Archive - Minting Chickens
Chickens are no longer available to mint. If you wish to buy chickens, go to https://opensea.io/assets/chicken-derby.
Introduction
Hello, and welcome to the world of Chicken Derby. Here you can own, race and breed your own chickens. What an exciting prospect. What? You don’t have any chickens!? My oh my, that simply won’t do. But don’t worry friend, we’re here to help. Just follow these instructions and soon you too can have your own coop full of chickens.
Install MetaMask
You should use MetaMask and not hardware wallets to get chickens.
If you already have MetaMask installed and Ether in your wallet skip to Set Up Matic Mainnet.
Chickens are bought and sold using Cryptocurrencies, specifically Ether. To use Ether, you need a wallet. This is a place where you can keep your money and make transactions. We’ll be using MetaMask, which can be installed on your web browser as an extension. We'll also be using Google Chrome throughout this tutorial. MetaMask is available on other browsers, but just know we'll be using Chrome.
1. Go to metamask.io (if only every step was this easy).
2. Click the blue Download button in the upper right corner.
3. Click the blue Install MetaMask for Chrome button (or whichever browser you're using).
4. The Chrome web store will open in a new tab. In the top right is another blue button saying Add to Chrome. Click it.
5. You'll get this popup telling you what MetaMask can do. If you're ok with this, click Add extension.
6. Your computer will do some things, but if all goes well another new tab will open. Congratulations, MetaMask is installed. Click Get Started to continue.
Set Up Your Wallet
Metamask is installed, but that doesn't mean you can use it yet. You need to set up your wallet which is where you'll keep your money.
7. As you're new to MetaMask and don't have a wallet yet, you'll need to create one. First, click on Create a Wallet.
8. Next is the option to agree to MetaMask's data sharing or not. Read it carefully, and then click either No Thanks or I Agree. The process is the same whichever you choose.
9. Now you need to choose your password. MetaMask's only password requirement is that it's at least 8 characters, but we recommend you add some numbers and/or special characters too. Make sure it's memorable. You'll also need to read the Terms of Use and tick the box to confirm you've read them. Once done, click the Create button.
10. Next is a video about your secret recovery phrase. WATCH IT! Your secret recovery phrase is very important. After you've watched the video and read the text on the page, click Next.
11. You'll now be able to see your secret recovery phrase. For some reason, they call it a secret backup phrase on this page, but they're the same thing. Click on the grey box with the padlock to see your phrase. Write it down somewhere safe (the order matters btw), and then click Next.
12. Now you need to confirm you have your secret backup phrase. Click each word in the order they appear in your phrase. If you didn't write it down you can click Back to go see your phrase again. Once you have them in the correct order, you can click the Confirm button.
13. Congratulations, you've correctly set up your MetaMask wallet. Click All Done and we can move on to adding funds to your wallet.
Adding Ether To Your Wallet
Ether is required to continue. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to complete this part of the tutorial that explains the process of getting Ether. Should you need to buy Ether, we recommend visiting coinbase.com/buy-ethereum and following their instructions.
Set Up Matic Mainnet
So you have your Ether now, let's take a look at it.
14. To open your MetaMask, click on the fox icon in the top right corner of your browser. if you can't see it there, click on the jigsaw icon to open a popup, you'll find MetaMask in there. You can pin it to your taskbar via this menu if you want to.
15. That's some nice Ether. We now need to begin the process of converting that ETH into WETH. But to do that, we need to set up Matic Mainnet.
At the top, there is a greenish circle and next to it it says Ethereum Mainnet. This is the Network that your transactions are currently running through. Ethereum Mainnet is very popular and there is a lot you can do on it, but it is also very expensive to use. Every transaction has a gas fee, and a single transaction can cost you as much as $20 to perform sometimes.
So instead we use the Matic Mainnet, which is much cheaper, with gas fees as low as $0.001! We use this so that when you mint your chickens, you won't have to pay any gas fees, because we'll cover them.
To set up Matic Mainnet, first click where it says Ethereum Mainnet.
16. This will open a popup for the possible Networks. We need to add the Matic manually and this can be done by clicking on Custom RPC.
17. You'll be given a form with 5 fields you can fill in. Enter the following information exactly.
Field | Data |
Network Name | Matic Mainnet |
New RPC URL | https://rpc-mainnet.maticvigil.com |
Chain ID | 137 |
Currency Symbol (optional) | MATIC |
Block Explorer URL (optional) | https://polygonscan.com/ |
Then double-check everything is correct. Then click Save.
18. You now have the Matic network set up.
Get WETH
With Matic set up, we now need to add the WETH token to it. WETH (Wrapped ETH) is what allows us to do transactions so cheaply on Matic.
