Beginner
Setting up your first wallet (testnet) — Hands-on lab
Page 4 of 6 — Section 4 of 6
User Beginner
4/6 — Setting up your first wallet (testnet) — Hands-on lab
These steps are written as a “look, then click” routine. Read each instruction before you act. Never paste your seed anywhere except the wallet’s own restore field. Every time you touch an address or link, confirm the first/last few characters or the URL.
The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work.
Keep your seed paper nearby, and treat the faucet and explorer as training tools: faucet proves you can receive, explorer proves what really happened. If something doesn’t match, pause and re-check instead of guessing.
Steps
- Open the official wallet:Link (bookmarked) in a private window. Confirm the URL and publisher match the real project.
- Install the extension/app. Create:A new wallet and write the 12–24 word seed on paper in a private room. No screenshots or cloud notes—assume anyone who sees the photo could drain you.
- Copy your first account:Address and note the first/last 4 characters. Label it “Testnet practice address.” You’ll use this to verify after restore.
- Enable “Show test networks,”:Choose Sepolia, and check the chain ID shows 11155111. If manual RPC is needed, copy the official values from the wallet docs—don’t trust random blog posts.
- Visit a reputable Sepolia:Faucet (e.g., from ethereum.org links). Request ~0.1 testnet ETH to your practice address. If a faucet asks for payment, close it.
- Open the faucet’s transaction:Link (or your wallet’s “view on explorer”). On the explorer, confirm the address matches, network is Sepolia, and status is success. This is your independent proof.
- Optional but recommended:Create a second browser profile or device, restore with the seed, and confirm the restored address matches the first/last 4 characters you wrote down. If it doesn’t match, stop and re-check the seed words.