In November 2021, Brave introduced its own Brave Wallet that works natively within their Brave web browser, requiring no additional browser extensions. It is a cryptocurrency wallet that supports several altcoins like Ethereum, including its own Basic Attention Token (BAT).
Working right out of the native web browser has its advantages. It should have reduced security risk since there is no need for any 3rd-party browser extensions, and your device uses less computing (CPU & memory) power.
How to SETUP your new Brave Wallet
In this article, I will show you how to create your first new Brave wallet.
Step 1: Getting Started
If you haven’t done so, download Brave, install and open it. To set up your brand new Brave wallet, you can either click on the red-coloured triangle icon on your address bar or type in the following on the address bar.
brave://walletYou will be greeted with the message shown in the image below.
If you have a previous crypto wallet, it will be detected, and you will see the brown-coloured message telling you that importing your old wallets to the new Brave wallet is possible in the next step. This step is optional.
Step 2: Set Password to lock your wallet
Your Brave wallet must be protected with a strong password. Anyone with physical access to your device, e.g. your computer or mobile phone, can launch the Brave browser and only see a locked Brave wallet. They will not be able to log in and see your crypto portfolio.
Be sure to give a strong password between 15 to 25 alphanumeric characters long. The password criteria must be at least seven (7) characters long and contain at least one number and one special character.
You will see this screen below.
Step 3: Write down your 12-word Recovery Phrase
This is the most critical part of the setup process. You will be presented with a unique 12-word recovery phrase consisting of random dictionary words in a specific order from 1 to 12.
Please write down the 12-word recovery phrase on a piece of paper with its corresponding number order. Keep the paper in a safe place under lock and key, like a safe or a locked home drawer. Do not take a photo of the recovery phrase.
Any digital copy of your recovery phrase is considered unsafe and prone to possible cyber attacks, no matter if you are keeping it on your phone storage or in the cloud.
Below is a sample of a 12-word recovery phrase the Brave wallet offers during your registration process. The correct way to write down is as follows; 1) toy, 2) ensure, 3) decline, 4) story, etc.
Press <Continue> once you are done writing it down.
Step 4: Verify your 12-word Recovery Phrase
The brave wallet will now ask you to verify your recovery phrase by asking you to select all the 12-words in their correct numbering order.
Verifying your crypto wallet is an important common practice for most crypto wallets during creation. Verifying is essential because if you have not written down the recovery phrase (or seed word) properly at this stage, it is still all right to re-start the entire crypto wallet setup process, as there are no funds in the wallet yet at this stage. Once your wallet is created, it will be too late to retract.
Step 5: Unlock your Brave Wallet
A quick way to access your Brave wallet every time is via bookmarking this address;
brave://wallet/crypto/unlock
You will be presented with this interface at the last step, asking you to provide your wallet password once again.
This step is necessary to show that you still remember your wallet password. Again at this point, there are no funds yet inside your brand new Brave wallet. It is all right to revert and start all over again if you cannot remember your wallet password. You will get an entirely different 12-word recovery phrase in the reset scenario.
Step 6: Your Wallet Features
This is what your brand new Brave wallet looks like.
The notable features of the Brave wallet include the following;
- Ability to add more accounts. This means you can create more Brave wallets and easily swap between them using the <Accounts> tab shown in this interface.
- See all your cryptocurrency portfolios in one dashboard interface.
- Add more cryptocurrencies to your dashboard.
- Buy cryptocurrency through Wyre, which is natively supported by Brave wallet.
- Send cryptocurrency to wallet address
- Swap (or trade) between different cryptocurrencies
Recommendations for Brave Wallet Security
It would be best to memorise your wallet password instead of writing it down on paper. The reason is to minimise the chances of constantly retrieving the important piece of paper you used for your 12-word recovery phrase.
Paper can deteriorate over time with colour change, so it is best to consider laminating it or keeping it safely in a suitable environment.
Try not to save any of your passwords online. Sometimes the weakest link may not be the cloud storage provider but your own device that could be compromised.
Besides this official Brave wallet, several secure cryptocurrency wallets also support BAT. If you prefer to have BAT stored on cryptocurrency exchanges, the following articles may be helpful for you;
