Last Updated: 13 October 2022
<aside> 💡 Important: investing in crypto is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment. NiftyLit does not endorse purchasing NFTs for investment purposes nor does this guide constitute financial advice. NiftyLit believes in the utility of NFTs for creating a more equitable system for publishing, community engagement, and compensation for writers and artists.
</aside>
One of the most frequent comments we hear from our audience is along the lines of, “we love your magazine and what you’re doing, and we want to support your writers, but buying an NFT is just too hard!” We agree, so we put this guide together not only to help our audience and our writers’ fans, but to also better understand the “customer journey” ourselves, which is something we are constantly working on improving with help from some of our partners like Chainstarters.
Before we start: feedback = always welcome :). You can send it to info@niftylit.io, jo@niftylit.io, or hit us up directly on our Discord (https://discord.gg/VNK27Spde7).
There’s a lot of crypto wallets. “Wallet” is kind of a bad name. We should call them something else, but that’s not the point of this guide. The one we recommend is MetaMask—mostly because it is compatible with the Ethereum Blockchain, is widely used, and is generally considered “user friendly,” which is of course a relative term when it comes to the world of web3. If you already have a Coinbase account and hold/ buy/ sell crypto via Coinbase, it might be “easier” to get a Coinbase wallet, but the process in here for MetaMask is generally the same.
<aside> 💡 Side Q & A: what is a crypto wallet, anyways? Summarily, a crypto wallet is a “device” that allows for transactions to take place on the blockchain. Such as sending and receiving crypto currency, buying/ selling/ transferring NFTs, or accessing token gated content (e.g., once you own a literary NFT, you’ll have to verify your ownership by “signing” with your crypto wallet ID, which has a unique identifier). There are “hot” and “cold” storage wallets, which are/ are not connected to the web, and there are also hardware wallets, which enable users to store their cryptocurrency, NFTs, etc., somewhere that is not connected to a network. Ledger makes a very popular line of hardware wallets. It’s what Jo uses and recommends if you manage to make it beyond this guide, get hooked by the crypto bug, and find yourself needing a hardware wallet.
</aside>
Head to metamask.io
Download the browser extension for your preferred browser (supports Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and more)
If on Chrome (recommended) Clicking on “Download for” will take you to the Chrome Web Store, where you can click “Add to Chrome.” This will automatically start the downloading process and the process to set up your MetaMask wallet.
Metamask.io has a link to download the browser extension
Add the extension to your browser from the Chrome Web Store
