin wallet, for example, if your device is lost or broken, install a software wallet on a new device. As an example of a universal tool for storing and managing your cryptocurrency, we will focus on Trustee Wallet, a mobile app that supports 30+ types of cryptocurrencies and all tokens created from them.

Open the installed wallet and click the “Import Recovery Phrase” (seed-phrase) button. The phrase must be written in strict accordance with the word order and without a single grammatical error. After confirmation, access to your funds will be restored. All bitcoins that you previously had in your cryptocurrency account will be displayed already in the Trustee Wallet. 

Thus, you can integrate an unlimited number of wallets into Trustee Wallet or create new ones by renaming them as you see fit. This allows you to manage all your accounts and funds from one application, which makes it very easy to work, which is especially important in a volatile market.

If you haven’t created a wallet before, you can also do it in Trustee Wallet in just one minute. Click on “Create Wallet” on the main screen when you first enter the wallet or in the settings. 

At this point, the Recovery Phrase of 12 words will be generated, which you need to keep. Write it down and save it separately from the device. After confirming the phrase, the wallet is ready to work and receive the first bitcoins to its address.