Wallet

A wallet, or crypto wallet, does not actually hold any coins: they stay recorded on the blockchain. What it holds are the private keys that prove you own them and let you spend them. From these keys, it generates public addresses that you can share safely to receive funds.

There are several kinds. Software wallets, on a computer or phone, are convenient for everyday use. Hardware wallets, small dedicated devices, keep the keys offline and better protect large amounts. When you create a wallet, it shows a recovery phrase, often 12 or 24 words long: it is the only thing that can restore your funds. Write it down on paper, never photograph it and never share it with anyone.

For mining, the wallet is mainly used to receive payouts from the pool. You enter the address in your pool account, sometimes directly in place of the username. Make sure the address matches the coin and the network: a Litecoin address cannot receive bitcoins. With merged mining, have an address ready for each coin you receive, for example Litecoin and Dogecoin.

Our tutorials show how to link a wallet address to your pool account.