MetaMask The Right Way: A Step By Step Guide

A barrier that often comes up for a new user entering the Crypto Defi space is the MetaMask wallet. There is a lot of confusion and half-written guides surrounding this wallet of choice so I felt the need to do a comprehensive guide on how to install, set up and use it so that you can get the best out of Defi and indeed Crypto.

MetaMask is without a doubt one of the most popular web browser extensions that serves as a way of storing Ethereum and a host of other ERC20 Tokens. The extension is free to download and you can use it on a variety of Browsers. It is also very secure although I will touch on that later.

I prefer to use the Chrome version but that is only because Chrome is my browser of choice.

Installing MetaMask in Your Chosen Browser

I shall run through the installation and use of MetaMask in the Chrome web browser but this is where you can get it from for the 3 main browsers if Chrome is not your choice:

Chrome: MetaMask

Firefox: MetaMask

Edge: MetaMask

If by the time you come to read this guide the above links do not work just search for Metamask in Google. For my purposes, I clicked the link above for Chrome and this is what you will see next.

Next, you should click add to Chrome (or whatever browser you are using) and select “Add Extension”.

Chrome will do some checking and then you will end up on this page.

Click on “Get Started” Above and you will see this page next.

This message is optional and up to you. I clicked “No Thanks” and you will then see this message.

For our purposes I want you to select “Create Wallet”. If you already have a wallet and you have the Seed keys (Secret Recovery Phrase) you can select “Import Wallet” and restore your wallet.

NEVER GIVE YOUR SECRET KEY OR RECOVERY PHRASE TO ANYONE

I would like to add here that if you ever give away your secret key phrase this is the step the scammer or hacker would choose to restore your wallet onto their machine and thus steal all your Crypto tokens. On that note, it is prudent for me to mention it here.

NEVER GIVE YOUR SECRET KEY OR RECOVERY PHRASE TO ANYONE

It is like giving them the keys to your bank account. But I will cover this in more detail later on.

Once you have clicked on “Create” you will see this screen next.

Choose a secure password here but also one that you can remember. Once you have entered your password and selected the T&Cs MetaMask will show you this video. It is worth you watching it.

Once you click on the “Next” button above MetaMask will show you this screen.

This is a very important screen. I want you to click on the message.

Click Here To Reveal Your Secret Recovery Key

And then write it down along with the password you chose. Do not save either your password or your secret key on your computer. For the time being, just write them down.

This is mine.

I have blurred mine out to remind you not to show this phrase to anyone, ever!

NEVER GIVE YOUR SECRET KEY OR RECOVERY PHRASE TO ANYONE

Anyway back to the article. Click “Next” once you have revealed and written down your secret phrase. MetaMask will then show you this screen to make sure you did indeed write it down.

Follow the instructions by entering the words in the correct order into the box provided.

Once the words are entered click on the “Confirm” button. You should see this next.

Click on “All Done” and you will jump to this page.

Well done for getting it installed. You can use MetaMask here in this web browser window BUT you can also use it as a widget which I shall show you next.

Pinning The MetaMask Extension

If you look top right in the Chrome browser you will see this little icon.

I want you to click on that and you’ll see this next.

Press that little pin icon I have arrowed and turn it blue and MetaMask will now appear in your Chrome extension toolbar like so.

Now you can access MetaMask using the extension widget and I shall cover that next as we add funds and also other ERC20 Tokens main chains.

Renaming your MetaMask account

Before we move on to adding ERC20 chains to your MetaMask account I want to show you how you can rename it. Click the widget icon to open up MetaMask and you’ll see my account is called Account1.

Select the three verticle dots burger menu to the right.

And then click on “Account Details” and you’ll see this.

On this screen, you can see the QR code for your wallet address and also see the wallet address written out for you which in my case is.

0x17256fbD1204565081a034E63614A61835fc1d04

I want you to click on the pen icon though so we can rename the account to something more memorable.

Rename it to what you wish and then click on the tick icon to save the change. Once done you can click the X and you will be back to the main entry window of the widget.

