This is Part 1 of my series on how to take advantage of tokenizing LLCs.
Today, I’m going to show you how to set up MetaMask and get some fake ETH in order to interact with the demo application at: https://proud-field-0860.on.fleek.co/.
For this first part, I’m writing for total newbies to the space. Part Two walks you through the code. Here, I’m going to assume you know absolutely nothing about smart contracts, tokens, blockchain, anything…
First, MetaMask. You will not be able to access the decentralized application (“Dapp”) without it:
Go to metamask.io and enable the extension for Chrome. If you’ve never downloaded a MetaMask wallet or just want a new one to play around with, I suggest picking “Create a Wallet.”
Your wallet should look something like this:
Now let’s get you some play money to mess around with. Find your account address and copy it. It’s that long string of characters starting with 0x:
Above it, you should see the button that says ‘Ethereum Mainnet.” Select it, and change the network to ‘Rinkeby Test Network.’ As the name suggests, this is a network strictly used for testing purposes so you’re not spending real money on transactions.
Now go to https://faucets.chain.link/rinkeby. Copy your wallet address into the text field and uncheck ‘10 test LINK,’ since you won’t need it. Hit ‘Send Request.’
Pretty quickly, you should see your wallet updated with 0.1 ETH.
Now go back to the demo Dapp at https://proud-field-0860.on.fleek.co/. Automatically, the Buyer field at the top should match your Wallet address! Under “Buy Tokens,” it should currently show that you have 0 of our made-up tokens. Ask for an amount less than 0.1 ETH because you will need to account for the gas fees required for the transaction, which MetaMask will estimate for you.
The Dapp has a cool USD conversion feature that allows you to easily convert from USD to ETH. I would suggest buying $10 USD worth of our made-up token. As soon as you hit the “Buy” button, MetaMask should pop-up again with the exact amount of ETH you wish to send. Accept the transaction and wait for a little bit. A notification should pop-up indicating that the transaction was successful.
Next, you want to see your new token in your wallet. This part may be a little confusing but follow along. Each component of our transaction has a unique address that we can use to track it. Altogether, there is:
- A wallet address (your wallet)
- A contract address (where the contract resides)
- A token address (the unique identifier for the token)
MetaMask has a feature called Token Detection. To turn it on, go to Settings -> Experimental. If the token still doesn’t show up, we need to add it manually. In order to do that, we need to get the token address so we can import it to our MetaMask wallet.
Towards the bottom of your wallet, you should see two tabs: Assets (where your tokens show up) and Activity (where your transactions are listed). Click on the transaction that just went through, and then select ‘View on block explorer.’ Alternatively, the address that you were prompted to send your ETH to is the address where the contract resides. You can copy and paste it into the search bar at https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/.
Etherscan tracks all transactions made with that contract. But to see our new token, just hit the dropdown carrot as pictured:
Click on the token, and on the right under profile summary, you should see another address that is not the same as your wallet address or the contract address. Copy it.
Return to your wallet. Under ‘Assets’ tab you should see a link to Import Tokens.
Now paste the token address here and the rest should auto-populate. Add Custom Token.
And that’s it! You should see your new token! Stay tuned for the next part to see how the Web3 Dapp actually works.
