Theta is a blockchain-based streaming service and its native token, THETA. The latest developments in the project helped the token grow 3X since January, bringing it to the Top 30 cryptocurrencies list and making it one of the trending assets of 2021.
Given the surge of interest in Theta, we’ve prepared this guide on choosing a Theta wallet that will help you store your coins securely and conveniently. We will review 5 different wallets and suggest what use cases they are the best for.
What’s the deal with Theta?
How did Theta gain such popularity? People watch billions of hours of videos every day, but there are several problems with major centralized streaming services. On YouTube, content creators don’t really own their videos and can’t fully manage their monetization; they have to share royalty fees with the platform, but in the meantime, they can be blocked at any time due to authorities’ requests or non-transparent rules.
Theta is a streaming service that delivers content in a decentralized way: there is no powerful central authority that governs the project. Instead, there are users who run hundreds of guardian nodes and thus secure the network: Theta is community-driven, which is a healthy sign for the project.
5 best wallets to store Theta
Guarda Wallet
Guarda is a multi-asset wallet: besides Theta, you can store over 500 crypto coins there which allows you to manage your whole portfolio at once. Guarda wallet is available for all major web and mobile operating systems, which means you can access your funds whenever you want from each of your devices. To do so, save and securely store the seed phrase that Guarda will display to you at the setup — this phrase gives direct access to your funds, so make sure no one but you can see it.
Guarda is a non-custodial wallet, meaning that it stores the private keys in an encrypted form on your device — this gives you full control over your funds, compared to centralized exchanges. In Guarda, there is a built-in swap tool that will help you exchange different coins, so you can buy or sell THETA right inside Guarda. Overall, this wallet is a good solution if you’re active with your crypto portfolio and THETA is not the only asset that you regularly send and receive.
Theta Wallet
Theta Wallet is the official wallet developed by the Theta team. It’s available as a web and mobile app (both for Android and iOS). This wallet offers you full integration with the Theta ecosystem: here, you can not only send and receive THETA transactions but also access the platform’s features as a decentralized streaming service.
Theta Wallet supports TFuel — the second token of the platform that you can raise by watching other users’ videos and sharing your bandwidth with the network. It also helps you execute Theta transactions acting as gas, and if you’ve just set the wallet up, you can use a TFuel faucet to get some tokens for the start.
In Theta wallet, you can also stake THETA and TFuel, which allows you to secure the Theta network and get rewarded for it. If you’re a developer, Theta Wallet allows you to manage your Theta-based contracts if you have any.
Trezor Wallet
Trezor is a hardware wallet — a flash drive that stores your keys in an encrypted form away from the internet. This fact makes it one of the most secure wallets out there: hackers cannot physically access the wallet which makes compromising it close to impossible.
Besides Theta, Trezor allows you to store 1000+ other crypto coins. Since it’s a physical wallet, you’ll need to connect it to a PC via a cable or a phone via Bluetooth to initiate transactions (but receiving them is possible when the wallet isn’t connected). Different models of Trezor wallet cost from nearly 50 to 200 USD.
Trezor is a good solution if security is your number one priority, and you want to store your THETA together with other assets. It’s best to use Trezor if you don’t send the tokens daily (this may just be simply inconvenient). Although there is no native Theta app for Trezor yet, you can use Theta Web Wallet to operate your THETA tokens in Trezor.
MetaMask Wallet
MetaMask is commonly used to access decentralized apps on Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain, but Theta has made its token maximum compatible with the ETH ecosystem: even their basic cryptography and wallet format are the same. Hence, you can store THETA in MetaMask that is available for mobile phones and as a Chrome extension.
To start operating Theta in MetaMask, set up the wallet and add Theta manually to the wallet’s list of networks. This is very simple: find the guide here. MetaMask will allow you to flexibly use Theta across multiple protocols, but be careful with the security — web wallets are considered quite vulnerable to phishing and other types of attacks.
Atomic Wallet
Atomic Wallet is another good choice if you want to store all your portfolio in one place. It is available for Windows, macOS, and mobile phones. Same as Guarda, it’s a non-custodial wallet that supports 500+ coins and has a built-in exchange powered by ChangeNOW. Atomic is a good choice if you want to have permanent access to your coins and seek a seamless experience with sending and receiving crypto transactions. The use cases of Guarda and Atomic are quite similar, so you can try downloading them both to see which one you like best — this is entirely free and doesn’t require you to have any crypto.
Bottom line
We brought a list of reliable Theta wallets that suit various use cases. Think of how you’re going to use your THETA tokens, decide whether you want to store them with the rest of your portfolio — this will help you choose the optimal wallet. Download wallets by the links provided in the article — many scams are mimicking crypto wallet websites. If you want to get some THETA now, visit ChangeNOW and see what we offer.