Creating Your First Nimiq Wallet!

Time to create your blockchain identity! A wallet is your gateway to the Nimiq network - it lets you send, receive, and manage your digital assets.

What Makes a Nimiq Wallet

Think of a wallet like a digital keychain:

• Private key: Your secret that controls your funds (never share this!)
• Public key: Derived from your private key, safe to share
• Address: Your “account number” that others use to send you NIM
• Signing power: Ability to authorize transactions and prove ownership

Your First Wallet

We’ll create a brand new wallet and connect it to the testnet. Look at the index.js file - we’re building on the connection code from the previous chapter.

Let’s create your blockchain identity step by step!

Step 1: Generate Your Private Key

This creates the foundation of your wallet - your unique secret key:

// Generate a secure random private key
const privateKey = PrivateKey.generate()

What this does: Generates a cryptographically secure random private key. This is like creating a master password for your blockchain identity!

Step 2: Create Your KeyPair

Transform your private key into a working keypair:

// Derive public key from private key
const keyPair = KeyPair.derive(privateKey)

What this does: Derives your public key from the private key using elliptic curve cryptography. Now you have both keys needed for blockchain operations!

Step 3: Get Your Address

Create your public blockchain address:

// Create your public blockchain address
const address = keyPair.toAddress()

What this does: Generates your Nimiq address from your public key. This is what people will use to send you NIM - like your blockchain “email address”!

Step 4: Display Your Wallet Identity

Let’s see your new blockchain identity:

// Display your wallet information
console.log('🎉 Your new Nimiq wallet:')
console.log('📍 Address:', address.toUserFriendlyAddress())
console.log('🔐 Public Key:', keyPair.publicKey.toHex())

What you’ll see: Your unique Nimiq address (starting with ‘NQ’) and your public key in hexadecimal format.

Step 5: Check Your Balance

Let’s check if your wallet has any funds:

// Check your wallet balance
const account = await client.getAccount(address.toUserFriendlyAddress())
console.log('📊 Account:', account)

// Convert lunas to NIM (1 NIM = 100,000 lunas)
const nim = account.balance / 1e5
console.log(`💰 Balance: ${nim} NIM`)

What this does: Queries the blockchain for your account information. Since this is a brand new wallet, you’ll see 0 NIM - but that’s about to change!

In the Nimiq blockchain, the smallest unit is called a ‘luna’. One NIM equals 100,000 lunas.

Tip: In JavaScript, you can use the number 1e5 to represent 100,000, i.e. one followed by five zeroes.

Understanding Your Output

When you run this code, you’ll see:

• Your address: Starts with ‘NQ’ - this is your blockchain identity!
• Your public key: The cryptographic key others can use to verify your transactions
• Your balance: Currently 0 NIM (we’ll fix this in the next lesson!)
• Account details: Complete information about your account on the blockchain

Important: Your Wallet’s Lifecycle

Each time you run this code, you create a completely new wallet with a new address and keys. This means:

• ✅ Great for learning: Safe to experiment with
• ⚠️ Remember: Any funds will be “lost” when you restart (since you get a new address)

In real applications, you’d save and load your private key securely. We’ll cover proper wallet storage in advanced tutorials!

What You Just Achieved!

Congratulations! You now have:

• A unique blockchain identity
• The ability to receive NIM at your address
• A wallet that can sign transactions
• Your first step toward building payment applications

Next: Getting Test Funds!

In the next lesson, we’ll get some free testnet NIM from the faucet to fund your wallet. Then you can start sending your first blockchain transactions!