Creating Your Wallet

The very first thing you’ll need, the key to unlock the door of Web3, is a self-custodial wallet. Follow this course to learn more.

The very first thing you’ll need, the key to unlock the door of Web3, is a self-custodial wallet.

A self-custodial crypto wallet is a digital wallet where you keep total control of your cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, without trusting the traditional financial institutions to hold your assets on your behalf.

More importantly, besides storing funds and making transactions, a self-custodial wallet also serves the purpose of a universal login credential and your digital identity, kind of similar to “login with Google.”

Your crypto wallet represents who you are in the Web3 world, and takes you to where you want to explore, with you having total control.

⚠️ Warning: Always be careful of phishing sites!

When you try to access a website of any Web3 project or decentralized app (dApp), you are often asked to connect your wallet as the first step.

Now, there are a variety of wallets and products, hot wallets, cold wallets, MPC wallets…

You will later learn about all the options and how they’re unique in offerings, but for now, let’s create your very first crypto wallet!

To make it simple, the wallet you’ll create by the end of this course is in the form of a mobile app or browser extension, depending on the device you’re on right now.

We’ve partnered with the industry’s leading self-custodial wallet MetaMask.

With over 100 million users annually, MetaMask is everything you need to manage your identity, digital assets and to explore Web3.

What are public and private keys?

Before we do that, let’s go over the basics of a Web3 wallet. Generally speaking, a wallet comes with a pair of keys, private and public.

A private key, also referred to as the seed phrase, is generated when creating your wallet, usually a sequence of 12 or 16 unique and random English words.

Whoever controls the seed phrase controls the wallet, to access funds, change the password, make transactions… basically everything you can do with a wallet. For every action, you will need to “sign” in the wallet and approve (it’s not an actual signature, you’ll see!)

So… DO NOT SHARE your seed phrase with anyone and keep it somewhere safe!

On the other hand, a public key is like a bank account that you can share with others when they need to transfer any sort of asset to you.

And this is where transparency comes in – because transactions are made onchain, people other than yourself can also view the transaction history of your wallet. But here’s the catch – you can stay anonymous if you want.

Let’s get started by setting up your very first Web3 wallet!

To bring you the best and easiest experience, we teamed up with the most secure and user-friendly web3 wallet MetaMask.

You can explore more about what a crypto wallet is as well as MetaMask’s unique offerings, even immersing yourself in their simulation to see how the MetaMask wallet actually works.

Are you ready? 🧑‍🚀 🚀

Creating Your Metamask Wallet

Now download the MetaMask wallet to start exploring web3 with the millions of other MetaMask users!

Here’s a video explaining how to Create Your Metamask Wallet.👇

Safety is the No.1 Priority

Before we dive any deeper into the next module, there are a few things that we need to go over first.

Safety is of utmost importance in the space of Web3.

I’m sure you’ve read plenty of news articles and Tweets about scams, hacks, etc.

Here are a few tips:

1. Be careful when pressing links and especially those that require you to login with a wallet & sign something.
2. NEVER share seed phrase with anyone.
3. Use complex passwords or a password management app.
4. Always double check if the websites, Twitter accounts, NFT collections are official.
5. Bookmark URLs where you connect your wallet to ensure you’re using the right dapp/website.

There are many other ways to be more protected, such as using a hardware “cold wallet”, having multiple accounts, but in general, just stay alerted and keep security at the top of your mind!

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Source: Galxe Mission Web3