How To Create Your First Ethereum Wallet

One of the first things you need to do on your ETH journey is to set up a wallet that you will use to store your ETH and perform transactions. While it’s called a wallet, it might be easier to think of it as a bank account. You will an address that others can use to send you funds, and you can deposit and send funds as you wish. It’s just much better and easier to use than a bank account!

Topics Covered In This Article:

Setting up MetaMask for the first time
Importing an existing wallet into MetaMask
Creating a new wallet in the Trust Mobile App
Importing an existing wallet into the Trust Mobile App

There are two wallets we are going to set up today:

MetaMask – This is a browser extension that will act as your wallet while you’re on your computer. It can be installed on Chrome, Firefox, & Brave. They also have an iOS & Android version but its in beta so there can be some quirks at times.
Trust – This is a mobile wallet that you can use at anytime from anywhere. I mentioned above that MetaMask is available on mobile OSes but Trust seems to be the mobile app of choice in the communities I’ve interacted with

Setting up MetMask for the first time

The first thing you need to do is to install the extension. Please always download the extension from the MetaMask website instead of extension stores. This is the safest way to get Metamask installed. Visit the site here: metamask.io

Click the Install MetaMask button

This will take you to the browser extensions to install. Click the +add button

You will get a pop-up asking you to confirm that you want to install the extension. Click Add.

Once the extension is installed it should open a new tab and you should see the fox icon in the top right bar. You will use this icon in the future to interact with your wallet

Next, we will click Get Started to set up our wallet.

The next step allows you to import an existing wallet, or to create a new one. If you want to set up your Metamask wallet on another browser you can follow the same steps above, but select the import option.

Since we are creating a new wallet select Create a Wallet

Select whether you want to contribute anonymous data to Metamask to help with analytics. This is a personal opinion and you can choose either

Next we are going to set a password. This password is not used to lock down the wallet on the ETH blockchain, its only the local password to access this specific MetaMask extension in this browser. So if you import your wallet into another browser, or another application, this password is in no way used (unless you set the same password)

Select your password, agree to the terms and click create

Now we are on to the MOST IMPORTANT STEP. This is your Secret phrase. A lot of wallets and applications refer to it as the 12 word seed phrase. This should NEVER be shared with anyone, and should NEVER be stored anywhere that it can be stolen, or seen. If anyone gets access to this phrase, they get access to your entire wallet.

You should physically write this phase down (the order matters very much) and store it somewhere safe (fireproof safe)

You can also download a file and store the file some where safe like on an encrypted hard drive or USB drive.

Click this link if you would like to download the backup phrase

Notes:

Never let anyone have this phrase.
The order of the words matter – they must be stored in the order they are shown.
Be sure to have more than one copy in case it’s lost.
Keep the copies secure

Once you have backed up your seed phrase, click next MetaMask is going to test you to make sure you correctly stored your seed phrase.

Fill out your 12 word seed phrase in the correct order. Then click Confirm

Congratulations you have set up your ETH wallet!

You can get your new wallet address by clicking the Fox icon in the tool bar. Then you can either click the account name to copy the address to the clipboard, or click deposit

Importing an existing wallet into MetaMask

If you already have an existing ETH wallet you can easily import it into MetaMask to use it on any of your computers. Install the MetaMask plugin from the site: metamask.io and follow the steps above to get it installed.

Once the plugin is installed. Choose the option to Import Wallet

Choose whether you’d like to provide statistics to MetaMask.

Then enter your Seed Phrase from your other wallet. We will use our seed from the Trust wallet we will create below. After you enter your 12 seed words, choose a password. This password is only used to unlock this specific MetaMask install.

Agree to the terms and click Import

Congratulations! You have imported your wallet into MetaMask and you’re ready to use it.

Creating a new wallet in Trust Mobile App

Download the Trust app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
When you open it, you can either create a new wallet, or import an existing
Click “Create a new wallet”

You should physically write this phase down (the order matters very much) and store it somewhere safe (fireproof safe)

Once you have made a copy of your recovery phrase, click Continue

The Trust app will now make sure that you have written down your phrase and have it stored in the correct order

Fill out your recovery phrase in the same order it was given to you and click Continue

Congratulations! Your mobile ETH wallet is now ready to go!

Importing an existing wallet into the Trust Mobile App

Download the Trust app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
When you open it, you can either create a new wallet, or import an existing
Click “I already have a wallet”