Transcription
If you're someone who's been buying crypto through platforms like Coinbase, but you've heard of self-custody, and you're wondering what that actually means, well, this is the video for you. We're going to be covering exactly what the difference is between a crypto exchange and self-custody, why you might want to take control of your crypto in the first place, and then I'm going to walk you through how to download and set up this Coinbase wallet step by step. By the end of this video, you'll know how to manage your crypto without relying on a third party, and that's a big deal in the world of digital assets.
Real quick, if you don't mind, guys, just dropping a like on this video because that's going to help this to get shared out with more people. I would really appreciate that. Real quick, I do have to mention that I am not a financial adviser and this isn't any kind of personalized financial advice.
The first thing I want to do here is cover the difference between the Coinbase app that most people are familiar with and this Base app. And this is really a discussion here of exchanges versus self-custody. Coinbase, the main platform at coinbase.com and through their mobile app is a centralized exchange. That means when you buy Bitcoin or other crypto through them, Coinbase is actually holding on to it for you. You have an account, kind of like a financial account, and Coinbase manages the keys. Now, that is convenient, of course, but it also means that you're trusting Coinbase to hold on to your crypto. Now, with that said, Coinbase is worth about $75 billion as of writing this, and they have crime insurance as well as other policies and procedures to safeguard digital assets at all costs. But nonetheless, a lot of what crypto is about is being decentralized and untethered from the traditional financial system. And that is exactly why this Base self-custody wallet exists.
What does self-custody actually mean? The biggest thing it means is that you hold the private keys and therefore you own the crypto directly. But what exactly is a private key? Well, this is basically a secret password that proves that you own the crypto. It's a long string of letters and numbers that gives you full access to the funds in your wallet. And here's the most important part, guys. Whoever controls the private key controls the crypto. So, there's no bank, no exchange, no middleman. That's why self-custody is both powerful and risky. If you lose your private key or your recovery phrase, there's no way to reset it. So, your crypto would be lost forever.
Before we dive into the Base tutorial here, guys, I want to cover one final detail about the Coinbase exchange platform. A lot of people wonder whether or not you need a Coinbase exchange account in order to set up a Base account and vice versa. These two are actually completely separate, and that means that you do not need to have a Coinbase account in order to open up a Base wallet. However, you do need an exchange if you're looking to buy crypto that you're looking to then send over to your self-custody wallet. So, for that purpose, we will be using Coinbase. You can check out my full tutorial about Coinbase down below and in the corner in terms of the exchange account. And I also have the link to open up an account where you can support the channel and maybe even get some free Bitcoin in the process. So guys, let's jump into my phone now and get into the full demo.
Alrighty, guys. So, here we are over in the App Store and the first thing we're going to do is click on the search button in the bottom right and then we're going to type in Base. Now, as mentioned before, you don't need to have a Coinbase account to download the Base app. But if you do want to download Coinbase while you're at it and get that free Bitcoin bonus, make sure you use my link down below. But here we are at the top, Base, formerly Coinbase Wallet. We're going to click into that. And since I've already had this downloaded before, I'm just going to click on the restore from the cloud button here. But yours is going to most likely be a download button. Now that we're all set, we can click here on open. And that's going to bring us into the Base app. And we can make a decision here about notifications. So since we're doing the demo, I'm going to turn it on. That way you can see the full experience. And now it tells us a bit about what we can expect here. So you can uh have your home here for everything on-chain. Trade two plus million coins and send USD Coin instantly for free. So that's pretty cool from a payment perspective if you're looking to send people payments sort of almost like a Venmo or a PayPal. While you could do it through USD Coin and potentially avoid some fees or uh things like that that you might have other places. But this is where you can either recover a wallet if you have one or we can create a new wallet. So we're going to click here on create new wallet and we can now use Face ID here to sign in. So, we're going to click here on continue. At this point, we can allow Base to use Face ID. So, we're going to click here on allow. And just like that, this has now created a wallet for us using the Face ID feature. And then we can click here for notifications here on the Coinbase wallet becoming Base officially. So, right now, they are still undergoing a transition. You may or may not see this by the time you're actually doing this setup here. So, we're just going to click notify me here. And then we can go ahead and click here on accept in terms of the updated terms. So just like that, we actually created a wallet using Face ID as our password. If we click here in the top left, we can see our smart wallet here listed and we can click below here to add and manage wallets. So from