Crypto 101

A crypto wallet is basically your personal account on the blockchain. Think of it like a digital bank account — except you control it, not a bank. Nobody can freeze it, nobody can shut it down. It's yours.

MetaMask — The Most Popular Wallet

MetaMask is a browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Brave) and mobile app that lets you interact with Ethereum. To set it up:

1. Go to metamask.io and install the browser extension
2. Click "Create a New Wallet"
3. Set a strong password
4. Write down your 12-word seed phrase on paper (more on this in the next section)
5. Confirm the seed phrase — and you're in!

Your Wallet Address

Once your wallet is set up, you'll get a public address that looks something like: 0x5026F006...9aaB

This is like your email address — you can share it with anyone so they can send you crypto. It's completely safe to share your public address.

Hot Wallets vs Cold Wallets

• Hot wallet — Connected to the internet (like MetaMask). Great for everyday use, buying and swapping tokens. Convenient but slightly more vulnerable since it's online.
• Cold wallet — A physical hardware device (like Ledger or Trezor) that stores your keys offline. Best for long-term storage of large amounts. Think of it like a safe.

Your private key is the master password to your wallet. Whoever has it has full control of everything in that wallet. They can move all your tokens, drain your ETH — everything. Gone forever.

What's a Seed Phrase?

When you created your MetaMask wallet, you were given 12 (or 24) random words. That's your seed phrase — it's basically your private key in human-readable form. Anyone with those words can recreate your entire wallet on any device.

How to Back It Up Safely

1. Write the 12 words down on paper — by hand
2. Double-check the order and spelling
3. Store the paper somewhere safe and private (a safe, a lockbox, etc.)
4. Consider making a second backup stored in a different physical location
5. Never take a photo of it or save it digitally

Before you can buy any token on Ethereum (including WOJAK), you need ETH in your wallet. ETH is the native currency of the Ethereum network — you use it to pay for transactions and to swap for other tokens.

On-Ramp Options (Buying ETH with Real Money)

These services let you buy ETH with a debit card, bank transfer, or Apple Pay:

• Coinbase — One of the most popular and beginner-friendly exchanges. Create an account, verify your identity, and buy ETH directly. Then send it to your MetaMask wallet.
• MoonPay — Built into many wallets and apps. You can buy ETH with a card and have it sent straight to your wallet address.
• Transak / Ramp — Similar to MoonPay. Some wallets have these built in as "Buy" options.
• MetaMask Buy — MetaMask itself has a "Buy" button that connects you to on-ramp providers. Easiest way if you're already in MetaMask.

Sending ETH from an Exchange to MetaMask

If you bought ETH on Coinbase (or any exchange):

1. Open MetaMask and copy your wallet address (click your address at the top)
2. Go to Coinbase → Send/Withdraw
3. Paste your MetaMask wallet address
4. Choose the amount of ETH to send
5. Make sure the network is Ethereum (ERC-20) — not Polygon, Arbitrum, or any other network
6. Confirm and wait a minute or two for the transaction to complete

Now that you have ETH in your wallet, you can swap it for tokens like WOJAK. You do this on a DEX (decentralized exchange) — a platform that lets you trade tokens directly from your wallet, without signing up for anything.

What's a DEX?

Unlike Coinbase or Binance (which are centralized), a DEX runs entirely on smart contracts. You connect your wallet, pick what you want to swap, approve the transaction, and it happens on-chain. No middleman, no account needed. Popular DEXs include Uniswap, CoW Swap, and SushiSwap.

How to Swap on CoW Swap

We have a swap card right on our dashboard — it's the easiest way to buy WOJAK. Or you can go directly to CoW Swap. Here's how:

1. Connect your MetaMask wallet
2. Set "Sell" to ETH
3. Set "Buy" to WOJAK (the contract address will be pre-filled on our widget)
4. Enter the amount of ETH you want to swap
5. Review the price and click "Swap"
6. Confirm the transaction in MetaMask

What's Slippage?

Slippage is the difference between the price you expect and the price you actually get. Crypto prices can move between when you submit a swap and when it executes. Setting slippage to 1-3% is usually fine. If you set it too low, the swap might fail. If you set it too high, you might get a worse price.

MEV Protection — Why We Use CoW Swap

Etherscan is the blockchain explorer for Ethereum. It lets you look up any wallet, transaction, or smart contract — everything that happens on Ethereum is public and verifiable. Think of it as the "Google" for the blockchain.

