(4) A wallet is a computer file which holds Bitcoins. Bitcoins are sent between wallets; each wallet is represented by a Bitcoin address. The simplifications i

(4) A wallet is a computer file which holds Bitcoins. Bitcoins are sent between wallets; each wallet is represented by a Bitcoin address. The simplifications in this explanation are ultimately damaging. A real wallet does "hold" cash, but a Bitcoin "wallet" only holds keys & relevant history information. (It would make as much or more sense to say the balance is actually "held" by the globally replicated network.) A "Bitcoin wallet" is not just (or even mainly) a "file", but the active software which gives you the power to spend your balances. It is atypical (and against best practice) for a "Bitcoin wallet" to be represented by a (single, distinct) Bitcoin address. Confusion over these points have cost a lot of early adopters a lot of Bitcoins, to theft or complete destruction. (Personally I think the very term "wallet" should be discarded, because the notions of 'physical containment' and reification-in-a-single-place that creates are counterproductive. Perhaps it's too late to fix that, though.)