How-To: Installing & Setting Up Metamask on Harmony

More and more I’m seeing Metamask as the preferred crypto wallet for ETH & EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) dAPPs. Harmony is an EVM and as such, can utilize Metamask for it’s transaction processing! We’ll go through how to install Metamask, importing an account, setup the Harmony RPCs and further what are some things you should know about using Metamask.

Installing Metamask

• Navigate to https://metamask.io — I did not link this intentionally, please copy & paste it into your browser
  - When you go to install this, you should determine if you want to be browser based or mobile based. They have a way to “sync” between browser & mobile, but at the moment, it’s not exactly ideal. It is best to go one route or the other.
  - Metamask is compatable with the following: Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Edge, iOS and Android.
• Next install the browser extension where you see fit. This tutorial will walk through setting up on a PC browser versus mobile. On a browser, it will take you to your applicable browsers extensions store.
• Once installed, you’ll get a popup similar to the following:

This says “Connecting you to Ethereum” however it is applicable to all EVM blockchains (Harmony for example)

• We’ll hit Get Started and the next screen is where the fun begins:

• This gives us two options: Import a secret recovery phrase or create a brand new wallet. You CAN import your Harmony Wallet into metamask, however at this step we’ll create a new wallet.
• The next screen is regarding analytics. I am not normally opposed to these, but I wouldn’t give facebook access to my physical wallet, I’m not giving Metamask access to my crypto wallet. Entirely your choice, though. Make a selection and move to the next screen.
• Now, Metamask is asking us to make a password. This isn’t a password we use to approve each transaction or to transfer any crypto — but rather Metamask auto locks after so long, which you use your password to unlock it for using. Fill out your password and hit “Create”.
• Once created, Metamask itself will go over some of the important aspects of securing your wallet and backing up the appropriate applicable information. You’ll see two screens here, please read all of it — too many people have lost access to their wallets for something simple explained on these screens.
• Lastly, we are directed to our Metamask dashboard! Our wallet is created, Metamask has created a single account for this wallet since we didn’t import one.

DO NOT EVER SHARE YOUR SEED PHRASE, PRIVATE KEYS OR PASSWORDS WITH ANYONE, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

Setting up Harmony RPCs

In order to be able to use Metamask with any Harmony dAPPs, you must provide the endpoint for the wallet (Metamask) to communicate with; these are the Harmony RPCs. Harmony being a multi-sharded blockchain offers RPCs for each shard, we’re going to setup Shard 0 right now, you can repeat the steps for Shards 1–3 afterwords. Do note: a dAPP is usually only ever on a single shard, so be sure what shard the dAPP you want to use resides on to setup the appropriate RPC endpoint.

• We are going to click in the top right on the colorful circle, then click on “Settings”. You may have noticed it says “Ethereum Mainnet” in the top right next to the circle, while you can setup the RPC in there, that’s mainly where you quickly change your wallets connection.

• Within settings, we’re going to click “Networks” and then “Add Network”

• We’re not prompted for Harmony specific information, such as the RPC URL, Chain ID, Currency Symbol & Block Explorer URL. I advise adding both the Mainnet Shard 0 and Testnet Shard 0. Below is a screenshot of those settings, if you want to verify them, you can click here.

• Once you have added the applicable RPC endpoints that you want, you can click METAMASK in the top left and it will take you back to your dashboards home.
• Now, if you click Ethereum Mainnet in the top right, you will see your new networks added in that dropdown, here is an example of what you’ll see:

• Your endpoints are now setup and you are ready to interact on the Harmony network!

Importing An Account

Now, I mentioned earlier you CAN import accounts into your metamask wallet from other wallets. To do so, you’ll need to know the Private Key for your existing account in the other wallet. To export that key, each wallet has their own process and we will not be covering that.

• First, we’re going to click on the colorful circle in the top right and then click on “Import Account”.

• It will take you to a page to paste your private key. Paste the private key in the box and click “Import”.

• Once you’ve hit “Import” — you’ll be taken back to your dashboard home with the newly imported account selected by default. You will need to add any assets you held by the contract address with the “Add Token” button.

Some “Good-To-Knows”

Now that we’ve installed Metamask, setup the Harmony RPCs & imported an existing account if necessary, we’re good to start using dAPPs built on the Harmony blockchain!

Your journey mastering Metamask doesn’t end there though, there are some things you’ll wish you knew before proceeding:

• ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS verify where you are sending a transaction. If you send it to the wrong address, a contract or anywhere not intended, the odds of recovering this are virtually non-existent.
• NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give out your seed phrase, private keys or passwords. Any dAPP built does not need this information unless in VERY specific circumstances, of which should be blatantly obvious (like importing a wallet made elsewhere into Metamask, of course it needs your private key or it cannot import it).
• SAVE everything. Save your account names with your private keys. Each account has it’s own private key, save them in a secure place. If you lose these and your computer crashes, your assets are gone, forever.
• When you go to import your existing metamask wallet into a new browser, for example, you should import your seed phrase first — this will import your initially created account. You must then import each account individually by their private keys. The seed phrase DOES NOT import ALL accounts, only the account created when you made your wallet.
• Always verify you’re on the correct network when interacting with dAPPs. A lot of dAPPS that are built on a specific EVM blockchain, can interact with other EVM blockchain RPC endpoints. Meaning you can accidentally do something you intended to do on Harmony but instead on BSC or Ethereum.
• If you find your transactions are stuck for hours at a time, on Harmony, that is not common. You can try to reset your account by going to: Colorful Circle -> Settings -> Advanced -> Reset Account. This SHOULD NOT erase any account information, but it flushes your transactions to try and push out the one clogging up your wallet. It really should be renamed “Reset Transactions”.

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