Looking Up a Token Contract

Go to etherscan.io and paste a contract address in the search bar. For example, OG WOJAK's contract: 0x5026F006B85729a8b14553FAE6af249aD16c9aaB

On the token page you'll see:

• Total supply — how many tokens exist
• Holders — how many wallets hold this token
• Transfers — complete history of every transaction
• Contract — the actual smart contract code (if verified)

Verifying a Transaction

Every transaction on Ethereum has a unique transaction hash (TX hash). If someone says they sent you tokens, ask for the TX hash and look it up on Etherscan. You'll see:

• Whether it succeeded or failed
• The exact amount transferred
• The sender and receiver addresses
• The gas fee paid
• The exact time it happened

Checking Token Approvals

On Etherscan, you can check what contracts you've given permission to spend your tokens. Go to any token contract page → "Token Approvals" tab to see active approvals. If you see an approval you don't recognize, revoke it immediately (more on this in the Revoking Approvals section below).

If you've seen terms like "liquidity pool," "LP," or "TVL" floating around and had no idea what they meant — this section is for you.

Liquidity Pools — Explained Simply

On a regular exchange like Coinbase, there's a company matching buyers and sellers. On a DEX, there's no company — instead, there are liquidity pools.

A liquidity pool is just a big pot of two tokens locked in a smart contract. For WOJAK, the pool holds ETH and WOJAK. When you swap ETH for WOJAK, you're trading against this pool. The pool always has both tokens available so you can trade any time.

People who add tokens to the pool are called liquidity providers (LPs). In return, they earn a small fee from every trade that uses the pool.

Why Locked LP Matters

Here's where it gets important for your safety. If the person who created the liquidity pool can remove all the tokens from the pool at any time, that's called a "rug pull" — they drain the pool, the token crashes to zero, and everyone loses their money.

What's TVL?

TVL stands for "Total Value Locked." It's the total dollar value of all the tokens sitting in the liquidity pool. Higher TVL generally means:

• More stable trading — big buys/sells won't move the price as much
• Less slippage when you swap
• More confidence that the project has real backing

Crypto is full of scams. That's not to scare you — it's just the reality. The good news is most scams follow the same patterns, and once you know what to look for, they're easy to spot.

Red Flags to Watch For

• Contract is NOT renounced — If the deployer still has admin/owner access, they can change the rules at any time: add taxes, freeze your tokens, blacklist your wallet, or mint unlimited new tokens.
• LP is not locked — If the liquidity isn't locked, the creator can pull all the liquidity and leave you holding a worthless token. Classic rug pull.
• Blacklist or freeze functions — If the contract has functions like blacklist(), setRule(), or pause(), the owner can control who can trade and how. Huge red flag.
• Unrealistic promises — "100x guaranteed," "the next Bitcoin," "guaranteed airdrop if you connect wallet" — all scam signals.
• Pressure to act fast — Scammers create urgency. "Migrate NOW or lose your tokens!" Legitimate projects give you time and information.

What "Renounced Contract" Means

When a contract is renounced, the deployer has permanently given up all admin/owner privileges. The contract code becomes immutable — no one can change the rules, add taxes, blacklist wallets, or mint new tokens. It runs exactly as written, forever.

Putting It Into Practice

Before buying any token, always check the contract on Etherscan. Look for renounced ownership, locked liquidity, and a clean ERC-20 implementation with no hidden functions. If the contract has blacklist, pause, or mint functions that are still controlled by an owner — walk away.

When you use a DEX or interact with a smart contract, you often have to "approve" it to spend your tokens. This is a normal part of using DeFi — but these approvals can be dangerous if you're not careful.

What Are Token Approvals?

An approval is a permission you give to a smart contract, saying: "Hey, you're allowed to move up to X amount of this token from my wallet." Most dApps ask for "unlimited" approval so you don't have to re-approve every time you trade.

The problem? That approval stays active even after you're done using the dApp. If that contract ever gets hacked — or if it was malicious in the first place — it can drain the approved tokens from your wallet without any further permission from you.

Why They Can Be Dangerous

• A scam token or malicious dApp you connected to still has approval to drain your tokens
• A legitimate dApp you used in the past gets exploited, and the hacker uses your old approval
• Unlimited approvals mean the contract can take ALL of that token, not just the amount you traded

How to Check & Revoke Approvals

Etherscan has a free tool for this. Here's how to use it:

1. Go to etherscan.io/tokenapprovalchecker
2. Connect your wallet or paste your wallet address
3. You'll see a list of every token approval you've ever given
4. Look for anything suspicious — contracts you don't recognize, unlimited approvals to unknown addresses
5. Click "Revoke" next to any approval you want to remove
6. Confirm the transaction in MetaMask (revoking costs a small gas fee)