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Token Custody Options

There are several options available to manage your NEAR and NEAR-based assets.

As with all blockchains, to claim or receive tokens you will need to generate a keypair which stores your crypto. You can do this directly by using a hardware wallet and the command line or indirectly by using a commercially available web or mobile wallet. All of these options are described below.

  1. Web Wallets
  2. Mobile Wallets
  3. Custodians
  4. CLI

Do not claim NEAR tokens to an exchange address! Claiming tokens to an exchange address might result in the loss of your tokens.

If you have chosen an option which doesn't allow you to check balances or lockup details, you can lookup your account using this tool.

This list will be regularly updated as more products and providers offer NEAR support. Feel free to send Pull Request to token-custody.md with new options.

Security & Recovery

For any applications or hardware wallet you use, the root of the security is in the seed phrase. No one else in the world should have access to this seed phrase. And if they manage to get access to it - they will be able to control your account and steal your funds.

The seed phrase defines the private key managed by the application. This seed phrase can be used to recover access to your account if you lose access to your app / device or there is some software issue (which happens with all of the software).

You MUST back it up (store it somewhere securely) and if you lose both seed phrase and the device - there is no way to get access to your account.

E.g. Ledger, Trust Wallet, NEAR Wallet all ask to back up seed phrase. If Trust Wallet stops working, you lose your Ledger or NEAR Wallet front-end goes down - you can always use this seed phrase in another solution (including CLI) to recover the private key and access your funds.

Note, NEAR Wallet has few less secure but more convenient options, which are just convenient ways to back up your seed phrase via email or sms. It's not recommended for large sums of money, as these are not very secure back up places (your email can be hacked or SIM card can be highjacked and hackers would be able to access your funds). We recommend to only use them for small amounts of money, similar to your wallet in the pocket.

Ledger uses a single seed phrase for all applications and accounts on it. It is done by combining the seed phrase with an "HD path" - derivation paths. You can read more in general about HD wallets and derivation and Ledger specifics around multiple coins. You just need to secure the seed phrase and know the paths from which accounts were derived. Even if you lose the paths, a simple search can be done to find them as they are usually sequential.

Web Wallets

The My NEAR Web Wallet provides a way to interact with NEAR network from web without needing to install a wallet.

Currently, the NEAR Wallet doesn't allow you to create just a public key. Instead, if you have an allocation of NEAR tokens, ask your facilitator (e.g. CoinList or the NEAR Foundation) to send you a NEAR Drop and follow this guide.

NEAR Wallet also supports Ledger hardware devices for improved security. Note: currently NEAR Wallet only supports single HD path on Ledger, meaning that all accounts will use the same public key.

Importing accounts from other wallets

NEAR Wallet supports importing existing accounts from other wallets. Currently only for accounts that have non-zero balance. If you just created an account and have 0 balance on it - you must first fund it via transfer from another account / exchange.

  1. Open https://help.mynearwallet.com/en/articles/44-how-to-recover-your-mynearwallet-account
  2. Enter the seed phrase you have from another wallet

This will add an account to your NEAR Wallet.

Importing a TrustWallet Account into NEAR Wallet

You can follow these steps to import your Trust Wallet account into My NEAR Wallet:

  1. Go to https://help.mynearwallet.com/en/articles/44-how-to-recover-your-mynearwallet-account
  2. Enter the 12 word seed phrase for your Trust Wallet account, then click "Find My Account"

At this point, your account will have been "restored" into the NEAR Wallet. This means you will be able to sign transactions in the NEAR Wallet. What happens in the background is a new key is added to your account, which is stored in the browser.

To add Ledger to your account, first install the NEAR Ledger app:

  1. Open Ledger Live
  2. Connect your Ledger, and update it to the latest firmware
  3. On Ledger Live, go to "Settings" and toggle on Developer Mode
  4. Search for and install the NEAR app unto your Ledger

Then, on the My NEAR Wallet site:

  1. Go to https://help.mynearwallet.com/en/articles/44-how-to-recover-your-mynearwallet-account
  2. Scroll down until you see "Hardware Devices" on the right side of the screen, and select "Enable"
  3. Follow the instructions on-screen

You will be given the option to "Remove all other keys". Choosing "yes" means your Ledger will be required to sign all transactions for your account, which is the most secure option. Your Ledger key will be the only key on your account.

