Where to store your Monero (practical, slightly opinionated guide)

Wow!

I was messing with Monero wallets last week and somethin’ felt off about how casually folks stash XMR on exchanges.

My instinct said to write this down, because privacy isn’t just a checkbox.

Initially I thought the differences between various XMR storage options were mostly technical minutiae, but then I realized the real risks live in UX choices, custodial assumptions, and tiny default settings that people never change.

Here’s what I learned the hard way.

Seriously?

Most folks ask about “best wallet” as if it’s a product, when it’s really a set of trade-offs between convenience, threat model, and recoverability.

I prefer non-custodial wallets that default to run your own node, but that comes with setup friction for a lot of people.

On one hand running a full node gives you maximal privacy and censorship resistance, though actually running and maintaining a node can be intimidating, especially if you’re not technically inclined or you’re on a flaky ISP.

There are simpler options, but they shift trust elsewhere.

Hmm…

Take mobile wallets: great for daily use and quick payments, yet they often rely on remote nodes which can see your connection patterns (oh, and by the way… connection patterns leak more than you think).

Hardware wallets add a layer of safety for your keys, and I use them for long-term holdings, though they don’t solve all metadata leaks.

Something bugs me about the way people talk about “cold storage” for XMR — they mean “keep your seed offline”, but if you copy that seed to a not-so-secure cloud back-up, you might as well have not bothered, which is a nuance lost in clickbait guides.

I’m biased toward simplicity with clear failure modes.

Whoa!

Alright, so practical advice: pick a wallet that matches your threat model.

If you want privacy and control, consider a combination: a hardware wallet for keys plus a privacy-first software wallet for transactions.

If custody is your primary concern then reputable non-custodial desktop wallets that can connect to your own remote or local node are a strong middle ground, because they let you keep keys offline while still giving you a user-friendly interface for creating ring signatures and managing subaddresses.

Check the wallet’s recovery procedure, test it, and store your seed where you will actually be able to retrieve it decades from now — that’s very very important.

Where to start (a practical pointer)

Really?

If you’re researching wallets, check projects that prioritize privacy and transparency, and read their docs carefully.

For a direct resource I often point people to the xmr wallet official site because it aggregates downloads and documentation without the noise of third-party app stores, which helps reduce the risk of grabbing a spoofed binary, though you should still verify signatures.

Okay, so check signatures, double-check fingerprints, and don’t rely on screenshots alone, because attackers will fake visuals but a mismatched signature is a clear red flag.

Actually, wait—let me rephrase that; verifying the wallet binary and seed handling is a ritual: it requires attention to detail and a little paranoia, and trust me, that’s a good thing when you’re holding irreversible value.