A calm walkthrough,
about 25 minutes.
Plain language. No jargon. No FOMO. By the end you'll understand what self-custody actually is, what to be careful about, and exactly how to buy enough crypto to use Node Neo — about $5–$10 worth, once.
You'll create a self-custody wallet inside Node Neo (no email, no signup). You'll buy about $7–$10 of ETH on a network called Base using Coinbase (primary) or MoonPay (alternative). You'll swap most of that ETH for MOR on Uniswap in a browser-connectable wallet (Coinbase Wallet is the usual path) — MOR funds your chat sessions. Then you send MOR plus a little ETH to your Node Neo address. Head to the Quick Start and chat. About 25 minutes the first time. Zero subscription, ever.
Already have Node Neo open?
In the app, tap Add chat balance (home empty state, Wallet footer, or the session sheet). That checklist opens the same steps here. Important: Node Neo does not swap tokens. Buy Base ETH and swap ETH → MOR in Coinbase Wallet (or another wallet Uniswap can connect to), then send MOR + a little ETH to the Node Neo address shown in the app. Do not send all your ETH to Node Neo first and expect to swap there.
It's okay to be skeptical.
You've read the headlines. FTX, Celsius, “rug pulls,” people who lost their savings on a meme coin. The skepticism is earned. So let's separate real risks from noise before you spend a dollar.
What actually went wrong in the famous blowups
- FTX, Celsius, BlockFi: centralized exchanges that held customer money in a black box and lent it out. When the box broke, the money was gone. Self-custody is the precise antidote — you hold the keys, no exchange holds your money, no exchange can lose it.
- Speculation losses: people buying volatile tokens hoping for a 10x. You're not doing that. You're holding ~$5 of MOR to use. Even if MOR's price moved 50% you'd still chat the same.
- Phishing & wrong-address mistakes: these are real. We'll show you exactly how to avoid both.
What this guide protects you from: losing the only key you'll ever have, sending money to the wrong address, picking a sketchy on-ramp. What it can't protect you from: choosing not to back up your private key, or pasting it into a phishing site. We'll be very loud about which moments matter.
What “self-custody” actually means.
Two ways to hold money. There is no in-between.
Bank account (custodial)
- The bank holds your money
- Log in with email + password — resettable
- If the bank fails, the FDIC reimburses up to $250K
- Bank can freeze, audit, subpoena, or close your account
- Bank knows everything you do
Self-custody wallet
- You hold the money
- Log in with a private key — NOT resettable
- If you lose the key, the money is gone — no FDIC
- Nobody can freeze, audit, subpoena, or suspend
- Nobody knows what you do with it
That's the trade. Bank-style convenience requires a bank; pure privacy and self-sovereignty require self-custody. For AI conversations — where nobody can read this without my key is the entire point — self-custody is the right tool. You just need to take backup seriously.
Your wallet and your private key.
Node Neo creates the wallet for you the first time you open the app. Tap Create wallet, and the app generates a fresh wallet locally and stores the private key in your device's secure enclave (Keychain on Mac/iOS). No signup, no email, no centralized account.
The private key is a long random string of letters and numbers
(something like 0xabc123…def789). It's the only thing
that proves the wallet is yours. There's no PIN, no second factor, no security
question. Just that string. Read this twice:
Read this before you do anything else: your wallet is yours alone.
- Lose the private key → funds gone, forever. No "forgot password," no support team, no recovery. Not us, not Apple, not Vitalik himself.
- Back it up on day one. Settings → Wallet → Export. Save to paper and an encrypted password manager (1Password, Bitwarden).
- Treat it like a bank password, stricter. Don't screenshot to your camera roll. Don't email it. Don't paste it into ChatGPT.
Why is there no recovery?
The trade-off — nobody can suspend your account, freeze your funds, or read your prompts — only works because nobody, including us, holds your key for you. That's the deal: total control, total responsibility.
Your Node Neo wallet is a standard Ethereum/Base wallet. The same private key can also be imported into MetaMask, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, or any standard wallet. You're never locked into Node Neo — the wallet (and the funds in it) live on the Base network, not in the app.
Two tokens, two jobs.
You'll need both. They live on the same network (Base) and you'll get them in the same flow. Here's the difference:
Network postage
ETH pays for actions on the Base network — opening a session, closing it, sending tokens. Each action costs a few cents. $2 of ETH lasts weeks of normal use. ETH is consumed when used, like postage stamps.
Perpetual access stake
MOR funds your chat sessions. Each session locks a small amount as a "right-to-use" deposit; it returns to your wallet when the session ends. The same MOR funds chat after chat, indefinitely. MOR recycles; it isn't consumed.
The cleanest analogy we've found
ETH = postage stamps. Cents per use, consumed when used. Buy a few more when you run out.
MOR = library card. Lives in your wallet forever. Check out as many "books" (sessions) as you want against the same card.
Buy a few dollars of ETH on Base
~10 minutes. About $7–$10. Pick the on-ramp that matches your situation.
Base is an Ethereum Layer-2 network — same rules as Ethereum, but with very low fees (cents instead of dollars). All three options below let you buy ETH directly on Base with a card or bank account.
