Beginners Guide to use METAMASK

MetaMask is a highly popular Ethereum wallet that is often the gateway to many decentralized apps and Play-to-Earn blockchain games. Put simply, if you are thinking of going through the rabbit hole that is DeFi and blockchain games like Axie Infinity or My Defi Pet or trading in DEX like Uniswap or Pancakeswap, it’s important to be able to use and utilize MetaMask.

This article is a simple MetaMask guide specifically.

The article does not constitute investment advice. CoinBox Finance is not responsible for your loss nor takes any credit from any gains you receive. Always do your research when trying out crypto products and platforms.

MetaMask allows you to interact with many DeFi protocols and blockchain games by manually entering their RPC URL to connect. And because the majority of them are in public chains like Ethereum or BSC, you can go in and out anytime. At its most basic. Here’s what you can do with MetaMask.

• Store your Ether or BNB
• Store your ERC-20 Coins or BEP-20 Coins
• Transfer tokens to another Ethereum wallet address or BSC
• Buy tokens (through partner firms)
• Swap ETH and BNB to other coins and vice versa

With MetaMask as your wallet, you can also do the following:

• Interact, buy and sell on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and Pancakeswap
• Interact and start lending/or saving ETH (with Interest) on protocols like Aave and Yfii
• Receive airdrops
• Interact and play blockchain games like Axie Infinity and My Defi Pet
• Buy NFT like crypto art or music on sites like Rarible and OpenSea

Why Metamask browser extension?

MetaMask lives as a browser extension and a mobile wallet. This article will primarily center on the desktop (browser extension) version of MetaMask. We still hesitate to use MetaMask on mobile devices because of the prevalence of scams — such as the copy and paste scam where malware will change the address you copy on your clipboard. Of course, PC has that problem, but with the desktop version, you can check the wallet address to the letter.

This guide uses MetaMask, a wallet built to store crypto and interact with dApps on Ethereum (decentralized applications).

Blockchain: Ethereum

Supported Cryptocurrencies: ETH, all types of ERC tokens (ERC20, ERC721…)

Step 1: Download

The first step to using MetaMask is to download the browser extension that works on Chrome and FireFox. You can download it from the official website: MetaMask.io

Step 2: Creating/Restoring Wallet

Once you’ve downloaded the extension, it is time to create a wallet.

You will have two options:

• Import Existing Wallet: Restore an existing wallet of which you have the secret recovery phrase consisting of 12 words
• Create New Wallet

For the purpose of this guide, we’ll cover the process from a New Wallet creation standpoint.

Step 3: Set Password

MetaMask is a browser extension that makes it unsafe to keep without a password. Hence, you’ll need to create a password that you’d use each time you re-open your browser and open MetaMask.

Step 4: Secret Recovery Phrase

Each MetaMask account comes with a 12-word secret recovery phrase. This is important to write down and keep safe because if you ever lose access to the account and want to re-access your funds, you’ll need that phrase.

Click on the padlock to reveal the words and write them down. Once you click on “next,” you’ll be asked to confirm the order of the 12-word phrase which you’ve typed down. Then you’d be done!

Step 5: Funding Wallet

Click on the top of the page as shown below to copy your Ethereum address and use it to send ETH or any ERC token (USDC, USDT, UNI, AAVE…). As this interacts with the Ethereum blockchain, you’ll need to fund your account with some ETH to pay for transaction fees (i.e., gas).

You can send funds from your exchange or other cold storage wallets you may own.

Step 6: Connecting to dApps

Say you want to use Sushiswap (decentralized exchange/DEX). You’ll go to that website and look for the “Connect Wallet” button, which usually sits on the top right corner of the page. Once you click on it, protocols/dApps will give you multiple wallet options, including MetaMask; click on that.

You’ll then be asked by MetaMask which account you want to connect to the dApp as you can create multiple addresses on the same account (each with a separate private key, of course), choose, and proceed with “next” and then “connect.”

Congratulations! You now have a MetaMask account connected to a dApp with which you can interact and make transactions!

Step 7: Making Transactions

Directly from MetaMask, you can send tokens to other addresses and swap. All other transactions would be made from within a decentralized application.

Transfers are straightforward, but other activities such as swapping or staking take two steps:

• Unlock token for spending by protocol
• Execute transaction (stake, swap…)

Contact us if you need help.

As your gateway to the decentralized web and decentralized finance world, MetaMask is a powerful wallet integral to your experience within the few native blockchains. You can use METAMASK to connect to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Kucoin, DRAKEN CHAIN, and many more. Our final word is that you make sure you keep it secure and don’t go about connecting your MetaMask to just about every application that you can connect it to. If you have more questions, contact us, and we can help.

CoinBox Finance Brain Team