Bitcoin Pizza Day is an annual event celebrated by Bitcoiners on May 22nd every year. Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates the first documented real-world transaction using bitcoin. This transaction is historically significant in the development and adoption of cryptocurrencies. Plus, what’s better than pizza plus decentralized finance?! On May 22, 2010…

A Beginners Guide to Cryptocurrency Wallets Before we discuss types of wallets, it is a good idea to first have a general understanding of what cryptocurrency is and why it is important. Many cryptocurrencies work by utilizing public networks and ledgers (a ledger is a record of financial transactions) called blockchains. At its simplest level, cryptocurrencies…

Overview Hardware wallets are dedicated, special purpose devices that generate and store cryptocurrency private keys. These devices are only used to securely generate cryptocurrency keys and to sign transactions, and offer no other functionality like a typical mobile phone or laptop computer. In contrast, a software wallet is any wallet that…

A recovery phrase (sometimes known as a seed phrase) is a series of words generated by your cryptocurrency wallet that gives you access to the crypto stored within that wallet. Think of a wallet as being similar to a password manager for crypto, and the recovery phrase as being your…

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the differences between cryptocurrency keys, addresses, and wallets. To provide more clarity on this topic, let’s look at their characteristics one by one. Keys There are two types of keys: public keys and private keys. Public keys are comparable to account numbers. …

Private Keys and Key Backups: What’s the Difference? Private key, seed phrase, wallet, blockchain address — crypto can be confusing! If you feel like you’re not sure which one’s which, then this is the article for you. Here, we get into the nitty-gritty of private keys and recovery phrases, their relationship and the differences between them. Private Keys — Invisible Masters of Crypto When all…

What is a wallet? Do you want a hot or cold wallet? (If you’re unsure the answers to these questions, start with our “What Is a Cryptocurrency Wallet” article first: https://medium.com/cryptocurrency-certification-consortium/what-is-a-cryptocurrency-wallet-and-what-kind-should-you-get-d115fe9974ab Overview Love crypto, but worry about its security? Cryptocurrency technologies are powerful because they allow you to hold your own…

How Can Organizations Prove They Have the Crypto They Claim to Have? The CryptoCurrency Security Standard (CCSS) is a free and open set of industry guidelines and best practices for securing cryptocurrency and related systems. The CCSS recommends that organizations implement a variety of security controls to protect their cryptocurrency holdings, such as creating cryptographic keys and seeds on a system with…

What is the CryptoCurrency Security Standard? The CryptoCurrency Security Standard is an open, free standard (created by industry experts) for securing cryptocurrency systems. CCSS audited systems will either be identified as Self Custody, Qualified Service Provider (QSP) or a Full System (FS). You can read more about these designations in this blog post. Any entity whose…