Adding ERC20 Chains to MetaMask

MetaMask starts off with the Ethereum blockchadded to it but in this section, I want to cover adding in the other main chains. Now you can do this manually but the easiest way by far is to use Chanlist.wtf

Head over to Chainlist and select connect wallet like so.

This window will pop up.

Select MetaMask here. Your MetaMask widget will open and show you that It wants to connect to the chain list site. You should press next here.

MetaMask will now want to connect. There is a little message warning you only to connect to sites that you trust (more on that later) but for our purposes press the connect button.

That’s it I am connected with this wallet address.

You do NOT need to add all of these networks to your MetaMask. The main ones to consider using are the following

• BNB Chain/BSC
• Polygon
• Avalanche
• Arbitrum
• Optimism
• Palm
• Fantom
• Harmony.

For the purposes of this guide, I shall add the following using Chainlist.

• BNB Chain/BSC
• Polygon
• Avalanche
• Fantom

Back in chainlist you can scroll down and look for these or you can just use the search bar at the top. Let’s try with BNB.

Now you just select “Add Chain” and your MetaMask widget will pop open with the following message for you to agree and Approve.

Select Approve on this message and you will see this message below.

The reason that you see this is that you are on the Ethereum chain at the moment in your wallet. Just select “Switch Network”.

As you can see Chainlist switched networks for us whilst adding the BNB BSC network to MetaMask at the same time.

You can now go back to chainlist and add the other networks into your MetaMask until you have added all the ones that you are going to use. Mine now looks like this.

You do NOT need to add multiple networks to your MetaMask. Only add the ones that you want to use based on the token or project you are interested in.

You can add these chains manually into MetaMask and MetaMask themselves have a great guide which you can find here showing you how to do that.

Adding Tokens to your MetaMask

Now that we have installed MetaMask and also added some of the main chains it’s time to start adding Tokens. There are multiple ways to do this but one that I use is to go to CoinMarketCap and search for the token and add it from there.

As you can see I have searched for Drip which is one of my favourite projects.

Now a note of caution.

Many tokens are called by similar names. It is wise when you are interested in a token or project to check out the project page and see what the icon looks like etc. Then when you search for the coin (token) you can make sure you are actually adding the right one into your MetaMask.

If we look at the drip page we can get an idea of the icon etc.

If you are interested in the Drip project feel free to use my main wallet address as your buddy address. To join Drip you must have a buddy. I have grown this account myself and am now in a position to be able to perform air drops to all who join using my buddy link.

Just use this link here when you join. (Do NOT use the wallet address I created for writing this guide)!

This is my Drip project buddy link:

drip.community/faucet?buddy=0x1511093a940a12F6593cFb886E7ac4ea95AdF5AB

I shall be writing several articles on Drip itself later.

Anyway now we know what drip looks like let’s go back to Coin Market Cap and select the project from our search results.

I have highlighted for you with the arrow what you are looking for. To add Drip to your MetaMask you can copy this link or you can click on the MetaMask head icon which is what I shall do.

You may get this message in which case go to your MetaMask and change the network to the right chain which in this case is Binance.

Now click the head icon again and you’ll see this.

Just select add token here and we can see that Drip has been added.

You can do this with any token you want to add. Just remember to be in that tokens chain in MetaMask otherwise you will always get asked to switch networks (chains).

You can add tokens manually if you know the contract address and again MetaMask show you how to do that here in this guide.

Security and Not getting hacked

I now want to talk about your wallet security and the typical ways in which people lose their Crypto.

Downloading a Scam Version of Metamask

This one is somewhat rare but it does happen. always make sure you are downloading the correct version of MetaMask and that you are not on some scammer’s website. The official website for MetaMask is

https://metamask.io

or you can install it from one of the web browser stores which is what I did in this guide.

Exposing Your Seed Phrase

This is by far the most common way that people get hacked and lose their wallet and all the crypto in it. Even my mate who has been told repeatedly by me NOT to do this over the years did it one evening. It happens.

Some tips:

Do NOT store your seed phrase (secret keywords) on your phone or computer.

