A bank account is a financial contract between a client and a bank, through which the balance and all the financial movements of the client (fiat money) are stored and controlled. A wallet is software whose purpose is the storage of keys, both public and private (which always go together) and that allows you to send and receive cryptocurrencies through the Blockchain. Often wallets are usually compared to bank accounts, then we will know 5 differences between these two platforms:
Contents
Currency that is stored
This is perhaps the main difference that allows us to distinguish between a walllet and a bank account. A wallet is made to store cryptocurrencies and operate with them, that is, in a wallet we can operate with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and as many cryptocurrencies (as the digital wallet allows). On the other hand, bank accounts only allow storing and operating fiat money, that is: euros, dollars, pesos, etc.
Public and private keys
In a Wallet, both the public key and the private key are very large numbers, and generally, their representation is in a separate WIF wallet import format, consisting of numbers and letters. On the other hand, bank accounts are limited numbers, generally of 20 numerical digits that are divided into groups that identify the bank, the branch, the type of account and finally the individual identifier of the client.
Control over stored money
In a digital wallet you have absolute control of the cryptocurrencies that are stored, being able to freely carry out any type of transaction without authorization or intervention of third parties and without restrictions of territory (in the case of wallets it is accessed through the private key or public key). On the other hand, a bank account requires authorization from the bank to carry out certain transactions in addition to restrictions on certain holidays (holidays in general or bank holidays), territories (different countries) and certain limits on daily operations ( daily amount, number of transactions, etc.) the movements are made by online banking, checks, credit / debit cards, window operations in the same bank, etc.
Way to access money and its security
Most digital wallets work through websites or applications with Internet connection (although the latter is not an indispensable condition due to the appearance of Cold Wallets), in terms of security, the private key that is stored In the wallet, it is the only means to access the money registered in a public address (if the private key is lost, the money would also be lost), although the latter may seem to be not very flexible, it offers a high standard of security against third parties. In addition to having higher security protocols due to global standards.
On the other hand, in a bank account the money is accessed through online banking (which is accessed via the Internet and varies according to each bank) and through credit / debit cards, although these methods may offer more flexibility to the user, The point against this is that the level of security is less high because online banking depends on the quality level of the platform (a topic we already talked about in the previous article entitled 5 disadvantadges of traditional banking compared to cryptocurrencies) of each bank, on the other hand the level of security of credit or debit cards will depend on the level of security of the platform where the payments have been processed, because of this their security protocols will not be so high because They do not follow global standards (each bank or payment system has its own standards).
What do you think about this topic? Did you know the differences between a wallet and a bank account?
If you want more information about buying and selling cryptocurrencies you can contact us or write your query at the bottom (comments section).
Image of mastersenaiper via Pixabay.com under a creative commons license.
