Three Address Protocol (TAP)

One wallet is not enough.

If you're new to crypto, this may not be obvious. You're told you need a wallet, but that's where the advice stops. You're expected to be self sufficient after you have the wallet set up, you've taken custody of your tokens, and you've interacted with your first dApp.

But keeping all your crypto in one wallet is risky. If you get hacked or just forget your password, you lose everything.

Three wallets is enough for proper security. Here's what you need:

First, you need a vault. This is the equivalent of a savings account, safety deposit box, or chest of gold buried in the backyard. You don't access your vault every day, and you definitely don't carry it with you everywhere you go. Ideally, you'd use a hardware wallet or flash drive, with your seed phrase backed up somewhere secure and fire proof (engraved in steel for example). The best vault will be a smart contract with additional security, recovery, and convenience features (we're building this for KAP users).

Your second address is a warm wallet. This is your checking account. You can access it readily, and you probably use it to get paid, pay friends, interact with trusted stores, etc. You wouldn't want to use your debit card just anywhere. Scammers may be waiting with card skimmers, RFID readers, and who knows what else.

The last wallet you need is a hot wallet. This is the cash in your wallet. Don't carry more than you can afford to lose. In fact, it's best to only put things in this wallet when you plan to make a purchase somewhere you don't trust. Most of the time, you'll want to deposit tokens and collectibles you acquire with your hot wallet into your warm wallet or vault right away. On most chains, you'll need to carry a few tokens to pay for gas fees, but on Koinos, you can just delegate mana from your vault and keep your hot wallet completely empty most of the time.

This might be a little tedious at times compared to having one wallet, but it's worth the added peace of mind.

-Luke

P.S. I didn't invent this concept. I first heard of TAP from @punk6529 on X.

P.P.S. I'll be sharing more about KAP's vault design as we get closer to launching it in Q4.