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Metamask and Coinbase: Crypto wallets investors should know

John Lapinozo

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People are smart enough to know the importance of investing their money on valuable things. Aside from stocks, other popular investments that people have grown fond of are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Since they are valuable digital assets, people should learn how to take care of them properly. That way, they won’t lose a huge amount of money in the process. There are several ways to protect crypto assets and one of them is storing them in a crypto wallet.

There are a lot of crypto wallets that people can find and two of them are Metamask and Coinbase.

crypto wallet

Metamask and Coinbase: Crypto wallets investors should know. Source: shutterstock.com

For those who are looking for a side by side MetaMask vs Coinbase comparison, here’s a better understanding of the two:

What is Metamask?

MetaMask is a browser extension that works similarly to an Ethereum wallet. With this wallet, users are given access to the Ethereum ecosystem, including several decentralized applications (dApps). To ensure the safety of the coins, people can use this wallet’s key vault, acquire a wallet address, and enjoy secured log-in methods.

MetaMask was founded in 2016 by Aaron Davis and ConsenSys which is a blockchain software technology company. With its impressive service, it became one of the best Ethereum wallets for decentralized exchanges (DEX), gaming sites, and several other services. By the end of 2021, this crypto wallet has already surpassed over a million users.

What is Coinbase?

Coinbase Wallet is another non-custodial or self-custodial wallet that is available on mobile platforms. It is known as one of the best mobile wallets among Android and iOS users. Though the name might be familiar in the crypto scene, users should know that this is different from Coinbase.com.

The former is a cryptocurrency exchange where users can buy and sell crypto, whilst the latter is just a wallet that directly stores the crypto on a user’s device. With Coinbase Wallet, users are not required to have an account on Coinbase.com. Coinbase Wallet is also accessible as a desktop browser plugin, with Google Chrome and Brave as its supported browsers.

How are they similar?

These two impressive wallets are both ideally used by beginners. In fact, there are a lot of similarities that these two wallets share. Some of these are:

  • They allow crypto holders to use different devices to access their accounts. They also ensure that all crypto holders’ private keys are safe.
  • Both wallets can hold ETH and ERC-20 tokens which are Ethereum based coins. They can also allow users to interact with Ethereum-based applications.
  • They are both browser extensions, allowing users to connect to the Web3.0, a decentralized version of the internet.

How do they differ?

Though they may be similar in several ways, MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet are different from one another. Here’s how they differ:

  • MetaMask is open-source, meaning that its codes can be checked and supported by its community. Meanwhile, Coinbase is closed-source, meaning its users can simply contact customer support for any concerns.
  • MetaMask is exclusive to Ethereum while Coinbase supports coins like Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), and Dogecoin (DOGE).
  • MetaMask uses a hard drive that protects its users’ private keys while Coinbase Wallet uses 2-factor authentication and time-based one time passwords (TOTP).

These are just some facts that people should know about these two promising crypto wallets. By knowing which among the MetaMask vs Coinbase comparisons stand out the most, people can find which is a better choice for them!

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