👁 How to clearly explain custodial vs. non-custodial?

⚫️ Recently, we mentioned some criticism of TON Space in @wallet: it looks like “we put a wallet inside your wallet.” For newcomers, this can seem strange and confusing: why are there two wallets? What’s the difference? Since this part of the ecosystem is a bit complex, let’s try to explain it as clearly as possible using a real-life analogy in our #howtoton series:

⚫️ When parents first give a child pocket money, they might say: “This money is yours, but we’ll keep it for you. If you want to spend it, just let us know and we’ll pay with it.” At first, this setup might actually be better for the child — for example, they’re less likely to lose the money.

⚫️ But later on, the child usually wants to control their own money. What if they argue with their parents and the parents refuse to let them spend it? On the other hand, if the child keeps the money themselves, they also take on the responsibility of not losing it.

⚫️ It’s similar in crypto. There are two main ways to store funds: custodial and non-custodial. The word custodian means “guardian” or “caretaker”: like in the example with parents, in a custodial setup, another party (such as the service provider) has access to your funds. For example, funds stored on centralized exchanges like Binance are custodial. This can be convenient, but not completely safe: the creators of the FTX exchange, for instance, misused their users’ funds illegally.

⚫️ Non-custodial wallets, on the other hand, mean that only you control your funds. If you use Tonkeeper or MyTonWallet, for example, even the developers of those wallets don’t have access to your money. This is more secure, but also comes with full responsibility: you must not lose your seed phrase and must keep it secret — otherwise, no support team can help you recover access.

⚫️ Beginners often find custodial wallets easier to use, but experienced TON users usually prefer non-custodial ones: in addition to being more secure, they also let you authenticate in various TON projects. Since both options have their pros and cons, @wallet decided to offer both. By default, a beginner-friendly custodial wallet is created, but you can easily open a non-custodial one in the TON Space section — a “two-in-one” solution.

🖊 Does this explanation make sense? If you still have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

@thedailyton