Wallets and keys
A wallet holds keys, not coins. Ten minutes.
Keys, not coins
A wallet does not hold coins. The coins are entries on the blockchain; the wallet holds the keys that let you move them, and signs payments with them.
When you set one up, it shows a recovery phrase: twelve or twenty-four words that rebuild your keys in any wallet. Anyone with those words can take everything. Write them on paper, keep them offline, and never type them into a website or a chat.
If you hold crypto yourself, nobody can undo a mistake or recover lost recovery words for you. Crypto can lose most or all of its value quickly, and payments cannot be reversed. Nothing on this site is financial advice: we report what happened and explain how it works, never what to buy or sell.
In short
A wallet holds
Your keys, never the coins
Recovery phrase
12 or 24 words that rebuild the keys
Who can help if lost
Nobody
Next: fees and confirmations
What you pay to move coins, and what the six squares mean on a payment.
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