Course outline
- 1What a crypto wallet is, and where the coins actually live
- 2Custodial vs non-custodial wallets: whose keys are they
- 3Types of crypto wallet: hot, cold, extensions and hardware
- 4The seed phrase: what it is and why you tell it to nobody
- 5Address, private key and password: how they differ
- 6Where to download a wallet without installing a fake
- 7How to install MetaMask and create a wallet
- 8How to install Rabby: a wallet for many EVM chains
- 9Phantom: a Solana wallet and how to download it
- 10Tonkeeper: how to get a wallet on TON
- 11Hardware wallets: why Ledger and Trezor, and where to buy them
- 12An exchange wallet: convenient, but the keys are not yours
- 13What DeFi is, in plain language
- 14CEX and DEX: where to swap, and what that implies
- 15Gas: why a swap will not send without ETH, SOL or TON
- 16How to buy crypto: fiat, exchange, network, DEX
- 17How to swap tokens on Uniswap (EVM)
- 18How to buy a token on Jupiter (Solana)
- 19How to swap a jetton on STON.fi (TON)
- 20Phishing: where you never type a seed phrase
- 21Why a tracker asks for an address, not a seed phrase
- 22How to check the purchase arrived: network, address, tracker
- 23Wallet security: short rules that actually work
- 24Twitter / X: how to find a project's real account and skip the clone
- 25DefiLlama: where to find a project's real site and Twitter
When you create a non-custodial wallet you are shown ordinary words: apple, river, clock… That is the seed / recovery phrase. All of the wallet's keys are derived from it.
The app password is a lock on this copy on this phone. The seed is the master key to every copy, on any device, now and in ten years.

Why “nobody”
The network does not know who you are. It knows a signature. Whoever has the seed has the signature. You cannot reverse a transfer the way you reverse a card payment. Wallet support does not ask for a seed: they do not need it and it would be dangerous.
How to store it
- Write it on paper in your own hand. Check every word and the order.
- Two copies in two places that do not burn and flood together. Not email, not iPhone Notes, not a chat with yourself.
- Never type it unless you are restoring the wallet on your own device, downloaded from the official site.
A metal plate beats paper if the amount is serious. A “just in case” photo is the most common way to lose everything to a cloud breach.
When you do type the seed
Only in the official app that you opened yourself, on the Restore / Import wallet screen. Not from a link in an email. Not in an extension that “support sent”.
If you are unsure, do not type it. The money can wait. A seed that left in a chat is no longer yours.