In this tutorial we'll walk you through how to set up a wallet and more importantly, what is a wallet.

In this tutorial, we'll walk you through how to set up a wallet and more importantly, what is a wallet. This tutorial is aimed at developers who want to get started with Ethereum development.If you’re only interested in setting up your wallet right away and getting started, you should skip to the section Setting up Your Wallet.Contents:<ul><li>What is a wallet exactly?</li><li>Setting up your wallet<ul><li>Downloading MetaMask</li><li>Setting up MetaMask</li><li>Getting to know your MetaMask extension</li><li>Sign-in with MetaMask to Pointer</li></ul></li><li>Technical Explanation of Ethereum Accounts</li></ul><h2>What is a wallet exactly? An app or a key-pair?</h2>The answer to this question is a bit tricky. As any good senior engineer would say, it depends.When most people talk about wallets, they are referring to an application (Like MetaMask, Rainbow, Phantom) that lets you manage your crypto accounts. Some people refer to the key-pair for your Ethereum account as your wallet, but this isn't exactly right. From the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="link" href="https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/accounts/">Ethereum account docs</a>: <blockquote class="blockquote">An account is not a wallet. An account is the keypair for a user-owned Ethereum account. A wallet is an interface or application that lets you interact with your Ethereum account.</blockquote>We're going to explore both of these concepts :)First, we’ll see how you can use a wallet application to create an Ethereum account and connect to Pointer.If you’re interested in the technical details of accounts and key-pairs, you can continue reading beyond that for an interactive demonstration on how to create your own Ethereum account / key-pair from scratch.<h2>Setting up your wallet</h2>A wallet application makes it easy to set up Ethereum accounts, move ETH around, approve and initiate transactions, and connect to web applications.Some popular Wallets are MetaMask - a browser-based wallet, and Rainbow - a mobile-first wallet. The Ethereum website has a great overview of different wallets <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="link" href="https://ethereum.org/en/wallets/">here</a>.In this section, we’re going to show you how to use MetaMask to create an Ethereum account and connect to Pointer. Once you’re connected, you’ll be able to take tutorials on our platform and earn crypto rewards!<h3>Metamask</h3>MetaMask is a popular browser-based wallet that makes it easy to use your Ethereum account in conjunction with other web applications, including Pointer.We use a “Connect with Wallet” sign-in system at Pointer.Using MetaMask you can connect your Ethereum account to Pointer. We use your Ethereum address to create your profile in our database.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_a1G-gQd4tDk7VxZ6d_ZtJ" uploadmode="upload"></image><h3>Downloading MetaMask</h3>The official MetaMask website is located at metamask.io.You should bookmark this site in order to protect yourself from scams. A popular crypto scam is to trick folks into clicking on a phishing link that presents a site pretending to be MetaMask.Go to the Metamask site and click Download.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_JpQvgTPSw5Vg65K48Jnt4" uploadmode="upload"></image>You’ll see a page like this. Install the appropriate extension for your browser.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_OdDcFzh-ix_IHhZQqqFZu" uploadmode="upload"></image>Click Get Started<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_YC9xpTHAKv8ILwmefcLfI" uploadmode="upload"></image>MetaMask will ask you if you have a Secret Recovery Phrase or if you’d like to “Create a Wallet”.Click “Create a Wallet”.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_KtZ77tcJesShQYBdh0trk" uploadmode="upload"></image>Next, you’ll need to create a password for Metamask. We’d recommend using a password manager if you’re not already. Click Create when you’re done.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_MlnBkRQ5soCTJkLTs_qS4" uploadmode="upload"></image>Metamask will give you a Secret Recovery Phrase. Follow the next few steps to complete your Metamask onboarding.DO NOT LOSE YOUR SECRET RECOVERY PHRASE OR SHOW IT TO ANYONE!No one, including MetaMask, can recover this for you if you lose it.If anyone gets access to this Secret Recovery Phrase, they’ll have access to all the funds and capabilities of your Ethereum account.<h3>Get to know your MetaMask extension</h3>When you’re done going through the Metamask sign-up process, you should be able to click the MetaMask logo in your browser’s extension list and see your account.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_VW4Bk2HOXUGaSwvScgqXD" uploadmode="upload"></image><ol><li>This is which Network you are connected to. In our tutorials, you might connect to a Test Network like Rinkeby so you can learn without spending real ETH. Ethereum Mainnet is the actual real-life, real-money Ethereum network.</li><li>This shows whether or not your wallet is connected to the site you’re currently on. It should show “Connected” if you connect your wallet to Pointer.</li><li>This is your Wallet Address. A wallet address is public information and is safe to share.</li></ol>Some notes: We will NEVER ask for your seed phrase, private key, or to see a screen share of your MetaMask account. If anyone asks for any of these pieces of information, red flags should go off.<h3>Sign-in with Metamask to Pointer</h3>Visit <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="link" href="https://www.pointer.gg">https://www.pointer.gg</a>, click on the “Connect to Wallet” button in the top right of the screen.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_R_AxQ_Ir0BsIELcwgHkoo" uploadmode="upload"></image>A pop-up should appear with an option for MetaMask. Click “Connect to your MetaMask Wallet”.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_HIPptSbxCujJIrlxMa6Xz" uploadmode="upload"></image><image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_bkCAyxJBoA3DBX8Ghz0pV" uploadmode="upload"></image>Choose your account and click Next.