Browser Wallet

Alphabill uses a unique protocol, designed from the ground up for scalability. This, like with many other layer-1 networks, means that the wallet interface is different than in typical ERC-20 tokens, and popular wallets are not compatible. Alphabill native currency ALPHA has its own browser extension wallet based on Web3. This tutorial explains how to set up and use Alphabill wallet in your browser.

Prerequisites

Currently, Alphabill browser wallet is fully supported only on Google Chrome web browser. Make sure your version of Google Chrome is up-to-date to avoid potential issues.

Wallet Setup

Add Wallet Extension to Your Browser

Follow the steps below to download and set up Alphabill Wallet extension on your Google Chrome browser:

1. Open the Chrome browser and use the following link to go to the Alphabill Wallet extension page in the Chrome Web Store:

   https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/alphabill-wallet/eghpljmfbanmmemjkeionpjmifjadcga

2. On the Alphabill Wallet extension page, click Add to Chrome to install the extension.

   

3. Confirm the action in the pop-up by clicking Add extension.

   

4. You should now see the installed Alphabill Wallet extension icon appear in your Chrome browser toolbar.

   

5. Optionally, you can pin the extension to keep it visible at all times on your Chrome browser.

   Click Extensions in the toolbar. Then click the grey pushpin icon to pin it to the toolbar. The pushpin turns blue when it's pinned to the toolbar.

   

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Alternatively, you can download the latest Alphabill browser wallet from here or from the Github release page.

Unzip the downloaded ab-ui-wallet-v0.4.1.zip file. This creates a new folder named build. Do not delete this folder even after the installation has been completed, otherwise you will have to reinstall and recover your wallet.

To add the extension to your browser, open a Chrome window and load the unpacked extension in developer mode.

Create a New Wallet

Once you have the Alphabill Wallet extension set up in your browser, you can create a wallet:

1. Click the Alphabill icon to open the wallet in your browser. You will be given two options: a) recover an existing wallet, or b) create a new wallet. If this is your first time using the wallet, click Don't have a wallet? Create a wallet.

   

   If you have an existing Alphabill wallet, you can recover you wallet by using the secret recovery phrase (see Recover an Existing Wallet).

2. Copy your secret recovery phrase and store it somewhere safe. Set a strong password for your wallet. This password will be used to safeguard your private keys. You need the password to sign transactions, open the wallet, and carry out other actions.

   

   warning

   Write down the phrase in the exact order in which you receive it, and keep it in a safe, offline place. You will only see this phrase once during the wallet creation. Never give your wallet's seed phrase to anyone, as it can be used to steal your wallet funds.

   Only when you have stored the recovery passphrase and set a password for your wallet, click Next.

3. Your account is now accessible and the wallet ready to receive testnet ALPHA.

   

Change Wallet Password

In case you need to change your wallet password later:

1. On the main wallet view, click the profile icon.

   

2. In the profile view, you can also lock your wallet to prevent unauthorized access. Click Change password.

   

3. Insert your current password, then insert a new password, confirm the new password, and click Confirm.

   

Recover an Existing Wallet

If you created your Alphabill wallet on a different device and want to import an existing wallet, or you lost the access to your wallet, you can recover the wallet using that recovery phrase.

1. Click Recover wallet from recovery phrase on the landing page of the wallet.

   

2. Insert your recovery phrase, then insert a new password and confirm the new password.

   

   info

   Alphabill wallet is a hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallet, so all keys are recoverable using the master seed phrase. If you lose your wallet data, you can recover all your public and private keys–you just need to re-add all the other keys after re-generating the first key.

Add New Public Key

The public key is the address you can share with others to receive transactions. You can add as many public keys to your wallet as needed.

To add a new public key to your wallet:

1. Open the key list in the main wallet view.

   

2. The next modal shows available keys in your wallet. Click ADD KEY.

   

3. Insert your wallet password, give the new key a name (optional, default - "Public key 2"), and click Confirm.

   

4. To switch to another key, open the key list and click the public key you want to use. Here you can also rename your existing keys by clicking Edit .

   

Testnet Faucet

Once you have set up your wallet, you can request testnet assets from the faucet by using Alphabill Discord channel. The faucet distributes a standard amount of testnet ALPHA and fungible tokens to a specific address. If you haven't yet signed up for Alphabill Discord, then join now using the invite link.

1. Copy your public key address from the main wallet view by clicking Copy .

   

2. Open Alphabill Discord and paste your public key address into the #testnet-faucet channel's chat window, and press Enter.

3. You will get automatic replies to your message as "Bills sent!" and "Tokens sent!".

   

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   For each request, the faucet transfers 100 ALPHA and 100 TEST-FT tokens to the given address. The testnet faucet imposes a maximum number of requests for a period of time. By default, the faucet service accepts 5 requests per day per address.

