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Mycelium Wallet Review 2024: Fees, Security & More
Luis Clark
- URL: https://wallet.mycelium.com
- Hardware Compatible: Yes (Trezor, KeepKey, Ledger)
- Price: Free
- Staking Rewards: No
- Platform App: Mobile
- NFTs Storage: No
- No. of Assets Supported: Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC-20 tokens, FIO
- Type of Wallet: Non-custodial software wallet
Mycelium Wallet Review: Our Opinion
Mycelium Wallet is a self-custody crypto wallet best for Bitcoin and Ethereum investors looking to own their digital assets. It stands out for its reputation in the crypto industry (since 2008) and hardware wallet support (Trezor, Ledger, and KeepKey).
The Mycelium Wallet, however, has its con as it supports only a limited type of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum tokens) and lacks other functionalities expected of Bitcoin wallets such as staking rewards or NFT support.
An Overview of Mycelium Wallet
Mycelium was founded in 2008 by a team of hardware engineers working on a mesh networking project. This predates the emergence of Bitcoin (2009 Genesis Block for the Bitcoin Network), making the Mycelium Wallet one of the oldest Bitcoin wallets on the market.
With the coming of Bitcoin, the project directed its technology to create the Mycelium Wallet and other 2 products in the field: Gear and Entropy.
Mycelium’s longevity in the Bitcoin scene is what separates it from the many competitors in the industry.
The Mycelium Wallet is a self-custody option that does not hold or possess your digital assets. This is different from centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, or the recently collapsed FTX, which are custody wallets.
The Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet simply allows users to send and receive cryptocurrencies from the blockchain network themselves.
In addition, the Mycelium Wallet does not require users to identify themselves or undergo any form of KYC verification (you’ll remain anonymous at all times).
The Mycelium Wallet also has an open-source code that allows people outside the company to audit the code for potential security risks. This means the community would not be dependent on the development team of Mycelium in ensuring the security of the Wallet.
Pros
- Gives access to private keys
- Easy to use
- High reputation
- Hardware wallet compataible
Cons
- Limited crypto selection
- No desktop version is available
- Limited customer support channel
Mycelium Wallet: What is it?
The Mycelium Wallet is an open-source self-custody crypto wallet that allows users to store, send, and receive Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ERC-20 tokens.
It is compatible with popular cold storage wallets such as Trezor, Ledger, and KeepKey, which provides additional security for your coins. The Mycelium hot wallet is primarily a mobile wallet and supports Android and iOS devices (no desktop support).
Mycelium Wallet: How does it Work?
The Mycelium Wallet works like most other non-custodial Bitcoin wallet; it gives you access to the private keys of your crypto assets via a recovery seed phrase that is shown to you during setup.
By requiring the recovery seed phrase, your Mycelium cryptocurrency wallet remains impervious to unauthorized access, even by individuals such as customer support or members of the development team.
How to Set Up Mycelium Wallet?
To set up your Mycelium Wallet you’ll need the following:
- Paper
- Pen
- An Android or iOS smartphone
- Internet access
- After getting the above things ready you are now set to begin setting up your wallet.
First, head over to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and download the Mycelium Wallet app.
After it has been downloaded, click the Open button on the Google Play Store to launch the wallet on your mobile device.
You should see a screen displaying your balance and crypto address as well as a Send and Receive button under.
Next, you’ll need to back up your Bitcoin mobile wallet to secure it.
To do so, tap on the 3 dot menu icon in the upper right corner of your screen.
The first option you’ll see is “Backup”, tap on it to proceed. This will activate a pop-up prompt requesting to know if you want to back up the master seed of your wallet via your mobile device.
Tap on Yes to continue.
This will take you to a screen where you’ll be shown a series of 12 random words (your secure secret seed key). You’ll need to write this down on your paper wallet and secure it.
To verify the backup seed key, the Mycelium Wallet will request that you input those words in the order they were shown to you.
After you’ve done this you’ll get a prompt stating that “your word list backup has successfully been verified”.
Ensure you store your paper wallet in a safe place as without it your funds could be lost forever.
Once that’s done you’ll need to set a PIN code, which will prevent anyone from accessing your Mycelium Wallet without it.
Mycelium Wallet Review: How to Send and Receive Coins
To send Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other supported ERC-20 tokens, launch the Mycelium Wallet and go to the Balance tab and tap “Send”.
Next, you can choose to Scan the QR Code/Copy the recipient’s crypto Address to Clipboard or manually add the Bitcoin address you want to send coins to.
After you’ve entered the crypto address and the number of coins you want to send, choose the type of miner fee (Mycelium wallet fees) you’ll want to pay for the confirmation of the transaction.
