The introduction of blockchain and Bitcoin (BTC) also gave rise to the concept of wallets, involving various platforms and tools that have evolved over time. But are Bitcoin wallets safe?
The wallets are of different types and allow storing cryptocurrencies, including of course Bitcoin. They are to be considered as a bank account in which to hold funds in a more or less secure way depending on the type of wallet used.
By now there are many wallets and solutions that allow managing cryptocurrencies, but it is not always easy to understand which is the best solution and this is where the Wallet Scrutiny team has intervened, analyzing several wallets, over 60, and classifying them according to some parameters such as the verifiability of the code.
Of all the wallets analyzed, only 4 have passed their tests and these are:
- Bitcoin Wallet;
- Green: Bitcoin Wallet;
- AirGap Vault;
- ABCore.
Instead, among the unverifiable wallets, where the code could not be verified even if they say that they are open-source platforms, there are:
- Blockchain Wallet;
- Electrum;
- Samourai Wallet;
- Zap.
Furthermore, there are also the wallets that did not make the source code public and whose security could not be analyzed.
The numbers of the most used bitcoin wallets (but not necessarily secure)
The list continues even with dead wallets, i.e. those that no longer allow managing BTC and those that have few users. The ranking indicates the total number of downloads that the various wallets per category have:
- 5 million for those verified,
- 8 million for those that are open source,
- 4.5 million for the closed source ones,
- Over 20 million for the custodial ones, a demonstration of how most users are unaware of the risks and problems they may incur by leaving their funds on this type of wallet.