What does a wallet actually hold?
Coins live on the chain. The wallet holds the private key that authorizes moving them, which is why the same phrase restores the same funds in any compatible wallet.
Where should a recovery phrase be stored?
Offline and physical. Every digital copy, however well encrypted, is one compromise away from being read, and phrases are stolen from cloud backups and photo libraries constantly.
You buy a hardware wallet and it arrives with a recovery phrase already printed inside. You should:
A genuine device generates its phrase on the device, in front of you, at setup. A pre printed phrase means somebody else has it, and this exact scam is sold through marketplace listings.
What is the practical difference between a hot and a cold wallet?
It is about key exposure, not the brand. If the key is on a machine that browses the web, everything that machine runs is part of your threat model.
Which of these does NOT change if you move to a different wallet app?
The wallet app is just an interface. The phrase derives the same keys and therefore the same addresses, so your funds and history are unchanged by switching apps.
A passphrase, sometimes called a 25th word, does what?
It derives a different wallet from the same seed. Powerful, and dangerous: forget the passphrase and the funds are gone even though you still hold the phrase.
Your hardware wallet screen shows a different address from the one on your computer screen. You should:
The device screen is the whole reason to own one. Malware can change what your computer displays and cannot change what the device displays, so a mismatch means cancel.
Which is the strongest reason to use a separate wallet for new or unknown apps?
Compartmentalization limits blast radius. A drainer signature in a wallet holding twenty dollars of gas costs twenty dollars, not everything you own.
Work through what you got wrong
A session is one to one and screen shared, on your own accounts, at your pace. We never ask for keys and you click everything yourself.