Choosing a cryptocurrency wallet may seem daunting, but it’s a good way to store your crypto. When you buy cryptocurrency on a trading platform or an exchange, you have the option of keeping the “keys” to your coins inside your account or transferring them to a personal crypto wallet. This wallet might be online (a “hot wallet”), offline (a “cold wallet”), or a combination of the two (cold storage).
We’ll look at Bitpay and Coinbase, two of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets, and help you decide which one is best for you.
BitPay, a Bitcoin service provider, and Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, both made their debuts around the same time. Many people’s first experience with cryptocurrency is through these two service providers, which offer similar services. BitPay and Coinbase have certain similarities, but they also have significant distinctions.
BitPay is a payment processor for Bitcoin, while Coinbase is an exchange for fiat currency. Both have crypto debit cards and wallet services for storing and transferring payments. Even though they may not be competitors, each one has features that could give it an edge over the other.
BitPay Overview
BitPay, which first appeared in 2011, is the most widely used Bitcoin payment processor. Since Bitcoin is making a comeback and growing quickly, the platform’s founders, Stephen Pair and Tony Gallepi made it easier for businesses to take Bitcoin as payment. BitPay is used in many industries, such as travel, tickets, casinos, and product vending machines. It is available on six continents.
BitPay is a free cryptocurrency wallet that incorporates industry-leading security measures, including two-factor authentication, a personal identification number (PIN), biometric verification, and a backup seed phrase of just twelve words. Combining services like Trust Wallet, Metamask, and Coinbase into one app is a great idea.
Available as a desktop app or mobile app, the BitPay wallet is non-custodial. This means that your keys belong to you and only you. You can use the free BitPay Card virtual card to make in-app purchases of gift cards and spend cryptocurrency. You may use Apple Pay, a credit card, or a debit card to buy cryptocurrency. Also, feel free to trade any and all of your favorite coins.
BitPay has partnered with 1inch, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that specializes in tracking down the lowest possible prices for the most widely used cryptocurrencies. A simple, easy-to-use design makes it easy for both crypto experts and beginners to manage their assets.
The BitPay Wallet is a perfect choice for both new and experienced crypto users. In addition to spending cryptocurrency or converting it to cash without selling it on an exchange, its characteristics make it perfect for managing assets held in several wallets (particularly Coinbase Exchange’s custodial wallet).
Coinbase Overview
Coinbase came onto the scene in 2012, just a year after BitPay when crypto enthusiasts Fred Ehrsam and Brian Armstrong started it. They all agreed that cryptocurrency could have an effect on efficiency, innovation, and equal opportunity. They founded Coinbase on this idea.
Coinbase is a key part of making open financial systems around the world, bringing them to light and giving people access to them. Coinbase is accessible in over 30 countries and has facilitated about 30 million transactions worldwide. Coinbase was an early innovator in educating the public about cryptocurrency. Users may earn cryptocurrencies just by learning about them using the platform’s “Learn and Earn” features.
The Coinbase wallet is also a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet. It’s not the same as the Coinbase Exchange, where you can buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies. Users can buy, store, and trade many different types of digital assets, such as NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and tokens.
You can connect your Coinbase Wallet and buy, sell, or transfer coins through Coinbase’s centralized exchange (for a fee), or you can look at Uniswap, Sushiswap, and other decentralized exchanges. You may use the app in the same way as you use the BitPay Wallet by linking numerous wallets together. Since the Coinbase debit card is on a waitlist, there is no way to spend cryptocurrency from the Coinbase Wallet app right now.
The Coinbase Wallet can be helpful for people who want to look for digital assets on the vast, decentralized web.
Coinbase vs BitPay
Security
The safety of your coins should be your first concern if you’re trying to decide whether to keep them on the Coinbase exchange website or transfer them to one of your devices.
The theft of Bitcoins from the Mt. Gox exchange in 2013 and 2014 shows how dangerous digital wallets can be. Many bitcoins worth millions of dollars were lost when the exchange went bankrupt.
Now that it has surpassed Mt. Gox in popularity, Coinbase promises to avoid making the same mistakes it made. Since the crash, one of Coinbase’s core beliefs has been strengthened, and it shows.
However, when using BitPay’s desktop wallet, you are solely responsible for protecting your own computer. So, if you keep your PC free of malware, downloading the wallet, an antivirus program, and turning on two-factor authentication on your phone will almost certainly keep it safe.
Since the code for the wallet is open-source, it’s hard for hackers to sneak in code to steal money. You may take further precautions to safeguard your funds by creating a copy of them offline (a “cold” backup) and keeping them in a safe location.
Even while Coinbase takes security very seriously, it is still recommended that you use a software wallet, such as BitPay, to store your cryptocurrency.
Fees Comparison
When you send your Bitcoin, you will have to pay a payment processing fee that depends on how quickly you want the online payment to be processed. Because the expenses are incurred outside of the wallet, in the end, they are the same for all platforms, despite the fact that your preference for making purchases may be optimized.
In the BitPay wallet, you can choose from five options to set the speed and cost that you want.
The wallet settings page in BitPay makes it simple to cut down on mining costs. Here you may see the total price of your transaction and the estimated time it will take to complete.
Conversely, this feature is not available in the Coinbase wallet, which instead uses an algorithm to calculate your balance. Lacking this flexibility limits how you can use your bitcoin and might be costly if you want to move coins between personal wallets rather than use them for payments.
Due to its greater adaptability, BitPay has a clear advantage.
Plugins Comparison
Since its inception, BitPay has focused its efforts on serving the needs of businesses via the provision of various services. So, BitPay provides a wide range of connectors that make it easy to accept BTC payments. In addition to e-commerce add-ons and services, BitPay has partnered with point-of-sale, accounting, and donation services.
BitPay’s platform is compatible with a wide variety of Bitcoin payment integrations and plugins.
In contrast, the Coinbase wallet has very few APIs, and none of its connections were supported by BitPay before. Even though they have the basic plugins, their services will be less able to meet the needs of businesses that are already up and running.
Established businesses, therefore, may choose to leverage BitPay’s extensive interface to facilitate quick and simple Bitcoin integration. BitPay seems to have won the competition for the plugin.
User Experience Comparison
In terms of layout, the payment pages of both platforms show the same information. However, the presentation of that information may be different visually depending mostly on the platform and plugin. Because of this, you cannot just compare the two of them.
The fact that Coinbase is the largest Bitcoin dealer on the market gives them one edge. Users of Coinbase who are signed in have the option of making payments with a single click of a button. When compared to the twenty-three million BTC wallets already in existence, Coinbase’s substantial market share of more than 10 million users makes a considerable difference in the ease of use as well as familiarity for all users.
Currencies Comparison
Due to the fact that it only supports Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, the BitPay wallet is limited in terms of the currencies it may hold. On the other hand, Coinbase is compatible with Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin transactions. This is only beneficial if you plan to make use of these coins, but if you do, Coinbase will earn handsomely from the transaction.
Final Thoughts
As the largest Bitcoin exchange, Coinbase has a major advantage as it adds more services. The cryptocurrency exchange offers a distinctive debit card service that greatly increases the exchange’s competitive edge in the cryptocurrency wallet and payment processing markets.
If you don’t care about how easy Coinbase is to use, BitPay’s wallet is better. However, Coinbase has lower transaction fees.
Choose the one that fulfills your needs the most. Give some thought to the coins you want to use, as well as the reasons and purposes behind your cryptocurrency use. Both BitPay and Coinbase are top-notch options; which one you choose will depend on personal preference.
