Petra Wallet is often appearing among the top 3 crypto wallets for Aptos.
From our wide range of tests, it is a very intuitive and simple wallet that does not offer much depth but excels in simplicity.
With Petra, you can easily send, receive, and hold crypto assets. With the spike in popularity of NFTs, Petra comes with one other very interesting feature – you can directly deploy and view your NFTs inside the wallet.
For those concerned with security, Petra Wallet also offers the option to use it directly with Ledger. Unfortunately, Ledger stays the only hardware wallet you can import.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the setup process of Petra Wallet and how to use all its basic functions. Let’s dive in!
How to Create and Set Up Petra Wallet
Petra offers an efficient and easy way to connect to the Aptos network and use all the dApps and features that comes with it.
For you to take advantage of this huge package of features, you have to download the wallet first and set it up. The process is very intuitive: create a password, copy the recovery phrase, and you’re set.
1. Download and Install Petra
Petra Wallet comes with both browser extension and mobile apps available for iOS and Android.
You can get an extension for all browsers based on Chromium – to put it simply, all browsers that allow you to use the Chrome Web Store. That’s apart from Google Chrome itself browsers like Brave or Vivaldi. And it is also available for Microsoft Edge.
The website doesn’t seem to list all the available platforms but feeds you the appropriate version based on your tech stack.
Either go to the extension store directly or visit the Petra Wallet website and download the extension.
In case you want to use the wallet on your mobile device, use your app store to download and install the app. The steps will be nearly the same, so from now on, we’ll guide you only through the setup of the extension.
2. Create a New Petra Wallet
Once you run the extension for the first time, you’ll be given two options to create a new wallet or import an existing one with the help of your seed phrase or private key.
With the latter option, you can not only import a wallet created in Petra but also your other Aptos accounts from other wallets. After all, a crypto wallet is just a tool to connect to the blockchain, not the blockchain itself.
But since you want to create a new wallet, select the first option.
3. Set a New Password and Write Down your Recovery Phrase
Once you select to create a new wallet, you will have to:
- Create and confirm the password
- Accept Terms of Service
- Write down your recovery phrase and rewrite it back
The password you set is only used to locally encrypt your wallet. Locally means that if you decide to open Petra Wallet on another device or even on another browser, the password won’t work there. Actually, your wallet won’t even exist there.
This also means that the password cannot be recovered: it is not stored anywhere outside your device, so there’s no one who can tell you the right password. To reset your Petra password, you would once again need the recovery phrase.
The 12-word seed is a gateway to your assets. Anyone that knows it can import your account to any wallet and clean out your account.
Pay special attention to the recovery phrase, the password doesn’t need to be super long and contain all possible special characters.
It is important to write down all 12 words in the exact order. Once you are done, rewrite the words and confirm it.
How to Use Petra Wallet
In this section of the article, we will take a closer look at some of the basic but also more advanced functionalities of Petra Wallet.
How to Receive Coins and Tokens in your Wallet
The most basic feature of every crypto wallet is being able to receive and send crypto assets.
To fund your Petra Wallet, open the extension and copy your Aptos address in the top left corner of the window.
Unfortunately, Petra won’t give you the wallet address in QR code form.
Now you can give that address to your friend or paste it to a crypto address of choice and send over some APT.
How to Withdraw from Petra Wallet
Withdrawing from Petra is as easy as funding the wallet.
On the wallet overview, tap “Send” and fill in the appropriate windows.
Enter the recipient’s wallet address and how much APT you want to withdraw. And finally, confirm the transaction.
How to Connect Petra to dApps
As we have seen, many platforms have decided to opt for the Aptos network mainly because of their low fees and huge scalability. It’s not a rarity to encounter a dApp that supports Aptos.
To connect to it, you need to find a platform that:
- Supports the Aptos network
- And simultaneously supports Petra Wallet
Once you’ve found one, locate a connect button on the webpage and select your wallet.
We will demonstrate this on a Liquidswap – the biggest DEX on Aptos.
On the majority of websites, the connect button is located in the top right corner.
You’ll then need to approve the connection in your wallet. Do not just headlessly click “Approve.”
Check that you are giving only some permissions. Some websites can be compromised, and you may give them permission to do whatever they want with your balance.
Usually, apps will just want to see your balance and ask to approve transactions That’s pretty harmless, as, after all, everyone can see your balance on the blockchain. While others can ask for permission to spend or transfer your tokens.
How to Manage dApp Connections in Petra
The same as you don’t want to give unlimited permissions to dApps, you also don’t want to leave them the permission indefinitely.
That’s why it’s a good idea to revoke permissions once you are done using the application.
To do so, head to settings and “Security and Privacy.” You can find settings in the bottom menu bar.
Here you can change some of the most important things regarding your wallet, but also revoke all the permissions you previously gave out.
Select “Connected Apps” to see the whole list, and tap the big red “Revoke” button beside the ones you no longer use.
As you can see, we have the option to revoke the permission we gave a minute ago to Liquidswap.
How to Rename Petra Wallet Account
Petra Wallet works a bit differently than, for instance, MetaMask. In MetaMask, you can have multiple accounts working under one seed phrase, and all of them can be moved at once.
However, with Petra, you control multiple accounts very much separately. That’s where renaming comes in handy.
To rename an account in Petra, go to settings and tap the little pencil icon beside your current account name.
Then enter a descriptive name into the window that just appeared.
How to Lock Petra Wallet and Set Auto-Locking Feature
Locking the wallet extension is not something that would save the world. After all, a person can access the extension only directly from your device.
But it’s a feature that can come in handy.
To lock your wallet, head to settings once again, and there you can right away see a “Lock wallet” button.
Under the “Security and Privacy” in the settings, you can also find an “Auto-Lock Timer.” With that, you can change how long should the extension wait before asking for your wallet password again.
What Cryptocurrencies does Petra Wallet Support?
Petra wallet allows you to interact with all the coins and tokens built on the Aptos network.
The wallet will automatically recognize when you received valid coins and will showcase them on the balance page – there’s no way to manually edit the list of shown tokens, like on, for example, MetaMask.
How to Connect Ledger to Petra Wallet
Petra allows you to directly interact with your coins and tokens stored on hardware wallets.
Currently, it does support Ledger, but we can hopefully look forward to broader support in the future.
To connect Ledger to Petra, click on the little profile icon in the top right corner of your extension and tap on “Add Account.” A window with different importance options will appear.
Near the very bottom, select the option to “Import from Ledger.”
A new page will open up. Click on the “pair” button and wait for your Ledger device to be recognized.
Then select which account should be imported to your Petra Wallet, only one at a time can be added.
And you are done! We’d recommend renaming your Ledger account in the Petra app because it will be named “Account” by default, which can be confusing.