Ten minutes to your first payment.

Never held crypto? This is the whole setup, in three parts: a wallet, a Vesta account, your first link. No documents, no bank details, no card.

Before you start — what you are setting up, and why it is private

A wallet is where your USDC arrives. It is yours: the key lives on your device, not with Vesta, not with a bank. Vesta only needs the wallet's address — a long code starting with 0x that is safe to share, like an account number. Vesta never needs, and will never ask for, your wallet's Secret Recovery Phrase (12 words). Anyone who asks for it is not Vesta.

What Vesta will know about you: your email, your business name and your wallet address — plus the amount, description and order number of each payment link you create. That is the list. Nothing about your customers' identities: they never enter a name, email or card. See the privacy architecture.

Part 1 — Create a wallet (MetaMask, about 5 minutes)

MetaMask is a free wallet app used by tens of millions of people. Any wallet that works on the Base network is fine (Rabby, Trust, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, a Ledger); these steps are for MetaMask because it is the most common.

On your phone

• Install MetaMask from the App Store or Google Play. Check the publisher is MetaMask (by Consensys) — copycats exist.
• Open it → Create a new wallet. Choose a strong password (it only unlocks the app on this phone).
• MetaMask shows your Secret Recovery Phrase — 12 words. Write them on paper, in order, and keep the paper somewhere safe. Never type them into a website, never screenshot them, never send them to anyone. This phrase is the wallet: with it, anyone can spend your money; without it, nobody — including MetaMask or Vesta — can recover it if you lose the phone.
• Confirm the phrase when asked. Done — the wallet exists.

On a computer

• Go to metamask.io (type it yourself; don't follow ads) → Download → add the browser extension for Chrome, Brave, Firefox or Edge.
• Click the fox icon → Create a new wallet → password → write down the 12-word phrase → confirm.

Make sure the Base network is on

Vesta pays out on Base (a fast, low-cost network from Coinbase; USDC on it is issued by Circle). Your wallet address is the same on every network, but you need Base switched on to see the USDC.

• Tap the network name at the top of MetaMask (it says Ethereum Mainnet at first).
• If Base is in the list, select it. If not: Add network → pick Base Mainnet from the popular list → Approve.
• Only if it isn't offered at all, add it manually: Network name Base, RPC URL https://mainnet.base.org, Chain ID 8453, Currency symbol ETH, Block explorer https://basescan.org.

Copy your address

Tap your account name at the top → the 0x… address is copied. It is 42 characters and starts with 0x. Always copy — never retype.

Optional but smart

• Turn on the phone's Face ID / fingerprint lock for MetaMask (Settings → Security).
• For larger volumes later: a hardware wallet (Ledger) can hold the key while MetaMask shows the balance.

Part 2 — Open your Vesta account (about 2 minutes)

• Go to vestapayments.com/login and enter your email. There is no password: you receive a one-time sign-in link. (Check spam; sign in on the same device and browser where you opened the email.)
• Enter your business name — exactly as customers should see it on the payment page.
• Paste your wallet address from Part 1. Check it twice: payments go straight to this address on the blockchain, and Vesta cannot reverse a payment or recover funds sent to a wrong address.
• Save. That is your whole account.

Part 3 — Your first payment link (about 1 minute)

• New invoice → amount, a description, your order number (any reference; must be unique per business), how long the link stays valid (default 60 minutes) → Create.
• You get a link and a QR code. Send the link to yourself by WhatsApp and open it on your phone — this is exactly what your customer sees: your business name, the amount, the description. No form, no sign-up.
• Send it to your customer. They pay from a wallet or, with Pay with Face ID / fingerprint, straight from their exchange account — the page shows them where to send the USDC (on the Base network) and pays with one tap, no network fee.
• Within about a minute your dashboard shows CONFIRMED: 97% arrived in your MetaMask (Base network), 3% went to Vesta. The row links to the transaction on the block explorer — the public record.

You are live. Every payment works the same way; each is capped at 60,000 USDC during the pilot.

Things that never change

• Vesta never holds your money. No payout, no balance, no withdrawal step.
• Vesta never asks for your Secret Recovery Phrase, private key or password. Nobody legitimate does.
• Refunds are yours to send: USDC from your wallet to the customer's address (shown on the transaction). Vesta's 3% is not refunded.
• Cashing out: send USDC from MetaMask to your account on an exchange (Bybit, Binance, Kraken, OKX, Coinbase…) — choose the Base network on the exchange's deposit page and paste their address — then sell for local currency.
• The full merchant guide covers the dashboard, statuses, mismatches and the API. Questions: WhatsApp or support@vestapayments.com.