The zkSync site lists ten wallets (click the “Ethereum” link here) that are compatible. These do not include “MyCrypto” or “MyEtherWallet,” but they do include “Metamask” and the following:
VeraCrypt: Open source software to create an encrypted flash drive (or similar). You can store wallet files with VeraCrypt for an extra layer of protection. instructional video
How to create a cold storage wallet: Uses the Tails OS and a bootable USB key. If you never go online with this, your crypto is very secure. You can deposit into it without putting it online, but not spend from it.
What do you use, and what do you like about it? What wallets did you rule out, and why?
For background, when I set up Storj, I went with Coinbase Wallet (CW), because it’s the wallet I already had. There’s been lots of misunderstandings about whether or not it’s a custodial wallet, because people confuse the CW app with the Coinbase and Coinbase Pro exchanges. When I found that most of the reasons cited to not use CW were misguided, I decided to stick with it.
Now, with my first payout imminent, I’ve finally revisited the topic, and I notice that CW gets terrible reviews on the Google Play Store. (Overall it has almost 4 stars, but most recent reviews seem to be one star.) The CW team spams all one-star reviews with an uninformative boilerplate statement.
So, I’d like to choose something else, and I find myself having to do a lot of research fast, because I believe I have only a few days until all my accumulated payouts go to this wallet which I now think is likely crap. I find lots of info in the forums, but it’s very scattered, and much of it opaque to me. Things like finding the abbreviation “MEW” all over the place, and only finally realizing that people are talking about MyEtherWallet.
I thought a central thread that links out to other info in the forums and elsewhere would be helpful to folks in a similar position to me.
Also, I’m not so sure about the one-star reviews, as many of them seem to be based on gas fees, which as I understand it are insanely high regardless of what wallet you are using! So, maybe CW is OK after all. Hard for me to evaluate!
My opinion would be the following ranking:
1-2: Trezor or Ledger. If you have one use it. If you are planing on buying a hardware wallet one day do it now. It is the safest option you can pick.
3: @Alexey can give you some information about wallet connect. Use your mobile phone like a hardware wallet. Unfortunatly I trust my phone only as far as I can throw it so this is not a safe option for me but he might know a few good mobile wallets. Good thing about phones is that they are better protected against maleware as long as you don’t jailbreak / root it.
4: Metamask. Not as secure as a hardware wallet but I would say still better than the other unknown options with unkown risks.
5-last: All the other wallets.
Numio might be another interesting wallet with build in swap to L2 ETH. I don’t want to recommend using Numio as primary wallet. In the list above I would still place it in the unknown risk group and hope you spend some time on research first. However it might be a good secondary wallet. You could receive your payout on Numio, swap it as soon as the balance gets to high and store the L2 ETH on a wallet that you trust more.
Also I haven’t looked for other swap or exchange options. Numio is one of the first swap options but that doesn’t mean it is the best option. So my intension is to highlight that we can receive our payout on a less secure wallet with build in swap option but than store the L2 ETH on a safe wallet. Please understand Numio more as an example and less as a recommendation.
I would just like to point out that as long as the wallet you are using is non-custodial (i.e. you are holding your own keys/passphrase) you will be able to access your tokens by just importing your private keys into another wallet that you like better/trust more/need to use to access zkSync features. Example: mycrypto.com apparently is not currently directly compatible with zkSync “Wallet Connect” but you could just use the private keys of your existing mycrypto wallet and import them to something like Metamask that lets you connect to zkSync. So switching from one wallet to another doesn’t necessarily imply you need to send your tokens to another wallet address (and spend gas fees in the process). For example, here are the instructions on how to move from mycrypto to metamask.
Update: Just noticed that there are some mycrypto-compatible mobile wallets that also work with Wallet Connect, one of them being Metamask mobile, so you could probably also connect to zkSync using this mobile Metamask wallet method
Note however that the Coinbase wallet appears to be custodial, so the above method won’t work for that wallet, as you can read here.
Numio.io is non-custodial, so you could use it for your L2 transfers via zkSync by importing a private key from your other non zksync compatible wallet, see their FAQ.
To me it looks like one just needs to do some experimenting to find out which is the best wallet but as long as the wallet you are presently using is non-custodial, you don’t have to worry that you would have to spend a lot of money on gas fees to later on switch to some other better wallet.
Update: for those wanting to try out some new wallets, you may want to check Numio’s twitter feed, they are doing a promo to incentivize new users to sign up right now with a STORJ token giveaway … (STORJ Is one of the first tokens they enabled in this new mobile zkSync wallet)
Thanks. I feel I may be headed in that direction, but I’m not quite there yet. I’d like to sign up for a wallet today that is not Coinbase Wallet, in order to get my first Storj payment somewhere better. But, for a hardware wallet, I’d like to do some more research before I choose one. So, @CutieePie’s comment below is very helpful, suggests to me that I can do this in two stages without much downside. For the small payments I’ll be getting from Storj, it doesn’t seem like there’s much need for a dedicated hardware wallet; but it does seem like that’s the way to go for my general crypto holdings in the longer term.
This is finally helping me understand the range of possibilities. This is what I was having trouble with! Can you confirm, do I have this correct…this is the kind of chart I’ve been hoping to find somewhere, I think I’m finally starting to understand.
Hardware wallet
Trezor, Ledger
Costs $ to own, but no subscription fee. Most secure, you are relying on nobody; even if the hardware fails, you will have a piece of paper with a backup code for each blockchain, that would let you recover, to any number of other devices/wallets.
