What is a wallet in a ledger?

A wallet is a balance that belongs to a person or an organization in your product. It is not a bank account. It is a row in your ledger that you credit and debit as the customer uses the product. The bank account behind it is usually omnibus.

How does a wallet work?

You create a balance, often per customer and currency. Inbound rails credit it. Purchases, payouts, and fees debit it. The customer sees that number as “their money.” You are still the one who holds the bank pot and the obligation.

Wallet vs balance vs bank account

Balance is the generic ledger object. Wallet is a balance you expose to a user. A bank account is the account at a bank. Many wallets share one bank account. If you skip the ledger and only watch the bank, you cannot tell which customer owns which dollar.

When is a wallet the wrong model?

If you never hold customer funds, you may only need to record payables. If the product is escrow, the wallet still exists, but the rules for who can leave are tighter. Name the balance for the job, not for the word on the marketing site.

In Blnk a wallet is a balance, usually linked to an identity. It lives in a ledger you name, such as USD Wallets. Every use of the wallet is a transaction with a source and a destination. See balances and understanding balances.