Local Wallet
A local wallet is a Bittensor wallet whose files are kept on a user’s machine. The Local Wallet glossary entry places the term in wallet-location vocabulary rather than subnet, consensus, or tokenomics vocabulary.
Location Context
Local wallet names where wallet files live. The wallet documentation provides the broader Bittensor wallet context, while the local-wallet glossary entry narrows the term to wallet files associated with the user’s machine.
Wallet Location Relationship
Local wallet and wallet location are related but not identical. A wallet location is the directory path where generated wallet files are kept, while local wallet names the wallet context that uses that local storage model. One term points to the path; the other names the wallet category.
External Wallet Contrast
The contrast term is external wallet. An external wallet refers to wallet software or custody outside the local Bittensor wallet path. Local wallet is the opposite side of that distinction: wallet files are associated with the user’s own local environment.
Wallet-Key Context
Local wallet sits near wallet-key vocabulary because wallet files are part of how Bittensor users organize access. The wallet documentation supplies that broader setting. The term local wallet does not rename public keys, private keys, or wallet addresses; it only describes local wallet-file context.
Address-Safety Boundary
Local wallet does not remove destination-address risk. The address-poisoning guide concerns lookalike addresses during wallet use, while local wallet describes where wallet files are kept. Those topics can meet during ordinary wallet activity, but they answer different questions.
A Local Wallet Keeps Files on Your Machine
A local wallet is a Bittensor wallet whose coldkey and hotkey files are stored on the user’s own computer through the local Bittensor installation (Glossary: Local Wallet, Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys).
That storage model is different from browser-extension wallets or website-based wallets that keep key material under another trust model.
Local Storage Does Not Replace Key Protection
Keeping wallet files on a local machine does not reduce the need to protect coldkey and hotkey material or to verify transaction destinations before signing (Working with Keys, Handle your Seed Phrase/Mnemonic Securely).
Readers should still follow official wallet-security guidance even when the wallet files are local.
Local Wallet Differs From External Wallet Software
The two differ in where the keys live and who manages them: an external wallet keeps wallet software or custody outside the local Bittensor wallet path, while a local wallet keeps the wallet files under the user’s own local installation.
Development Stage Context
The Introduction to Bittensor describes subnet development as moving from localnet to testnet and then mainnet. For Local Wallet, this sequence gives readers a boundary for interpreting wallet examples and local-state notes.
Localnet examples are isolated and reflect local chain state, so they are useful for controlled experiments rather than evidence of live Bittensor behavior. Testnet examples add shared non-production conditions, which can reveal integration behavior without touching mainnet state.
On mainnet, Local Wallet examples should be read as live production wallet behavior on the production Bittensor network.
The Bittensor Networks reference separates mainnet, testnet, and localnet, so outcomes from one environment should not be treated as proof of behavior in another.
Installation Scope
A local wallet should be read as a wallet created through the local Bittensor installation, not as a browser extension wallet, an external web wallet, or a hosted wallet service. The wallets-and-keys documentation separates local, extension, and external wallet classes by installation surface and trust model (Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys, Glossary: Local Wallet).
For readers, the relevant boundary is how the wallet is installed and where the key material lives. A local wallet runs on a Bittensor-installed workstation, while an external wallet is created through a website or third-party tool that holds the key material under a different trust model. A precise claim should keep the installation and key-storage context visible rather than treating “wallet” as a single concept.
Relationship to Yuma Consensus
Local Wallet and Yuma Consensus describe related parts of Bittensor’s incentive system. Yuma Consensus is the on-chain process that aggregates validator weight signals within a subnet into miner incentives and validator dividends, applying consensus clipping, bonding, and emission calculation (Yuma Consensus).
For readers, local wallet names a specific part of that incentive picture, while Yuma Consensus names the consensus process that turns validator weights into the resulting incentives and dividends.
Reader Boundary
Local wallet should not be read as localnet, an on-chain wallet identity, or proof that keys are stored only on one machine forever. It names a wallet created through the local Bittensor installation on the user’s workstation (Glossary: Local Wallet, Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys).
Recovery Phrase Can Reload the Same Wallet Elsewhere
Working with Keys describes mnemonic recovery as a way to restore wallet access from the seed phrase. That recovery path is tied to the cryptographic wallet identity, not to one specific install directory.
For readers, losing a local wallet file changes access to signing material on that machine, but the official recovery vocabulary still treats the mnemonic as the durable backup for the same wallet identity.
Default Storage Follows the Installation Path
The Glossary: Wallet Location describes where Bittensor wallet files are stored by default on a local installation. Wallet location is therefore an installation-path concept rather than an on-chain address format.
Readers should keep wallet path vocabulary separate from SS58 address vocabulary. A folder name or default path labels local file organization; it does not rename the coldkey-facing address used for TAO transfers.
Network Scope Boundary
Local wallet describes where wallet files are stored, not which Bittensor network they are limited to. The same local-wallet concept can appear while a user works with localnet, testnet, or mainnet, because the term is about key storage on the user’s machine rather than the chain environment itself (Glossary: Local Wallet, Bittensor Networks).
For readers, this keeps local wallet separate from localnet. A local wallet is a storage and custody context, while localnet is a development network context.