> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://tickside.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Getting in

> Two ways to start trading. Neither of them ever puts your private key on our servers.

There are two doors and they lead to the same desk.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Create an account" icon="user-plus">
    You have never traded a prediction market. Sign in with email or Google and
    a wallet is created for you.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Bring your own" icon="key">
    You already trade on a venue. Paste that account's signer key and carry on
    where you left off.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Warning>
  **We never store your private key. Not encrypted, not hashed, not anywhere.**
  It stays in your browser and nowhere else, and every order is signed there. Our
  servers are not in the path, so there is no store of keys for anyone to steal
  and nothing we could hand over if we were asked.
</Warning>

## Creating an account

Sign in with an email address or a Google account. A wallet is made for you in
that moment and it is yours.

Key management runs on [Privy](https://privy.io), one of the larger names in
wallet infrastructure. Two things follow from that, and they are why we chose
it.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="No seed phrase" icon="feather">
    Nothing to write on paper and lose. You get back in the same way you got in
    the first time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Still yours alone" icon="shield-halved">
    Neither we nor Privy can move a balance or sign an order for you. There is
    no server key that would authorise it.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

You can leave whenever you want. Export the private key in one click and take
the wallet with you. It is put back together inside a Privy window on its own
domain, so the key in plain text is visible only to you.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Sign in">
    Email or Google. There is no form to fill in.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Fund it">
    Send USDC to the wallet address shown. That is the money you trade with.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open a ladder">
    Pick a market and you are on the desk.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Bringing an account you already have

You need the **signer key** of that account. Everything else is worked out for
you: your address, your account type, and which wallet actually holds your
money.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="You signed up with an email address" icon="envelope">
    Your key is held by Magic. Export it at
    [reveal.magic.link/polymarket](https://reveal.magic.link/polymarket).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="You use a browser wallet" icon="wallet">
    Export the account's private key from the wallet itself. MetaMask and the
    rest all offer this under account details.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

A signer key is **64 hexadecimal characters**, sometimes starting with `0x`.

<Warning>
  Anyone holding that key controls the account. Never paste it into a page you did
  not open yourself, and never send it to anyone, us included. We have no way to
  ask you for it and no reason to.
</Warning>

### What happens when you paste it

<Steps>
  <Step title="Your address">
    Worked out from the key itself. There is nothing to type.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Your funds">
    We check the key's own address, work out your deposit wallet from it on
    chain, and look at your profile wallet. Then we lock onto whichever one
    actually holds your money.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Your account type">
    Read from what that address **is**, not from a dropdown you have to guess
    at.
  </Step>
</Steps>

If nothing turns up, the **Funds** step takes the `0x…` address shown under your
name on the venue's profile page. Pasting the profile URL works too.

## Keeping the two apart

A social sign in never happens over an account you connected with a key. The two
are kept separate on purpose, so an account you hold the key to cannot quietly
turn into something else.