How To Create A New WAX Account Using Your Ledger
Creating and using a WAX account is easier than it has ever been with the introduction of the WAX Cloud Wallet. But this ease unfortunately comes at a cost, namely security. As some might prefer security over convenience, using a Ledger device is often recommended for the creation and usage of accounts. In this guide, we will explain how to create a WAX account using a Ledger device.
Preparing your Ledger
Before we start, we recommend making yourself familiar with how WAX accounts work first. We have recently published a guide which explains all aspects of WAX, which you can find here.
Now let’s move on to preparing your Ledger. Before you can start creating a new account using your Ledger, you need to make sure your Ledger has the latest firmware and has the EOS app (there is no WAX app you need to install) installed. If you have already completed this step, continue to the next part. If not, start off by downloading and installing the official Ledger Live application on your pc.
Once you have installed the Ledger Live app, connect your Ledger and unlock it, then open the Ledger Live app. In the app, navigate to the ‘Manager’ tab, accept the action on your Ledger, and verify that there are no firmware updates available for your Ledger, and if there are updates available, follow the steps to update the firmware to the latest version.
When you are certain your Ledger has the latest firmware, it’s time to install the EOS Ledger app on your device. From the ‘Manager’ page in the Ledger Live app, select the EOS app from the list, and click ‘Install’. After the app has been installed you can continue to the next part and start generating your keys!
Generating keys using your Ledger
The Ledger Live application does not support the generation of keys, so we will use Scatter to generate our keys (and also use your account, which we explain in this article). Scatter is a desktop application which supports WAX, and can be used to access WAX dApps. Scatter can be downloaded from here.
After you have installed Scatter, the first thing you have to do is activate the WAX network under the ‘Networks’ tab in the menu on the left in Scatter. Select ‘Wax Blockchain’ from the list of networks, and activate it.
*Before continuing, make sure your Ledger is still unlocked and has the EOS app opened
The next step is importing keys into Scatter from your Ledger. Click ‘Import key’ in the ‘Wallet’ tab (on the bottom right). In this menu, click ‘Hardware’, which will take you to the following screen:
On this screen, select the Ledger device you are using, and choose any key index (the key at each index remains the same, no matter which pc you use, as long as you use the same Ledger device). Scatter will then show you the key associated with the key index, and you are able to click on it, which adds the key to your Scatter.
We recommend writing the index of your key down, as you might want to import the same key on a different device in the future or you might want to recover it in the future.
For maximum security, perform this process twice, in order to import 2 keys into your Scatter. Importing 2 keys means you can have different keys for both the owner and the active permission. You can also choose to use the same key for both permissions.
Creating a WAX account using your Ledger
Now it’s time to actually create the account! Creating the account can be done with any existing WAX account and only requires a couple of WAX tokens. In this guide, we will assume you already have a regular WAX account which has at least a couple of WAX tokens in it, although anyone with an existing WAX account can create the account for you, using the following the steps. We will use the popular tool on Bloks to create the account.
*If you have changed your mind and would like to create a new regular WAX account, we have a guide for that as well.
To start, navigate to the ‘Create account’ section of the wallet on Bloks. Then, login with the existing account, using any of the available login options.
In the ‘Create account’ section, fill in the correct information in the blanks, as can be seen in the image above. Use the public key of the key pairs you generated in the previous step, which can be copied from Scatter by clicking on the options button on the right of the key, and selecting ‘Copy public key’, as can be seen in the image below.
You can leave the CPU stake, NET stake and RAM buy at the default options, as this will be sufficient in most cases and you can always stake and buy more in the future.
When you have verified all information, click ‘Create Account’, and sign the transaction using Scatter (or any other login option you chose). You have now successfully created a new WAX account which can only be accessed using your Ledger!
Making the account visible in Scatter
There is only one step left before you can start using the newly created account, which is refreshing the accounts linked to the key in Scatter.
To refresh the linked accounts, go to the options menu on the right of the key and click ‘Refresh Accounts’. Scatter will then link the key to the permission on your account.
After following the above steps, you can now use both Scatter and the Ledger (directly, without Scatter) to gain access to your account through tools like the Bloks wallet. Keep in mind that you always need to connect and unlock your Ledger (and Scatter if you are using it) before you try to login on a dApp/tool.
About us
Founding block producer for the EOS mainnet. Block producer for the BOS mainnet. Active top WAX Guild. Partner in the Europechain sister chain. Investor in blockchain projects. Governance, intercultural cooperation, and security specialist. You can find us here:
EOS and Europechain Block Producer name: eosamsterdam
BOS Block Producer name: amsterdambos
WAX Guild name: amsterdamwax
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Written by Yannick Slenter for EOS Amsterdam