Quick decision
Primary — Coinbase: Prefer Coinbase Wallet if you're starting from zero
(card buy lands ETH on Base, and that same wallet connects to Uniswap for the swap).
Already on Coinbase exchange? Buy Base ETH there, then withdraw to Coinbase Wallet (or MetaMask) before swapping.
Alternative — MoonPay: Use when Coinbase isn't available in your region (160+ countries). Buy ETH on Base, then swap from a wallet Uniswap can connect to.
Buy ETH on Base. Exchange users: withdraw to a self-custody wallet before the Uniswap step.
Open Coinbase →Self-custody with a built-in card buy. ETH lands on Base; connect this wallet to Uniswap in step 2.
Get Coinbase Wallet →Card or bank for ETH on Base when Coinbase isn't an option. Slightly higher fees, wider country coverage.
Open MoonPay →Swap most of that ETH for MOR
~2 minutes on Uniswap. Aim for ~$5 of MOR; keep ~$2–$5 in ETH for gas.
Uniswap is the standard token exchange on Base. The link below is pre-loaded with ETH → MOR on the Base network — nothing for you to configure. Connect the wallet that holds your ETH (usually Coinbase Wallet). Node Neo itself cannot connect to Uniswap.
Pre-loaded with ETH → MOR on the Base network. Connect your wallet, enter an amount, swap. About 30 seconds.
Open Uniswap →What you'll see, what to click
- Connect. Click "Connect" (top right). Choose the wallet you used to buy ETH (Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, Rainbow, etc.). Approve the connection in your wallet.
- Enter the amount. In the top box, type the dollar amount of ETH you want to swap (e.g. $5). The bottom box shows how much MOR you'll receive.
- Approve (one-time). First swap only: you'll be prompted to "Approve." This is a one-time on-chain action that lets Uniswap touch your ETH. Costs a few cents.
- Swap. Click "Swap." Confirm in your wallet. Wait ~30 seconds. Done.
If Uniswap warns about slippage
For $5–$50 swaps, the default 0.5% slippage tolerance is fine. If the warning appears, raise it to 1% and try again. For larger swaps, split into smaller pieces.
Send MOR (and a little ETH) to your Node Neo wallet
~1 minute. Move what you bought into the Node Neo wallet.
Almost done. Just need to move the MOR (and a tiny bit of ETH for gas) from the wallet you used to swap into your Node Neo wallet.
-
In Node Neo, tap Add chat balance
(or open Settings → Wallet) and copy your address
(a long string starting with
0x). - In your other wallet (Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, etc.), find MOR in your token list. Tap Send. Paste your Node Neo address. Send most of your MOR (you can leave a tiny bit if you want to keep it accessible from the other wallet).
- Send a little ETH too (~$2 worth) so the Node Neo wallet has gas to open and close sessions. Same flow: pick ETH, paste the address, send.
- Wait ~10–30 seconds. Both transfers will land. Open Node Neo — the balances are right there on the home screen.
Double-check the address before you send.
- Confirm the first 4 and last 4 characters match exactly. A wrong address means the funds go somewhere you'll never get them back from. There is no "cancel" button.
- If you're nervous, send $1 of MOR first. Confirm it lands in Node Neo. Then send the rest.
- Stay on Base. Both Node Neo's address and your other wallet's address look the same on every network. Make sure you're sending on the Base network, not Ethereum mainnet.
Now go chat.
You have a self-custody wallet, MOR for sessions, and ETH for gas. The Quick Start picks up at "open the app and start a session."
Continue to Quick Start →Common first-time questions
The amount of MOR locked per session is denominated in MOR, not in dollars. So if you bought $5 of MOR and the USD price drops 50%, your wallet still has the same number of MOR tokens — you just paid more in USD up front. You'd still get the same number of chat sessions out of it. For utility use, price volatility is mostly a footnote.
The on-ramps (Coinbase, Coinbase Wallet, MoonPay) are licensed money transmitters and do KYC. Buying ETH or MOR for personal use is legal in most countries. Once the crypto is in your wallet, you're using a public protocol — same legal status as using HTTPS. Self-custody itself is not regulated; it's just owning property.
That would require a centralized account — an email, a billing relationship, a record of every conversation tied to your name. That's ChatGPT's model, not Node Neo's. The whole point is "no account to suspend, no inbox to subpoena." We're working on a starter coupon program (a tiny pre-funded wallet) to make the very first chat free, but the wallet itself isn't going away. That's by design.
The funds go to wherever you sent them. There's no “cancel,” no chargeback, no support team to call. This is why the red callout above says verify the first 4 and last 4 characters. If you're nervous, send $1 first as a test transfer, confirm it lands, and only then send the rest.
Buy $5 of ETH. Swap $3 for MOR. Open one session. See how it works. If you like it, buy more later. If you don't, the wallet still works in MetaMask, Rainbow, or any other standard wallet — you can move the funds out, send them back to your bank via Coinbase, and walk away. Nothing is locked in. You have not signed up for anything.
Open an issue on support@nodeneo.ai — that's where every bug report, feature request, and "is this normal?" question lives. Public, searchable, and the fastest way to get an answer.