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Vara cold storage via Parity Signer

Parity Signer allows you to turn any mobile device based on Android or iOS into a real cold wallet. Your private keys are kept secure offline at all times and transactions are signed in an air-gapped way via QR-codes. A huge advantage is the completely open and transparent source code of the product.

Vara Network completely supports working with Parity Signer.

Installation​

There are several ways to get the Parity Signer

Download from the application store for your device:

Play Market Apple Store

Download directly from the GitHub:

https://github.com/paritytech/parity-signer/releases

Create your keys​

info

Once Parity Signer is installed, your device should never go online. You must turn off or even physically remove the smartphone's Wifi, Mobile Network, and Bluetooth to ensure that the mobile phone containing these accounts will not be exposed to any online threat. Switching to airplane mode suffices in many cases.

  1. Go offline, open your Parity Signer application, accept Provacy Policy, create your PIN code.

  2. Click the New seed button to generate and store your private keys. Backup your seed phrase on paper or try other reliable methods.

Add Vara Network​

To sign messages/transactions, and transfer funds to and from Vara account you need to add Vara Network into to the app.

  1. Open your Signer and tap the scan button

  2. Go to Metadata Portal, switch to Chain Specs tab

  3. Scan the spec QR code with your device to add Vara network.

After spec scanning you can select Vara Network for your account:

add metadata

Add network Metadata​

To sign and broadcast your transaction, we will also need the metadata of the given network. Parity Signer can be easily updated with the latest blockchain metadata while staying offline.

add metadata

To get the latest blockchain metadata:

  1. Open your Signer and select tab scan

  2. Again go to Metadata Portal

  3. In the Metadata tab, scan video QR with metadata frames. Wait for Parsing multipart data is completed.

info

Scanning QR with metadata could take some time. Remember to update the Signer to the latest version of metadata, you will need to do the scan again. We generate new QR's with each runtime upgrade of the network.

When all metadata is uploaded, Signer will be ready to work with the Vara Network.

How to use​

The signer allows you to sign transactions using an air-gapped way. You scan a QR code with details about your transaction, then generate a code already signed on your offline device and deliver it as confirmation. Many applications support this feature.

Polkadot.{js}​

To import your hard wallet account into Polkadot.js:

  1. You should go to Accounts section and click the from QR button.

add metadata

  1. In the Signer app, select your account and network.

add metadata

  1. Show your code to the camera.

Done! Now, when making transactions from this account, you will sign them with your Signer app using QR codes.

Polkadot extension​

  1. In your Polkadot extension allow QR camera access

add metadata

  1. Click + to import new account and choose Attach external QR-signer account option:

add metadata

  1. Show your account QR-code to the camera. Done!

Nova Wallet​

Nova Wallet also supports Parity Signer. More details https://docs.novawallet.io/nova-wallet-wiki/welcome-to-nova-wallet/hardware-wallets