Go over the inputted details and click Send.
To receive coins into your Mycelium hot wallet, head to the Balance Tab and tap “receive“.
You can enter the amount to be requested in your optional field.
Next, share your Bitcoin address QR Code or the alphanumeric address via the ‘Share Bitcoin Address’ or ‘Copy To Clipboard’ and share with the individual you want to receive coins from.
You can check for received funds under Transaction History.
Mycelium Wallet Review: Unique Features
Mycelium Local Trader
Mycelium Local Trader is a built-in decentralized in-person exchange in the Mycelium Bitcoin wallet. The Local Trader server arranges trades between buyers and sellers, manages sales transactions, and calculates traders’ reputation ratings based on trades.
Since users’ crypto assets are stored in the wallet, the Local Trader exchange does not need to hold traders’ Bitcoin or fiat as centralized crypto wallets do.
To start trading with Local Trader, you need to download the Mycelium app from the website or Google Play Store and create a backup. Creating a backup will allow you to restore your crypto assets and Local Trader account whenever the need arises.
Next, click the ‘Buy/Sell’ button and then click the ‘Change’ button at the top of the page to change your location.
Type in your location. You can input a public place like a bank or Cafe where you want to meet.
You can also use the GPS button to find your location automatically. But to protect your privacy, Local Trader will be intentionally imprecise about your location.
Next, select a trader with a good reputation and click ‘Buy’.
Enter how much you wish to buy. Each seller has a minimum and maximum amount they are willing to sell. If the amount you input is not within the seller’s range, it will be in red.
Type in the captcha to prove the trade is not being initiated by a bot.
Once this is done, you can tap on the chat window to see the seller’s profile. You will also be able to communicate with the seller via the chat function to agree on the trade, price, location, and time.
Click ‘Accept Offer’ to proceed with the trade.
If you do not wish to proceed with the trade click ‘Stop Trade’
Stopping a trade at this point will not affect your “trader reputation”. But if you abort the trade later after accepting the offer, you will be given a reputation penalty.
When you meet the trader at the chosen location and hand over the cash, the trader will confirm receipt in their wallet. Once this is done a transaction is initiated automatically.
A confidence graph and a message letting you know your Bitcoin is on the way are displayed above the ‘Accept Offer’ button. You are to wait until the confidence graph gets to 99% before parting ways with the seller. At 99% you can be certain that you will receive your Bitcoins.
The average time it takes for a transaction to be confirmed is 10 minutes. In some cases, it could take a minute or an hour.
This is why there is a confidence graph displayed at the top of the page. The confidence bar gives you a hint at how likely it is that a transaction will be confirmed
The transaction confidence is calculated based on an advanced analysis done by a Local Trader of the state of the transaction on the Bitcoin network. The base confidence is determined by the percentage of the Bitcoin network that has seen the transaction. The confidence level can be reduced to zero if a double-spend is detected. Also, if one of the unconfirmed dependencies has been subject to a malleability attack or paid a low mining fee, the confidence is halved.
These strict measures ensure that the trader does not cheat the buyer.
The bitcoins purchased via the Mycelium Local Trader are sent to the address you selected when you initiated the trade.
Mycelium switches to the next unused receive address each time a receive address is used to buy Bitcoin through Local Trader. Mycelium Wallet does not support creating addresses in advance.
To prevent fraud, Mycelium Wallet does not allow sellers to accept deals if their wallets do not have enough coins.
Mycelium Wallet Review: Supported Cryptocurrencies
Mycelium Wallet was originally designed as a Bitcoin wallet. But it now supports other cryptocurrencies, including Tether, Ethereum, Binance USD, FIO, Huobi Token, Zero X, and some ERC-20 tokens.
Mycelium Wallet Review: Does it Support NFTs?
No, the Mycelium Wallet does not support NFTs.
Mycelium Wallet Review: Mycelium Fees Explained
The Mycelium Wallet has 4 types of miner fees attached to transactions and these charges are paid to miners. Mycelium does not keep these fees.
Here are the various network Mycelium fees charged:
- Priority Network Fee: This takes up to 600 satoshis/byte and approximately 10 minutes to confirm a transaction.
- Economic Network Fee: This takes 143 satoshis/byte and takes an estimated 2 hours to confirm a transaction.
- Normal: This takes approximately 30 minutes to confirm a transaction and 196 satoshis/byte
- Low Priority: Takes approximately 3 hours to confirm and requires 129 satoshis/byte.
Mycelium Wallet Review: Security
Unlike centralized crypto wallets, Mycelium Bitcoin wallet does not keep custody of users’ assets and also does not require any personal information.
