The IOTA Foundation has developed a mobile wallet for Android and iOS, as well as a desktop wallet for all major operating systems. We’ll only discuss the desktop version below, but the mobile version of the wallet is very similar.
After opening the installer, you’ll be prompted to choose your language.
The software manages the installation process efficiently.
The next step is one of the most crucial parts of the wallet setup: the generation of a secure private seed.
Generate a private IOTA Seed
Your IOTA seed is the most important password that you have in connection with IOTA.
The Seed is an 81-digit sequence of capital letters from A-Z plus the number 9. It grants you access to your IOTA tokens.
It is somewhat comparable to your average username and password, rolled into one.
Brief digression:
Many users wonder if the code is actually safe or if it can be cracked by a computer program.
At this point, it’s helpful to visualise the number of possible seeds out there to get a better idea of how much risk is involved.
Let’s break it down.
We have an alphabet of 27 characters (A-Z + 9) and a total of 81 characters. In other words, there’s a total of 27 ^ 81 possible seeds.
By comparison, scientists suggest that there are “only” 10^78 to 10^82 atoms in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE.
These numbers are so large that it’s difficult for us humans to wrap our heads round them.
But one thing’s for sure, no hacker can simply brute-force their way through your IOTA seed.
Even the most advanced technologies will fail to accomplish this because IOTA technology is quantum resistant.
Now let’s move on with our wallet setup.
To generate our own private seed, we have two options:
Either we use the IOTA Trinity software for generation, or we use an external program like KeePass.
Although KeePass is considered secure, there is always some residual risk in choosing third-party providers, so we recommend using the generator from the IOTA Wallet.
Click on 10 or more random characters to replace them and you should be good to go.
Then you will have to choose a name for your wallet account. We simply chose “My IOTA wallet” to keep things nice and simple.
Now the next step is really important:
You will have to back up your IOTA seed. To achieve this, you can do one of the following:
Write it down
Go with the ‘Export SeedVault’ option or
Print a paper copy
The IOTA foundation recommends the middle option, where you’ll generate an encrypted file that can only be accessed with a password.
You can store this file on various devices (e.g. hard drive, in a cloud or on a USB stick) and use it to restore your IOTA seed in case you lose your seed.
Create an IOTA Paper Wallet Back-up
We recommend that you also create a paper wallet backup.
You can simply write your IOTA seed on a piece of paper and store it in a safe place.
Alternatively, you can print a predesigned paper wallet, e.g. this one from the German Coin-Ratgeber.de website that they included in their IOTA guide.
However, we highly recommend that you do not print your seed directly and always write it down manually.
If you do decide to print it, make sure you are not connected to a public wireless network and be sure to connect to your printer via an offline PC.
The IOTA wallet will ask you to re-enter your seed, so be sure you have noted it down correctly.
Once you have re-entered your seed and successfully verified your SeedVault back-up password, you will now have access to your personal IOTA Wallet.
IOTA 2-Factor-Authentication (2FA)
The IOTA Trinity wallet offers a variety of features and themes and is one of the best wallets in the entire crypto market.
One of the first features you should enable is the 2-Factor Authentication (2FA).
If you do not use a hardware wallet, this feature will give you an added layer of security which is always good!
Afterwards, you can only open your wallet if you correctly enter the 6-digit PIN that is generated from your mobile phone.
This provides a barrier for potential hackers.
The IOTA Wallet is very intuitive.
There is a price ticker that shows you the current IOTA price, a tab where addresses can be generated to receive IOTA tokens, and a tab to send those tokens.
Therefore, once you have sent IOTA tokens from an address, you should move the remaining funds to a new address in your possession.
Normally, the IOTA Wallet does this task for you automatically.
However, if you have included an IOTA donation address on your website, you should be aware that after paying out tokens, you should replace the old address with a new one afterwards.
Using an IOTA Hardware Wallet
If you have invested large sums in IOTA, you should look for the highest possible security standards.
Hardware Wallets are USB devices that store the private seed separately from the wallet software.
Without having physical access to the hardware wallet, it’s impossible to get access to seed tokens.
The functionality can be compared to that of a simple key. Without a key, the door of the vault cannot be opened.
At the moment, IOTA is supported by all ledger hardware wallets, the Ledger Nano S, the Ledger Nano X and the Ledger Blue:
We recommend you buy the Ledger Nano X as we think it’s one of the highest quality products whilst also being very easy to use.
All three devices come with the Ledger Live software that gives you a nice interface for all your crypto currency accounts.
The IOTA foundation has posted a nice guide on how to use your Ledger hardware wallet together with IOTA.
There is also a short video tutorial series available.
If you think that all of this is too complicated for you and you just want to invest in IOTA technology without having to go into the technology in such detail, we recommend trading with IOTA CFDs.
Take a look at our article about How to buy IOTA to learn more about trading IOTA derivatives.
