We have come across a particular turn in the evolution of finance, blockchain technology and the crypto market where endless possibilities are present, and the developers are just getting the hang of this whole thing and are experimenting with new stuff.
A lot of new theories, thought experiments and that kind of stuff are being spun around the crypto market and being adopted in real-time, which leads to the propagation of other such technologies that either make the whole world of crypto more efficient and a better place or present with new ways to tackle this technology.
With that being said, you might have heard about MetaMask in the past, with all this talk going around about web 3.0 and blockchain technology.
MetaMask is an exemplary security tool that is a much-needed component for the sake of navigating through the crypto space in a secure fashion. Apart from providing the much-needed security in the decentralized world, it also provides services in the form of a crypto wallet to the end-user, which in one way or another is connected with crypto trading and decentralized exchanges.
It goes without saying that MetaMask is making quite some ripples within the crypto market and is growing at an exponential rate, but still, some people don’t precisely know what MetaMask is and what are its various capabilities.
This guide article is going to help you to better understand Metamask, what it can do, what are its limitations, and how it correlates with security as well as other aspects of the crypto market.
Before you can begin to understand just what MetaMask is and how it fits into this whole equation of blockchain technology and decentralization, it would be the best approach if you dive into the history of Metamask as well.
A Brief History of MetaMask
ConsenSys is the parent company behind the development and up-gradation of MetaMask over the years. It is a blockchain-enabled company that has a special space within the crypto horizon for the sake of developing and then deploying the next Gen financial infrastructure, apps, and other possible solutions that could make the whole process of dealing with blockchain technology and decentralization a bit more efficient than it was before.
Aaron Davis, back in 2016, founded MetaMask, and in the very beginning, it was developed as an API solution with not much in mind with regard to its use case and how it was going to serve the crypto market. This solution has been around for more than half a decade, but it only recently rose to prominence because of the recent interest that investors have taken into non-fungible tokens and decentralized applications.
Back in the day, because of huge bearish spikes and uncalled volatility within the sector, the investors lost their touch and interest in both elements, but after a concerning amount of time, it is once again back and is helping the crypto market in general, to propel into the future.
MetaMask also works as a crypto wallet which means it can facilitate the user with all kinds of transactions and keep track of their crypto just like the competitors. If we are going to talk about the competition that Metamask has, then as a prominent competitor Ether based wallet comes to mind serving more than 30 million active customers on a global scale. In fact, it is the only wallet have significant download rates and active users across the globe.
MetaMask is also quite popular these days among users who are interested in decentralized applications, and according to reports from the firm that develops and deploys updates for MetaMask, it has reached its potential goal of an active user base.
But before doing so, it was operating a bit shy of only 1 million users or even low for the previous four years. Only did the wallet hit its potential active users goal in October 2020, and later on, it announced that by the end of March next year, it would have reached 5 million active users, which is considered to be a huge leap in such a short period of time.
The user base for the company has increased by a factor of 500% if we take into account the carefully analyzed data from the end of April 2021 all the way to the beginning of March 2022.
Today the company enjoys more than 30 million active users displaced globally that are using the services of MetaMask and have made it a priority crypto wallet for their day-to-day uses. In the past, you could only interact or use MetaMask as a desktop application which was not available in the form of an app or software as you would have to use the browser extension.
But with such extreme growth in such a short period of time, the company was just tempted to release both Android and iOS versions of MetaMask, and since then, the download rate along with the active user count has just skyrocketed.
How Does MetaMask Work?
Apart from lending security to the overall idea of blockchain technology and decentralization, MetaMask works as a crypto wallet that lends an incredible security structure to guard the digital money of various users across the globe.
It is presently hosted over the Ether blockchain network, and with that thought in mind, it means that you can install it on any dedicated browser of yours to work as an extension, or you can download the complete program on your mobile device or computer as a separate software entity.
This crypto wallet can also function as a separate application programming interface (API) which means that you can connect it with any dedicated decentralization app working either on Ether or any other blockchain for that matter. But before you can do that, you would have to tap into the compatibility features of that particular application with the MetaMask wallet.
A secure identity vault is provided by the app as an add-on solution while at the same time providing you with an easy-to-use interface and an efficient way of moving your funds from one place to another and keeping them heavily guarded against all the anomalies of the decentralized world.
The cross-platform functionality of MetaMask is what makes it such an enchanting solution for many crypto users out there. It means that you can sign into various applications or websites that are directly or indirectly tied with decentralization at the same time, and the platform would continue to offer you extreme functionality through and through.
Not only that, you can use it for the sake of locating all the transactions that you have commenced in crypto, providing you with a potential timeline for those transactions. You can definitely take this amazing functionality of MetaMask into account, especially when you feel like some transactions are not adding up.
How is MetaMask Different from Other Wallets?
MetaMask is different from other crypto wallets because of its extreme commitment to the security of the user data along with enhancing the user experience with the interface and many other aspects of the wallet. MetaMask doesn’t make it necessarily complicated for people to access their funds while at the same time not letting the thought of securing the funds fade away.
It doesn’t offer a standard encryption model as what it provides you with is a bit different from various other crypto wallet providers out there. You are bonded with one of a kind, smart encryption solution by the name of a secure identity vault (SIT) which allows for safe storage of user data such as private keys, passwords, and other potential information.
