But don’t worry! If you choose a wallet and don’t like how it works—or if you like it at first but later want to try something else—you can change wallets quite easily. All you have to do is make a transaction that sends your funds from the old wallet to the new wallet, or export your private keys and import them into the new one.

We’ve selected three different types of wallets to use as examples throughout the book: a mobile wallet, a desktop wallet, and a web-based wallet. We’ve chosen these three wallets because they represent a broad range of complexity and features. However, the selection of these wallets is not an endorsement of their quality or security. They are simply a good starting place for demonstrations and testing.

Remember that for a wallet application to work, it must have access to your private keys, so it is vital that you only download and use wallet applications from sources you trust. Fortunately, in general, the more popular a wallet application is, the more trustworthy it is likely to be. Nevertheless, it is good practice to avoid “putting all your eggs in one basket” and have your Ethereum accounts spread across a couple of wallets.

MetaMask

MetaMask is a browser extension wallet that runs in your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Brave Browser). It is easy to use and convenient for testing, as it is able to connect to a variety of Ethereum nodes and test blockchains. MetaMask is a web-based wallet.

Jaxx

MyEtherWallet (MEW)

MyEtherWallet is a web-based wallet that runs in any browser. It has multiple sophisticated features we will explore in many of our examples. MyEtherWallet is a web-based wallet.

Emerald Wallet

We’ll start by installing MetaMask on a desktop—but first, we’ll briefly discuss controlling and managing keys.