<image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_ZwB2LKbAj1AOE4oLIK3fe" uploadmode="upload"></image><ol><li>This shows what permissions you’re granting our site. In our case, we’d like to see the address of the account you’re signing in with.</li><li>Click Connect to connect your account</li></ol><image src="https://eutazqiighmluqwxonvd.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/tutorials/5e1a970e-47a9-4b44-be0c-8718210d5413/tutorial_7DqkJirRgOVfB0BTCZWtQ" uploadmode="upload"></image> Sign the message to log in<ol><li>This is a <code class="inline-code">nonce</code> that is generated on our backend. When you click <code class="inline-code">sign</code>, we verify that the nonce matches the one we generated on our backend and we let you log in.</li><li>Click Sign</li></ol><h2>🎉🎉🎉</h2>Now you should be signed in!If you’d like to learn a bit deeper about Wallets on the ethereum network, keep reading! Otherwise, head to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="link" href="http://pointer.gg/tutorials">pointer.gg/tutorials</a> to get started!<h2>Technical Explanation of Ethereum accounts</h2>Ethereum and other blockchains rely heavily on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography">public-key cryptography</a> in order to work.To create an Ethereum account, the first thing you need is a private key.Private keys are free to generate and you can create them on your own machine if you’d like. Most Wallet providers, like Metamask, make it easy to generate public-private key pairs. In fact, they usually abstract this away under a “Create Account” UI.In this section we’ll explore how to create a pair ourselves, and how we can use that information to create an Ethereum Address.A private key is a random string of 64 hexadecimal characters. They look like this<pre><code class="language-bash">0x7e2cd9addcc888ea7062adf0533604e41718ad8d092c9769448acb68ed54275f</code></pre>⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ - Never share your private key! If anyone gets access to your private key, they can do anything they like with your Ethereum account, including transferring all NFT's and ETH out of your account.Private keys are used to sign transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The mechanics of how exactly this works is a bit out of scope for this tutorial. What you should know for now is that having the matching private key for any Ethereum address gives you full control over that Ethereum account.For any private key, you can deterministically derive the public key for that private key. And once we have the public key, we can deterministically get the Ethereum address as well.An open-source tool to do these types of operations, with the same cryptographic functions that ethereum uses, is <code class="inline-code">ethereumjs-util</code>.Paste the given private string <code class="inline-code">0x7e2cd9addcc888ea7062adf0533604e41718ad8d092c9769448acb68ed54275f</code> into the interactive editor below on line 4, save the program, and run it by typing <code class="inline-code">node index.js</code> into the terminal.Note: You should NEVER paste your own private key into an untrusted application. Your private key is for your eyes only!<url href="https://stackblitz.com/edit/node-7u6kwm?embed=1&amp;file=index.js" rendertype="embed" content="https://stackblitz.com/edit/node-7u6kwm?embed=1&amp;file=index.js"></url>When you run the script the public key returned should be this:<pre><code class="language-bash">0xfc72d2d67522e0ae8f5d7f547b89f9a473cf89c707dddec7a56eabbc01cc144b70955d6edd5e269219a3e28afeb777b7122fac73e36a596df180b6697bbe9f2e</code></pre>Ethereum Addresses are created by running a hashing algorithm against a public key.Specifically, running the <code class="inline-code">keccak-256</code> hashing algorithm on a public key, and taking the last 20 bytes of the result, gives you an Ethereum address.Let's see this in actionPaste in the public key from above into the interactive editor and run the program using <code class="inline-code">node index.js</code><url href="https://stackblitz.com/edit/node-zhfbb7?embed=1&amp;file=index.js" rendertype="embed" content="https://stackblitz.com/edit/node-zhfbb7?embed=1&amp;file=index.js"></url>The result should be<pre><code class="language-bash">0x2218d44f1edc6a86b6b8cee2af754cc64282f697</code></pre>On line 10 above, we see that we're using the <code class="inline-code">pubToAddress</code> function from the <code class="inline-code">ethereumjs-util</code> library.The library is open source and we can look at the implementation <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="link" href="https://github.com/ethereumjs/ethereumjs-monorepo/blob/master/packages/util/src/account.ts#L260">here</a>.The library is doing the process we described for generating an address earlier.<pre><code class="language-typescript">/**
 * Returns the ethereum address of a given public key.
 * Accepts "Ethereum public keys" and SEC1 encoded keys.
 * @param pubKey The two points of an uncompressed key, unless sanitize is enabled
 * @param sanitize Accept public keys in other formats
 */
export const pubToAddress = function (pubKey: Buffer, sanitize: boolean = false): Buffer {
 assertIsBuffer(pubKey)
 if (sanitize &amp;&amp; pubKey.length !== 64) {
 pubKey = Buffer.from(publicKeyConvert(pubKey, false).slice(1))
 }
 assert(pubKey.length === 64)
 // Only take the lower 160bits of the hash
 return keccak(pubKey).slice(-20)
}
</code></pre>The last line of the <code class="inline-code">pubToAddress</code> function takes the keccak hash of the public key and slices it so that it only returns the final 20 bytes of the hash.So to wrap up this section let’s review.<ul><li>The only piece of information you need to generate to make an Ethereum address is a private key.</li><li>Private keys are secret and holding a private key gives you total control of an Ethereum account.</li><li>From any private key, you can derive the matching public key AND the Ethereum address for that private key.</li><li>These pieces of information, Private Keys, Public Keys, and Ethereum Addresses, are used to make transactions on the Ethereum network.</li><li>When you “create an account” on a Wallet provider like Rainbow, Metamask, etc, that app is generating a private key, and deriving your public key and addresses for you.</li><li>You can move your key pair (sometimes called a wallet) across any wallet provider (Metamask, Rainbow, etc).</li></ul>

Setting Up Your Wallet