19. With the Matic Mainnet network selected (shown at the top of your MetaMask window), click the Add Token button.
20. Copy and paste the following into the field Token Contract Address.
0x7ceB23fD6bC0adD59E62ac25578270cFf1b9f619
This is the smart contract address for WETH. Click Next.
21. Confirm you wish to add this token by clicking Add Tokens.
22. Yay! You now have WETH on Matic, exactly what you need to mint some chickens. But you have 0 WETH. However, ETH can easily be converted to WETH. But you can only do this on certain sites, so go to opensea.io.
23. You're not minting the chickens here, we're just using this site to convert our ETH into WETH. You need to login to opensea, but you can login with your MetaMask. In the top right corner, click on the icon that looks like two rectangles. Then click on MetaMask.
24. A new window will open asking you which account you want to login with. You'll likely only have one, ensure the tickbox is checked next to it. Then click Next.
25. The next window is a confirmation that you want to connect opensea to this account. Click Connect.
26. You are now logged in to opensea and will see a sidebar that displays how much ETH you currently have. But to mint chickens, you need to bridge your ETH to Polygon.
What is bridging? Bridging is the method of converting one blockchain to another. We're going to bridge your ETH into WETH.
What is Polygon? Polygon is MATIC. It's the network we set up in your MetaMask earlier and what we'll be using to do our transactions with low gas fees.
So by bridging your ETH to Polygon's WETH, you won't pay any gas fees when you purchase your chickens. To perform the bridge, click on the vertical ellipsis next to your ETH.
27. A small popup will appear. Click Bridge to Polygon.
28. Next you must say how much of your ETH you want to convert. Enter the amount you would like to transfer and then click Convert tokens.
29. Next you need to confirm your transaction. At this point, you will need to pay a gas fee. You may be asking, isn't the point of going to Matic to avoid gas fees? Yes, but this way is far cheaper in the long run. Right now, you just need to pay a gas fee once to convert your ETH to WETH. Then with that WETH you can mint many chickens (and other things that use Matic WETH) with no gas fee. So it's better to pay this one gas fee now, rather than multiple gas fees later.
If you want to minimise your gas fees, check out ethereumprice.org/gas. It'll let you know when peak gas fees are, so you can do your transfer at off-peak times.
Ensure you transfer enough ETH to mint all the chickens you want (0.033WETH per chicken), but have enough remaining in your wallet to cover the gas fee. When you're ready to continue, click Confirm.
30. Wait a moment for the transaction to process and the Transaction Complete! message to appear.
31. Now at this time you may look at the sidebar on opensea, notice that the ETH has gone but the WETH has not appeared yet. Don't worry, the transaction can take about 20 to 30 minutes to go through. The best way to confirm the transaction is complete is to go to wallet.matic.network.
32. You'll need to login with your MetaMask, like we did on opensea.
33. You'll see a table that lists all the different types of tokens on the Matic network and how much you have of each in your wallet. If you're new to this, everything will say $0.
You want to look for the one called Ether (PoS-WETH), this is the wrapped Ether need to mint chickens. It may take 20 to 30 minutes to appear, so be patient. But when it shows, you can finally go purchase your chickens.
Chicken Time
You have your wallet. Matic is set up. Your ETH is now WETH. Just a few steps to go to finally mint your chickens.
34. Go to site currently unavailable. (Link will be shared when the chickens drop).
35. Open your MetaMask (the fox on your browser's toolbar) and ensure you have the Matic Mainnet network selected.
36. Click Connect to Metmask on the webpage and log in with your MetaMask (last time we have to do this).
37. Use the + and - buttons to say how many chickens you want. Per transaction, you can get a maximum of 10 and a minimum of 1. Underneath the display, it'll show the total price you'll be paying and how much WETH you currently have.
38. It is time. Click the Mint Chicken(s) button!
39. Your MetaMask will open and ask you to sign. Click Sign and pay 0 gas on this transaction.
40. Wait...
41. When this message appears, the transaction has been forwarded. You don't have your chicken just yet, and it may take some time depending on how busy the servers are. You can go do some other stuff while waiting though (like boasting on our discord how awesome your chickens are going to be).
42. Soon this little green box will appear in the upper right corner of your browser. Congratulations, you are the proud owner of some chickens.
43. Want to view your chickens? Click on See your chicken.
44. There you have them, your lovely chickens. I got 2 Dorkings with low perfection scores and a 96% Lakenvelder. She looks good, but a bit angry though.
Wrap Up
That is it. If you want to mint some more chickens, you can go back to our site and do so straight away. If you need to convert some more ETH to WETH then return to opensea.
If anything you're stuck, or something is going wrong, then visit our discord and check out the minting support channel.
Also bear in mind that come the drop (Friday 16th July, 7pm EST) many people will be wanting to mint chickens, so servers are expected to be busy. The best solution to that problem is patience.
Happy minting!
*All graphics and instructions are correct as of the time of writing and may be subject to change.
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