If you are new to crypto, the terminology may sometimes seem a little esoteric to say the least. And even when you come across a familiar word, you may wonder just how it works compared to its equivalents in the physical world.
This could certainly be said of non-custodial wallets. The wallet part may seem simple enough; it shouldn’t be hard to work out that this is a digital version of a digital currency, with neither needing to exist as physical entities. You won’t have any problems with leaving it at home or the zip breaking.
However, the ‘non-custodial’ bit might seem a little confusing. This is normally a phrase used when someone is sentenced for a minor crime. But what, you might ask, could a wallet have to do with being fined or made to do community service?
What Non-Custodial Wallets Mean In Reality
The answer is that in this case, the term ‘non-custodial’ does not mean that at all. The difference between custodial and non-custodial is that in a custodial wallet, the service provider will have control of your cryptocurrency and safeguard it themselves. They hold the security keys, but with them, they take the full freedom to deal and trade away.
Compared to fiat currency, this would be a bit like having money in the bank, only for the bank to tell you what you can and can’t spend it on, or which foreign currency you can change it for, or whether or not you can transfer some of it to another account.
In the case of a non-custodial wallet, you take full responsibility for the security keys, which does come with the risk that if you lost them you would never be able to access your funds. But it also means you have full control of your crypto, with nobody telling you what to do, how and when to trade or spend it.
For this reason, we would always argue the best crypto wallet apps involve non-custodial wallets. This is what we offer for you and the great benefit of it is you enjoy the facilities our interface gives you as a host while you can trade away and add any third-party integrations you wish.
Help With Getting Started
However, we don’t just provide you with a platform. We are here to help with lots of advice and instruction about how to set up, use and make the most of these non-custodial wallets. We have a series of videos that explain all you need to know.
The first of these is the task of setting up the wallet in the first place. As the video explains, it really is as simple as clicking on wallets, then ‘non custodial’, then open ‘wallet’, reading the information and agreeing to the terms and conditions – most notably that you will take full personal responsibility for keeping your seed and mnemonic phrase safe.
You should keep these items written down somewhere separately and not on your device, as if you were to lose it someone might be able to retrieve them easily, therefore enabling them to access (and empty) your account. You will then enter these in turn before giving your wallet a name. With that, you can complete the process and the wallet is set up.
There are also some specialised wallets where you need to take extra steps to set them up, like an XRP wallet.
This can be done by navigating to non-custodial wallets again and this time, clicking ’XRP chain’. This leads to the display of a 10 XRP network fee you need to pay to complete activation. There is a deposit address that you need to copy, and then you send 10 XRP to the address to complete the transaction.
Once that 10 XRP has arrived, the wallet will have been created, with a balance of 10 XRP held in reserve. You need 2.5 XRP in the wallet to set up a trustline.
Changing, Deleting And Restoring Wallets
There are also videos on how to make changes to your wallet, like altering its name, which you can do by selecting the default name and then changing it to a new name of your choice. This same function also gives you the option of deleting this wallet.
If you do delete a wallet, that doesn’t mean it is gone forever. There is another video on how to restore it.
The videos also walk you through how to carry out transactions like swaps or buying stellar chain tokens.
All of these videos are there to help you make the most of the freedom you can enjoy when you throw off the chains of a custodial wallet for the freedom and responsibility of a non-custodial one.