What is SmartWallet for newbies?

Be your bank.

This concept is on purpose “Be your bank”. We are libertarians and we work for your freedom. When we say that quote we are releasing you from a system that profits from your money and give you nothing back. They charge you to work and risky your money. So they get richer and you stay where you are.

I am not a hypocrite to say they aren’t useful. They are but we should demand more respect and partnership from them. Something like how could we profit together. Then you have a better relationship, not perfect but better than what they offer you in the first place. Anyway, the goal of this is to make you think you can and must be your bank.

So what is a wallet?

A wallet is an electronic system where you store your funds. In other words, it is a software where you protect your money with password and encryption.

Sound very geek I know but It is and it is hard to make it simple. Every time we try to make it simpler we put you under risk.

Imagine your physical wallet…

You put cash inside it but if you vacillate someone can take a few dollars from it without your notice.

So in the computer world is the same. You can have an unprotected wallet like you currently have now in your pocket. We call it an unencrypted wallet. It is when you download a wallet and do not create any password to protect it.

Someone can go inside your mobile phone and take a few dollars from it or take it all. Same as with your physical cash.

Your briefcase with a locker…

Now imagine you have a briefcase with a password and you have more dollars on it. The only way of them to steal it is if they steal it completely or break the locker. Therefore they would probably take the briefcase with them and unlock it with a hammer or shooting at it.

It is the same with your encrypted wallet. They would probably steal your wallet.dat (briefcase with the locker) to brute force it. If you have a weak password like your birthday or some common password they will be able to get all money inside it.

That is what crackers do. They are the stealer of the new world. They work day and night trying to find a breach to take your virtual briefcase.

A bulletproof briefcase…

Now imagine you have e a still briefcase with a password and bulletproof as James bond has? Of course, I am over exaggerating but I am trying to bring it to the real world.

And for last you can have a personal computer or an old phone where you only use it to store your money with a wallet that has a very strong password (at least 25 chars) which matches with your bulletproof briefcase.

That would be much harder for them to steal money from you. The problem, in this case, is if they take the phone from you and you don’t have a backup. Then you lost your money, but they won’t be able to get it as well. At least until they don’t have a quantum computer.

What is the perfect world?

The perfect world is when you understand what a private key is. How it works, not technically but at least how important it is for your safety.

Ok. All I’ve said before was to protect what we call “Private Key” which is your cash. Your money!

All password story was to encrypt this private key in order the thief can’t have access to it.

It is just a text so it means you can have a copy of it in more than one place. That full encrypted is the perfect world. Even if they steal it from you they can’t have access to your money.

So what is a wallet? A wallet is a place where you can store one or more private keys. All encrypted at once. No need for many passwords.

Is it good? Hum… Let’s say it is practical. We usually say it is not good to store all eggs in one single box. So, better to think about that.

I don’t think it is the perfect world yet…

Well, it is not easy, that is why we created and partnered with many wallets to help you to work in the perfect world.

The new web wallet makes your life a bit better. You can generate as many as encrypted private keys as you want. We export that in a card format.

How to store it?

So imagine you have 1 million SMART. I would not recommend you to store it all in a single private key. With the deWW (decentralized Web Wallet) you can use your private key directly and generate new private keys already encrypted.

What I would recommend you is to generate multiple private keys with a maximum of 100K SMART on it. So I would generate 10 private keys.

With that, you are much safer in case you have a problem.

What to do while I have 100K SMART on each Private Key?

If you are a long term holder profile you can read our SmartRewards and SmartNodes articles. These are ways to have passive incoming without touching your money.

See how it can be better than a bank? That is all because of a wallet :)

I hope I’ve helped you.