Basic WAX Account Management
This tutorial will mainly use bloks.io, which is a fast block explorer for the wax blockchain. A block explorer is a frontend that can navigate and present all the data from the blockchain in a readable format. Make sure you use wax.bloks.io, which is the WAX specific one. Why I will use bloks is mainly that it works with all the different wallet options for WAX. Cloud wallet included.
The cloud wallet is a very convenient wallet that should be treated as a hot wallet. The moment you start to accumulate value you should look into setting up a cold storage solution for your valuable assets. More on that further down this article.
Before you move forward, if you have a cloud wallet. Activate 2fa on your account. And store your recovery phrases for your 2fa in a secure password manager or a file on a USB stick or similar.
Full video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/GAts5Pwg_Is
Stake WAX
Staking WAX to CPU/NET is your way of booking more resources. These are needed to do actions/transfers etc on the WAX blockchain. At the time of writing, having 10–20 WAX in CPU and 1–5 WAX in NET is enough for you to do a lot of daily activities. You have a resource quota on your account that is refilled daily based on your stake. Any account may also use all the resources left available from any WAX that is currently in liquid stake. Which is why you sometimes can see a higher usage of CPU than 100%.
Staking your WAX is also a great way to protect your funds, as it adds on that 72 hour unstake period which any hacker would have to wait for if they get access to your account. Which could buy you enough time to go in and lock them out if you have proper account management. More on that in this article. If you stake wax, you can also vote for guilds that run the infrastructure of the blockchain, and earn passive rewards.
step 1) login with Wallet (e.g. cloud wallet)
step 2) enter your account name (or another account you want to stake to)
step 3) enter how much WAX to stake in CPU/NET
step 4) Sign transaction
Unstake WAX
Go to The Unstake page on Bloks.
Unstaking is a process that takes 72 hours. This is in my opinion the best way to protect your funds from attacks, as long as you keep your owner key safe in a self managed account, and your password/2fa in a cloud wallet. You have time to rescue your funds before they can be transferred away in case you get attacked.
TLDR: Unstaking takes 72 hours, so wait 3 days after you unstake until you can move funds.
step 1) login with Wallet (e.g. cloud wallet)
step 2) enter your account name
step 3) enter how much WAX to unstake in CPU/NET
step 4) Sign transaction
Make sure you keep a few wax in cpu/net or you can’t use your account
Buy RAM
RAM is the storage resource on WAX. Essentially all information in your account is stored in a table (kinda like an excel file). The more NFTs, tokens etc you have, the more RAM you will need to store this information. The RAM you buy can later be sold if you no longer need it. RAM is priced by supply/demand and may increase/decrease, so keep that in mind.
For most NFT traders, the biggest RAM expense is actually NFT listings in marketplaces. However, you do not need a lot of RAM to do that. In the below example you see how man RAM you get for 1 WAX at the time of writing this. That amount of RAM is more than 99% of all users will need. If you are a power user you might need a bit more.
step 1) login with Wallet (e.g. cloud wallet)
step 2) enter your account name (or the account you want to buy RAM for)
step 3) enter how much WAX you wish to buy ram for
step 4) Sign transaction
Sell RAM
Selling ram is not something you likely will ever need to do, unless you want to get out of WAX, or you are speculating on the WAX RAM price. For most users this is nothing you ever need to worry about. Remember that you can not use your account if you do not have enough RAM available. So always keep a bit more RAM than you currently use. This can easily be seen in your account page on bloks.io.
step 1) login with Wallet (e.g. cloud wallet)
step 2) enter your account name (or the account you want to buy RAM for)
step 3) enter how much WAX you wish to buy ram for
step 4) Sign transaction
For Self managed accounts (Not cloud wallet)
This section of the article will be for anyone using an account where you manage your own keys. In my opinion this is something anyone with the amount of tokens or NFTS that equal a high value in your living situation should be doing. Why I specify it like this is because for some person, $100 is a lot, for another $10000 is nothing. So depending on your life, risk etc, it’s not the same.
Another positive aspect of a self managed account is that you can have any account name of your choice that is 12 characters long (a-z, 1–5) and is not currently used. More on this in below video.
On WAX, your account name is immutable, but your keys are mutable. This means you can actually change the keys associated with your account. This is one of the most powerful aspects of the EOSIO blockchain software that WAX is built upon. This is also a risk unless managed properly, where a person that get access to your computer or keys might actually steal your account by changing the keys. This has been done in the past by malicious sites where users have signed a transaction to change key without knowing it, and lost millions of USD. In the below video I walk through how powerful the system is if used correctly. This is an Advanced video.
TLDR self managed account
Owner key: Your admin key, keep this off online devices as a safe backup. Make sure this is different from your active key. Use this key if you lost access to your active key, and or your account has been hacked.
Active key: Your daily key, this key can do anything on your account except changing the Owner key.
Custom permission: Special key that you connect to a specific action on the blockchain. This is great if used correctly as it would impose 0 security issues. Perfect for voting, claiming, games, websites etc.
Multi signature setups: Probably overkill for most users, but utilizing multisig you will require multiple keys to sign any transaction. Great for adding another layer of security if you have a high value account. If managed properly this allows you to keep your funds safe even if your computer or key is compromised, as the person with access can not do anything with just 1 key. More on this in the above video on: The EOSIO Permission system
Setting up ledger hardware wallet
Ledger is a hardware wallet that you can use with the WAX blockchain. To use this you need to install the EOS app inside the ledger.
Setting up an account using anchor
Anchor is a great wallet for using self managed accounts on WAX. The developers are part of the WAX ecosystem and are frequently adding updates to improve the wallet. Most DAPPs on WAX support the WAX cloud wallet and anchor. You can also use your ledger hardware wallet inside anchor.
I’ve written article and made video on how to get this done.
The above linked article is written to also help optimize your chances of getting limited NFTs in those sales that are quickly sold out. If you just want to see how to make an account scroll down a bit.
Private key management for dummies
Read this article to reduce risks if you manage your own private keys. If you make a mistake, no one can save you. So take a few hours and read up on how this works, and feel free to tag me on twitter if you have any questions.
Summary
This article is meant to be a Go-to for new people to quickly learn the needed ins and outs of the WAX blockchain. The CPU/NET resources on WAX are needed for actions/transfers on WAX, and RAM is needed to store your account information. The Cloud wallet is a custodial hot wallet, and a self managed account is where you own and control your keys.
My recommendation is to create a self managed account, learn about how that works and how to secure your keys to reduce risk of errors and increase security. I’ve written articles and made videos on this topic, all linked above.
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Anders — Anyobservation
