Thread by @petergyang

You need a crypto wallet to start your web 3 journey.

Here's a single thread the explains like I'm five:

1. What is a wallet?
2. Which wallet should I get?
3. How do I set up a wallet?
4. How do I secure my wallet?
5. Bonus: Eth domain

Let's dive in...
creatoreconomy.so/p/curious-begi…

1/ What is a wallet?

A wallet stores your:

1. Public key to send and receive transactions.

2. Private key that proves you own the assets in your address. Your seed phrase lets you easily access your private key.

Never share your private key or seed phrase with anyone.

2/ Wallets don't store your actual assets. Instead, they let you access your assets on the blockchain using these keys.

If your wallet was your bank account, your public key would be your account number and your private key would be your pin.

3/ Which wallet should you get?

Most people start with a hot wallet then move their long-term assets to a cold wallet.

1. Hot wallet: Software connected to the internet.

2. Cold wallets: Hardware devices that are default offline.

4/ Hot wallets include hosted wallets and non-custodial wallets.

Hosted wallets are managed by an exchange that you access via a username and password.

Host wallets are by far the most common (Coinbase alone has 68M users) but you don't own your keys.

5/ Non-custodial wallets are self-managed.

You own your keys and therefore can use these wallets as your identity across web 3 platforms.

Popular ones include @MetaMask, @rainbowdotme, and @CoinbaseWallet.

6/ Cold wallets are physical devices that are default offline and therefore more secure.

If you have assets that you don't want to trade anytime soon, move them to a cold wallet like @Trezor and @Ledger.

7/ How do I set up a wallet?

The post walks through creating a wallet with Metamask (web) and then accessing it with Rainbow (mobile).

Note how this is different from web 2 where each platform would require a username and password.

In web 3, you own your keys and identity.

8/ How do I send stuff to my wallet?

Most people fund their non-custodial wallet from an exchange (hosted wallet).

Just make sure to copy and paste your wallet's public address correctly before transferring funds to it.

Consider transferring a small amount first.

9/ How do I keep my wallet safe?

This is the MOST IMPORTANT section of this thread.

Scammers will go to great lengths to trick you into sharing your private key or seed phrase.

They love targeting beginners who don't know any better.

10/ Steps to secure your wallet, part 1:

1. Store your private key and seed phrase on a piece of paper that you keep with other important documents or use a password manager like @1Password.

2. Never share them with anyone. Reputable platforms will not ask for these artifacts

11/ Steps to secure your wallet, part 2:

3. Secure your wallet password (e.g., what you use to login to Metamask)

4. Move long-term assets out of your daily wallet to a cold wallet

12/ Steps to secure your wallet, part 3:

5. Check the website URL, email, or social handle before taking any action. Scammers will pretend to be a trusted platform

6. Turn off Discord DMs after joining new servers and don't interact with unknown assets in your wallet

13/ Common wallet scams, part 1:

1. Pretending to be customer support

In the below example, the scammer is impersonating @MetamaskSupport and even faked a user reply in an attempt to get me to share my seed phrase.

14/ Common wallet scams, part 2:

2. Giving you a fake NFT or token drop.

This can be sent to you via DM or even just show up in your wallet (if the scammer knows your public address).

Don't respond to these.

3. Scammers might even mail you a fake cold wallet!

15/ Bonus: Getting an eth domain

An eth domain lets people send tokens to yourname.eth instead of the long string that's your public key.

Getting one is simple:
1. Go to ens.domains and connect your wallet
2. Search for a domain name
3. Buy it with some eth

16/ Why do wallets matter?

A long time ago, I worked on FB Login. Our goal was to bring your FB identity to every website.

But the future that I want is one where I own my identity vs. some platform.

If web 3 is about ownership, then your crypto wallet is your owned identity.

17/ More great wallet guides:

How to set up a crypto wallet from @__mikareyes:


Crypto wallet 101 from @chriscantino:

https://twitter.com/chriscantino/status/1445084855549579264?s=20

Wallet deck from @jacksondame:

https://twitter.com/jacksondame/status/1451173251175026688?s=20

18/ I co-authored this post with @yaangjieyu and our 1.5K+ strong community.

We believe that the best web 3 education should be free and have more guides coming.

If you want to contribute, join us via this link:
discord.com/invite/d8JHusa…