Deep page

Safe start: holding Kaspa without losing it

Seven steps, in order, each ending with the check that tells you it worked. Address-checking is taught here as a reading skill, not a form: there is no box on this page to paste an address into, on purpose.

1. Choose the wallet, from its maker

Pick a wallet you control yourself, and download it only from the maker's own site or your phone's official store, never from a link in a message. A fake wallet is the one download that can take everything: it shows you recovery words it already knows. Check: the store listing names the maker you searched for, and the download count looks like the real thing, not a fresh copy.

2. Write the recovery words on paper

The wallet shows a list of recovery words once. Write them on paper, in order, and store the paper like cash. Never photograph them, never type them into a website: anyone who gets the words gets the coins, from anywhere, and no one can undo it. Check: you can read every word back, and the wallet's own confirm step agrees with your paper.

3. Read the address, and check the network

Addresses are long; nobody memorizes them, and malware swaps them. Read the first six characters and the last six, out loud, from the screen you are sending from against the screen or paper you trust. Then read the start. A mainnet address starts with kaspa: and a test network address starts with kaspatest:; the part before the colon names the network. The two networks are separate worlds: coins sent to an address on the wrong network are gone, because the other network never sees the payment. Check: the first six and last six match exactly on both screens, and the prefix names the network you mean. A mismatch at either end is the swap, and it is a stop.

4. Send a small amount first

Before any real amount moves, send the smallest amount the wallet allows to the new address. Check: the test payment appears in the receiving wallet, at the address you read in step 3.

5. Verify it in an explorer

Do not take the wallet's word for it. Find the test payment in a full explorer, by its transaction id or by the address. An explorer is a public window onto the network: it can see every address looked up on it, which is fine for checking, and one more reason the recovery words never go near a website. Check: the explorer shows the same amount arriving at the same address, inside a block.

6. Mind the exchange withdrawal

Coins sitting on an exchange are the exchange's coins with your name on them: the exchange holds the keys, and it can pause withdrawals or fail. When you buy, withdraw to your own wallet, and treat the withdrawal screen as the dangerous moment. It asks for a network as well as an address; pick the Kaspa network, because a withdrawal sent on the wrong network does not arrive and cannot be called back. Check: before you confirm, the screen names the Kaspa network and your own address, starting kaspa:, and the amount is the amount you meant.

7. Practice on the test network

The test network is a full copy of the system running on coins that are free and worth nothing, made for exactly this rehearsal. Faucets that hand them out are listed at wiki.kaspa.org/en/testnets. Run steps 3 to 5 there first: read a kaspatest: address like a plate, send, and find the payment in the test network's explorer. Check: you finished a whole test send, to an address starting kaspatest:, before the first real coin moved.

Only after all seven: move real amounts, and repeat the plate check on every send. Real sends are step 4 with the amount turned up; the reading habit is the whole defence.

Checked Nov 4, 2026. This page teaches habits; it holds no keys and takes no addresses.