WAX Wallets - Solutions for all levels of security



The NFT world has brought all kinds of people into the crytpo-sphere.  Some are well versed in how crypto wallets work and others are new to the arena.  This article should have useful information for both and those in between.  I have gotten a number of questions from some people regarding various wallet solutions up to and including setting up a cold storage solution for WAX.  I will run through your options below and link you to some helpful additional content to accomplish your goal no matter what you personal security risk profiles look like.  

I will start out by saying that I am not an expert in WAX by any means.  That's why this is really a article full of links to resources for you to check out.  The thing about WAX is that it is kind of designed around using their cloud wallet solution.  You can pretty much do what you want on chain without it, but it makes life way easier.  All the dapps are designed to work with it and it's integration is dominant across the chain.  In certain ways it's like metamask with ETH, it's just assumed you can use it and will.  So I suggest that even if you want to get something more secure you start off by getting a cloud wallet at https://all-access.wax.io/ and use that as your hot wallet.  WAX is built on EOSIO which has a bit of a complicated on-boarding, the WAX cloud wallet handles the onboarding costs and stakes the minimal amount of WAX needed to get you up and running.  Joel Comm from the Bad Crypto Podcast put up a quick  video on how you can set  it up right here.  You can use a number of log in options or use a dedicated email and password, it's your choice, do what makes you comfortable.  If you are the type of person good with this level of security everything you need to know is in those videos.  I do suggest you set up a 2 factor authentication (2fa) solution for your wallet as a minimum.  Carry on if you want more than this.

If you are going to amass a large amount of NFTs, or WAX and/or you plan to hold on to these assets for any extended period of time you are going to want another more secure wallet.  The WAX cloud wallet is custodial in some much as they have your private keys, you don't.  From here you have a lot of options depending on how secure you want to go.  The minimum should be setting up a desktop wallet where you own the keys, and if you are more security conscious you will want a true cold wallet that's air gapped from the network.  You can also set things up with a hardware wallet as well.  All of these things are very doable.  The most commonly recommended wallet is Scatter, I tried it and it had some things I didn't love.  An EOS OG recommended I look into Anchor and I really do think that for my purposes it is a better solution.  The interface suits me better and I can define my installation path, more on that later.

So the next part is sort of choose your own adventure.  I am going to suggest you go with the most secure method you feel comfortable setting up.  A basic desktop wallet setup is better than just having the cloud wallet.  Having an air-gapped desktop wallet is better still.  Having an air-gapped desktop wallet and using a hardware wallet with your keys is the most secure in my opinion, though some will call it excessive.  I am just going to lay out the options and you do you.  No matter what you do you will need to make your new account and you will use your cloud wallet to do that.  It's a little confusing but you can't just open a wallet, there are minimum resources.  The cloud wallet covers that for you, but if you want your own, use the cloud wallet to get a little WAX and create your own account.  From here you either say....I have a hardware wallet (like a Ledger) and want to do that or you say....stop being weird and just tell me about the desktop wallet.  I will cover basic desktop first, if you want a hardware wallet I will cover that later on.  If you don't know what a hardware wallet it, it's used in conjunction with a software wallet to access crypto.

 

I don't have a hardware wallet, desktop is enough.

Scatter will work for making keys and interacting with dapps, the down side is you are stuck with their install location.  I also experienced some problems with Scatter signing transaction on Atomic Hub.  I exported from Scatter and then imported into Anchor and it worked smoothly.  There is a video here that shows you how to export from Scatter and import to Anchor.  You can also generate the key pair using the offline keypair generator on wax.bloks.io.  If you have a problem with the Scatter wallet generating your keys you would need to go that route.  In that case you would look to this video here to simply import your keys.  If you want something air-gapped you would install Anchor to a formatted USB.  Then when you pull out the USB there is a physical gap between the wallet and the internet.  You just plug it in whenever you want to use it and keep it offline the rest of the time.  I will assume you can install the software and will choose whether or not to use a USB or just install it to the default directory.

This video here shows you how to setup the account on wax.bloks.io.  You will use your existing cloud wallet account to set it up.  In this video he generates the keys using a Ledger hardware wallet.  It's ok, you would just copy your keys from either scatter or the offline key generator.  Otherwise you would follow these instructions.  Once the account is made you will just follow the instructions above to get it going in Anchor.

 

Yes I have a hardware wallet, desktop alone is not enough.

This video here shows you how to setup the account on wax.bloks.io.  You will use your existing cloud wallet account to set it up.  In this video he generates the keys using a Ledger hardware wallet and runs through all the steps.  Once the account is set up you will need to get it into Anchor.

Download and Install Anchor wallet from this site, or go to github and find it there, whichever one is more your style.  If you want something air-gapped you would install Anchor to a formatted USB.  Then when you pull out the USB there is a physical gap between the wallet and the internet.  You just plug it in whenever you want to use it and keep it offline the rest of the time.  I will assume you can install the software and will choose whether or not to use a USB or just install it to the default directory.  I suggest watching this video here first before getting into Anchor, he goes through a number of options.  There is Ledger support build right into the wallet, just make sure it's turned on.  If you just want a minimal approach and want to import your keys and sort through the wallet on your own this video here might be more up your alley.

 

So that's it really.  Just a bunch of links that I found helpful.  I hope these sort out some of your questions.  I will list out the linked tutorials and software here for easy access.

Wax Cloud Wallet: https://all-access.wax.io/

Wax Cloud Wallet Setup: https://youtu.be/ALNfAtrl_cA

WAX Bloks.io: https://wax.bloks.io/

Scatter Wallet: https://www.get-scatter.com/

Anchor Wallet: https://greymass.com/en/anchor/

Ledger Wallet: https://www.ledger.com/

Anchor Broad Tutorial and Scatter Import: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPT__Xu1FM

Anchor Import Keys Only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o401Tr893uw&feature=youtu.be

Setup WAX Account with Ledger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xgPsx_Sf3s

 

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