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July 3, 2022
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Technical analysis can help you predict the future market movements of Bitcoin more accurately and trading view is one way of doing so.
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Cryptocurrencies are becoming more than just a way of investment. There are many startups using the blockchain technology to solve real world problems and providing utility tools. With increase in the use cases of cryptocurrency, we require more practical means of getting around these cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, to do more than just buying and selling crypto tokens, we make use of wallets. Wallets offer a more secure means of storing cryptocurrency. Additionally, depending upon which wallet service you use, it can offer specific platform features to its users.
Metamask is one of the leading wallet service providers and along with the wallet it offers a variety of services for users and developers. If you are currently using a different wallet like Trust wallet and want to shift to metamask, this tutorial will help you get it done.
But first, let us have a brief introduction to Metamask.
Metamask is the most popular wallet service with +21 Million active users worldwide. It is a capable platform offering means of exchanging tokens and of course, you can store your assets on the wallet.
Metamask offers a gateway of decentralized apps to developers and users while respecting users' privacy. On the positive side, on metamask, the users are in control of all their data. Users can decide what they want to keep private and what they don’t.
Therefore, after looking at all the services metamask offers, if you have decided to import your existing wallet to metamask, you will need to follow a simple importing procedure. In this tutorial we will guide you through various ways of doing so, but first let's take a look at a few terms you will often come across in this tutorial.
Before you start importing your holdings to your Metamask wallet, there are a number of terms that you should get familiar with because unless you understand these terms, it's going to get very difficult for you to complete the process without facing any setbacks.
Starting first with Seed phrase, it is a string of words that are generated by the cryptocurrency wallet that you are using. This phrase is generated in order to provide you access to your wallet. So when you get the seed phrase, make sure to secure it.
In the crypto world, you can think of a crypto wallet as the password manager that manages all your crypto holdings and the Seed phrase is something that resembles a master password that gets you access to your wallet.
So seed phrases are important as it does not matter if you lose your wallet or not because as long you have your Seed phrase, you can get access to any of your wallets.
Seed phrases are used by the metamask wallets to create private keys and they allow you to send and spend your cryptocurrencies. Instead of numbers, the seed phrase is made up of 12 to 24 words because they make it easier to memorize such a long password.
The seed phrase is shared only with you so make sure to keep it safe and not give it to anyone else. If you lose your wallet along with your seed phrase and private keys, then it becomes impossible for you to recover your crypto holdings.
A private key is a secret code number that is used in the crypto world and it resembles a password. Private keys are used to sign transactions and they help you prove the ownership of your blockchain address.
A private key makes the crypto wallets more secure. It is a large number that is generated randomly and it can have literally hundreds of numbers. Private keys are often shown as a series of alphanumeric characters for a simpler representation.
Private keys work in conjunction with a private address. Private addresses are your gateway to cryptocurrency wallets, using which you can deposit the cryptocurrencies in the wallet and you will have to have the private keys to withdraw the cryptocurrencies from there.
Private keys are very essential tools when you want to access your wallet. If you lose the private keys, you can still access the wallet with the Seed phrase but it is better to keep them safe in the first place.
If you understood what a Private Key is then understanding what a Keystore or JSON file is will be very easy. A JSON file is basically a file which has your private key encoded into it. The encoding is done in the form of a lot of characters.
When you create a wallet and then enter your password into it, the wallet takes your password and converts it into a JSON file. If you open the file to see its contents, you will not understand a word because obviously, it is encrypted like everything else in the crypto world.
Whenever you change your password, a new Keystore or JSON file is created. The more secure your Keystore is, the stronger your password will be.
Importing a wallet to your Metamask account is a pretty simple and straightforward process. Following are the steps for doing so:
Go to https://metamask.io and install the Metamask extension. You can also just search for the Metamask extension on your browser. Then proceed to add this extension to your browser by installing it.
After you have installed the Metamask extension, you can import your existing wallet into Metamask with one simple step and that is with the use of either the Seed Phrase or with the Private Key/JSON file.
B. Using A Private Key Or JSON File:
If you want to add the PBL token to your wallet you will have to follow the below steps:
Now that you know how to import your existing wallet in the metamask, you might wonder what are the potential reasons to shift to metamask. Well, you don’t need to import your wallet, if your existing wallet is sufficient to your network and compatibility requirements.
However, the popularity and the huge user base of metamask clearly shows that there are certain features that only metamask offers for which users prefer the Metamask wallet. Let's take a look at the reasons for which you would like to import your wallet to metamask.
Most private wallets are usually based on a single network and support exchanges over that network only. If you wish to use different networks on a single wallet, you will have to use the metamask wallet which supports a wide range of networks.
In addition to the wide network support, Metamask also provides the flexibility of adding custom networks to the wallet. You will need the right credentials of the network you wish to connect. Most other wallets don't provide any such feature.
One of the key features of Metamask is that users can use a single address to interact with various network chains. Therefore, you no longer have to carry a separate address for every network you use.
This one is for developers. Metamask, unlike other wallets, has the ability to connect to test networks along with mainnet. This allows developers to test out their network for transactions with ease.
Metamask offers some practical solutions and features which people like you and me seek when interacting with cryptocurrencies or when working on crypto projects. Therefore, it makes sense to import your wallet into metamask to streamline your crypto journey.
This tutorial will help you import any decentralized wallet into metamask using all the possible ways. If you are not sure about importing your wallet, the above mentioned factors sooner or later will encourage you to shift to metamask.
Get acquainted with the detailed process of importing an existing wallet on Metamask and the benefits of using Metmask.
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