Option 2: MathWallet Chrome Extension

MathWallet Chrome Extension provides MathWallet interface in the Web via a Chrome Extension.

  1. Follow URL above

  2. Click "Switch Network" to select NEAR

    3a. To create a new wallet use "Create Wallet"

    3b. Or select "Import Wallet" to import an existing account: enter seed phrase of the account and account id.

Mobile Wallets

Option 1: Trust Wallet

Trust Wallet is a very popular, non-custodial, wallet available on iOS and Android.

Note that, as of October 2020, Trust Wallet does not have plans to enable staking/delegation from the wallet. Moreover, tokens claimed via the NEAR Foundation's claim process should not be directed to Trust Wallet, as the respective tokens might not be transferrable anymore. To transfer tokens you will have to recover the Trust Wallet account in NEAR Wallet by using the Trust Wallet's seed phrase.

Setup Trust Wallet and generate public key

  1. Install Trust Wallet on your phone from App Store or Play Store
  2. Create a new wallet (or use existing if you already have one setup)
  3. Make sure to back up your recovery seed phase as you would usually do.
  4. In "Settings" in upper right corner, toggle NEAR.
  5. In the main wallet view, click on "NEAR" and then "Receive".
  6. You will see QR code and address in the form NEAR2F4vDeD9Brbo6cgPAPLMzXrZXza3EXfwS7hrK76SpHwBH4sEud - this is a public key you can use to claim your tokens.

Note: the current version of Trust Wallet in App / Play Stores doesn't show the actual balance on the account. A new version of Trust Wallet will address this.

Option 2: MathWallet

  • MathWallet is a multi-platform (mobile/desktop/hardware) universal crypto wallet that enables token storage of 50+ chains.

    MathWallet also has a Chrome extension that supports NEAR, see section below.

    Setup Near Account in MathWallet

  1. Install MathWallet on your phone from https://mathwallet.org/.
  2. Switch to 'Near' chain.
  3. Create/import a Near account.
  4. You will see your Near address to send/receive tokens.

Option 3: Moonlet Wallet

Moonlet is a non-custodial digital asset wallet that enables users to securely store their crypto assets, spend their tokens, and manage their return from staking. It's a cross-platform crypto wallet, therefore available on AppStore, Google Play and as a Chrome Extension.

Setup Moonlet Wallet:

Either Create a new wallet, Recover an old one or Connect to your Ledger device. Add NEAR tokens to your main account and start staking to your favourite node.

Support Pages:

Option 1: Finoa

Status: Currently available

Finoa is the first qualified custodian to offer NEAR asset custody. Check with Finoa to see if you are eligible and their NEAR guide for more information about their offering.

Delegation and Staking: In early phases, users will be able to delegate funds to nodes run by Finoa or provided by Staking Facilities, Chorus One, Certus.One, Blockdaemon, Figment, BisonTrails or T-Systems.

Option 2: Coinbase

Status: Implementation Phase, no estimated date

Delegation and Staking: Clients can delegate to any validator they want. Coinbase is not going to be running it's own validator, just setting up the functionality for clients to custody their funds with them and delegate to whichever validator they'd like whether that be a third party provider or one they'd like to run themselves.

Option 3: TBD

(more added soon!)

Option 1: Ledger via CLI

For users with advanced security requirements and the need for flexibility (developers and validators), we highly recommend using our command line interface (NEAR-CLI) with a Ledger hardware device.

This community-authored guide walks through several common commands.

Installing the NEAR Ledger App

You can install the NEAR Ledger app using Ledger Live by:

1) Open Ledger Live and install any available firmware updates 2) Go to Settings 3) Under Experimental Features ensure Developer Mode is switched on 4) Return to the Manager tab and search for NEAR 5) Follow instructions to install the NEAR app on your device

Updating the NEAR Ledger App

You will need to have the latest Ledger device firmware installed (which can be done in Ledger Live's "Manager" tab) and the latest NEAR app. If you previously installed the NEAR app, it may need to be updated.

Currently, while the NEAR app is in Development Mode (while Ledger finishes reviewing it), this update may only be possible by uninstalling and reinstalling the app from the "Apps Installed" section of the "Manager" tab.

Make sure to quit the Ledger Live app when interacting with your ledger from the CLI or you'll get an error like Error: cannot open device with path IOService ..........

