If you are looking for a wallet for Solana, you may be looking to install Solflare. In this review, I tell you what I think of it, how to install the wallet, and how it works.
What is the Solflare Wallet?
The Solflare wallet is a crypto wallet for the Solana network with which you can store, stake, swap, and send crypto. You can also store NFTs on it. It is a non-custodial wallet which means that you have your own keys in your possession.
Solflare is available for desktop, mobile (via the App Store and Play store), and via a browser extension. You can link your Ledger nano X and other hardware wallets will be supported in the future.
Solflare wallet tutorial
Install Solflare wallet
You have the choice to install the Solflare app on mobile, as a web wallet or to add it to your browser (e.g. Chrome, Brave,…).
Here I show you how to add it to Chrome.
Go to the Solflare website and click on “Add to Chrome”.
The Chrome web store will now open and you can click on “Add. To Chrome”.
This Chrome extension has been installed more than 100,000 times.
You need to confirm again that you want to add the Extension.
Once the extension file has been downloaded you will receive a message that the Solflare wallet has been added to Chrome.
Open Extensions and click on “Solflare wallet”.
Now you get the choice between:
- Enter mnemonic phrase (with password)
- Link Ledger
- keystore file
- Create a new wallet
Click here on “Create a new wallet”. We do not have a Solflare wallet address yet, so we are going to create one. The other 3 options are if you already have a wallet.
First, you choose a secure password and then click on “next”.
In the next step, you will see 24 words. This is your mnemonic phrase. It is important that you keep these words in the correct order very well. You can download or copy these, but it is even better to write them on a sheet and store it somewhere safe. If at some point you can’t get into your wallet anymore, you can do that with this phrase.
When you have written down all the words, click on “I wrote down my mnemonic”.
Then you get 24 empty boxes where you have to enter the words yourself to verify them. Then click on “Verify”.
Now your wallet is created and ready for use. Solana is already there by default, so you can now send SOL.
Using Solflare wallet
You can view the wallet in desktop size as you see above, but you can also view it in miniature (via the browser extension).
Add Tokens
Under portfolio, you can see which tokens you own. If you click on “Add New asset” you can add a new SPL Token account. You will see 10 of them here, but if you search you will find many more.
Receive
Click on “Receive”. You will now see a QR code and your SOL address. Whoever wants to send you SOL can either scan this QR code or you can copy the address and send it to them.
In addition to someone else’s, you can also send yourself SOL. For example, if you purchased Solana on Binance or Coinbase, you can send it to your Solflare wallet in this way. This may be necessary if you want to stake Solana or buy NFTs with your Solflare wallet.
Send
By clicking the “send” button you can start sending SOL to someone else or to another wallet of your own. You choose the amount of SOL you want to send and the address to which it should be sent. Make sure that you send this to a Solana address, otherwise, your cryptos will not arrive. The minimum amount you can send is 0.01 SOL.
Strike
With Solflare it is possible to stake your SOL. As a result, you can earn 6.6% on an annual basis.
Currently, more than 11 trillion dollars in stakes are made through Solflare.
For this, you can click on the button “Start Staking” via the wallet.
You now have the choice between 3 options in terms of staking:
- Liquid SOL Staking
- Native SOL Staking
- SLRS Staking
With Liquid staking, you get mSOL instead of the number of SOL you want to stake. This number will grow with your staking returns. Since it is liquid staking you can immediately start and stop the staking. This mSOL is compatible with other DeFi protocols, improving the security and decentralization of the Solana network.
With SLRS Staking you can earn up to 40% annually through Solrise Finance Staking. You have to create a separate account for this. For this, you have to specify how many SLRS you want to stake and during what period.
You cannot withdraw your full amount as you still have some leftover for the transaction costs.
Swap Tokens
With Swap, you can start swapping tokens, i.e. convert from one currency to another. This has a standard slippage of 0.5%, which is the maximum difference between the expected price that you see and the effective price. You can change the slippage percentage yourself between 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1%.
You can reduce the costs of swapping if you stake SLRS. If you stake 100 SLRS, you get a 20% discount on the costs, if you stage 1000 SLRS, you get a 60% discount.
If you want to swap, the price is held for one minute. After that, your page will be refreshed and you will get a new price.
Storing NFTs
NFTs that you store on your Solflare wallet will be placed with Collectibles. You will see an overview of all NFTs that you own.
If you click on one, you will see it larger together with the information about the NFT.
If someone wants to send you an NFT, you can click on the “Receive” button. You will then see the QR code that the other person can scan or you can copy and forward your wallet address.
Settings
In settings, you can see which account you are logged in with. You can click on this (default Main account). You can then add a new account to this (if you want to create multiple wallets).
You can also:
- import a Ledger wallet
- import a private key
- import a keystore file
- export the mnemonic phrase
- export private key
- log out
Appearance
At appearance, you can choose whether you want to use a light or dark Solflare theme. Even if you have purchased other themes, you can find them here to select.
Support
If you click on Support, you will go to a Discord about the Solflare wallet. It currently contains over 14,000 members.
Solflare wallet review
The Solflare wallet is easy to install. The money that you send to the wallet, via Binance or Coinbase, for example, is immediately available. I used the wallet in combination with the NFT marketplace Solsea and this connection worked immediately without any problems. The purchased NFT is immediately visible in the wallet.
Conveniently, you can view the wallet not only through a small window (as an extension) but across your entire screen. That makes it very clear. The fact that this wallet is available as an app for your mobile also makes it easy. That is also the case for the Phantom wallet, so you can choose which of the two you like the most.
Do you already use the Solflare wallet or have you learned something new, please leave me a comment at the bottom of this page.
