A larp wallet and a real wallet, side by side
They can look identical in a screenshot. Everything that makes one verifiable is missing from the other, and none of it is visible in the image.
Published:
A real wallet holds keys and can sign, send and be checked on a block explorer. A larp wallet is an interface with none of that: it renders a screen and stops there. In a screenshot the two are indistinguishable, which is exactly why a screenshot is worthless as proof either way.
What each one can do
| Real wallet | Larp wallet (mockup) | |
|---|---|---|
| Holds a private key | Yes | No — and never asks for one |
| Can sign a transaction | Yes | No |
| Has an address on a block explorer | Yes | No |
| Balance comes from | The chain | What you typed |
| Output | Transactions | An image or a video |
| Looks the same in a screenshot | Yes — that is the point of this article | |
Why the screenshot is the wrong artefact either way
A screenshot of a real wallet proves nothing either. It can be cropped, edited, taken from someone else's screen, or show an address the person does not control. The image carries no signature and no link to a chain.
What can be checked is an address: it resolves on a block explorer, its balance is public, and its history is public with it. That check works regardless of what any screenshot looks like — which is why anyone who asks you to accept a screenshot instead of an address is asking for the one thing that cannot be verified.
This cuts both ways, and it is the practical reason mockups are safe to use in design work: nobody sensible treats a wallet screenshot as evidence, so using one as an illustration misleads nobody. The problem is never the file. It is the sentence next to it.
What a mockup is for
Showing an interface before it has data — an App Store listing, a landing page, a deck, a tutorial, a walkthrough video. Everywhere the audience is looking at a design rather than at a claim. That is a large and entirely ordinary set of uses, and it is the whole of what a mockup is good for.
Questions
Is a larp wallet a real wallet?
No. It holds no keys, connects to no chain, and cannot sign or send anything. It renders an interface and stops there.
Can a larp wallet screenshot be told apart from a real one?
Usually not from the image alone. The difference is not visual — it is whether there is an address behind it that resolves on a block explorer.
What is a larp wallet actually useful for?
Showing an interface before it has data: an App Store listing, a landing page, a deck, a tutorial, a video. Anywhere the audience is looking at a design rather than at a claim.
Compose the screen instead of describing it
Your tokens, your amounts, your accent — laid out in the browser, then opened on your phone at your own address. A mockup, and we never pretend otherwise.
- Unlimited tokens, amounts and accents
- Add it to your home screen; it opens like an app
- Live market prices that keep moving
- Your own address, mylarpwallet.com/you
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Keep reading
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