Since EOS uses a different account structure than most blockchains, creating an account is not as simple as generating a single key pair. EOS accounts have various permissions which are linked to different actions in the account. While this might sound very complicated it is relatively simple to create an EOS account. We will discuss some of the possible methods in this article.

Before you start creating your own EOS account it is recommended to make yourself familiar with how EOS accounts work first. If you are not familiar with how EOS accounts work yet, we recommend reading our article on understanding how EOS accounts work before continuing.

Generating key pairs

Before we start with any of the two methods we will first have to generate two key pairs which we will use to create the new account. We will generate two key pairs as we want our owner and active permissions to have different keys, making the account more secure. While you can use the same key for the owner and active permission, it is less secure and therefore not recommended to do so.

We will generate our key pairs using the EOSKey tool which supports offline key generation. After downloading the file from their website you can run the program and go to the “Generate and Validate keys” tab.

Generating a key pair using EOSKey (do not use these keys)

Once you are on the “Generate and Validate keys” tab you can generate an EOS key pair. Make sure to store the keys very securely, preferably offline or in a safe storage place. After you have stored the first key pair you can generate the second key pair which you can then store as well. Once this is done we can move to the next step.

Creating an account

There are various ways to create an EOS account, some methods are really easy whereas other methods can be more secure yet more complicated. We will discuss two of the best and easiest ways to create an EOS account.

Account generator

The first and easiest way to create your own EOS account is to create your own EOS account using an account generator. An account generator only asks for your keys, an account name and then asks you to pay for the account which it then automatically creates.

Entering your keys in the account generator

We will be using the account generator by EOS Vibes for this tutorial. To start creating your account first enter your desired account name, then once you have chosen an available name click ‘continue’ and enter the keys you generated earlier. It does not matter which key you enter as your active or owner key, as long as you make sure you know which one is which (you will almost never need your owner key). Once you have verified your keys you can continue to the next step which will be paying for the account. Choose your preferred method of payment and follow the instructions. When the payment has been received the account will get created and you can use your keys to access the account.

Toolkit

The second method to create your own EOS account is by using an EOS toolkit. An EOS toolkit can be seen as an interface for a lot of EOS functionalities, for example creating and managing an account. While this method is simpler and has more options than the previous method, it requires you to already have an EOS account (or know somebody with an EOS account). For this tutorial we will be using the toolkit by GenerEOS.

First of all you/the person whom already has an EOS account has to attach their EOS account to the toolkit using Scatter. If they do not have Scatter yet, you/they should download it and follow the instructions on importing the account (we will also explain how to do this in the ‘Using your EOS account’ section). Once Scatter is configured and unlocked click ‘Attach account’ at the top left of the toolkit. Then navigate to the ‘Create account’ section.