[Part 1 of 4] The 0Chain Geyser Guide: How to Use Metamask
Welcome to Part 1 of the 0Chain Geyser Guide.
In this part, we will cover the basics: how to use the Metamask crypto wallet. The Metamask wallet is relevant to your participation in the 0Chain Geyser because it will be the easiest way to interact with the Geyser (deposit, withdraw, etc.).
What is Metamask?
The Metamask wallet is the most commonly used crypto wallet on Uniswap and one of the most popular on Ethereum. There are many wallets that can be used on Uniswap, but the front end of the 0Chain Geyser will start out with Metamask integration only. Thus, it will be important to understand how to use a Metamask wallet if you wish to integrate into the 0Chain Geyser (via our front end interface).
For those who are new to Metamask, the following instructional will help you get acquainted. Installing and navigating a Metamask wallet is, in my opinion, incredibly simple. Despite its simplicity, I’ll carefully walk through the steps of installation in case you find it not so simple.
Necessities for Setup
Before we proceed with the Metamask setup, you’re going to need a few things:
- A computer (I’ll be using a Mac)
- An internet connection
- 1 of 4 web browsers (Google Chrome, Brave, Firefox, or Edge). For this guide we will be using Google Chrome, since it’s the most popular web browser.
- A little ETH and ZCN. ZCN won’t be mandatory until we dive into Liquidity Providing on Uniswap. ETH, however, will be mandatory in order to use the Ethereum network.
Assuming you have all of these items ready to roll, we can get started.
Step One: Install Metamask
1. Go to the Metamask website (metmask.io); Click the “Download Now” link to direct you to the download page.
2. Click the “Install Metamask For Chrome” button
3. Click the “Add to Chrome” button, assuming you’re using chrome.
4. Click the “Add Extension” button
5. Click the “Get Started” button
6. Click the “Create a Wallet” button (you can also import an existing wallet, but, for this tutorial, we’ll only be reviewing a “new wallet” setup)
7. Click “Agree” or “No Thanks” on this page. Depending on your preferences: agreeing to this just allows Metamask to derive aggregate data from your account usage. I clicked “Agree” but selecting “No Thanks” won’t affect your experience.
Step 2: Create Your Metamask Wallet
- Generate a new password and accept the terms. Write the password down on a piece of paper and store it somewhere safe.
IMPORTANT: Ensure the chosen password is complex and unique. Don’t name your password after your nephew, dog, or pet rock. For obvious reasons, you don’t want anyone on earth to have the ability to guess your password and access your account.
2. Click the blurred image to reveal your seed phrase. Carefully write down this seed phrase on a piece of paper, and store it somewhere safe. Double check to ensure that it has been correctly copied down.
IMPORTANT: This seed phrase is your last line of defense. If you forget your password, or need to open this wallet on a different device, you’ll need this seed phrase. Again, write it down carefully and store it somewhere safe.
3. Confirm your seed phrase by matching the words in the word bank with the seed phrase you have written down.
4. You’re in! Welcome to your new Metamask wallet; it should look something like this:
5. Pin the extension to your browser. This step isn’t required, but it improves the convenience of navigating between your wallet, Uniswap, and the 0Chain Geyser.
Step 3: Load your new Wallet with crypto — Deposit ETH & ZCN
- Send ETH to your Metamask wallet.
Why is this necessary? Sending money on Ethereum isn’t free: you have to pay to use the Ethereum blockchain. Put more succinctly, in order to execute any transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, you must pay a fee to the “entity” that processes your transaction — this “entity” is most commonly referred to as “the miners”. The transaction fee is denominated in Ethereum’s native asset, ETH. Long story short, it’s a good rule of thumb to keep this wallet with at least $10 to $30 worth of ETH to cover transaction fees when the time comes to send money around.
2. To send ETH to your new wallet, copy the address in the top-center of the wallet interface. This address is your unique wallet ID. If you don’t already own ETH, you’ll have to purchase ETH. Either way, send $10 to $30 worth of ETH to this new wallet (to the address that you copied).
3. Double check your address.
To ensure money is getting sent to the right place, I personally like to pull up my wallet address on etherscan.io, which is a blockchain explorer that functions as a kind of “search engine” for Ethereum addresses. Doing so will help to verify that the on-chain address matches what the Metamask extension is displaying as your address. This step isn’t necessary, but I find it to be a nice habit that allows you to be extra-certain you’re not mixing up addresses.
4. Before sending over the crypto, make sure the etherscan address matches the metamask address. This can help prevent a costly mistake.
5. Once your ETH and ZCN is sent to your metamask wallet, you can verify whether it’s been deposited by examining your account balance.
6. “Where’s the ZCN that I deposited?”, you may be thinking. Since ZCN is not a default asset in the wallet, you’ll have to click “Add Token” for it to show up in the Metamask wallet.
7. Click the “Custom Token” tab and paste the ZCN Token Contract Address (0xb9EF770B6A5e12E45983C5D80545258aA38F3B78) then click “Next”. Once you paste the address, it will auto-populate the token symbol (ZCN) and decimals (10).
Interpret this auto-fill action executed by Metamask as assurance that you’ve copy/pasted the correct address. If you’d like to be extra certain that you have copied the correct contract address, you can search ZCN on etherscan.io, or you can check via this link https://etherscan.io/token/0xb9ef770b6a5e12e45983c5d80545258aa38f3b78
8. Click “Add Tokens” to add ZCN to your Metamask Assets
9. You should now see ETH and ZCN in your wallet, displaying the amounts that you’ve sent over.
You’ve Reached The End (of Part 1)!
If all looks good, congratulations! You are now ready to trade on Uniswap. If it doesn’t look right, feel free to pop into the 0Chain telegram and ask for help.
Now, onto Part Two of the 0Chain Geyser Tutorial — How to Trade on Uniswap!
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