here we can either create a new wallet or we can import a wallet. So what I'm going to click here on is create a new wallet. And this is where we can now create a wallet that's going to be set up here with a secret recovery phrase. And then to keep the crypto safe, we're going to write it down. And we're not going to share this with anyone. So, this is going to be the more traditional step that most people are familiar with. And I even grabbed a seed phrase that I've used as a demo before for a Trust Wallet just to show you guys what this looks like. So, what you're going to be doing in this process is getting your private key or your secret recovery phrase here. And that's going to be what we have to record offline. And that whole thing. So, what we're going to click on now is continue. And now we are going to have to back up our wallet. So, this tells us that the secret phrase is used to recover the crypto if you lose your phone or switch to a different wallet entirely. So, this can be used for things other than just a Base wallet. You could use a different self-custody wallet as long as it supports that crypto network. So, we need to save these 12 words in a secure location such as a password manager and never share them with anyone. So, what you don't want to do here is just take a screenshot or copy and paste it into your notes because if anybody gets into your phone and then they find that information, then they can directly get to your wallet and your crypto funds. So, I'm going to click on the button here making this visible and I'm going to say no, I'm safe here. I'm not being scammed. And guys, obviously, I'm going to blur this all out here and I'm not going to put a meaningful amount of money in this wallet anyway. So, I might not do the uh steps of recording this, but you're going to want to write this down and store this in a safe location. For now, I'm just going to click on copy to clipboard. And we also have the option here to back up to iCloud, or you can back it up manually. Obviously, you can make a decision as to whether or not you think the Apple iCloud is secure. I'm personally okay with it, especially for this demo. So, I'm going to click on backup on iCloud. And in order to do that, we're just going to create a password. So, this makes it feel like more of a traditional account with a password and login. But this is because we're having the Apple iCloud hold on to our password within an account that has a login and password, if you will. So, I'm going to go ahead and set a password and then check this box. So, we're going to check this box here, but I just want to read to you what this says so you guys are aware. It says, "I understand that if I lose my password, I won't be able to access my backup, which could mean losing all the crypto in my wallet." So really guys, make sure that you write down this password. It's not like your traditional passwords where you can often just go reset it. You know, this is a big deal because it's holding back your private key, which is what gives someone full access to your crypto wallet. So, we're going to check the box. We're going to click here on continue. And now it's creating our wallet. And just like that, we now have a full-blown account here with a backup recovery phrase. So now with that recovery phrase that you've either written down or stored in the iCloud, if you lost your phone, you could simply download the Base app again, paste that in at the very beginning where you had the option to basically load an existing wallet. You would put in your phrase and then it would allow you to import that wallet. You could also do it with other providers instead of just Base. So for example, you could do something like bringing in this wallet over to MetaMask or Trust Wallet, for example.
What we're going to do now is quickly navigate the app and then we're going to hop over to Coinbase, purchase some Bitcoin, and send it over to our wallet. So, from the home screen here, we can see information about creating a watch list. You can also keep track of trending swaps here on Base. And this is going to be a way that people are able to get exposure to other types of cryptocurrencies that might be less common. Nothing that we're going to be covering in this video. You can also learn about NFTs and get into NFTs here through Base. So um, these types of wallets are popular for those who are into those types of um tokens. From here if we click over one more, we have this option which is going to be where we can send and receive cryptocurrency. Now one thing you're going to notice here is by default you have Ethereum and that's because the Base network itself is built on the Ethereum blockchain. So oftentimes you're going to see Ethereum by default. So that's actually what we're going to be sending over from our Coinbase wallet. So later on we're going to come into this section here when we want to receive cryptocurrencies. Uh, but for now, we're just going to click over one more. And this is going to show you a list of all of your transactions. So once we actually send cryptocurrency over, we're going to see it listed here, but there's nothing just yet. And then if we go over all the way to the right, this is going to show us our different cryptocurrency balances. So once you have different cryptos, they'll be listed over here. And then you have the option for NFTs and then your other DeFi um options here. If you're doing any staking or anything like that, that's going to be all the way on the right. Uh, but for now, we're going to click back here on crypto. And there's options here to buy crypto through providers within the app, or we can send it over. So, let's do that now by clicking on the buy button in the top left and seeing what those options are.
