METAMASK
The new world of Internet technology is evolving and perhaps the most interesting concept is that it cuts out the middlemen, the banks, and financial institutions who have dominated the finance world for centuries.
You don’t need to go through a bank to access savings lending, borrowing, buy NFTs or other transactions on the Blockchain.All you need now is a Digital wallet like Metamask.
Metamask is a self-custody wallet, which means you are not reliant on any external party and only yourself to ensure that your cryptocurrencies are safe, also, you are fully responsible on security to yourself, and you have practice proper operational security to store your private keys/seed phrase safely
MetaMask is a browser extension designed to make accessing Web 3.0 ecosystem easier. It also serves as a wallet for holding ERC-20 tokens majorly allowing users to access services built on the network via the wallet.
The metamask wallet was built by Consensys an American based Blockchain technology company based in the Switzerland.
It works like a browser extension or plugin that can be installed from the store of the popular browser applications.
By connecting to Supported Dapps, users can spend their coins in games, stake tokens in gambling applications and trade them on decentralized exchanges. It also provides users with an entry point into the emerging world of decentralized finance, or DeFi, providing a way to access to the popular dapps like Uniswap, compound Finance e.t.c.
SETTING UP METAMASK
To set up metamask , you would need Google chrome or a Chromium based browser (Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave browser, e.t.c.)
STEP 1- Navigate to metamask.io and click The download button Extension store of your browser and search out “Metamask”
Then Install (The site automatically detects your browser.)
STEP 2- Upon installation, you should see the below splash screen. Click the ‘Get Started’ button to begin creating your Ethereum wallet using MetaMask.
STEP 3- Click the ‘Create a Wallet’ button.
You’ll then be asked if you want to help improve MetaMask. This isn’t compulsory, you can either Click ‘No Thanks’ or click ‘I agree’.
STEP 4- Pick a password on the next step. This needs to be at least 8 characters long. Ensure you use completely unique password that hasn’t been used anywhere else, and contains a mixture of upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers.
Read and accept the Terms of Use, and click ‘Create’ once your password has been set.
STEP 5- MetaMask will then show you your 12-word backup phrase. You’ll need to write this down in the same order displayed on your screen. This will be needed to recover your wallet should you ever lose access to your computer, and should be kept stored somewhere safe. Anybody who has access to your 12-word back phrase will be able to recover your funds, so keep it private.
STEP 6 — Click ‘Next’ once you’ve written this down.
STEP 7- Confirm your backup phrase on the next screen by entering the words in the same order saved previously. Click ‘Confirm’ once done.
STEP 8 -
You have now almost completed the MetaMask setup process. Just click ‘All Done’ on the final page, and you will be automatically logged in to MetaMask. If you ever get logged out, you’ll be able to log back in again by clicking the icon added to your web browser (usually found next to the URL bar –TOP-RIGHT).
To to access your list of assets in the wallet, locate the ‘Assets’ tab , also to view your transaction history check the ‘Activity’ tab.
Initiating Your First transaction on Metamask:
To perform any transaction using metamask you’re going to need some Ethereum, this is used to pay for transaction fees on the Ethereum network.
STEP 1:
To buy Ethereum , navigate to the Top-right-hand corner of your browser and click the puzzle icon and select meta mask
STEP 2:
Click on buy ,
Select from the different deposit options ,Usually Wyre , Tranfak and Directly Deposit Ether.
Clicking Wyre would redirect you to wyre site where you’ll need to input your card details
Select -” Directly Deposit Ether.” If you have Ethereum in another wallet or Exchange like Coinbase , FTX or Binance e.t.c . Copy the wallet address (Or scan the barcode) and transfer into the copied wallet from your holding wallet/exchange
Ensure you buy enough eth to cover for transaction fees.
Once your eth arrives, you’ll find it on your initial metamask wallet home.
One important thing to note here is that Metamask is compatible with multiple EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) blockchains, which means you can not only use it on the main Ethereum Mainnet, you can also use it on other chains such as Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Matic, Harmony, and much more!
STEP 3
You can either swap your Eth to another currency ;like usdc using Metamask swap , or use a decentralized exchange like uniswap.
To use metamask swap , click on the “swap” button next to “Buy” and “Send” on your metamask home.
Enter the amount of eth you are swapping up and the usdc equivalent appears below, you might need to tingle with the numbers to get your desired usdc amount.
Note: Gas fees on metamask swap are usually higher than what you may find on Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs). You might be better using DEXs.
Before you confirm any transaction when using the metamask swap, ensure you click on edit button after clicking review swap, on the next page , you’ll find the advanced options .
Locate gas price and gas limit
Take note of the gas price in gwei, you can edit it to reduce your transaction cost or increase your transaction speed.
One key resource you’ll need here is gas tracker- https://etherscan.io/gastracker, then adjust accordingly if necessary.
Check the gas tracker to know what the average price for gas is at the moment
This is to ensure you’re not overpaying for gas fees.
To perform a transaction on a dapp like uniswap
STEP 1: Go to the dapp url, here: app.uniswap.org
STEP 2: Click on “connect wallet” and select metamask.
STEP 3: Put in your password in the metamask popup then continue.
STEP 4: Select the currency you’re transferring from up and the bottom , select what you’re swapping to .
STEP 5: Click the swap button.The metamask popup appears
STEP 6 : Approve the transaction on metamask.
Your transaction will then be processed in a few minutes and recorded on the Blockchain.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE JUST COMPLETED YOUR FIRST TRANSACTION.
In September 2020, MetaMask launched MetaMask Mobile for Android and iPhone, its first smartphone app.
Users can sync this mobile app with te desktop , purchase tokens, send and receive crypto and many other functionalities have been added lately.
Points to note:
You can add any wallet you’ll be transferring funds to often to your contacts on metamask. Just after clicking the send button , you’ll find the option just below the input box after pasting the address.
Never enter your secret recovery phrase or private keys into any website, anybody who has this can empty your account or perform any transaction whatsoever.