Bad news: MetaMask, a most popular on-chain Ethereum (ETH) wallet, might share your data with Infura.
Good news: This can be fixed in two minutes.
What happened?
Today, on Nov.24, Crypto Twitter users noticed a significant change in Privacy Policy of ConsenSys, an organization behind MetaMask wallet and Infura blockchain infrastructure provider. As per the updates, crypto wallet MetaMask now tracks IP address and Ethereum wallet address of its users who choose Infura as their Remote Procedure Call (RPC) provider.
The thing is that Infura’s RPC endpoints are used by MetaMask by default so that the vast majority of its users started sharing data with Infura.
Is this dangerous?
Actually, it is.
First and foremost, with IP addresses exposed, it becomes much easier for Infura, MetaMask, and ConsenSys to impose geo-restrictions on your account. Also, implementing new data tracking practices isn’t aligned with ‘decentralized’ ethos of on-chain wallets.
How can I protect my data from being tracked?
You can change the RPC at any moment: technically, it is just a service that streamlines the connection between the blockchain and your wallet.
GetBlock doesn’t share your IP and ETH wallet address with anyone. Here’s why trying our free RPC might be a smart bet.
How to add GetBlock RPC to MetaMask
The right moment has come to advance the privacy of your MetaMask wallet. It is completely free and doesn’t require any specific coding skills.
Step 1. Create your free GetBlock account
Sign up to GetBlock: https://account.getblock.io/sign-up . It only asks you for an email address to communicate with you. Meanwhile, you also can sign up with Google. To stay anonymous you can use e-mail addresses by privacy-focused platforms like Proton Mail, Tutanota, and so on.
Step 2. Grab your API endpoint
Once the registration process is complete, you can proceed to your GetBlock account. You always have 40,000 requests to all blockchains for free - it’s well enough for personal usage.
In the ‘Endpoints’ list, please, choose ‘Ethereum’ as the name of protocol and ‘Mainnet’ as the type of network, and click ‘Get’.
That’s it, your exclusive endpoint (the address that connects your wallet and blockchain) is added to your ‘Endpoints’ list. Feel free to copy it!
N.B. This method works for every blockchain from the ‘Protocol’ list, give them all a try!
Step 3. Add it to MetaMask
Open your MetaMask wallet, sign in, click on ‘Networks’ list and choose ‘Add network’ option.
In the ‘Add network’ menu, please, choose ‘Add network manually’. Then, paste the endpoint address from your GetBlock account to ‘New RPC URL’ and fill in other fields as displayed below (please find the additional information in the table):
| Network | Chain ID | Block Explorer URL | Symbol (Optional) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum Mainnet | 1 | https://etherscan.io/ | ETH |
| Ropsten Test Network | 3 | https://ropsten.etherscan.io/ | ETH |
| Rinkeby Test Network | 4 | https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/ | ETH |
| Goerli Test Network | 5 | https://goerli.etherscan.io/ | ETH |
| Kovan Test Network | 42 | https://kovan.etherscan.io/ | ETH |
| Polygon (Matic) Mainnet | 137 | https://polygonscan.com | MATIC |
| Polygon (Matic) Mumbai | 80001 | https://mumbai.polygonscan.com | MATIC |
| Arbitrum Mainnet | 42161 | https://arbiscan.io/ | AETH |
| Arbitrum Testnet | 421611 | https://testnet.arbiscan.io/ | AETH |
| Optimism Mainnet | 10 | https://optimistic.etherscan.io | ETH |
| Optimism Kovan | 6 | https://kovan-optimistic.etherscan.io/ | ETH |
That’s it, GetBlock becomes your wallet’s new RPC provider that truly cares about your privacy and will never share your sensitive information.
Now you can continue using MetaMask as you did prior to the update.
If you’re interested, please, don’t hesitate to try creating your first ERC-20 token in Ethereum’s testnet.
Stay tuned for more guides by GetBlock.
