# Usage

### Interface

<figure><img src="/files/7edlZ24FeEHRIt2qLoj6" alt="The main view of Common Wallet, displaying your public and shielded balances." width="375"><figcaption><p>The main screen of the wallet</p></figcaption></figure>

The extension is visible as a panel taking up the entire height of the screen: this form of an extension is more powerful than a regular popup and is persistent between tab and window switches, making it convenient to do operations across multiple websites.

The UI is very streamlined, however you can see a few interesting elements already. First of all, you can click on the 'Public' balance, which is your standard, public wallet. Below that, you can select the 'Shielded' balance, which is your private wallet with shielded funds. In the next few paragraphs we'll see how easy it is to shield your funds!

### The Big Blue Button (BBB)

The most powerful element of the UI is the Big Blue Button on the bottom. Virtually all actions we'll be performing are revealed after clicking it. Once you click, you'll see the following list:

<figure><img src="/files/s7NrGbmC16fatLrPpvqb" alt="The list of actions visible after clicking the Big Blue Button: Shield, Send, Receive." width="375"><figcaption><p>The BBB is your gateway into private web3!</p></figcaption></figure>

You have options to Shield, Send and Receive tokens. The Swap and Buy options will become available in future releases of the Common Wallet. Let's start by getting some funds into our wallet!

### Receive

In order to top up your account, you'll need to click the 'Receive' button. The following screen will show up:

<figure><img src="/files/1w1KYVcVEkM5nlwSUpKA" alt="The receive screen with a QR code that you can scan with your phone and an account address you can copy to make a transfer." width="373"><figcaption><p>A QR code for easy use and an address you can copy.</p></figcaption></figure>

You can either scan the QR code with your phone or copy the account address and make a transfer. Once the funds arrive, you will see a screen like this:

<figure><img src="/files/dvK0oKsH0B5iH7YA4r7h" alt="The main screen showing you updated public balance after making a transfer." width="370"><figcaption><p>The funds have arrived!</p></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
It's important to keep in mind that in Common Extension v1, after making a transfer from an external wallet, the funds arrive to your public balance. Receiving funds into your shielded balance will be included in future releases.
{% endhint %}

You can now see your balance in AZERO in the 'Public' section: let's learn how to shield some assets!

### Shield

Now it's time for the good stuff! We will use the first item on the list that shows up after clicking the Big Blue Button: Shield. Once clicked, you will see a screen like this:

<figure><img src="/files/ougZmC3ZGjXIhZWe5maR" alt="Choosing an asset to shield: in the current version only AZERO is available." width="369"><figcaption><p>Choosing an asset to shield.</p></figcaption></figure>

For now we have to choose AZERO but in future releases more tokens will be available. Which brings us to the next screen:

<figure><img src="/files/GtscXRrBUlX6rQC23OPf" alt="A screen where you can choose how much of your balance you want to shield." width="367"><figcaption><p>Choosing how much you want to shield is easy!</p></figcaption></figure>

You can either enter the amount to shield or use a slider to choose a percentage of your public balance. In the image above we're shielding half of our balance. All that's left to do is confirm the transaction and *voilà*! We now have funds in our very own private wallet!

<figure><img src="/files/DCdxtuVGrrlFLX8ZN6lR" alt="" width="346"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You can inspect your Public and Shielded balances individually and, importantly, transfer your funds from both the Public and Shielded accounts. This brings us to the final piece of our journey: the transfers.

### Transfers

If you're transferring from your public account, it works just like a regular transfer in a regular wallet: very useful, but that's not what we're here for! Let's talk about transferring from the Shielded account.

First of all, you've probably noticed the curious lack of an 'Unshield' option in the list presented by the Big Blue Button. It's not an oversight on our part! To the contrary: it's the very essence of how our private wallet works. If you want to unshield your funds and retain the privacy, you will most probably simply transfer them to a newly created account. Let's do just that by clicking the Big Blue Button and hitting 'Transfer'. What you'll see is a screen allowing you to choose whether you're transferring from your public wallet or its shielded counterpart:

<figure><img src="/files/7JTKynnQGVlEDmf1Kuzh" alt="A screen allowing you to choose whether to make a transfer from the public wallet or the shielded one." width="366"><figcaption><p>If you want to transfer from your shielded balance, select the second option.</p></figcaption></figure>

The icons will guide you in choosing which balance to transfer from: shielded balance will have a small shield icon overlayed on the token logo. For the sake of this excercise, let's choose the second option.

<figure><img src="/files/GZAtsQ1Oar5Xr8bMJH3N" alt="The send screen, allowing you to choose the amount of the token you are transferring. In this image we&#x27;re making a shielded transfer." width="365"><figcaption><p>A private transfer is in the works!</p></figcaption></figure>

It should already be familiar after seeing the shielding screen: you can choose how much of the selected token you want to transfer. Note the screen title saying 'Send privately': the recipient will just see a transfer from the Shielder. Nota bene, it doesn't matter whether the account you're sending to is your own account or not, but please make sure to verify the address!

<figure><img src="/files/ShMbtEeVxBPHzcJt0U6M" alt="A subsequent screen, letting you input or paste the recipient of the transfer and confirm the transaction." width="368"><figcaption><p>Please excercise caution when typing or pasting recipient addresses!</p></figcaption></figure>

After choosing the recipient, you can confirm the transfer and make the transaction. We have now made our very first private transfer! You can see that the shielded balance has been updated:

<figure><img src="/files/LLlcqiPbx4j64kJnexV8" alt="A screen showing a decreased balance of the shielded wallet after making a private transfer." width="369"><figcaption><p>The shielded balance updated after making a private transfer.</p></figcaption></figure>

### Conclusion

And just like that, we've concluded our tour of the functionalities of the Common Wallet! You'll notice how these basic building blocks give you incredible capabilities to interact with web3 in a private way. That said, more is yet to come, so stay tuned for future updates that will make the wallet even more powerful and easy to use.

In the next section we'll take a quick look at settings, allowing you to choose a network you operate on.


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