4. In a matter of seconds, you should see 100 ALPHA and 100 TEST-FT tokens on your wallet balance. You may need to click Refresh to update the balance.

   

   Congratulations, you now have your first ALPHA!

Transaction Fees

Before you can make any transactions, you need to have enough funds on your fee credit balance to cover the associated transaction costs. Each wallet account (public key) has its own fee credit balance for every partition.

Transaction fees are paid in Alphabill native currency ALPHA, and the fee per transaction is 0.000'000'01 ALPHA. Actions that consist of two transactions (2 x 0.000'000'01 ALPHA): adding fee credits, reclaiming fee credits, and consolidating bills.

Add Fee Credits

Once your account is funded with some testnet ALPHA, you can add fee credits to ALPHA and UTP fee credits balance. The ALPHA credits cover transaction costs on Money Partition and UTP credits cover costs on User Token Partition.

1. Select Fee Credit tab on the main view and click Add fee credit.

   

2. On the next form, specify to which partition you want to add fee credits (by default, ALPHA fee credit) and the amount of ALPHA to transfer (in this example, 1 ALPHA). Insert your wallet password and click Transfer credit.

   

   With fees, the amount you enter is taken from your ALPHA balance and fees are deducted (2 x 0.000'000'01 ALPHA). The remaining amount is then transferred to the credit balance.

3. The fee credit balance is shown under the Fee Credit tab.

   

Reclaim Fee Credits

You can also reclaim the full amount of funds available on your fee credit balance.

To reclaim funds from fee credit balance:

1. Open the Fee Credit tab on the main view, hover over the fee credit balance, and click Reclaim ALPHA credits (or Reclaim UTP credits).

   

2. Insert your password and click Reclaim fees.

   

3. The funds from the fee credit balance is transferred back to your account ALPHA balance.

   

Browser Wallet Features

The Alphabill browser wallet is implemented as a browser extension. It works much like other browser extension wallets, providing the following features:

• Transfer fungible and non-fungible tokens to other public keys.
• Transfer a specific, individual bill or token.
• Consolidate bills—swap smaller bills for a single larger bill worth the same amount.
• Inspect NFT details and download its data.
• Copy your public key and share it with others to receive transactions.
• Generate other key pairs to test out transactions within your wallet. Give individual names to your public keys.
• Change your wallet's password. Recover wallet using the secret recovery phrase.

Transfer Fungible Tokens

The denomination of the assets you received from the testnet faucet is 100 ALPHA and 100 TEST-FT user tokens. Both assets can be transferred either in whole or in part. If you have several smaller ALPHA bills, you can swap them for a single larger bill worth the same amount.

To transfer fungible tokens:

1. On the main wallet view, click Transfer.

   

2. You will see a form with some required fields you need to fill in:

   • Assets: The asset type you want to send (ALPHA or TEST-FT).
   • Address: The public key address of the recipient. If you want to transfer tokens to another address in your wallet, you must have added a new public key to your wallet first.
   • Amount: The amount you want to transfer. The precision (number of decimal places) of the amount depends on the asset and is indicated by the formatting of the available amount displayed under the amount field.
   • Password: Your wallet password you created during the wallet creation step.

   

To transfer a specific bill or token:

1. On the main wallet view, select the asset type (in this example, ALPHA).

   

2. You will see a display listing all the individual bills that you own under this key. Select specific bill you want to transfer and click Send .

   

3. On the form that opens, insert receiver address and your wallet password, and click Transfer.

   

Consolidate Bills

If after a few transactions you end up with a large number of smaller value ALPHA bills, you can simply swap them for a larger bill of equal value. This is called "dust collection" and exists so that there are never any unspendable bills. Dust collection reduces the number of outstanding bills and helps to reduce the amount of memory required by the validators.

1. In the example below, the public key owns a few small bills. First, select ALPHA from the main wallet view.

   

2. You will see a display listing all the individual bills that you own under this key. To consolidate all individual bills to a single bill of equal value, click Consolidate Bills.

   

3. Insert your transaction password and click Submit.

   

   Your bills are now replaced by a single bill having the same total value as before.

   

Transfer NFTs

If you have NFTs in your wallet, you can use the wallet to transfer an NFT to another address:

1. On the main wallet view, click the Non Fungible tab and select the NFT type (in this example, TEST-NFT).

   

2. The next view lists NFTs of that type. Select the NFT you want to transfer and click Send .

   

3. On the form that opens, insert receiver address and your wallet password, and click Transfer.

   

Inspect NFT Details

To inspect NFT details or download its image and data:

1. On the main wallet view, click the Non Fungible tab to view NFTs owned by the public key. In this example, only one NFT type named "TEST-NFT" is available, including one token.

   

2. Click on the NFT to open its details. Here you can view a larger NFT image and download its image and data (hex encoded).