The most widely used decentralized wallet is Metamask wallet. Metamask does not have a central authority as such you create and maintain your own credentials. They are neither your bank nor your fiduciary (You are your own bank). There is no reset or lost my password option, so need to secure it by yourself. Never give credentials to anyone. However, you can give your public address to others who need to transfer an NFT or if you are purchasing Ether. 

Once you create a Meta mask wallet you will have public address associated with that wallet that you can share with others. You need this public address to mint or access other minting websites. You will also be given a secret phrase (seed words) and a private key, which you will need to keep it secure. 

Again, never share your password, words or private key with anyone and never keep this information digitally on your computer. Write it down and keep it safe.

Now get ready with a pen and paper so you can write down your credentials.

Now, before you begin. You need to understand that only Chrome and Firefox are supported by the Metamask wallet. The most used browser is the Chrome browser, as such the following instructions are for the Chrome browser. A laptop or a computer is recommended when creating a Meta mask wallet. Do not use your smart phone.

Using your Chrome, visit metamask.io. Click on “Download now”.

1. It will recognize that you are using Chrome and will give you the option to install Metamask for Chrome. Click to continue.

2. It will recognize that you are using Chrome and will give you the option to install Metamask for Chrome. Click to continue.

3. Now, you will be given an option to add to Chrome.

4. Simple click on the button to “Add extension”.

5. In a few seconds it installs the extension. 

6. Now click on the “Get started”, you will be given the option to create a new wallet or add your secret phrase from a previous wallet to import to this Chrome browser. Assuming that you are creating your wallet for the first time, You will chose the “Create a wallet” on the right side.

7. Now simply agree to the terms of Metamask.

8. Now the following steps are very important, so pay close attention. It will ask you to create a password. Please write down this password in a safe place. After you chose the password check the box to agree to the terms.

9. After you chose the password, you may want to listen to the short video to understand the metamask. After the video click on“Next.” If you wish not to watch the video just click on next.

10. Here comes the secret phrase. Make sure no one is around you, no cameras watching over you before you click to reveal.

11. When you click on reveal, it will uncover your seed phrase. These are the bearer keys to your wallet. If you lose them, you will lose your assets. Never give them to anyone as they will have access to your assets. Make sure you write the words in the same order that the system is showing you.

12. Next is the verification process. Metamask wants to confirm that you wrote them down. So chose each word from the below box in the same order that you wrote it down. Otherwise the system will not accept it.

13. Now that you chose from the box the words in the same order and assuming that you did it correctly, it will display “Congratulations”

14. Click all done. Now you can see your wallet.

15. You can change the name of the account and other minor details from here. The most important item you must notice is your public wallet address below the Account1, starts with 0x….. (all Ethereum public wallet addresses start with 0x.)

Simple click on the address to copy it and paste it someplace to remember.

Your Eth Wallet address: 0x69XXXXA77c397e6922b3d8afa3FfAAXXX438XXXX

16. Following are few extras.

Now you know your Eth wallet address. To find out your private key for safekeeping click 

on the three dots on the right-hand side 

Then, click on the account details. This will display your Private Key. Note: Do not share your Private Key nor your seed phrase with anyone.

If you wish can change the name of the account use the pencil sign to edit. 

Click on the Export private key.

Now enter the password you wrote it down earlier.

Save shown private key in a safe place.

17. Congratulations! You have accomplished creating your Metamask wallet and are ready to purchase NFT’s or send and receive crypto currency such as Ether.

18. Now you have accomplished setting up your own Ethereum (Eth) wallet on Metamask. However, your wallet has no Ethereum it’s empty.

You need to move Eth into this wallet to be able to buy NFT Tokens.

If you have Eth in other wallets, you can move funds from that wallet to this wallet with the public address. If you don’t have any other wallet you can buy Ether with FIAT (real money, any currency, eg. $) using the following options. Simply click BUY on the link and follow instructions on how to buy Ether using your bank transfer or CreditCard.

19. Before you buy any NFT, you will need Eth not only to buy the cost of the NFT but also for the gas fees. Gas is your transaction cost for the Ethereum blockchain. Unless you pay the gas fees you cannot mint the token. Gas fees vary on various factors including but not limited to time of day, demand on the blockchain, traffic, miners fees etc.,. You would always need more funds than the token cost to add the transaction fees to the chain when you are ready to mint. 

20. If you decide to buy NFTs with Eth, your wallet will show you the cost of minting and give you the option to proceed or reject. Once you start the process of minting it will take some time to mint (few seconds to mins). During this time do not cancel as you may lose significant gas fees.