What’s in it for me?
In this guide, you will learn:
- How to set up MetaMask Including creating a wallet address and linking BNB Smart Chain (BSC BEP20) to MetaMask, and understand why you need a non-custodial wallet address.
- How to receive, swap and send coins on MetaMask
- How to off-ramp crypto to fiat
1.0 Setting up MetaMask
Everything you need to know about metatask, its installation, and how to create a wallet address in Metamask has been captured in two short videos (two minutes each). First, to learn about Metamask, watch this: (What is MetaMask?) Then, to learn how to install and create a wallet address, watch this: (Getting Started with MetaMask)
Afterwards, download Metamask for Chrome. And if you are using Firefox, download Metamask here.
Reflection: “Why should I create a wallet address on MetaMask when I can easily create one on my crypto exchange account?”
You should be able to answer this question after reading the following two case studies but if you still don’t get an answer, check out the next section.
Case Study 1: Celsius freezes all account withdrawals
On June 13, 2022, global crypto lender Celsius stopped all withdrawals across its network, freezing $12 billion in investor money through the move. “Due to extreme market conditions, today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts. We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations,” read the official announcement.
Case Study 2: Iranian immigrant lost $53,000 in crypto hack, says he faces ruin if crypto exchange, BitMart, doesn’t pay him back.
Victims of the $200 million BitMart hack say that five weeks have passed since the crypto exchange vowed to return their money. In early December, BitMart wrote in an official statement that it would use its own money to reimburse victims of the large-scale security breach, which the exchange blamed on a stolen private key.
1.1 Custodial vs non-custodial wallets
We got three lessons from case studies 1 & 2, and they constitute reasons why you cannot put your eggs in the hands of crypto exchanges:
- Crypto exchanges are prone to thefts (massive thefts)
- They can go bankrupt
- They have absolute control over your account and can freeze it at will.
So, how do you protect yourself from an exchange’s theft or insolvency? The way forward is to create a non-custodial wallet address and that’s exactly what you have done on MetaMask. The wallet address you have in a crypto exchange account is a custodial wallet address. That is, the private key to the address is in the custody of the exchange company. They are controlling you! On the other hand, a non-custodial wallet gives you sole control of your private key and the assets in the wallet thereby eliminating third parties. You can learn more about custodial and non-custodial wallets here.
WARNING!!! With more liberty comes greater responsibility. You must not forget your private key or keep it in a place easily accessible by scammers! Case study 3 provides more insights into this.
Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million. The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. He has since tried eight of his most commonly used password formulations — to no avail.
1.2 Add USDC to MetaMask
On MetaMask, while on the Ethereum Mainnet network, click on Import Tokens; a new page appears. Search USDC on the page, select it, and click on Next. Then, click Import Tokens as shown in the figure below.
1.3 Link Binance Smart Chain network to Metamask
On Metamask, click on the circle icon at the top right corner.
Then, navigate through Settings > Network > Add Network.
Afterwards, you will be taken to a new screen. Add the following details in their respective fields and click Save.
Network Name: Smart Chain
New RPC URL: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/
ChainID: 56
Symbol: BNB
Block Explorer URL: https://bscscan.com
Once the Smart Chain network has been successfully added, you will see it in your Metamask as shown in the figure below. For instance, you can notice the Binance logo.
Click here to understand the difference between Smart Chain (BEP-20) and Ethereum (ERC-20).
2.0 Receive, swap, and send coins on MetaMask
Now that everything is set, you can start sending, receiving, and swapping coins on MetaMask. For this, we are going to do three exercises as follows:
2.1 Exercise 1: Receive crypto
Copy your wallet address from MetaMask and fill out this form. Someone from the team (called MyGrindery_Peer) will send 0.01BNB to your wallet address and notify you on Slack. Once you have received the crypto, you can proceed to exercise 2.
2.2 Exercise 2: Swap coins
The second exercise is to swap the BNB you received for BUSD. Click Swap on MetaMask. Input the amount of BNB you want to swap; this amount should be such that you have enough left to cover the gas fee (Boom! What is a gas fee?).
A gas fee refers to the transaction fees on the blockchain network. According to Ethereum's developer pages, gas is “the fuel that allows the Ethereum network to operate, in the same way that a car needs gasoline to run.”
Guess what? One of the reasons we requested that you add the Smart Chain (BSC) network in section 1.3 was because BSC has low transaction fees compared to the Ethereum network. You can read more about gas fee here.
2.3 Exercise 3: Send the crypto back
Once you have completed exercise 2, take a screenshot that shows the BUSD in your wallet, and send it to MyGrindery_Peer on Slack. You will then be provided with a wallet address; it’s time to send the BUSD to the address.
Go to MetaMask; it’s possible that you don’t see BUSD in your list of assets if you haven’t added it to your BSC network previously. In such a case, click Import tokens, and provide the Token Contract Address (it can be found on the BUSD token page on BscScan; under Profile Summary); the Token Symbol and Token Decimal should come up automatically. Then, click Add Custom Token. You should see your BUSD now.
BscScan is the leading blockchain explorer for the Binance Smart Chain network. Besides tracking transactions, searching through wallet addresses and blocks, verifying smart contracts, and getting other on-chain data, BscScan is also the leading validator for BSC. It’s just like Etherscan, the blockchain explorer for the Ethereum network.
Now, let’s send the token. On MetaMask, click on the asset, then click Send. Add the wallet address provided to you by MyGrindery_Peer and input the amount. Click on Next. Check that you are okay with the gas fee, then, click Confirm. MyGrindery_Peer will notify you when they receive the token.
3. Off-ramp crypto to fiat
You need an exchange account to change your crypto to fiat. Meanwhile, your choice of crypto exchange largely depends on your jurisdiction and what is available to you. Basically, you will be sending your crypto from your non-custodial wallet address on Metamask to a custodial wallet address on an exchange account. A few options are listed below, visit the links to learn how to transfer crypto from MetaMask to the respective exchanges.
Whichever exchange you choose, the common thing is that you will need to copy a custodial wallet address from your exchange. And before you do that, your exchange will ask you to choose a network. This requires your full attention because the network you choose on your exchange account should match the one from which you are sending money on MetaMask. That is, if you are sending money from the Smart Chain network on MetaMask, choose BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20) on your exchange. But if you are sending money from the Ethereum Mainnet network, choose Ethereum (ERC-20) on your exchange. Click here to learn more about the reasons why selecting the right network is critical.
Then, go to MetaMask.
- Click Send. Add the wallet address you just copied and add the crypto amount you want to send. Click Next.
- A new page appears, if you are okay with the estimated gas fee and total, click Confirm.
- You should get your crypto as a deposit to your exchange wallet address where you can easily change it to fiat.
4. Connect Ping to your wallet
For now, MetaMask doesn’t notify you when you receive a token into your wallet. This raises an important question.
How do I get notified when a token enters my wallet?
The answer to that is Ping! Ping by Grindery is a tool that sends you a browser notification when a token is deposited to any of your wallets on any blockchain. It’s easy, seamless and completely free. Go to ping.grindery.org and click Connect Wallet. Then, sign the Signature Request on MetaMask.
Check the top of your browser, you should see a message: Your browser notifications seem to be activated. Click here to test. Do that to get ‘Pinged’ and confirm everything is working!!!
Thereafter, turn on notification for the wallet address as shown in the figure below. You can also add more wallet addresses and decide whether to turn on or off notification for any of the wallets.
Check out our Ping user guide to learn more about the product and how to troubleshoot issues.