Technically the MEW wallet and Metamask are two different wallets and when you transfer funds specially ethereum (ETH) or ETH based tokens from one wallet to another it involves considerable fees.
However if you were to access your MEW wallet via your Metamask you would not only access your ETH via the Metamask interface but also save a lot of ETH paid as gas fees.
MEW or Myetherwallet the old war horse
A lot of early adopters of crypto and specially ETH have been using the MEW or myetherwallet which can be found at https://www.myetherwallet.com/
MEW or myetherwallet has been the trusted ethereum wallet for many to hold their ethereum ETH and other ERC-20 ethereum based tokens.
Those who have been using it vouch for its simplicity, functionality and ease of use.
I too am one of the fans of the feature rich wallet.
Earlier MEW was a simplistic yet yet fully functional wallet and in the due course of its growth it has got more features added to it. An android and ios version app has added many users to its user and fan base.
The ability to connect a ledger wallet to the MEW wallet has earned it a lot of additional credibility.
Having said that I have to say that over time people have begun to use Metamask as eth wallet of choice.
It is interesting to see how metamask and for a lot of users its avatar as a chrome extention became the trusted wallet of choice.
Metamask with its sly fox logo came from behind to make its place as a leading ETH based wallet interface.
One may identify the metamask extention in the chrome browser by the image of the fox on the top right bar just below the menu bar.
As a desktop / laptop user one finds it easy to install on the chrome browser as an extension.
The big question why you need to access your MEW wallet via Metamask ?
A lot of people are getting into and experiencing with DeFi and a lot of DeFi work on the Ethereum blockchain.
These sites and platforms require one to connect our funds holding wallet with their site or platform.
The Metamask wallet does that beautifully.
So would one have to transfer funds from his MEW (myetherwallet) to the Metamask address ?
Not quite! one additional good thing about the MEW & the Metamask wallets is that they both let you have a greater control over your assets by way of not holding your private keys.
I further discovered that I could use the private keys or the mnemonic phrase from the myether wallet and import it into a Metamask wallet.
On can do this in a couple of simple steps and I am illustration the steps so that anyone can follow the steps and access the myetherwallet assets via the Metamask interface.
The first requisite is to have your private key(s ) / mnemonic phrase from your MEW or Myetherwallet available with you.
I did the process on a windows based laptop with the chrome browser installed.
One can search for the "Metamask Extension" keywords to find the link.
However I was curious to see what all options do we get so I cheked the site link https://metamask.io
Click on the download link
One is lead to the download options
From here one can select either the Chrome browser, android or ios option based on the user target device.
I selected Chrome and scrolling down one sees the options
This shows that the supported browsers are chrome, Firefox, Brave and the Edge browser.
Installation on chrome browser
Click on the add to chrome button
Next a Popup prompts you to make a selection
Click the Add extention button
The extention would get downloaded and get installed.
Once installed the remove from Chrome button becomes visible
Now that the Metamask has been installed how does one access it ?
- Click on the puzzle piece icon
- Click on the pin button next to the metamask fox icon
- Click on metamask icon
Click on Metamask icon and next click on Get Started button
- Next Import wallet
Click on Import Wallet button
Next click the I agree button
Enter seed Phrase and select a password of your choice
What if you have a private key instead of a mnemonic phrase?
The below steps can be followed
- Create a metamask account
click on the create wallet button
Create password
Make sure that the password is strong
Click here to reveal secret words
Note down the secret phrase and click the Next button
Do not share secret phrase and keep it secure.
Next you would be required to confirm the phrase by selecting the words in the correct sequence.
Click the Next button
Match the secret phrase to complete the wallet creation.
Confirm to move ahead.
The next screen would look as follows
Click the All Done button
Next screen may prompt you to do a swap
Cross it out
You would find yourself looking at your newly created Metamask Ethereum wallet account.
- Click the circle icon on the top right
From here click the Import account option
The Next screen as shown below gives you an option to enter the private key
Enter the private key of your MEW wallet and doing this makes the Import button active.
Click on it to import your Mew account.
Congratulations your MEW wallet assets are available from your Metamask account.
The Key takeaways from this experience
This has been a straight forward process and the learning from this has been that as long as you hold the keys to your crypto you are free to import it in another wallet without having to pay any gas fees.
Always remember not your Keys not your coins.
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