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It's unlikely that you'll be physically harmed in the Web3 environment, but attackers may focus on trying to capture your digital assets.
Instead of training <insert your favorite martial art here> , we can educate ourselves and then take appropriate action on how to secure our assets.
A cryptocurrency wallet is a tool that allows you to interact with the blockchain network.
Many kinds of crypto wallets exist in the market. They can take the form of a physical device, a software program or a digital service. When it comes to crypto wallets, they are divided into two categories: “hot” and “cold” wallets, which this article will further describe.
Hot Wallets
Hot wallets include crypto exchanges, online and software wallets which are accessible via mobile devices and personal computers.
You can hold, transfer and manage your crypto assets through beginner-friendly interfaces, and it's simple for making transactions on the blockchain.
Exposed to the internet, hot wallets are appealing targets for hackers to steal users’ funds by subverting the security measures of the administering third-party, however.
I think of hot wallets like a physical wallet you'd take with you on a walk in a city. You may hold (hodl) some cash and a credit card, but there's no need to bring more than needed to transact.
You won't carry anything close to your life's earnings in your physical or hot wallet.
However, I'm also going to arm myself with education and understand how to spot potential scams and hack attempts on the internet. Ledger's learning academy is a great resource for this.
There are many hot wallet products. Some serve different blockchains than others, and links to download may be found on many NFT exchange platforms.
Cold Wallets
A cold wallet refers to physical (usually small) objects like a hardware device in which you can store your private key. Cold wallets operate in an offline environment while guaranteeing access to your funds at any time.
Being completely offline provides more security, but you sacrifice convenience and need to connect them before managing your assets.
Two types of cold wallets are paper wallets and hardware wallets.
Paper wallets are literally storing private keys on a piece of paper offline. Secure, but easy to lose.
Hardware wallets are small devices that store your private key to your assets.
Summary
If you plan to hold assets for the long-term that you don't want to lose, use a cold wallet.
Keep assets you plan to transact on the blockchain in your hot wallet.
Thanks to ledger and klever, brands with products in this space and content on this subject that I used in this article.