One of the best parts of having an Ethereum wallet like Rainbow is that you are in total control of your money. Unlike a bank account from Wells Fargo or a crypto exchange like Coinbase, we do not hold your assets on your behalf. Instead, your money is actually yours thanks to the power of cryptography. You can do whatever you want with it, whenever you want. No one is standing in your way!
Because of this, it's important for you to be on guard and keep your information secure and properly backed up. Thankfully, it’s relatively easy to stay safe as long as you understand the ways in which crypto is different from traditional finance.
So, let’s talk about your crypto wallet and how to be safe as you're exploring the world of Ethereum!
To get started, the world of crypto and Web3 is a bit different than how we're used to surfing the traditional internet. A crypto wallet doesn’t typically have a username or password associated with it. Instead, it has 3 things — none of which are chosen by the owner:
1️⃣ Public wallet address
2️⃣ Secret phrase
3️⃣ Private cryptographic key
If you lose your wallet's private key and secret phrase, there's no way of recovering access to the wallet. You can't just click a "forgot password" button, and there's no 2-factor authentication. Wallet providers like Rainbow don't even know your private key, so we can't retrieve it for you either.
Instead, you need to personally backup your private key and/or secret phrase. There are many ways of doing this, and each method gives you a different level of protection. Here are a few examples:
With Rainbow, you can automatically create a secure backup of your wallet or copy the secret phrase down on a piece of paper or in a password manager.