You can store it in:

1. A safe deposit box written on a piece of paper
2. On a USB stick in the secure area or crypt like what Sandisk provide (don’t forget the password)
3. In a secure password manager like Roboform in a Safenote. Yes, this is on your laptop but it is highly secure with a decent password.
4. On two pieces of paper so that the key is split and then hide them in different locations (fire risk of course with keys on paper)
5. Using a steel key or similar product and hiding that like CryptoSteel or similar.

Various ways hackers get hold of your seed key

Discord. I love it but it is a hunting ground and you are the prey. All projects have a Discord server. When you join it you will get bombarded with private DM messages and some of them are VERY good. They will offer you all sorts and sound very official and at some point they will ALL ask for you to verify your seed phrase.

NO LEGITIMATE TECH SUPPORT OR PROJECT OWNER WILL EVER DM YOU! Seriously, do not EVER respond to anyone pretending to be any kind of support for ANY given project.

NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR SEED PHRASE TO ANYONE

It is a simple rule but even my mate fell for the Discord DM scam and yep lost all his funds within 30 minutes. He joined the Tavern project and immediately he got some DMs welcoming him and running through some “security” checks. He then got offered a free airdrop of “Mead” token and all we need is your wallet address and seed key to send the Mead to you.

I sighed when he frantically called me. There is nothing you can do. No one you can call. No one can help get your crypto back. His crypto was gone to be sold and spent by the scammer.

NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR SEED PHRASE TO ANYONE

Oh, and your MetaMask wallet password won’t save you. That is only locking your account on your laptop. If I have your seed phrase I can recreate your wallet on my laptop with my own password for my machine.

You can get scammed like this from Discord, Telegram you name it. But all of them will ask at some point for you to verify your seed phrase.

NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR SEED PHRASE TO ANYONE

Malware and Keyloggers

When you enter the crypto space you must at all times ensure that your desktop or laptop is secure against Malware and Trojans. It is wise that your crypto laptop is ONLY used from crypto but if you can’t afford to do that then try as best you can to not go to dodgy websites. NO porn sites for sure!

If a scammer does manage to install keylogging software onto your laptop or desktop they can record all your keystrokes. Trojans might allow the scammer to gain access to the file where your secret key is stored and even if you used a password you can see from the guide below that it better be a secure password and not just mark123.

Scam and fake MetaMask transactions

This one is way more complex. A scam site or project will get you to connect your wallet to their site. Yes, all legitimate projects also do this. As part of that process, you have a sign message and that message allows the site to spend an unlimited amount of your tokens. Scam sites will use this to drain your wallet into their own wallet, legitimate projects won’t.

Scammers will create sites with domain names similar to the main project. I fell for one of these for the launch of a vPAD project. I sent 1 BNB to a very good-looking fake site. Not exactly a hack but yeah lesson learned for me on that one.

You can run through these sites and revoke any permission that you have given in your wallet if you are ever unsure of them.

https://etherscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker

https://snowtrace.io/tokenapprovalchecker?

https://bscscan.com/tokenapprovalchecker?

https://polygonscan.com/tokenapprovalchecker?

Just enter your wallet address and you can revoke all the connections on that chain.

DO NOT JOIN FAKE PROJECT SITES

Dust Attacks

This one is clever. The scammer creates a shit coin and then sends out loads of them to random wallets. I have millions of this type of coin in my various wallets. The tokens will be associated with a malicious smart contract and yes of course if you try to sell them or interact with them your wallet will get compromised.

You only see these tokens if you type your wallet into one of the blockchain explorers websites. As a rule of thumb if you see a new coin appear in your wallet on one of the explorer websites do not add that coin to your MetaMask. Do some research on it first. Scam coins are always listed somewhere.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and gained some insight into the use of MetaMask. For my part there is only one last thing to say:

NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR SEED PHRASE TO ANYONE

Thank you for taking the time to read my article

If you wish you can subscribe. My essays and guides are designed to help you to navigate the often confusing world that is Crypto.

Mark@AltT

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