2021-12-22
MetaMask: The Bridge to Decentralized Web
There are many ways to gain profit in the crypto world, such as through trading, buy and hodl, buy and sell NFTs, staking, and much more.
For activities that happened outside of CEXs, they need to be done using digital wallet such as MetaMask. Digital wallet is a place where users can store the keys to their assets and also allowing sending and receiving transaction to happen in the wallet safely.
Digital wallet MetaMask is one of the popular wallets in the market among cryptocurrency investors. In the beginning, MetaMask was only made available in browser extension such as Google Chrome and Firefox. Eventually, they developed a mobile application for MetaMask in year 2020.
MetaMask is an open source Ethereum wallet that supports all tokens that based on Ethereum, such as ERC20 tokens and NFT. MetaMask is similar to the other digital wallets such as Trust Wallet and Ronin, however, its interface with smart contracts and decentralized applications is very smooth and user friendly.
Firstly, you need to go to Metamask.io to download MetaMask digital wallet, or you can direct click on these links either by using web browser extensions (Chrome, Brave, Edge and Firefox) or mobile application (iOS or Android). For this article, we will use Google Chrome as guidance.
Download Chrome extension
Just like that, you are now able to see MetaMask's icon at the top right corner of your Chrome browser extension.
Click on Create a wallet if you did not own a MetaMask account. Then, create your password and click on Create. You will be taken to Secret Recovery Phrase page.
Create password for your account
Password and secret recovery phrase are not the same. Password is used to open a locked account, while secret recovery phrase is a bunch of words in a certain arrangement that can be used to access the wallet as a whole and with any device. If you have lost or forgotten the secret recovery phrase, you will not be able to access your wallet.
Click on reveal secret words and you will be able to see 12 words that are exclusive for you. Keep the 12 words safely and make sure to copy it according to its arrangement. When you are done, you may click on Confirm.
Click on Buy, and a pop-up on of ways to deposit fund will appear. There are few ways to deposit fund into you account, which are by sending assets from exchanges or directly purchase them in MetaMask by using debit card.
For example, if you were to send Ethereum to MetaMask, you can use Luno directly just by entering your MetaMask address. You can find your address by clicking View Account.
Copy and paste the address into your Luno account to send your asset to MetaMask. Tutorial on how to use Luno an be read here.
By default, MetaMask use Ethereum network. However, other than Ethereum, MetaMask also can be used with other networks such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon (Matic), and OKEx Chain.
To convert to other network, you need to click on Ethereum Mainnet at the top right page and click on Add Network.
You will be taken to this page. For this article, we will use Binance Smart Chain as example. Fill up the network's details in the box as shown in the picture below.
Fill up network details
The information on BSC Mainnet is taken from Academy Binance.
Afterwards, you will be able to see that BSC network has successfully been added to your MetaMask wallet. Furthermore, you will also be able to switch the network to Ethereum or other network as you please by clicking on the network button as shown previously.
MetaMask is a hardware wallet that is popular in the crypto world. It is able to connect users with decentralized website or applications. Due to that, as an investor, you will need to learn how to use it properly and how to secure your wallet safely.
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