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Lesson 4 · 2 min · Beginner

Receiving, sending, and staying safe

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Getting paid: how to receive

  1. Open your wallet and choose "Receive".
  2. Copy your address (or scan its QR code).
  3. Share it with the sender. Addresses are safe to share publicly.
  4. Wait for the transaction to appear, then for confirmations.

Sending it off: how to send

  1. Open your wallet and choose "Send".
  2. Paste the recipient’s address — double-check it.
  3. Choose the network (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum, its L2s) — sending on the wrong network can lose funds permanently.
  4. Set the fee (higher = faster confirmation).
  5. Review and confirm. The wallet signs with your private key and broadcasts to the mempool.
  6. Track confirmations on a block explorer.

Before you press Send

SendTo0x7a3F9c21E84b0D56a1C3e9F02B7d4416c8E5a9D0NetworkEthereum▾Amount0.25 ETHFeeLowMediumHighReview1Check every character,not just the first and last2Must be a network therecipient supports3Higher fee, faster confirmation4Review, then confirm: thewallet signs and broadcasts
Two of the costliest mistakes happen on this screen: the wrong address and the wrong network. Check both, and the fee, before you confirm. The screen and address are made up, not a real wallet’s.
Common, costly mistakes
  • Wrong network — sending a token over a network the recipient doesn’t support (e.g. an ERC-20 token to an exchange deposit address on another chain) can lose the funds.
  • Lost seed phrase — no support team can recover it. Funds gone forever.
  • Phishing — entering your seed phrase on a fake site empties your wallet in seconds.
  • Copy-paste address poisoning — always verify the full address, not just the first/last characters.

Keeping it safe: habits that actually matter

  • Never share your seed phrase with anyone, ever. No legitimate service asks for it.
  • Use a hardware wallet for amounts you can’t afford to lose.
  • Write the seed phrase on paper (or metal) and store it offline; don’t store it in a cloud note or photo.
  • Consider multi-sig for very large holdings (e.g. 2-of-3 keys required).
  • Verify recipient addresses character-by-character; consider address-book allow-lists.
Try it yourself

Open the Simulated Wallet Lab → Send simulated "NodeScholar Coin" (NSC), watch it sit in the mempool, choose fee tiers, and see it confirm in a block. No real funds involved. For cold-storage setup, see the Cold Storage Walkthrough; for institutional custody, the Multi-sig Vault Simulator shows how M-of-N signing contains a single compromised key.

Key takeaways

A one-page summary of Wallets — Types & How to Use Them. Print it for quick reference.

  • A wallet holds your keys, not your coins — the coins live on the blockchain.
  • Hot wallets are convenient (online); cold/hardware wallets are safer for larger amounts (offline).
  • Custodial = someone else holds your keys (e.g. an exchange); non-custodial = you hold them.
  • A seed phrase (BIP39) is entropy encoded as words — it derives all your keys. Lose it and funds are gone forever; share it and funds are stolen.
  • Always verify the recipient address and the network — wrong-network sends usually lose funds permanently.

Unit check

80% to complete this unit
5 questions

Pass the unit check (4 of 5) to complete this unit.

Educational only, not financial or legal advice.