What is a cryptocurrency wallet?

MozaikPay is a wallet, and if you spend any time around digital money you'll hear that word constantly. It's also a misleading name, because a wallet doesn't hold money the way the one in your pocket does. This page explains what a wallet actually is, what addresses and keys do, and what kind of wallet MozaikPay is.

The money isn't inside

Your digital dollars don't live on your phone. They live on a public network, a shared ledger that thousands of computers around the world keep in sync, recording which wallet owns what. Your balance is an entry on that ledger. That's why deleting the app doesn't delete your money, and a broken phone doesn't break your balance.

A wallet holds keys, and little else. A key is a long secret number, and whoever holds it can move the money the ledger has assigned to it. So a wallet is closer to a keychain than to a wallet. The valuables sit elsewhere, safe on the network, and the wallet keeps the only thing that can unlock them.

Addresses and keys

Every wallet has an address, a long string of letters and numbers that works like an account number. It's public and safe to share, because knowing it only lets people send money to you, never take it. In MozaikPay you rarely see yours, since usernames do that job between users. It comes out when you receive a crypto deposit from another app or an exchange.

The keys are the private half. When you send money, your wallet uses a key to sign the transaction, and the network checks that signature against your wallet before it moves anything. A valid signature is the only thing the network trusts. It doesn't know about phones, apps, or support teams, only about keys.

That leads to the one rule that everything else in crypto follows from. Whoever holds the keys controls the money.

Who holds the keys

The rule splits wallets into two kinds.

With a custodial wallet, like an account on a crypto exchange, the company holds the keys and you hold a login. That feels familiar, because it's how banks work, and it comes with the same catch. You're trusting the company to stay solvent, stay honest, and stay open.

With a self-custodial wallet, the keys live with you, and no company stands between you and your money. MozaikPay is this kind. The keys to your wallet exist on your phone and in your recovery backup, and nowhere else. Is my money safe? covers what that means in practice.

Where's my seed phrase?

If you've used another self-custodial wallet, you may be waiting for the ritual of the twelve words, the seed phrase you're told to copy onto paper and guard with your life. MozaikPay doesn't have one.

Instead, your wallet is controlled by two keys with separate jobs. An everyday spending key is created on your phone and never leaves it, and a recovery key is backed up as an encrypted file, protected by a password only you know. You get the same self-custody, without a phrase taped to the back of a drawer being the single point of failure. The two-key model explains how the two keys share the work, and What happens if I lose my phone? walks through what that looks like when you need it.