Coinbase Chrome Extension

Coinbase Chrome Extension: Your go-to solution for smart crypto management. From market insights to trade execution, enhance your digital currency experience with ease and efficiency.

Coinbase Wallet uses BIP39, the industry standard, to generate a 12-word recovery phrase. This recovery phrase is the key to your wallet. Anyone with the recovery phrase can recreate your purse and take control of your crypto assets, so you should store it carefully.

In the background, a 12-word phrase associated with a private key (a long string of letters and numbers) allows you to control your wallet assets on the blockchain.

The wallet also uses the public key to generate the wallet address. Coinbase Wallet supports multiple networks (on mobile) and multiple accounts so that you can have multiple addresses.

All your Coinbase Wallet assets share the exact 12-word recovery phrase.

Coinbase Wallet is a hot wallet, meaning that the keys of the wallet are generated and stored on a device connected to the internet. You can connect your Ledger hardware wallet (cold wallet that generates offline private keys) to your Coinbase Wallet to further secure your assets. However, it would be best to do this with the new Coinbase Wallet using the Chrome extension.

When you send cryptocurrency or connect to a decentralized application, your wallet will ask permission to “sign” the transaction with your private key. Put, your wallet acts as a validator.

How to set up a Coinbase wallet

I set up a new wallet using the Coinbase Wallet Chrome extension. Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Download and install the Coinbase Wallet extension.

Visit Coinbase for the official download link. The link takes you to the Chrome extension installation page. Add the extension to your Chrome or Chromium-based browser.

Step 2: Create a new wallet.

Click on create new wallet. You can use the second option to install your wallet on additional devices later if needed.

Step 3: Write down your recovery phrase.

Your wallet will generate a 12-word recovery phrase as well as a hidden private key. Write down the recovery phrase and store it safely. Although Coinbase Wallet offers the option to copy the seed phrase to your clipboard, for security reasons, this isn’t recommended.

Step 4: Verify your recovery phrase and choose a password.

Choose the first and last word from your recovery phrase. On the next screen, you’ll also choose a password to protect your wallet while away from your computer.

Step 5: Claim your username.

Coinbase Wallet offers a free Ethereum Name Service (ENS) username using this format: yourname.cb.id. Others can send supported crypto tokens directly to your username, which maps to your wallet address. You can also import a .eth name if you have one.

That’s it. Click on the Buy button to connect to your Coinbase Pay account if needed.