What is MetaMask?

New users to the blockchain and Ethereum space will very come across MetaMask. But what is MetaMask? 

MetaMask is an Ethereum wallet and also an account manager for Web3 applications that you can install in your browser as an extension. It has support for all of the major browsers out there, Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera.

MetaMask is used to interact with dapps on the Ethereum blockchain. For example Uniswap, 1inch, Tornado.cash and many many more.

Is it safe?

MetaMask is open source software and the source code can be viewed here. It was created back in 2016 by a blockchain software company called ConsenSys. 

Since then MetaMask has grown and become a very popular tool — it has more than 1 million active users per month. Therefore we would definitely call MetaMask a trusted and safe tool to use for interacting with dapps on the Ethereum blockchain.

But, like always in this space, you need to be careful. MetaMask can be used as a software-only wallet and in this case, MetaMask will have access to your private keys. Since MetaMask supports hardware wallets like Ledger nano s and Trezor we would definitely recommend using a hardware wallet together with MetaMask. Especially if you have funds of significant value.

Token Support

MetaMask has really good token support. Obviously, it supports Ethereum but also any ETH-based token like ERC20, ERC721, and more. If for some reason you do not see tokens that you know should exist in your wallet you may have to manually add them.

How MetaMask works

While your MetaMask wallet is unlocked MetaMask will inject some pieces of JavaScript onto every webpage you go to. It does this by using contentscripts to write a script tag into the document object model (DOM). The code it injects is Web3.js — a collection of libraries for interacting with Ethereum nodes, either locally or remotely using either HTTP, IPC, or WebSockets. Since every dapp you want to interact with lives on the Ethereum blockchain you will need to communicate with an Ethereum node. This is what web3 and MetaMask help you with.

Official Software

If you want to install and start using Metamask you should make sure that you are installing it from their official website. You can find it at metamask.io

In the crypto space, it is always of big importance that you find the official source of the software that you want to install. You should never install software from somewhere you do not trust.