How Elon Musk Should Choose a Crypto Wallet

Alex Lielacher

Published on 10 Feb 2021

Now that Elon is one of us, here’s what he should look out for when choosing a wallet.

Elon Musk’s publicly-traded electric vehicle and clean energy company, Tesla, announced on February 8, 2020, that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin to add as reserves to its balance sheet.

What’s more, Elon has been actively sharing his affection for the meme-themed altcoin, Dogecoin, on social media, suggesting that his interest (and potential investments) go beyond bitcoin.

In this article, you will learn what Elon Musk should look out for when choosing a crypto wallet for any potential future crypto investments and endeavors.

Not All Wallets Are Created Equal

Crypto newbies need to be aware of the fact that not all crypto wallets are the same. There is a wide range of available options when it comes to storing digital assets; ranging from easy-to-use mobile wallets to more advanced cold storage solutions for institutional-sized crypto investments.

The following are the main things you need to look out for when choosing a crypto wallet:

Easy-to-use
Secure
Non-custodial
Supports multiple assets
Comes with an in-app buy feature
Provides in-app access to Web 3.0

Easy-to-Use

While technologists like Elon Musk are surely able to handle more complex crypto storage solutions, having a user-friendly UI and UX makes up part of the basic essentials for any crypto wallet.

A clunky experience, bad design, and multiple bugs are a big no-no for crypto wallets, regardless of whether they are targeted at beginners or experienced users.

Security

Security is of the utmost importance when it comes to storing digital assets. Large, multi-million (or billion) dollar holdings in bitcoin and other cryptoassets should be held in cold storage. We hope that’s how Tesla is securing its $1.5 billion worth of BTC.

For small investments, however, mobile wallets are more secure than browser-based wallets, which have more attack vectors than their mobile counterparts.

Non-Custodial

As Elon rightly pointed out on Twitter, “Any crypto wallet that won’t give you your private keys should be avoided at all costs.”

In crypto speak, a custodial wallet holds private keys on your behalf, while a non-custodial wallet enables only you to hold your private keys.

Non-custodial wallets are what all crypto users should use at all times.

An example of a market-leading non-custodial wallet would be Trust Wallet, which does not collect personal data, and only you control your private keys.

Multi-Asset Support

Unless you are a bitcoin maximalist, you should choose a crypto wallet that supports as many digital assets as possible.

Ideally, you want a wallet that supports multiple chains and an array of token standards, so that you can keep all your investments in one place.

So, if you want to “fill up your boots” with dogecoin, you should choose a multi-currency wallet that supports DOGE.

Trust Wallet, for example, supports 160,000+ digital assets. Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, that includes DOGE — just for Elon.

In-App Purchase Option

The best crypto wallets allow you to purchase cryptocurrency directly within the app, typically via the integration of a third-party payment provider or exchange.

Using Trust Wallet, for example, you can purchase crypto with a debit or credit card thanks to its integration with MoonPay, Simplex, and Mercury.

So, if you want to add some DOGE to your crypto portfolio, you can do that seamlessly within the app.

Of course, don’t forget to tweet a DOGE meme after you have made your purchase.

It’s what Elon would do. :)

Web 3.0 Access

Finally, a good crypto wallet should also provide you with access to the decentralized digital economy. That means an in-app browser to view DApps and the ability to interact with smart contracts.

Trust Wallet, for example, provides an in-app DApp Browser that allows you to engage with hundreds of decentralized applications on leading blockchain networks, such as Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.

Whether you are looking to deposit stablecoins in a decentralized lending protocol, like Venus, to earn double-digit APYs or whether you want to optimize your yield via Beefy Finance, Trust Wallet puts DeFi in the palm of your hand.

What’s more, the decentralized trading pool PancakeSwap allows you to trade a wide array of digital assets — from synthetic stocks to pegged bitcoin — in a secure and decentralized manner directly within your Trust Wallet DApp Browser.

And since PancakeSwap runs on Binance Smart Chain, trading fees are in the cents and not the tens (or hundreds) of dollars like on Ethereum-based Uniswap.

While we don’t know for certain that Elon uses Trust Wallet, but if he were exploring the entire crypto asset spectrum to make investments, it would probably be a wise decision.