How to use Web3 pt. 1 | Web3 Explained

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CodeX

7 min readJul 19, 2022

Blockchain this, Crypto that, and Web3 the other, but how do you get hands-on experience with these buzzwords? We have covered what blockchains are, who and what is powering them, and some popular use cases for this technology. By following this article, you will create a wallet that you can use to safely interact with Web3 technology.

Web3 Wallets

Decentralized Applications rarely rely on a traditional username and password combination that you may be accustomed to using on Web2 platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or even Medium. Instead, they connect using something called a Wallet. A wallet can be either be a piece of software running on your computer or physical hardware. We will cover the differences between software and hardware wallets later, but the regardless most web3 wallets are made of three things:

Seed Phrase
Public Key
Private Key

Seed Phrase

A seed phrase is a randomly selected set of words (typically 12–24 words). When creating a new wallet, the seed phrase is something you should keep in a safe place as it is commonly used to recover (think “Forgot my password”) your wallet if you lose access. Your seed phrase is then used to create both your public key and your private key.

Public Key

You can treat your public key with the same level of security you treat your email address. You use can share it to communicate, make or receive payments, interact with applications or websites, etc. If you remember our summer trip example from the previous article, our friends will be sending Ethereum to each other’s wallet addresses. These wallet addresses are just a hashed version of our friends’ public keys.

Private Key

Never share your private key. Nobody will ever need it, under any circumstances, I promise. Again, do not share your private key. Now that that is out of the way, a private key is typically a random set of characters created in conjunction with your Public key that is used to “sign” or authorize web3 transactions. This means if someone malicious gets your private key, they could authorize sending all of your funds, NFTs, and DeFi assets out of your web3 wallet.

Getting Started in Web3

MetaMask is by far the most popular web3 wallet available and for good reason: it is easy to install on iOS, Android, and popular browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave). For those reasons, it will be our wallet of choice for the remainder of the Web3 Explained series. To get started, open up Google Chrome and head over to https://metamask.io/download/, then select “Install MetaMask for Google Chrome.”

1. Install MetaMask

This will take you to the Chrome Web Store, where you will click “Add to Chrome.”

At this point, we will begin following the on-screen prompts.

2a. MetaMask Setup

Click “Get Started” to being the process.

Next you will be asked to either import an existing Secret Recovery Phrase (Remember the Seed Phrase section above?) or Create a Wallet. Since we are first-timers here, we will choose the latter.

You will be asked a question or two regarding whether you want to provide system feedback to the MetaMask team. Often times this is just system crash logs and harmless monitoring metrics but if you want to be extra cautious feel free to decline that option.

2b. MetaMask Password

Next up, you will create a password. This is an additional layer of security to log into MetaMask itself, not your web3 wallet. Most software wallets (also called “hot wallets”) operate this way for ease-of-use. The alternative is you typing in, or worse storing, your public and private keys into your computer each time you wish to use MetaMask. We’ll cover this in more detail at the end of the article when we discuss software vs hardware wallets.

2c. Secret Recovery Phrase

This is the most important part of the setup process and MetaMask provides fantastic instructions. However, the gist is write down your secret recovery phrase and put it in a safe location. I know some people that write it in a notebook that they have hidden in their house, and I know another who keeps it in a safety deposit box.

Treat your secret recovery phrase with the same level of security you treat your Social Security Number or Passport.

3. Wrapping Up

After following a few more on-screen instructions you should arrive to the MetaMask home screen with your newly created wallet showing a balance of 0 ETH and $0!

You have done it! Your MetaMask account is set up and you have a Web3 Wallet ready to use in most Decentralized Applications. There are just a few more things regarding your new wallet I want to cover in this article, before we begin buying cryptocurrencies and interacting with NFTs and DeFi later in the series.

Your New Wallet

One of the most important things to notice on the MetaMask home screen is your wallet address. You can feel free to share this around with whoever you want as assets can only be deposited and not withdrawn without your consent. You can find your wallet address at the top-middle of your screen below “Account 1”. It’s often shortened with an ellipsis purely for aesthetics, but you can click on the “Copy” icon to the right of the shortened version to obtain the full address. For example, my address above (displayed as “0x650…c0CB”) is “0x650456561c7e7bD9DbaE9e741b23a79a511fc0CB”. I will cover how to use this address to do some cool stuff in “How to use Web3 pt. 2” (hyperlink coming soon!).

You will also notice options to Buy, Send, and Swap right in the middle of your screen. In “How to use Web3 pt. 2” (again, hyperlink coming soon!), I will show you how to purchase cryptocurrencies like Ethereum from exchanges like Coinbase or FTX, though I have heard purchasing from MetaMask is an equally fine option. I will also demo the Send and Swap buttons later on, for now you can ignore them.

Lastly your assets (you have none…. for now!) are listed at the bottom of the screen. Whenever you purchase Ethereum or an Ethereum-based token, these will appear here as well.

Software vs Hardware Wallets

In this article, we set up a brand new software wallet, or hot wallet, using MetaMask. While we used MetaMask to set this up, it is important to recognize that this is not a “MetaMask Wallet”, this is a Web3 Wallet that you are using MetaMask to interact with. There are other wallet applications out there, like Rainbow, that you could easily import your Secret Recovery Phrase and begin using those apps instead if you so choose to. You are now beginning to see a beautiful feature of Web3, your wallet holds your information and assets, but you are free to connect and disconnect from whatever dApps you choose to.

Tools like MetaMask and Rainbow provide access to Hot Wallets. These run entirely from your computer or mobile device and typically remain connected to the internet. This makes them extremely convenient to use to send money or any other asset between friends and smart contracts at the expense of being more vulnerable to hacks than Cold Wallets.

A cold wallet, or hardware wallet, is a dedicated physical device that stores your public and private keys. These are devices that are not connected to the internet by design for security purposes and require a physical button press in order to complete a transaction. This prevents a computer hacker from logging into your MetaMask account and withdrawing your funds at the expense of requiring a physical device to send assets in web3. The two most common cold wallets are built by Ledger and Trezor. I myself have had great luck with my Ledger wallet, but have not had the chance to try out a Trezor product yet.

Conclusion

In this part 1 of the “How to use Web3” article, I showed you how to set up a Web3 Wallet using the ever-popular MetaMask. We will use this wallet in part 2 to receive, send, and swap cryptocurrency by interacting with popular dApps like Uniswap. I will also show you how to receive free Ethereum to do all of this experimenting on a testnet!