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Polkadot-JS Guides about the Vault App

Polkadot-JS is for developers and power users only. If you need help using the Polkadot-JS UI, you can contact the Polkadot Support Team. For more user-friendly tools see the wallets, apps and dashboard pages.
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These guides apply to both Parity Signer and Polkadot Vault apps.

Sending a Transfer with the Vault App​

Verifying Extrinsics

Visit the dedicated support page and see this video tutorial tutorial to learn about how to verify extrinsics before signing them. The video will also mention potential attacks that can happen to you while signing for transactions.

General instructions to send a transfer can be found on this support page. To sign transactions with the Polkadot Vault app check this support article or see this video tutorial.

Import Vault Accounts into Polkadot-JS​

See this support article to import a Polkadot Vault account into the Polkadot-JS Browser Extension or Parity Signer Companion. Accounts added to those extensions will be injected into the Polkadot-JS UI.

Do Your Own Chain Spec and Metadata Update​

This section is for developers and power users only

By requesting the chain specification and metadata you trust the specific endpoint you are using (unless you are using you own node).

The following guide bases on the Parity Signer Github page (to create the Chain Spec QR code and the metadata QR code fountain) and Metadata Portal Github page (to embed the Chain Spec and Metadata into a portal).

Chain Specification​

Chain Spec QR​

To add more chains on the Vault app you can follow the instructions here. In this example we will add the Asset Hub system parachain. Briefly, fork the Parity Signer GitHub repository, start the terminal within the /generate_message folder and type the following:

cargo run add-specs -d -u wss://kusama-asset-hub-rpc.polkadot.io --encryption sr25519

where wss://kusama-asset.hub-rpc.polkadot.io is the Parity RPC endpoint for the Asset Hub on Kusama. This will create the file sign_me_add_specs_statemine_sr25510 under the files/in_progress folder. See this GitHub page for a list of all endpoints listed in the Polkadot-JS UI.

Generating Signature​

Use a hot account

Make sure that the account used to sign the chain specification is a hot account. Never use a cold account from the Vault app or Ledger, as after typing the seed phrase into the terminal that account will be considered hot.

Start the terminal within the files/in_progress folder and type the following:

cat sign_me_add_specs_statemine_sr25519 | subkey sign --suri "YOUR SEED PHRASE"

where "YOUR SEED PHRASE" is the seed phrase of the account that will be used to sign and authenticate both the chain spec and later on the metadata. Running the code above will return a signature similar to that below:

0xc4ce72db959000b6166af96d3bda55a927fd837747bf1bf1ae8a69e57c9ef37c25a88707c47b105a9eb1fbcf9345680eff57eb978cf73919506f6c738834e78a

Signing Chain Spec​

Now, go back to the /generate_message folder and type the following:

cargo run --release make --goal qr --crypto sr25519 --msg add-specs --payload sign_me_add_specs_statemine_sr25519 --verifier-hex PUBLIC KEY --signature-hex SIGNATURE

where PUBLIC KEY is the public key of the account with seed "YOUR SEED PHRASE", and SIGNATURE is the signature generated in the previous step. Running the code above will create the file add_specs_statemine-sr25519 under the files/completed folder.

Metadata Updates​

Similarly to what we did for the chain specification, we now generate and sign the Asset Hub metadata.

Metadata QR Fountain​

To update the chain metadata for the Asset Hub specs on the Vault app you can follow the instructions here. Briefly, in the Parity Signer repository, start the terminal within the /generate_message folder and type the following:

cargo run load-metadata -d -u wss://kusama-asset-hub-rpc.polkadot.io

where wss://kusama-asset-hub-rpc.polkadot.io is the Parity RPC endpoint for the Asset Hub on Kusama. This will create the file sign_me_load_metadata_statemineV9370 under the files/in_progress folder. Note that for future metadata updates the file name will change as the version at the time of writing was V9370.

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Note that the name of the file changes according to the network version. That is, ???? in sign_me_load_metadata_statemineV???? will be the latest version at fetch time.

Generating Signature​

Use a hot account

Make sure that the account used to sign the metadata is a hot account. Never use a cold account from the Vault app or Ledger, as after typing the seed phrase into the terminal that account will be considered hot.

Start the terminal within the files/in_progress folder and type the following:

cat sign_me_load_metadata_statemineV9370 | subkey sign --suri "YOUR SEED PHRASE"

where "YOUR SEED PHRASE" is the seed phrase of the account you used to sign the chain specification. Running the code above will return a signature similar to that below:

0xde1ad7aeb252acb3cf42a522dcc8dc3f317a49be2ed636836dd6df8f7e47135f2c712480055822eba87e9ea5ac7d3bba96045992ae795856fdf4eea09a411f85

Do not copy the code lines above

Note that the name of the file changes according to the network version. That is, ???? in sign_me_load_metadata_statemineV???? will be the latest version at fetch time. So, do not copy the code line above, but change the version with the appropriate one saved under the files/in_progress folder. The signature changes as well.

Signing Metadata​

Now, go back to the /generate_message folder and type the following:

cargo run --release make --goal qr --crypto sr25519 --msg load-metadata --payload sign_me_load_metadata_statemineV9370 --verifier-hex PUBLIC KEY --signature-hex SIGNATURE

where PUBLIC KEY is the public key of the account with seed "YOUR SEED PHRASE", and SIGNATURE is the signature generated in the previous step. Running the code above will create the file load_metadata_statemineV9370 under the files/completed folder.

Add Chain & Update Metadata​

You can open add_specs_statemine-sr25519 on your browser (just drag the file on an open tab). This is a .png file containing the QR code to add the Asset Hub chain specification into the Vault App. You can do the same with the load_metadata_statemineV9370. This is a .apng file containing the QR code fountain to do the metadata update for the Asset Hub on Kusama.

Metadata Portal​

Modify config File​

Alternatively, you can add the chain specification QR code and the metadata QR code fountain in a metadata portal. Briefly, fork the Parity's Metadata Portal GitHub repository. You can modify the following fields of the config.toml file:

  • name: your name / institution
  • public_key: the public key of the account you use to sign the chain spec and the metadata.
  • At the bottom of the file add the following information:
[[chains]]
name = "Statemine"
title = "Kusama Asset Hub"
rpc_endpoint = "wss://kusama-asset-hub-rpc.polkadot.io"
color = "#f27230"

[chains.github_release]
owner = "paritytech"
repo = "statemint"
genesis_hash = "0x48239ef607d7928874027a43a67689209727dfb3d3dc5e5b03a39bdc2eda771a"

For each additional chain, you need to add the respective information. Information about the genesis hash can be found on the Polkadot-JS UI > connect to the relevant chain > Developer > Chain State.

Rename Chain's Files​

Rename the signed chain specification and metadata files as follow:

  • Chain specification: add_specs_statemine-sr25519 --> statemine_specs.png

  • Metadata updates: load_metadata_statemineV9370--> statemine_metadata_9370.apng

Thus, for chain specification the file must be renamed to chainName_specs.png while for metadata the file must be renamed to chainName_metadata_version.apng where chainName is the name of the chain and version is the version of the metadata.

Add the renamed files to the /public/qr folder within the Metadata Portal repository.

Run Portal​

Open the terminal within the Metadata Portal repository and run make updater. Then run make collector; this will create the _latest.apng files for each of the chains (removed by the command make cleaner). Finally, run yarn start to load the metadata portal on your localhost.