The Mycelium app is reproducible, this means that you do not need to be 100% dependent on the Mycelium development team.
No blockchain download is required to use the wallet. You can simply install the wallet and have it running within seconds.
The Wallet also offers cold storage in the form of paper wallets and watch-only accounts. Watch-only accounts are accounts that allow users to view their current funds without requiring their private keys.
Mycelium users can create paper wallets using Mycelium Entropy. This is a small USB device that uses hardware-based entropy to generate printable Bitcoin paper wallets. To generate the paper wallets all you need to do is insert Mycelium Entropy into a compatible printer and select the print option on the printer.
Mycelium Wallet uses Bit ID instead of a standard dated password-based solution for secure authentication.
Mycelium users also have the option of securing their wallet and wallet app with multi-level PIN protection. The users can use this PIN alongside the recovery phrase to restore their accounts when necessary.
Another vital security feature of the Mycelium wallet is its compatibility with 2 of the best hardware wallets-Trezor and Ledger. The compatibility of Mycelium with these hardware wallets allows users to use the hardware wallets as a cold storage solution for storing the majority of their crypto assets, while Mycelium wallet is used to hold smaller amounts of crypto for daily transactions.
Asides from Ledger and Trezor, Mycelium wallet is also compatible with Glidera, Coinapult, and Cashila. Mycelium’s integration with Glidera allows users to exchange fiat currency for Bitcoin using their Canadian or American bank account.
As already stated, Mycelium users are not required to provide any personal information. The wallet also does not collect any user data. All data from transactions and chats are fully encrypted and users’ addresses and locations are concealed using the Tor Network.
Opening an Account
Mycelium Wallet is a non-custodial wallet. This means that you don’t need to create an account to use the service. You only need to download the mobile wallet, launch it, copy your recovery seed phrase, and use it.
There’s no need for any form of KYC or inputting personal data.
Mycelium Wallet App
The Mycelium app allows users to send, receive and manage their Bitcoin and other crypto assets using their mobile phones.
The Wallet app has a cold wallet functionality that allows users to securely store their crypto assets and also spend directly from their hardware wallets whenever they need to.
Since Mycelium is a Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallet, the mobile app is HD enabled. This means that users can create multiple crypto addresses to meet their needs. With the master private key or master seed, users can access all their wallets within the app.
It also allows users to manage their wallets on multiple devices without giving up control and to spend directly from paper wallets.
Mycelium Bitcoin wallet app integrates with Cashila.com which allows users to send money within the EU via SEPA wires and Glidera.io which allows traders to buy Bitcoin using a bank account in US and Canada.
With the mobile app, users can view their transaction history and share their crypto address using email, NFC, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
The app is available on both iOS and Android devices.
Mycelium Wallet Review: Customer Satisfaction
The Mycelium wallet customer support team offers support via email at support@mycelium.com and support ticket. It does not have an account on any social network including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Bitcointalk, TikTok, etc. It also does not offer phone support.
That said, the support team has poor customer service. This is primarily due to the limited support channels which makes it almost impossible to get swift service.
Also, the information available on the Mycelium website is sparse and barely enough to help users troubleshoot their problems.
Who Should Use Mycelium Wallet?
A Mycelium Wallet is best for advanced crypto investors looking to own the private keys of their Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other ERC-20 tokens. It isn’t for crypto investors who need multi-coin crypto wallets that support altcoins.
Why Use a Mycelium Wallet?
Using a Mycelium Wallet gives you complete ownership of your digital assets (private keys) and secures your coins against the risks associated with centralized exchanges like bankruptcy and hacks.
Alternatives to Mycelium Wallet
Popular alternatives to the Mycelium Wallet include Exodus, MetaMask, and Atomic Wallet. These options offer more features to users and additional cryptocurrencies.
Final Thoughts
Mycelium is best for investors looking to hold Bitcoin and Ethereum. Traders searching for hot wallets supporting many cryptocurrencies will find the mobile wallet limiting.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Mycelium is a good crypto wallet if you’re interested in just holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and major ERC-20 tokens. But if you want more features like staking rewards and an ample selection of coins then the Mycelium Wallet isn’t a good option.
The Mycelium Wallet has been in existence since the Genesis block of Bitcoin and has experienced no major security challenges.
Mycelium Wallet is a hot wallet. However, it is compatible with cold wallets like Trezor and Ledger.
Yes, the Mycelium Wallet allows you to hold Ethereum and other ERC-20 tokens.
We always try to provide the most accurate information available, and make sure our team follow through.
If you want to know more about our Crypto Exchanges Review Methodology follow the link below
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