Basic Android Self-Custody Guide
Trusted Third Parties are Security Holes
- Nick Szabo
This basic setup is meant to get you up to speed quickly. You'll pick one of the wallets below, create your private key and take possession of your bitcoin. I wouldn't recommend storing too much of your wealth in a mobile wallet. Think of it as a self-custodied spending wallet, similar to how you'd carry cash in a physical wallet.
Recommended Wallets
Cove
The wallet to start with.
- ✓Simple yet powerful
- ✓Encrypted cloud backup
- ✓Decoy PIN and wipe protection
Nunchuk
The wallet you grow into.
- ✓Single-sig now, multisig later
- ✓Mobile and desktop
- ✓Works with ten hardware wallets
Bull Bitcoin
The wallet for spending.
- ✓Bitcoin and Liquid
- ✓Instant, low-fee spending
- ✓Optional buy and sell built in
All three are Bitcoin only and open source, and none of them hold your keys. Those are the entry requirements rather than selling points, which is why the cards above only tell you what sets each one apart.
I also do not recommend a wallet without reading it. The source code of all three was reviewed with AI assistance, Opus 5 and Kimi K3, paying closest attention to the parts that generate randomness, hold keys and build transactions.
That is a code review, not a formal security audit, and it is not a guarantee that nothing is wrong. All three are open source, so you are free to read them yourself.