Quote from: mocacinno on Today at 09:48:17 AM

bitcoin.org has a wizard that helps you chose your wallet:
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

It seems like there is some confusion about the basic concepts... I'll try to give a very simplified explanation about what is happening between seed/mpk/pk/address/derivation path/... mind you, this explanation is simplified.

Most recent wallets are either custodial (meaning: don't use those) or non-custodial. A custodial wallet usually doesn't let you access your private key(s), you're not in controll of your funds, so i'd advice against using those.

A non custodial wallet is usually a HD wallet nowadays.
Usually, they generate a seed phrase you can write down on a piece of paper in order to restore your wallet afterwards.
The seed phrase goes trough an algorithm to create a master private key.
Following a derivation path, private keys get derived from this master private key.

Usually, a public key gets derived from the private key, this public key gets hashed and the hash is actually the address.

Over the years, we moved from "default" wallet type. In the very beginning, we used pay to public key wallets. Then we switched to pay to public key hash "legacy" wallets, then to pay to Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash segwit wallets, and in the future even pay to taproot.

The thing is: the last 3 types of wallet (legacy, segwit and taproot) can be derived from the same master public key. That's why the same seed phrase shows wallets whose addresses begin with 1 (legacy), bc1q (segwit) and maybe even bc1p (taproot)

Thanks a lot for this quick information!