Apple Wallet

An iPhone app from Apple that debuted with iOS 6. Originally called "Passbook," Wallet holds boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons and customer loyalty cards. Data can be automatically displayed on the user's lock screen when entering a related venue. In 2015, Wallet added support for Apple Pay, along with major credit cards and retail store cards from JC Penney, Kohl's and BJ's Wholesale Club. Wallet interacts with merchant terminals via barcodes and, starting with the iPhone 6, via NFC. See smartphone wallet, digital wallet, NFC, iPhone 6 and iOS versions.

crypto wallet

(CRYPTOcurrency wallet) The electronic interface to a user's crypto. A cryptocurrency wallet is software in a website account or mobile device that allows people to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrency coins and tokens. Although Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most widely known cryptos, there are countless others, and any given wallet supports several.

Wallets Are the On-Ramps to the Blockchain
A wallet does not hold the coins or tokens. It maintains the private cryptographic keys to access the crypto that resides on the blockchain. Unlike a traditional wallet holding cash, a crypto wallet functions more like a debit card that has access to a person's checking account.

If a wallet is somehow deleted, and the private keys were never saved, asset ownership is gone forever. Millions of dollars have been lost because people did not back up their keys. Wallets can also be in hardware, which is safer than software (see below).

The Alternative - Custodial Wallets
In contrast to self-managed wallet software, users can open an account with a cryptocurrency exchange such as Coinbase or Binance and buy, sell and trade crypto similar to the way people use Fidelity, Vanguard and other brokers to buy and sell stocks and bonds. See crypto exchange.

Non-Custodial - Hierarchical Deterministic (HD)
Installed in the user's computer, tablet or phone, most crypto wallets today are HD wallets. They derive the private keys from a randomly generated "seed" created at startup, which is 12 to 24 everyday words (see image below). The seed words must be written down and kept safe. If the wallet were ever destroyed, the seed becomes the "recovery phrase" to regenerate all the keys.

The HD wallet creates the private keys in a hierarchical tree, and the different branches can be used to organize payments for accounting purposes. The private keys are used to generate the public addresses that are visible to everyone (see block explorer).

Non-Custodial - Nondeterministic
Using random numbers and known as "just a bunch of keys" (JBOK), this earlier approach generated a private key for each transaction, and each key had to be backed up. See Bitcoin wallet, crypto wallet address and cryptocurrency.

Ledger Nano S "Cold" HD Wallet

Nano hardware wallets support Bitcoin, Ethereum as well as other cryptos and cannot be hacked when offline. When first used, 24 everyday words are generated as the seed (two examples at top) to create the private keys. If the device is ever lost or destroyed, the words are used to recover the keys. See cold wallet.

Ledger Nano S "Cold" HD Wallet

Nano hardware wallets support Bitcoin, Ethereum as well as other cryptos and cannot be hacked when offline. When first used, 24 everyday words are generated as the seed (two examples at top) to create the private keys. If the device is ever lost or destroyed, the words are used to recover the keys. See cold wallet.

A Paper Wallet

This paper wallet was generated from a Bitcoin ATM, and its QR codes can be scanned to import the coins into a digital wallet app or make another ATM transaction. The Bitcoin private key is used to send coins and the public key is used to receive them. See Bitcoin ATM.

digital wallet

(1) An application that holds a user's crypto or fiat currency. See crypto wallet and CBDC.

(2) A smartphone app for making financial transactions in a retail store. See smartphone wallet, Bitcoin wallet and mobile payment service.

(3) A desktop app for making credit card purchases on a website that eliminates entering credit card numbers. The data either reside in the cloud or are encrypted in the user's computer, and the wallet's digital certificate identifies the cardholder. Digital wallets may also store insurance and loyalty cards, drivers' licenses, ID cards and site passwords. Some apps let users enter additional data.

Merchant Wallets
To make ordering painless, large e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com have for years stored their customers' credit card data on their own servers. See smartphone wallet, mobile payment service, Web payment service, eWallet, identity metasystem, information card, digital coins and Bitcoin wallet.

Automatic Fill-in-the-Forms

This earlier digital wallet saved the user's name, address and credit card data. When placing an order online, it filled in the forms. (Image courtesy of EntryPoint, Inc.)

An eWallet Card

Available for many years on all popular platforms, Ilium Software's eWallet stores all pertinent information for each credit card entered by the user. See eWallet. (Image courtesy of Ilium Software, Inc., www.iliumsoft.com)

Google Wallet

A smartphone app from Google that enables users to pay for merchandise at retail outlets with their mobile phones. Launched in 2011 with support for MasterCard's PayPass system, Visa and Discover were added a year later. Google Wallet also supports loyalty and gift cards as well as payments between individuals via Gmail (see p2p payments).

Near Field Communication Was a Prerequisite
Requiring an NFC-equipped Android phone to make a payment by placing it near a terminal, that prerequisite was dropped in 2013 when Google Wallet became available for non-NFC iPhones (Apple later added NFC). See smartphone wallet and NFC.

Google Wallet and Android Pay
In 2015, Google introduced the Android Pay mobile payment system built into Version 6 of the Android OS (Android M). In 2018, Google Wallet and Android Pay merged (see Google Pay).

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What does it mean when you dream about a wallet?

Like all other dream symbols, the dream setting provides clues for interpreting this symbol. A wallet may indicate financial resources or self-identification (e.g., an I.D. kept in a wallet).