From the buy screen here, it's going to show you the different cryptocurrencies that you can purchase. And you're going to be able to change that by clicking here and choosing which asset to buy. Now, everything right here is going to be on the Base network. So, this is going to be um Ethereum-based tokens here. You're not going to see Bitcoin here listed, for example. But if you click here on where the network is listed, you can change that to the different networks. So, if we change it to the Bitcoin network, then you can purchase Bitcoin and even store it through this, for example. Uh, so if we switch it now back over to Base and we have it on buying Ethereum, this is where you could change the dollar amount. So let's say you're looking to buy $50 worth. You can then pay with Apple Pay or different methods here. And these would be the limits. And a lot of this is going to be through the Coinbase app and then it's going to deposit it over to Base. So, you have the option of debit card, bank account, uh, fiat balance, and then even you can also transfer from your Coinbase account directly through the app, too, if you want to avoid having to copy and paste a wallet address. Now, I've had a lot of trouble with Apple Pay in the past in terms of trying to buy crypto. So, I'm not going to go ahead and try to do that. Uh, but what we're going to do instead is hop over and send some crypto from my Coinbase account over the good old-fashioned way.
So, here we are inside of my Coinbase account. And since I have just $169, we're going to have to purchase some crypto. So, what we're going to do is click here on crypto. And you can see I have some very small amounts of some altcoins listed here. But what we're going to need is Ethereum. So, we'll go ahead and search for it here. And we can click on it at the very top. And then we are going to click on the buy button. And we're going to buy crypto with cash. So, we have a $15,000 limit. Obviously, we're not going to go anywhere near that. For the purpose of this video, I'm just going to purchase $50 worth of Ethereum. And we can click on review order. And we can see that it's going to be available to trade and transfer instantly. That's definitely a plus because we're going to want to send that right over. And then we can go ahead and click on buy now. And just like that, our order was submitted. So, we're going to click here on done. And we're going to again send this over with the wallet address. Like I said, the old-fashioned way, copy and pasting. But keep in mind again, if you want to just within the Base app, go over into the earlier section and just transfer right from Coinbase, there is an option to do that. But what we're going to do now is click over here on assets. And we can already see our Ethereum is listed here. And what we're going to do now is go back over to Base and copy our wallet address.
So, we've secured our Ethereum. Now, we need to figure out where we're going to send it. So, I'm going to navigate back over to Base. And from the home screen here, we're going to click on the two lines in the middle, up and down. And this is where we're going to now click on the receive button. And this is where we can now do a copy and pasting. And it mentions here if you're tired of the copy and paste, you can also claim a free username. Uh, that's going to be helpful for your friends if they're on Base. That way if you're looking to send somebody money, you can do it a lot easier than the traditional method. But in this case, we definitely are just going to do the old-school way. Click on Ethereum address and it copied this to the clipboard. So now we're going to navigate back. And again, you can connect it right to Coinbase at the bottom if you want to have it just directly send things over without this manual method here. So now we're going to go back over to Coinbase. We're going to click here on transfer and we're going to send the crypto. And then it says Coinbase would like to paste from Base. Now the cool thing about that is we know that it's coming from Base. So we know what it's pasting in fact. So we're going to click on allow paste. Now for security reasons, Coinbase makes me turn off my screen recording during this section. So, we're just going to get through with screenshots here. So, at this point, we have the address that I've pasted from my clipboard. If we click on that, it's going to now give us the option to send crypto to this address. And then we have the option to select the network. The interesting thing is here, if you use the Ethereum network by default, it's going to cost you 27 cents to send over or roughly $50. But the benefit to using Base within the Coinbase ecosystem is that it's free. Uh, and you're not going to pay a fee. So, we're going to use Base. So, I'm going to click on the bottom. And then you have to check a box here that says, "Does your recipient accept ETH on Base?" And then you're going to then click yes, it's supported in this case because you're using the Base wallet. And now we have the option to send over our Ethereum. We have 4854 available. So, we're just going to send $40. That way, we have enough maintained in case there's any extra or anything that we need in the process. After clicking on preview, we then have the option to review the transaction to see where it's going. We can see the network is going to be Base and it says the send time is roughly 20 seconds. And if everything looks good, you can click on send now at the bottom. And just like that, it says we have sent our smidge of Ethereum there, roughly $40 worth. You can click on view details if you want to see the full details or click on done. We're just going to click on done at the very bottom.
