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Non custodial wallets

What is a non-custodial wallet ?​

By definition, a "non-custodial" wallet is in contrast to a "custodial" wallet and represents a wallet for which you own the private key and have sole control over.

Buying Mina requires connecting to a trading platform that allows exchanging a currency (Euro, USD, other crypto, etc.) for Minas.

Once you have acquired Minas, they are accessible through the trading platform, and you can potentially engage in trades (short, long) with your tokens on the exchange pairs available on the platform.

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There are virtually no exchange platforms today that allow you to access your private key, which is from the blockchain's perspective the sole proof of ownership of your tokens. Instead, the wallet addresses on exchanges are assigned by the platform, and most of the time, you only have access to the public key of the wallet (which allows you to deposit funds) without ever being granted access to the private key (which enables you to operate, withdraw funds, control, etc.) of your wallet.

CONCLUSION

Your tokens stored on an exchange do not belong to you !!!
!! Not your key, not your tokens !!

Advantages of Keeping Your Tokens on an Exchange Platform
The advantage of storing on an exchange platform (and there is only one!) is the ability to quickly trade (=exchange/buy/sell) your tokens.

Disadvantages of Keeping Your Tokens on an Exchange Platform
There are numerous disadvantages to leaving your tokens on a centralized platform:

  • The first is that it is in complete contradiction with the very principle of blockchain, which is to be decentralized.
  • The second disadvantage is that, theoretically, you have no control over your funds. If the platform goes out of business, you lose 100% of your investments!
  • The third disadvantage concerns staking. Staking in the context of a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain like Mina involves delegating1 your tokens to a trusted validator2 to give them additional chances to produce blocks3 that generate rewards (coinbase4).
    These rewards are then distributed to the delegators proportionally to the number of delegated mina minus the commission taken by the validator (typically between 0% and 10%, with most applying a 5% rate).
    When your Minas are stored on a platform, at best, it offers its own staking conditions at high commission rates. However, most platforms simply do not offer staking, depriving you of a significant source of passive income (between 12% and 24% APR).
  • The fourth disadvantage is that a non-custodial wallet does not allow the use of the wallet on specific applications of the blockchain (DApps or zkApps5 in the context of Mina).
1 Staking

More information on staking in the dedicated section.
Go to 🔗Staking Guide

2 Validator

A validator is a participants who locks up a certain amount of cryptocurrency as collateral.
This collateral serves as a security deposit and ensures that validators have a vested interest in maintaining the integrity of the network.
It’s important to note that funds staked on Mina are not locked up. This means you can re-delegate, un-delegate, transfer, sell, or donate your Mina tokens anytime you want.

3 Blocks

Validators take turns creating new blocks and validating transactions based on the amount of cryptocurrency they have staked.
The more cryptocurrency a validator has at stake, the higher the chances they have of being chosen to create a new block.

4 Coinbase

Validators are rewarded with additional cryptocurrency for successfully creating and validating blocks.
The coinbase is a special transaction in a newly produced block that contains the reward owed to the validator who produced the new block.
Currently, the base reward for producing a block on Mina is 720 Mina, to which an additional 720 Mina (supercharged reward) is added if the production slot was won by an unlocked address.

5 zkApps

What are the "non custodial" mina wallets avaliable ?​

Auro Wallet​

official website : https://www.aurowallet.com/

Auro Wallet

Description (from official website)
Available as a browser extension and as a mobile App, Auro Wallet has multiple languages version, perfectly supports Mina Protocol and is completely open-source. With it, you can easily send, receive or stake your MINA, and view the transaction records anytime. It also supports send zkApp transactions (once available on mainnet)

My Opinion

Auro Wallet strengths :

  • Available on Android and iOS
  • Available as a browser extension (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
  • Compatible pour Ledger hardware wallet
  • zkApps ready
  • Multi-account, wallets management
  • Easy inApp staking
  • Open source

Clorio Wallet​

official website : https://clor.io/

Clorio Wallet

Description (from official website)
Clorio is an open-source wallet for Mina Protocol, built with Javascript.
With Clorio you can interact with the Mina blockchain by generating/using your private key or by using the Ledger hardware wallet.
Clorio wallet doesn't send your private key out of the client app, all the transactions are signed in local or on your Ledger device.
The nature of Clorio is self-custodian, this means that you are the only one responsible for safe-keeping your private key.
We have no possibility to recover your lost keys, block transactions and we don't take any responsibility over software malfunction.
You are essentially your own bank.

My Opinion

Clorio Wallet strengths :

  • Available as a desktop application (windows, Mac OSX and Linux)
  • Compatible pour Ledger hardware wallet
  • Multi-account, wallets management
  • Easy inApp staking
  • Open source