---
schema: 1
title: "Create a wallet you can recover"
description: "Set up a new account and verify its recovery model before funding it."
tags: [wallets, security]
level: beginner
updated: 2026-09-16
related: [learn/wallet, tools/wallets]
---

Start with: [wallet](../../learn/wallet/en.md), [wallets](../../tools/wallets/en.md).

## Before you start

Choose a wallet using its official documentation and a network it supports. Use a trusted, updated device. This procedure creates a new self-custody account; custodial accounts and smart-account recovery have different rules.

> [!WARNING]
> A wallet or support agent should never supply your new recovery phrase or ask you to send it back for “verification.”

## Steps

1. Follow the official download link and verify the publisher. Avoid sponsored lookalike results, private-message links and preconfigured accounts supplied by strangers.
2. Select the documented new-account flow. Set a unique local password or device PIN where required. Understand that this generally protects the device, not a copied recovery backup.
3. For a seed-based wallet, record the generated recovery material offline and privately. Never put it in chat, a website, screenshots or cloud notes. For another recovery model, document its owners, recovery contacts and conditions instead.
4. Complete the wallet’s official backup-verification process. Do not demonstrate recovery by typing a hardware-device seed into ordinary software.
5. Choose the intended network and find the receiving address. Compare the address on the trusted device screen where available. Only then arrange a small, affordable funding test.

## Verify the result

You can identify your network and public address, explain who controls signing, and describe recovery after losing the device. Confirm any test deposit through the [transaction-check procedure](../check-transaction/en.md).

## If something differs

If the setup violates the warning above, stop and do not fund the account. A wallet showing an address is not evidence that only you control its keys.

## Sources

- [Ethereum wallets](https://ethereum.org/en/wallets/)
- [Ethereum security and scam prevention](https://ethereum.org/en/security/)