Back over in the Base app now, we're going to click on home and I'm going to refresh from the top here just to see if it has come over yet. And it hasn't yet, but honestly, it's only been about 10 seconds. So, I will keep track of this and then let you guys know once we see confirmation of this on the other side. And just like that, guys, it is sent over. So, our balance is now about $40. It's fluctuating with the market price of Ethereum. And it took about 2 minutes for this to come over, probably less, but I would say when I'm used to the speed of, you know, the Bitcoin network, for example, that can take like an hour sometimes. So, this came over really quickly. And we now have the Ethereum. So, if I click on home, we can see that is listed in the top left as our balance. And now we can play with a couple of the other features that are available within the app. So, let's say, for example, you're looking to take that Ethereum and now swap into a token that is going to be a lesser-known altcoin. I'm not going to be able to show you all of the decentralized apps, but I'm going to show you the most popular way of doing this. You're going to click all the way here at the bottom right, and then you have the swap option in the middle. And this is going to allow you to now swap. So this is going to let you swap from Ethereum to other assets. We have $40 available. So if we click here on the two at the bottom, we can now see all of these different assets we can swap into. So for example, Aerodrome. Uh, that's a popular altcoin. It's on the Base network. It's one I'm also familiar with. So I'm going to go ahead and swap a little bit over into that for demo purposes. So, let's say out of your $40 available, we want to take $20 and swap it into Aerodrome on Base. We would enter it just like this. Click on the continue button, and then we have this final screen here that's going to show us what our fees would look like. We're going to pay about 20 cents as a fee to Coinbase, about a 1-cent network fee, and then if everything looks good, we can swap. It's now swapping in real time for us. And we get a check just like that. And then we can click here on done. And just like that, we have now taken half of our Ethereum that came over and switched it over into Aerodrome Finance. So if you want to use this to swap into tokens that are on the Base network, it's going to be really easy. And if you want to swap into um other tokens, you might have to leverage the decentralized apps, which are going to be listed over here, for example.
And then let's say, for example, you want to take this crypto and send it back to Coinbase or somewhere else. What you would do at that point is click on the same up-down arrows in the middle. You would click on your Ethereum balance here. And this would allow you to choose from here if you want to do the Ethereum or Aerodrome or some other crypto you have. We're going to click on Ethereum and then you would click here on the send button. And at this point, this is where you would paste in the address or first you have to put in the amount. So let's say you wanted to send $20. You would then click on send. And then you can either add people from your contacts or paste in the wallet address. So I'm going to click on maybe later. And then I could directly paste in my Coinbase wallet address. I'm not going to go ahead and do that now just because it would be totally unnecessary and a waste of money in terms of the fees, but that's exactly how you would send this back and forth. And I don't believe you would encounter any fees either going back over to Coinbase as long as you stick within the Base network.
The last thing I want to show you guys is how to access your transactions. Earlier on we looked at this, but now if we click here on this icon that looks like a piece of paper, we can see a history of all of our activity. So you can see where we received the $40 give or take of Ethereum and then we swapped for 16 of the Aerodrome tokens. So this can be a way that you can keep track of all of your crypto activity.
There you have it guys, that's it for this full tutorial on the Base self-custody wallet. Hopefully, you now have a better idea as far as what these wallets are and why people use self-custody wallets instead of just a traditional exchange. If you made it to the very end here, don't forget to drop a like as well as subscribe. And you can feel free to use the affiliate links down below to support the channel. You can click below to watch my latest video and I'll see you there.