What is a decentralized wallet?

A decentralized wallet is a crypto wallet that you control yourself. People also call it a self-custody or non-custodial wallet. Your coins stay on the blockchain. What a wallet holds are the private keys that can move them, and in a decentralized wallet those keys are made and kept on your own phone or computer.

How it differs from an exchange account

On an exchange you sign in with an email address and a password, and the exchange holds the keys for you. It can reset a forgotten password. It can also pause withdrawals, ask for identity documents or close the account, and if the exchange fails, the coins it holds for you can be lost with it.

A decentralized wallet has no account to sign in to. Nobody can pause it, and nobody can reset it either. If you lose the recovery phrase and the device, the coins can't be reached again.

The recovery phrase

• When you create the wallet, it shows 12 or 24 ordinary words. This is the recovery phrase, also called a seed phrase.
• Every key in the wallet comes from those words, one for each network. The same phrase gives the same addresses in any wallet app that follows the BIP39 standard.
• Whoever has the phrase can spend the coins, from anywhere. A real wallet app or support team never asks for it.

What it protects you from, and what it doesn't

Self-custody protects you from a company holding your coins: an exchange that freezes withdrawals or goes under can't take them with it. It doesn't protect you from the mistakes below, and nobody can reverse a payment once the network has it.

• Losing the phrase when the phone is also lost or the browser data is cleared.
• Phishing, where a fake site or app asks you to type the phrase.
• Sending on the wrong network, or leaving out a memo or destination tag the receiver needs.
• Approving a token contract you don't trust, which can let it move that token later.
• Stablecoin freezes. Tether and Circle can freeze USDT and USDC at an address, wherever its keys are kept.

Software wallet or hardware wallet

An app on your phone or a wallet in your browser is a software wallet, sometimes called a hot wallet, because the keys sit on a device that is online. A hardware wallet keeps them on a small separate device that signs payments without showing the keys to your phone or computer. For an amount you can't afford to lose, a hardware wallet is the safer place. A software wallet suits the coins you swap and spend.

Keeping one safe

• Write the phrase on paper, in order, and keep it somewhere private. Don't store it in photos, cloud notes or messages.
• Type the phrase only into a wallet app you installed yourself, and only to restore that wallet.
• Lock the wallet with a PIN, and use it only on a device you trust.
• Before a large payment, send a small amount first and check that it arrives.
• Check the address and the network every time, because a payment can't be called back.

The Plaxswap Wallet

The Plaxswap Wallet is a decentralized wallet for Android and for the browser at plaxswap.com/wallet. It makes the recovery phrase on your device and never sends it to us, so we can't move your coins and can't recover the phrase. A 6-digit PIN opens it on your device. Swaps inside it go through KyberSwap, LI.FI, NEAR Intents and Relay, and each route shows its fees before you confirm. See what the wallet does, the wallet guide and the fees page.