Back to: Wallets & Security 101
Transfers are permanent, so professionals use a ritual: verify, test, send. This lesson turns that ritual into muscle memory.
Receiving
1. In your wallet, tap Receive and select the exact asset + network (USDT on Ethereum vs USDT on Tron are different destinations). 2. Copy the address — or show your QR code in person. 3. Share it freely; addresses are public by design. 4. Watch the transfer confirm on a block explorer.
Sending — the five-point check
1. Address: paste, then compare first + last 6 characters with the recipient’s message. Malware rewrites clipboard addresses. 2. Network: must match what the recipient expects. Wrong network is the #1 cause of “lost” funds. 3. Asset: sending the wrong token to a contract or exchange memo-less account can strand it. 4. Fee: sane for the network right now? Absurd fees mean a misclick — cancel and re-check. 5. Test amount: for any new destination or large sum, send a tiny probe first, confirm arrival, then send the rest.
Fees and timing, practically
– Check current gas before urgent sends; non-urgent ones can wait for quiet hours. – Bitcoin needs confirmations (10+ min typical); Ethereum ~seconds to minutes; always check the explorer rather than trusting “sent” screens. – A “pending” transaction isn’t failed — don’t re-send blindly and double-pay.
The mistake board (learn from others)
- Wrong network → usually unrecoverable without the recipient’s cooperation.
- Typo’d address → gone. Checksums catch most, not all.
- Sent to a scammer → gone. No reversals exist. Ever.
Verify twice, test once, send once. Boring transfers are successful
> transfers.
Next lesson: the scams — how each one actually works.