A cold wallet, also known as a hardware wallet, is a physical device (usually resembling a USB stick) that is used to store your private keys completely offline - imagine it as your own private bank vault. No transactions can be made without connecting the hardware wallet to the computer initiating the transaction and unlocking it. As they are not connected to the internet, cold wallets are less at risk of being compromised, assuming that the owner stores the seed phrase for the hardware wallet safely and offline.

In cryptography, messages are secured by a combination of public and private keys. Your crypto private key is a randomly generated string of letters and numbers, or sometimes in the form of a 12/24 word seed phrase, that acts as a password to your crypto wallet. It is used in a cryptocurrency transaction for proof of ownership. There is never a valid reason to share your private key or seed phrase with anybody. It should be defended at all costs because with your private key, anybody can take all your funds.

Also known as your seed phrase or secret recovery phrase, this is a set of words that is used to represent your private keys and they authenticate and encrypt your crypto wallet. It is in the form of 12-24 random English words, and all of your funds are connected to this. There is never a reason to share your secret recovery phrase with anybody. Share this and you lose all coins and tokens. Never store it on your computer. Instead, write it on paper or etch it in steel and keep it hidden in a safe place.

Scum of the Web3 world. Scammers live to steal your ETH, crypto or NFT. They will ask for your seed phrase, take control of your computer via a phony helpdesk app or just create a fake project with no infrastructure and pump it up. Their reckoning will come. Also used frequently by Bitcoin maxis to describe anybody that speaks about or even holds any coin that is not BTC.

A leather container frequently found in a Boomers pocket full of pieces of plastic that they insist have intrinsic value, as opposed to your non-custodial immutable blockchain money which they say is worthless. Also, more often, refers to a crypto wallet which is where you track your crypto holdings. Crypto wallets should come with private keys or a 12 or 24 word mnemonic seed phrase that only you know. Never give your seed phrase to anybody for goodness sake!