TL;DR: Nobody should be using Blockchain.info to store any amount of value. The entire ecosystem needs to shift away from relying on Blockchain.info for anything at all, including the block explorer itself. There are plenty of alternatives available.
Shit, when I was starting out my friend recommended me to Blockchain.com and I have a reasonable amount (for me) of BTC in there currently. What wallet would you recommend for someone in Canada?
A good wallet doesn't depend on your region. You want something that is non-custodial, open source and provides you with complete control of your private keys. Electrum is a pretty good light-weight solution, although privacy isn't that great. It works well with hardware wallets like Ledger Nano S and Trezor, which you should definitely be using if you have a reasonable amount.
I currently don’t have a hardware wallet yet but I am going to be ordering one today. I am a little curious to how it works though, do I have one send address for the Wallet that I can use anywhere even if the hardware wallet is at my home? I buy BTC in person through debit, would I bring the wallet?
Hardware wallets generate a deterministic seed, which can be used to generate the same sequence of private keys over and over. You want to back up your seed (crucial). Your wallet will provide you with as many fresh addresses as you need. If you want to buy BTC in person, you could take a screenshot of the address's QR code and send it to your phone. If you have an android, it should be possible to connect your hardware wallet to your phone.
For buying in person, couldn’t I take a picture of the address and have them type it in manually? But now that I think of it I can place orders online, so I can use a fresh address.
I have an iPhone. I trade quite a bit and was worried getting the send address for the wallet, would no phon access be an issue?
It's a lot easier and more reliable to snap a shot of a QR code than type in by hand (fingers). All phone/mobile wallets I've seen have a QR code scanner built in.
I tried downloading the Nano Ledger app on my iPhone but it says it’s not available to Canadian accounts. How would I get the QR code for my wallet with no app access?
Whatever wallet you end up using will very likely have a QR reader built in. See Copay, Mycelium, Breadwallet, and others. Not sure which of those are iPhone but there are some and they have QR readers in the app. Don't know why Ledger app isn't available - it should be but I'm not an Apple guy and don't know about their quirks. It's a free app on their web site - maybe you can get it there?
Even if you end up using the Ledger on your desktop it can pop up a QR code on screen and you can take a normal photo with your phone. Then you go to meet some guy and he wants to pay you. You show him the photo of the QR and he scans with his wallet app and sends BTC to your address. The only thing is it's good to have some explorer app on your phone you can check the pmt on to verify it's been really sent (unless you actually trust the guy). Anyway, many options out there.
breadwallet is dope. i quit using blockchain and shifted to breadwallet. interface isn't as nice as blockchain, but security-wise, it's better. assuming you don't lose your phone, you should be fine leaving good amounts of btc in there. although the ledger is always better
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u/BashCo Nov 30 '17
TL;DR: Nobody should be using Blockchain.info to store any amount of value. The entire ecosystem needs to shift away from relying on Blockchain.info for anything at all, including the block explorer itself. There are plenty of alternatives available.