What is WETH? (Wrapped Ethereum)

 All You Need To Know About Wrapped Ethereum (wETH) And How To Get It On MetaMask

WETH is simply Wrapped Ethereum.   Ethereum is the industry standard, and most dapps and crypto wallets support ERC-20.   Dapps are built using smart contracts so as to run on top of Ethereum.   ERC-20 was created so that smart contracts built on Ethereum could interact easily.

Why isn’t Ethereum (ETH token) used in smart contracts?   Cos of ETH’s code structure is different from ERC-20’s. Note: Ethereum came way before ERC-20.   Hence, WETH, an ERC-20 token, is used.

All smart contracts built on ETH can be interacted with using WETH and other ERC-20 tokens like $UNI

  Is WETH safe?   Yes, because it’s pegged to Ethereum at a 1:1 ratio. The only difference between ETH & WETH is the usecase.   Gas fees are still paid with ETH and not WETH.

However, WETH is used in defi; for staking, farming, etc. Also, in NFTs (OpenSea).

  What’s the tech behind WETH?   When you wrap your ETH for WETH, your ETH is sent to a smart contract, and WETH is generated. Your ETH is then locked to back WETH by a reserve.

When you unwrap your WETH to ETH, your WETH is burned (removed from circulation).   Why burning? So the peg can be kept. WETH has to be pegged to WETH at all times.   That’s it.   I hope that with these few words of mine, I can convince you that your WETH is safe and solvent.

 

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How to get wETH on MetaMask?

MetaMask is more than just a digital wallet for storing and transferring cryptocurrencies, it encompasses the function of a decentralised exchange (DEX) that allow users to swap a token for another.

This built-in function enhances the whole MetaMask experience as users can save the hassle of swapping tokens on a DEX.

On the MetaMask dashboard, you should be able to see the swap function right beside the send button.

Pressing the send button would bring you to a page where you can choose from a list of tokens you would like to swap to and from. For this example, I will swap ETH for wETH.

Next, is to input the amount of token you would like to swap and review the swap.

If your swapping ETH to wETH, you should see that 1 ETH = 1 wETH as ETH is pegged to wETH.

All you have to do is to press the swap button and voila the wETH should appear in your MetaMask wallet after the transaction is complete.

If you cant see the wETH in your wallet, all you have to do is to import the token into MetaMask.

 

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