10. MyEtherWallet, the most famous ETH wallet

MyEtherWallet allows you to send and receive Ethereum by entering your private key. You can also create a wallet that will generate public keys to receive Ether, or simply send and receive Ether only once.

What can I do with MEW?

MyEtherWallet is one of the best ways to get involved with the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies. Here we can really see what is the control of our investments and the lack of a central authority. Let’s see what we can do with MyEtherWallet:

- You can create an Ethereum wallet in simple steps.

- You have complete management of your funds. You will receive your public key (with QR code), your private key, a printable version of your wallet (paper wallet) and a KeyStore / JSON file with advanced encryption of this data.

- MEW coin purses are compatible with the ERC20 standard. Thus, it is possible to interact with infinities of tokens compatible with this standard and store them in the same portfolio. This is especially useful when you want to make a contribution in an ICO offer. You can send funds to the official address of an ICO offer and smart contracts in the ETH network will ensure that the tokens are released in your own MyEtherWallet wallet.

- You can send and receive funds in all available tokens.

- You will have full control of the options when sending funds. You can configure the network, the price and the “Gas” limit.

MyEtherWallet is an Interface

- When you create an account on MyEtherWallet you are generating a cryptographic set of numbers: your private key and your public key (address).

- You are simply using our interface to interact directly with the blockchain.

MEW’s Starter guide

Before performing the procedure to open your wallet, you must ensure that you are entering the correct website.

• First, read the name of the website in the address bar. It MUST be https://www.myetherwallet.com/ — otherwise, you could be a victim of phishing or identity theft.

• Verify the SSL certificate that encrypts the connection to MyEtherWallet. The secure connection is checked next to the address bar and is identified by the phrase “MYETHERWALLET LLC [US]”:

By entering https://www.myetherwallet.com/ you can see that the first thing that shows you is the option to create a new wallet -Create New Wallet-. In the upper part you will see in the header options that you will have to use frequently as Gas Price to determine how much you are willing to pay for each transaction, at this time it is advisable to establish the value between 4 Gwei and 10 Gwei, unless you are in a rush and the network is saturated.

First, a password containing of at least 9 digits is requested. In such a way that the key must be as complex as possible, as long as it is remembered. Then click on “Generate Wallet”.

A password is chosen. In the field that appears in the format, one must enter a password, which should be kept somewhere safe, since it will probably be needed in the future.

On the other hand, in the next screen it refers to the UTC file that is to be created containing the encrypted private keys. So if that record is lost, it takes the ETH with them and it cannot be accessed, nor will there be a way to recover it, which is why all the information provided should be saved very well.

You have 3 ways of doing this. You can download .JSON file with an encrypted version of the private key which is compatible with gwei, mist and myetherwallet and requires a password to decrypt (Keystore). You can also store an unencrypted version of your private key (also known as an .JSON file) or by copy pasting it from the website.

The file you downloaded using “Download File Keystore” must be stored on a USB stick outside the device together with the password, since it contains the secret keys.

MyEtherWallet will give you the option to print it so that one can have a “paper purse”. The most important thing is to keep this information somewhere safe and private, because if other people know the private key, they will have control of one’s account and funds.

Save your wallet address or QR code. In order to receive transactions you must give the sender a public key to which he can send the Ether to

The purse is chosen. After confirming that the private key was secured, one will be asked to choose who can access the account. MEW is compatible with certain physical purses and with software wallets. If you do not have a wallet that you want to use in conjunction with MyEtherWallet, you can access the newly created wallet with the keystore file or with the private key.

Send funds to another wallet

We have decided to explain this procedure since it usually generates several doubts regarding the configuration. To make a funds transfer on your MEW wallet, follow the instructions below:

• Enter the MyEtherWaller website following our previous security considerations.

• Click on the “Send Ether & Tokens” option and access your wallet using one of the available methods.

• Configure the requested data:

o To Address: the public address to which you will send the funds. Remember that only addresses from other Ethereum wallets or compatible tokens are supported. If it is the address for the distribution of tokens in an ICO, be sure to use the official one.

o Amount to send: the amount to send in terms of ether or another token from the list. You can use the “Send Entire Balance” button to send all available funds.

o Gas limit: is the number of gas to send. This basically determines the priority and cost of transactions in the Ethereum network. ICOs usually recommend specific values ​​for GAS options.

o Gas price: together with the gas limit, determines the price of the transaction. The larger these figures are, the greater the commission of the transaction and also the speed of the transaction (higher priority). This item will be found at the top of the page, and you can change the value with a scroll bar.

• Click on «Generate Transaction». See the following illustrative example:

The system will generate a transaction identifier. You can use it to track it and verify that everything is correct. With this identifier you can access https://etherscan.io/ and enter the identifier to be able to check the status of the transfer. Until this transfer appears in the pool of miners’ transfers it will not appear, it usually takes no more than 30 seconds if the ETH network is not congested.

• The transaction takes some time depending on the number of confirmations you need, and you can follow the status of the transaction by accessing the Etherscan link with the address of our wallet that we save in bookmarks, in the Internal Transactions section (it may take a while to begin to be processed).

How safe is MyEtherWallet?

MEW is considered as a tool to interact with the Ethereum network, not as an individual application. When safety is concerned, MEW can be used together with purses that are popular for safety, such as TREZOR, Ledger, or the official purse of Ethereum. In itself, the security level of MEW depends largely on the users and the way in which they use the tool.

Of course, by being able to create purses and carry out transactions in a way that the internet is not required, MEW is more secure than other platforms in which processes like these pass in their entirety through the web, although less practical. On the other hand, on the MyEtherWallet website one can find, in the “Help” tab, a lot of information about the recommended security practices.

The handling of your keys happens entirely on your computer, inside your browser. They wil never transmit, receive or store your private key, password, or other account information.

You have to keep in mind that if you send your private key to someone, they now have full control of your account.

ADVANTAGES OF USING MYETHERWALLET

There are many options for storing Ethereum and Tokens ERC-20, but I definitely recommend using MyEtherWallet for the following reasons:

- Allows you to send and receive Ether (Ethereum) & Tokens ERC-20.

- It allows you to create an unlimited number of Ethereum addresses.

- MyEtherWallet can be executed offline and locally.

- It does not store your private keys.

- Great level of security MEW is a client with limited connection since it will only connect to the network to perform the operation you want to carry out.

As you can see, most of the advantages revolve around the security and total control by the user about the data, balances and transactions.

In MEW you will have full control over your addresses, keys and balance.

You must be careful, responsible and keep secure the data you have received when creating your address because MyEtherWallet does not save the addresses or passwords for you. If you lose this data you won’t have access to your accounts, nor backup copies, nor will you be able to recover the lost passwords.