Your First Cosmos Wallet: Keplr
Table of Contents
Introduction
Hello dear reader, and welcome to Notional’s first tutorial! In this brief article we will:
- Explain what a Cosmos wallet is and why you need it
- Explain some basic security practices for keeping your funds safe
- Get the Keplr wallet installed on your machine
- Give you a brief tour of how you can use Keplr to manage your Cosmos assets
Wallets
In everyday language, a wallet is a physical object that stores your fiat currency — USD, GBP, EUR, etc — more commonly known as cash. However, cryptocurrencies are not tangible, and they don’t really need to be ‘stored’ in the same sense.
So the first important distinction is that in crypto, a wallet is software that can read and interact with a blockchain. We are going to use Keplr Wallet, which is one of the most popular wallets for interacting with the Cosmos.
Why would you want Keplr on your device?
Having a wallet is a great idea if you want to:
1. Take custody and control of your own Cosmos assets
2. Stake your assets to earn rewards
3. Participate in governance and exert a positive influence on the future of your investments
4. Free yourself from the corruption and incompetence of centralized exchanges and other custodians.
If this sounds like you, let’s dive in.
Set Up
For this tutorial I will be using a Windows machine and Google Chrome. The exact steps should be similar for other operating systems and browsers, but feel free to get in touch if you’re having trouble.
On Google Chrome, you can head to the Web Store and search ‘Keplr’.
You should be able to see the Keplr browser extension listed first but please make sure it has the blue checkmark and says ‘keplr.app’ — be wary phishing/spoofing scams and malicious fakers!
Click this search result to see an introductory video and some overview information. Feel free to watch and read. When you’re ready, click “Add to Chrome”, and then “Add extension” on the pop-up screen.
After installing, you should be able to find it in the upper right-hand corner of Chrome, Feel free to pin it using the thumbtack icon for easy access in the future.
Now that Keplr is installed, let’s set up set your Cosmos account!
Public Keys and Private Keys
When you first click on the Keplr extension, you will be presented with this screen:
An account in crypto comes with a public key and a private key — which sort of behave like a username and password on other apps that you’ve used in the past.
The public key can be shared with anyone without concerns, and you must share it with anyone that wants to send you some crypto. In this way, it’s a bit like your account number at a bank — someone who has it cannot access your funds, but they can send you their funds.
The private key is much more important. Anyone who has access to your private key can send your funds to any address they like, so it is crucial that you store your private key somewhere safe and secured at all times. It behaves like a password, but with one major difference:
If you lose your password for your bank account, you can go to the bank, prove that you are who you say you are, and they can reset it for you.
In crypto this process does not exist — if you lose your private key, you will lose access to your funds and generally no one will be able to help you get them back. You are in control of your assets and the management of your private key is your responsibility — we are leaving custodial systems (like banks) behind.
With all this in mind, we will create a new account, but first:
- You should run some security scans on your computer to make sure they do not detect any malware.
- You should disconnect from your internet, just in case.
These steps are important because the next screen will reveal your private key for you, and you want to make sure that you are the only person that will see it. When you’re ready, click on “Create new account”.
Immediately, you will be presented with the Mnemonic Seed screen and it gives you the option of 12 or 24 words. Twelve words will be fine, but feel free to choose 24 if you want a little extra security.
IMPORTANT These twelve words are (basically) your private key* . These are the words you must secure in order to ensure that no one else has access to your funds.
(*Technically, your private is long string of numbers and characters that is encrypted by your mnemonic phrase.)
Anyone that has this phrase can essentially prove to the blockchain that they are you and send your assets wherever they please.
Take a moment, write this phrase down, and store it somewhere very safe.
Scrolling down, you can add an “Account Name” which just gets stored on your device, and set a password. This password is how you will login to Keplr from now on, so you don’t need to be constantly inputting your private keys.
Please make this password long and strong! Avoid using common passwords like “password123” as this will jeopardize your wallet’s security. Feel free to write this down in the same place as your private key, just in case. When you are ready, click “Next”.
The next screen is to ensure that you actually wrote down and can reproduce your private key. Enter your seed words in their correct order and click “Register”. You should be greeted with…
Click “Done”. You have now created a Keplr account — your gateway to the Cosmos!
A Quick Tour
If you now click on the Keplr icon at the right-hand corner of your browser, you should see the standard Keplr drop-down screen (Note: we already funded this wallet some with tokens, but you won’t have any yet):
If all of this is a bit confusing, we recommend having a quick read through our What is Cosmos? article, but let’s quickly look at what this wallet can do.
The Interchain
You might recall that the Cosmos is more than just one blockchain — it is an entire network of blockchains that can all communicate with each other. You can access your address for any supported Cosmos blockchain by using the “Copy Address” OR “Deposit” buttons and navigating to the chain you want:
“But don’t I need a separate seed phrase and public key for each blockchain??” I hear you wonder, suddenly concerned.
Usually, yes. But here, the creation of your Keplr account automatically generated a public key for every Cosmos blockchain that currently exists and will ever exist from a single seed phrase. Sexy, right?
These addresses can be shared with anyone that needs to send crypto to you, or can be used when you want to withdraw your crypto from a centralized exchange (which you should absolutely do if you haven’t already).
But remember, blockchains are public. So, anyone you share these addresses with can also see the value of your holdings on that blockchain. Be sensible about who you share them with, just in case.
Other Functionality
Here is a quick overview of some of the other features of Keplr wallet screen:
At some point you’ll want to fund your wallet. You can do this by:
- Withdrawing crypto purchased from a centralized exchange
- Bridging assets from other ecosystems like Ethereum (please be careful with this!).
- Getting a very good friend to send you some crypto
Depending on how you do this, you will need an address found by clicking by the “Deposit” button.
Conversely, if you ever want to send your crypto somewhere else (like to an exchange or a very good friend), you will need the “Send” button and you will need an address to send it to.
Note: Some exchanges requires a “Memo” when depositing Cosmos assets. These requirements are different on each exchange so please be sure to carefully read their individual instructions if you don’t want to lose your assets!!
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have taken a giant step into a universe of possibilities. It can be a bit overwhelming, but go slow and don’t take any unnecessary risks. Hopefully you now feel comfortable:
- Installing Keplr on your machine
- Creating an account (with public and private keys)
- Storing your private key in a very safe place and
- Using Keplr to store and manage your Cosmos assets
If you found this article interesting or informative, please help us out by sharing it with your friends and family. If there are other topics within the Cosmos you’d like to know more about, don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know!
Thanks for reading ❤
Robin Tunley
Twitter: @the5thforce0_0
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Notional on Twitter: @notionaldao
