FAQ
Why do I need a wallet?
In order to perform a financial transaction with Bitcoin you need a wallet to send and receive payments. Like the wallet or purse you have in your pocket which serves several uses and may contain coins and/or barter, debit, credit or store cards, it is used to perform a financial transaction of some kind. A Cryptocurrency wallet serves exactly the same purpose, but for one or more cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Why are there so many wallets?
When you buy something from a physical store or a market, you might use cash, a credit or debit card, paywave or if you're really unlucky - a cheque. Typically your decision to use any one of these will be based on 1). whether the vendor accepts a particular form of payment and 2). The fees charged by your bank to use one.
With cryptocurrencies there is a far more granular choice available to you: How private does this transaction need to be? How comfortable am I with the amount of personal information being requested of me? How much of my funds do I need access to immediately vs medium and long term?
Might I need more than one wallet?
Because of the range of available features and depending on your use; a single wallet may not fulfil all of your requirements. At present, some wallets do a great job of performing standard Bitcoin payments, but a basic job of doing Lightning Payments. Therefore, you might want a dedicated Lightning wallet if this is something you envisage doing frequently. We do expect some consolidation to occur over time, where major wallets provide a common set of functionality. However, even then, some form-factors will still provide for very specific uses and will compliment others.
Can I be sure your wallets are not scams?
There is no 100% guaranteed way of identifying wallet scams, and WalletMatrix makes no such claim. However; WalletMatrix will make every effort to check that the vendors and wallets that we feature, are genuine projects whose primary aim is to help get borderless, censorship-resistant, digital payments into as many hands as possible.
If you are technically inclined, we recommend reviewing any wallet you're looking to use on the WalletScrutiny website. WalletScrutiny has put in a lot of effort in ensuring the app that you download from an app store, is the exact same app that is available on that app's open source repositories.
What WalletMatrix does do however, is to provide the means for self-verification. As more vendors are on-boarded, they're encouraged to provide cryptographic signatures that users may use to verify its authenticity. See the dedicated verification page for further information.
In order to feature on WalletMatrix, vendors and projects need to satisfy some minimum criteria described here.
Do you support non-Bitcoin Wallets?
Due to the sheer range of wallets out there, WalletMatrix will initially be focusing on Bitcoin wallets only. But if among our featured wallets, some support for other cryptocurrencies is also found, then this information is purely incidental until such time as we have the capability to provide greater detail about other currencies.
Do you have a web API?
Yes we do! Find out more here.
I'm a Wallet Vendor! How do I get featured on WalletMatrix?
Check out our vendors page, then send us an email to hello@dcentrica.com. We'd love to hear from you.
How can I trust that wallet data is accurate?
You don't need to. With a little technical know-how, it's possible for you to independently determine the authenticity of wallet data. Find out more here.
Do you offer wallet reviews?
In a word "No". Much of the user feedback for wallets can already be found in the various app-stores such as Apple's iTunes and Google's Play Store which is continually being added-to and is arguably of a greater quality than anything we could develop from scratch.
Why are there so many acronyms used in wallet features?
Wallet software and hardware use a lot of sophisticated math and cryptography, and some feature names derive themselves from these, some of which pre-date the advent of cryptocurrencies. Because many of these terms contain more than a single word, it makes sense to simplify them by using their initials. This is really no different to terms that abound in common culture, terms such as HTTP, WWW, HDMI and FM.