To generate public keys via Web App

[ Here ] is a simple web application that generates multiple keys using your Ledger device.

To generate public keys via CLI

  1. Make sure you have npm installed

  2. Make sure you have quit Ledger Live (or you'll get an Error: cannot open device with path IOService .......... error)

  3. Install near-cli via npm install -g near-cli (or similar command on Windows). Note that you shouldn't use sudo as it causes problems with Node.js modules that have native C++ addons. If Node modules are installed in a place inaccessible by your OS user, you need to do chown -R $USER /path/to/destination/ or equivalent on your OS.

  4. Log in your Ledger device and open the NEAR app. A message Peding Ledger review will appear. To continue, confirm the receiving of the message by the standard means (press both buttons on Ledger Nano S).

  5. Use the near generate-key key --useLedgerKey command to generate the key for your Ledger device. It will output a public key that can be used to claim your NEAR tokens.

    Note 1: in the case of generating a key using the Ledger device, the 2nd argument is ignored and can thus be anything.

    Note 2: This command will output the same key no matter how many times it is run.

  6. If you want to generate more keys, you will need to provide an HD path as a value to the --useLedgerKey flag. Each change in the last number will produce a new key and you can use any number, as the following examples show:

     # Example 1: 
 near generate-key key --useLedgerKey="44'/397'/0'/0'/2'"

 # Example 2: 
 near generate-key key --useLedgerKey="44'/397'/0'/0'/11'"

  7. After confirming the key on your Ledger device (which should be opened in the NEAR app), the result in the console will be the following:

     Using public key: ed25519:D9Brbo6cgPAPLMzXrZXza3EXfwS7hrK76SpHwBH4sEud

    ...which is the public key you can use to claiming your NEAR tokens. Note: the key includes the ed25519: portion, so the full key is ed25519:D9Brbo6cgPAPLMzXrZXza3EXfwS7hrK76SpHwBH4sEud in this example.

Best Practice: Keep a log (e.g. spreadsheet) of which HD paths map to which keys and what their purpose is so you don't end up accidentally re-using public keys and potentially de-anonymizing yourself

Option 2: Self custody

For professionals who have their own setup, you can self custody on an offline device or any other custom method (CloudHSM, etc).

Generally, any software that can produce a valid ed25519 key pair can be used to generate the keys. For NEAR consumption they should be encoded in base58 encoding.

For example, if you have an offline device - you can install near-cli via npm install -g near-cli and generate keys in the following way:

export NEAR_ENV=mainnet
near generate-key some-account-name

It will output the public key in the format Using public key: ed25519:D9Brbo6cgPAPLMzXrZXza3EXfwS7hrK76SpHwBH4sEud, which is the public key which you can then use for claiming your NEAR tokens (it includes the ed25519: portion, so the full key is ed25519:D9Brbo6cgPAPLMzXrZXza3EXfwS7hrK76SpHwBH4sEud in this example).

The private key is stored in the plain-text format in ~/.near-credentials/mainnet/some-account-name.json

Verifying Control of Your Account

If you have received an account (e.g. via the account claims process) associated with one of your Ledger keys, you can do a test transaction to verify if you have control over it. First, look up the key using the Account Lookup tool. Note the associated Account ID (the main account) and the Lockup Account ID, where your tokens are stored if you have a lockup.

While you may not be able to move tokens in the lockup account (due to the lockup!), you can try a test transfer of 0.01 NEAR to yourself from yourself using the Account ID. In this example, the full HD Path is used. HD Path 1 is the default used by the ledger anyway but you should replace the final number with whichever is associated with your ledger key:

near send YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME 0.01 --useLedgerKey="44'/397'/0'/0'/1'

Using seed phrases in CLI

Seed phrases can be generated by any tools (or offline), including by other wallet like NEAR Wallet or Trust Wallet.

Given seed phrase, you can output keys and do any other actions by specifying seed phrase (and possibly HD derivation via -seedPath) via command line flags:

near generate-key --seedPhrase="words of phrase here"

For example, to send money using the seed phrase from another wallet, use:

near send <your account> <other account> --seedPhrase="words"

Note: The default network for near-cli is testnet. If you would like to change this to mainnet or betanet, please see near-cli network selection for instructions.

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