Mobile app software wallet
MyEtherWallet, Coinbase Wallet…
Similar to a hardware wallet, does not cost $ upfront or for subscription, but relies on your mobile OS and the software developer for continued use, and also relies on them not to steal your crypto or other shenanigans. Audited open source software may mitigate that concern. Also, risk of losing your phone. You do still get the benefit of printed out paper keys for each blockchain, which could allow you to recover your crypto to any number of devices in emergency.
Software wallet
MyCrypto, Brave Wallet or Opera Wallet if not connected to your phone…
Similar to mobile app wallet, but (a) can be installed on open source software and hardware of your choosing, (b) can be airgapped and kept offline most times or even all times, (c) less convenient for day to day use because it is offline and not carried around with you, but more secure for those reasons too. I’m a little unclear, how crypto can be sent to an airgapped wallet, but I guess if the shared ledger reflects, this the airgapped wallet just adjusts and reflects the deposit whenever you do connect it to the network?
Browser extension wallets
Maybe not worth considering, since you would have to trust the OS, the browser, AND the software itself, in order to have confidence…?
These are “custodial”, which means they take custody of the key, and you do not get to have the key (which is a string of 12 words, like a passphrase except you don’t get to choose it). You rely on the exchange to keep the crypto linked to your account, there’s much opportunity for fraud. Coinbase seems better than most (re: fraud) in that it subjects itself to regulation. But, none are FDIC insured like a bank. Some exchanges may have benefits like interest, user-friendly trades, or low fee trades, or features like stop-loss trades; however, the risk is far from insignificant! Everyone advises NOT using these for Storj payments, though you might want to use them to trade your Storj coins for other currencies once you’ve received them in a custodial wallet.
So, my remaining question, and I’ll start digging into this now. WHAT THE HECK IS METAMASK, AND WHY DOES IT KEEP COMING UP?? Seems like some kind of special case that doesn’t fit neatly into categories like those above?
Since this is a Storj forum, it seems reasonable to limit the discussion to wallets that are fully compatible with a Storj SNO’s needs, no? But, among the wallets that meet those specs, I’m certainly interested in what other capabilities (as well as drawbacks/risks) they might have. Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough about that?
Please note that “non-custodial” actually means the opposite, i.e. you control your own keys which is not the case with Coinbase and other centralized exchanges. These exchange wallets are referred to as “custodial” as they custody the tokens on your behalf.
Secondly, Coinbase is not known for low trading fees, in fact, many complain about the high fees you pay there for the convenience/easy trading interface which appeals to newbies.
Regarding Metamask, you might want to read the info in the article I linked about migrating from mycrypto to Metamask, as it has a list of advantages and disadvantages described there.
Ah, this explains a lot, I’ve been very thrown off by that term and I see how I’ve been reading it backwards. I’ll update above.
Hmm, I was not referring to any specific exchange with that, just referring to the kinds of things that might make you want to use an exchange. It seems to me that Coinbase Pro (as distinct from Coinbase) has very favorable fees on the whole, am I mistaken? Is there a way to trade crypto with flexibility (i.e., many different kinds of coins) that is less expensive than Coinbase Pro? I’d be glad for any tips. It seems to me that some exchanges offer convenience, some offer interest/staking, some offer low fees. I never said that any one exchange offers all of those, though.
I was specifically referring to Coinbase, not Coinbase Pro, regarding to trading fees as most newbies would be unlikely to be aware Coinbase Pro even exists/is an option. As Storj Employee I cannot make recommendations of any specific exchange, however. Also note that many exchanges may not even be an option for users in certain jurisdictions. Options may be quite limited in many countries.
OK, thanks for clarifying. I’m not sure how that paragraph could be read as a description of Coinbase when it specifically lists several exchanges before, so unless I’m missing something I’m going to leave it.
Also, thanks for mentioning you are a Storj employee, I hadn’t realized! Nice to have clarity on that, and I appreciate your engagement on this stuff. (Is your public profile hidden on purpose or is that an oversight, or an issue with my browser?)
You specifically referring to Coinbase seeming better than most just before talking about “reduced fee trading” which is why I made what now appears to be the wrong assumption that you were still referring to Coinbase. Sorry for the malinterpretation.
Please note that forum users with “Storjling” label and the Storj logo in their avatars are Storj employees or contractors.
Ah, that’s a very good point, I’ll adjust the text!
Badges and neologisms…OK, maybe other people have the ability to track that stuff, but not me. I wish (here and all over the tech world) that companies would adopt straightforward standards like signature lines that anybody can understand. Not your problem to solve, but…no, I certainly will not remember what these little icons and made up words mean, I am devoting all my energy for that to stuff in the actual crypto space. So, I guess I’ll just feel around in the dark about who works for Storj and who doesn’t.
(Do note, though, that clicking the word “Storjling” leads to a 404, and clicking your profile leads to a “not visible” page, neither of which is what I would expect for a staff profile)
Sorry if that was a little overblown. TBH I probably will remember these little cutesy things that indicate affiliation, but it seems like the wrong approach. Just like you have concern about newbies who don’t distinguish between Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, I wonder about people new to Storj and these forums who are not lucky enough to encounter somebody to explain to them what the badges and made up words mean. It’s fine for me to know, but it doesn’t really help the other people coming in.