Multiple authentication protocols are also put into place to make sure that only the intended user is able to interact with the secure information, and upon learning, if the user is not authorized to do so, the information would be subjected to more differentiated layers of security and with each fail to try the amount of security would just continue to grow.
This is the kind of functionality and security that no other crypto wallet out there is providing; there are customers who are not only happy with the service but would accept any dedicated update from Metamask that furthers their security metrics.
Anything that you want to learn about the crypto that you were holding within the wallet or any other such activity that you have performed over the years will be made available to you in the blink of an eye with the latest and most incredible UI of MetaMask.
The functionality of the wallet is not limited to a single potential storage unit, you can synchronize other crypto wallets that you have on you with your MetaMask wallet, and you would continue to reap the amazing benefits of security and interoperability of Metamask on these other wallets as well.
This cross-generation interoperability provides for more opportunities coming towards the user, which kind of states a mindset of the company and brand that they have not forgotten the user and have placed their users at the centre of their thinking process and where do they want to lead this brand.
Features of MetaMask
The first thing that must blow you away when it comes to MetaMask is that it is completely free; it doesn’t matter whether you download it as a web extension or on your mobile phone; MetaMask crypto wallet is completely free to use with no additional fees whatsoever. This goes for when you are signing up with the platform and or installing it on whatever device you prefer to use.
Likewise, there are no additional fees or costs when it comes to linking your dedicated Metamask wallet with other third-party platforms or decentralized applications out there.
But you must not get a dialled-back approach from all of this that the transactions that you perform through their specific wallet are also going to be free, as this is not the case. The overall transaction fee that would be allocated to your dedicated case is going to be different for the type of transaction that you have performed.
It is going to vary consistently, but when it comes to swaps, there is a potential percentage that you should be aware of; when it comes to swaps, MetaMask makes money from you in the form of fees starting from 0.3% to anywhere 0.87%, and this is true for Ether based users whose swaps are done or commenced using the Metamask wallet.
The payment fees that you would be liable to pay would also vary, considering the very platform with which MetaMask is connected. You don’t want to use a third-party platform that is not affiliated with MetaMask in any potential way and then end up paying bulk sand bulks of payment fees and transaction fees because that one is going to be on you.
You need to find all sorts of information when linking your MetaMask wallet with a third-party payment provider or a decentralized app that potentially is not on the compatible list for MetaMask wallet in the first place.
These consistent change and variation in the payment fees, as well as a transaction fee, depends on the blockchain infrastructure that the third-party app is using, computational requirements for dedicated trade or transaction along with other transaction fees that are involved at a micro-level.
One thing that is absolutely true and shocking about MetaMask is that it never gets the percentages wrong; you should not be on the verge of neglecting this wallet just because the previous ones that you used always jumbled up the percentages that they were supposed to cut.
MetaMask is extremely efficient and persistent that way because it has got a dedicated percentage which doesn’t fluctuate very much depending on an hourly or even weekly basis; if there are going to be any changes in the percentages which Metamask deducts, then you would be notified for that particular update weeks before it even goes live.
If you want to make a payment with MetaMask, then you must have the application at hand installed on your mobile device or desktop. As explained earlier, there is an alternative approach to downloading any program or app, and that is to use the browser extension, but that will only work on your desktop, so you really need to realign your priorities with the MetaMask app.
Next up, you have the option to either use MetaMask independently, that is, never integrating the service with any third-party payment provider, decentralized application, or service out there. But once you have downloaded and installed MetaMask on your device, you would be able to store your crypto along with other ERC-20 tokens within your wallet, and you would be able to pay multiple vendors across the entirety of Ether addresses.
Just because the wallet in itself is also present on Ether blockchain means that every time that you perform to any of the Ether addresses out there is going to be absolutely free. If there are any revisions to this approach in the future, such as MetaMask choosing to endorse a fee for that particular element, it is yet again their choice completely.
Installation and Usage
For many people out there, this is quite complicated and difficult when it comes to downloading and installing the crypto wallets and getting through the instructions that the provider has initiated to set up the whole thing. Some crypto wallets have a bit tricky UI, and therefore it gets all frustrating for the end-user. But when it comes to MetaMask, this is in the case at all.
On the contrary, you would find MetaMask to have a simple and fun UI and initial setup, and it is something that could be approached by anyone out there regardless of how comprehensible you are on your crypto know-how. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert because you won’t have any problems downloading and installing the service on your own.
And the navigation system that MetaMask employees is extremely easy to use with no hidden aspects or settings that are just too complicated to oversee. This makes the onboarding process for MetaMask an extremely efficient and less of a sweat-breaking exercise.
When it comes to using MetaMask as a web browser extension, the process is very simple and quite identical no matter what kind of platform you are trying to set this thing up on. All you have to do is go to the official hand page of Metamask and then look forward to the ‘get started button. Once you have found and clicked on it, you would be prompted to the ‘download now’ section, and then you click on that particular button.
This will redirect you to a technically different page between a few different options for installing service; there is a table that dictates the proper hardware required and the operating system, such as if you are running iOS or Android or trying to download and use MetaMask on a browser.
Based on the type of element that you’ve chosen, you would be redirected to those individual pages where you would either be able to download and install the service on your Android or iOS, whereas if you want it for your browser, then simply download the extension for your web browser.