Best Verge Wallets for 2019: Which Verge Wallet Should You Use?

Verge is a privacy coin that takes a unique approach to keeping transactions anonymous and untraceable. Unlike other privacy coins, which merely hide transaction data with stealth addresses, Verge additionally obscures IP addresses and geolocation data via Tor and I2P. Verge also offers fast transaction speeds and low fees, making the coin an effective choice for private payments.

After you buy Verge (XVG) from an exchange, you will need a wallet to store it in. It is possible to store Verge tokens in an exchange’s online wallet, but a proper Verge wallet will provide much better security and many more features. Although the selection of Verge wallets is not vast, a handful of high-quality wallets are available. This guide will outline some of the best Verge wallets.

Considerations

Here are a few things that this guide will take into consideration:

• Security: Does the wallet provide two-factor authentication (2FA), passphrase login, or cold storage? Does it store private keys locally on your device or remotely in an online account? Does it provide recovery seeds?
• Supported platforms: Can the wallet be run on desktop platforms, mobile devices, or hardware wallets? Is it a browser-based plugin or a web app?
• Compatible coins: Does the wallet support coins other than Verge?
• Ease of use: Is the wallet easy to download, set up, and use? Is the interface appealing and intuitive?
• Development activity: When was the wallet created? Is the wallet still updated regularly? Outdated wallets may introduce security risks, or they may simply no longer work with the most recent version of a coin.

Verge Tor Electrum – Best Lightweight Desktop Wallet

Security: Good | Platform: Desktop | Compatible coins: Verge (XVG)
Ease of use: Simple | Active since: 2011

Verge’s official wallets are the best way to store Verge on a desktop computer, especially if you intend to spend Verge regularly. Verge offers a few different official wallets, but the Electrum wallet is the quickest and easiest option for most users.

Electrum is a very versatile wallet that has been adapted by many other cryptocurrencies. It has a fairly basic interface: it is not eye-catching and does not display important information prominently. However, the layout is logical, and the wallet resembles standard desktop apps, as seen below.

One advantage of this Verge wallet is that it is very easy to use. It complies with a widely-used transaction specification, Simple Payment Verification (SPV), which means that you do not have to download an entire blockchain in order to make a payment. You can download the wallet and begin making transactions in just moments.

In addition to Verge’s built-in privacy features (i.e. Tor integration), Electrum offers many basic security features, such as two-factor authentication and a password-based login form.

Although Verge is a widely-trusted wallet, it should be noted that a security problem was discovered in the Electrum Bitcoin wallet earlier this year. This problem was quickly fixed, but you should never use an old version of Electrum under any circumstances.

The Electrum Verge wallet is supported by all three major operating systems: Windows, OSX, and Linux. An alternative mobile wallet is also available, although it is not quite the same as the desktop wallet. All official Verge wallets are only compatible with the Verge token.

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Verge Tor QT – Best Full Node Verge Wallet

Security: Excellent | Platform: Desktop | Compatible coins: Verge (XVG)
Ease of use: Intermediate | Active since: Unknown

In addition to the lightweight Electrum wallet, Verge also provides a full-featured wallet called the Verge QT wallet. In order to use this wallet, you will need to download the entire Verge blockchain – over 4 GB of data as of December 2018. This requirement makes the QT wallet a less-than-ideal choice for basic users.

However, the QT wallet does have a number of features for power users. Notably, the QT wallet has extra privacy and security features, such as SSL encryption. Additionally, the fact that the wallet runs a full node (a local version of the blockchain) prevents invalid transactions from occurring.

The QT wallet offers a heavily stylized interface, as shown below. However, the design is mostly superficial, and the QT wallet GUI offers most of the same features that are found in the Electrum version. The QT wallet’s real power can be found in its RPC commands, which offer fine control over almost any Verge-related activity.

Like the Electrum wallet, the QT wallet is available for all major desktop operating systems, including Windows, OSX, and Linux. It only supports the Verge token.

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Coinomi – Best Mobile Verge Wallet

Security: Good | Platform: Mobile and desktop
Coin compatibility: Universal
Ease of use: Basic | Active since: 2014

Although Verge provides an official mobile wallet, it is hard to beat Coinomi, a third-party wallet that supports Verge and over 500 other cryptocurrencies. Since Coinomi is a universal wallet, it provides a major advantage over official wallets: it can store all of your coins in one place.

Coinomi has also integrated itself with two major exchanges, ShapeShift and Changelly. This allows you to easily exchange Verge for other cryptocurrencies right from your Verge wallet. However, these exchange-based features may cost extra fees.

This wallet implements basic security features — most importantly, Coinomi stores your private keys on your own device. It is not clear how many of Verge’s original security features Coinomi supports, although the wallet does introduce its own IP-hiding techniques and other privacy features.

Coinomi can be used on iOS and Android. A desktop version of the wallet is also in development.

Suggested Reading: Take a look at our picks for the best wallets for another privacy coin, Monero.

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Verge Paper Wallet – Best Cold Storage Verge Wallet

Security: Excellent | Platform: Web | Coin compatibility: Verge (XVG)
Ease of use: Advanced | Active since: Unknown

Unfortunately, none of the three major hardware wallets (Trezor, Ledger, and KeepKey) support Verge — although a Ledger wallet is reportedly in development. Until a hardware wallet is released, the best cold storage solution is a paper wallet.

Like hardware wallets, paper wallets allow you to store coins in an offline medium. This is not convenient if you plan to spend Verge immediately, but it is useful if you plan to store a large amount of coins for an extended period of time.

The official Verge site provides a simple paper wallet generator. In seconds, you can generate a key, download an image, and print it off. The generator produces a layout that is standard for this sort of wallet: a two-sided piece of paper with light-blocking patterns to prevent peeking and tampering, as seen below.

Although paper wallets are very secure, they are not recommended for beginners, as they can easily be lost, misplaced, or damaged. It is important to print multiple copies of a wallet and keep each copy in a safe location. Theft is not the only issue here: you should be concerned about water damage, accidental loss, and other risks.

Apart from generating public and private keys, the Verge wallet generator can also generate an optional BIP38 password that you can store separately. This is a double-edged sword: although an extra password adds another layer of authentication when it comes time to retrieve your funds, it also increases the chance that you will lose a vital piece of information.

The Verge paper wallet generator runs in a web browser, meaning that it should work on any platform. If it does not work, try updating your browser, and make sure that you have JavaScript enabled. You can also download the generator and run it offline for extra security.

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