Monero GUI Wallet Guide

Monero was the first altcoin to be added to a deep web market. The Alphabay announcement was actually the main catalyst for the amazing rally that took Monero from the $2 mark to $20. It is a privacy driven cryptocurrency and it’s one of the best in its field. However, for a long time, Monero didn’t have its own Graphic User Interface (GUI) wallet due to the complication associated with building it. However, this has recently changed with the release of the official Monero GUI, which is currently in its second beta version.

This surely makes Monero much simpler to work with given that users no longer have to get familiar with the commands. It’s also much safer than third party alternatives in which the user does not control the private keys.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the new wallet and teach you how to take full advantage of it!

Part 1 – Download and Set up Monero GUI

Step 1: Click here to go to the Monero GUI download page on github

Step 2: The most recent version will always be at the top and say “GUI”. Choose your Operative System (we’re using Windows 10) and click it to start the download

Step 3: Once the download is done, extract the files from the compressed .zip file downloaded

Step 4: Click “monero-wallet-gui” to start the Monero GUI wallet

Step 5: Your firewall may block the wallet. If so, a window will show up, click “Allow”

The Monero GUI wallet is a full node wallet, which means you’ll need to download and keep the entire blockchain, actively assisting the network. It will take some time and space in order to sync to the network, but it provides you with a higher degree of security.

Step 6: Choose your language

Step 7: Select “Create a new wallet”

Step 8: Now, you’ll be shown a mnemonic seed. Save this seed on a text file or write it down on a piece of paper as this seed allows you recover your account on another computer or in case you lose your wallet file. Continue to the next window.

Step 9: Enter a strong password and continue.

Step 10: Click “Use Monero” to open the wallet.

Step 11: The Monero daemon will now start. This is the program that allows the blocks to be downloaded.

(If your Daemon fails to start by itself, you can start it manually by clicking the “monerod” file on the same folder.)

Step 12: Allow the blockchain to download. This will take a while and will not require any action.

Part 2 – Sending and Receiving XMR

Now that the blockchain has been fully downloaded, it’s time to start using the wallet. This is the main attraction, of course. Sending and receiving XMR just got a whole lot easier thanks to the GUI wallet. Let’s take a look at how to send XMR and move on to receiving later on.

On the Send tab, we have multiple fields to fill. Let’s go through what each of them mean.

1. Amount of XMR you want to send.
2. Transaction Priority: How fast do you want to spend in order to speed up the transaction. The more you pay, the faster it will be.
3. The wallet address of the person you’re sending to.
4. The Payment ID is used to identify transactions to merchants and exchanges: Given the intrinsic privacy features built into Monero, where a single public address is usually used for incoming transactions, the Payment ID is especially useful to tie incoming payments with user accounts.
5. You can also add a description of the transaction.

You can also add address to the address book which will make it easier to send funds without having to search the address every time.

If you want to receive Monero, go to the “Receive” tab.

Let’s go through what each of the fields mean.

1. This is your address. You can use it as a stand alone.
2. You can generate multiple payment IDs to keep track of who sends you XMR.
3. The Integrated address is basically the same as the normal address and the payment ID combined.
4. Then, enter the amount of XMR you want to send.

You can see your transaction history in the “History” tab.

Part 3 – Advanced

The Monero GUI wallet comes complete with a set of advanced tools and features that may be required, depending on how you use XMR.

If you want to start mining Monero, you can do so by clicking “Advanced”.

Three other options will appear, click “Mining”.

Choose the number of threads you want to use and click “Start mining”. As a general rule, you can set the number of threads to the same as the number of CPU cores or, better yet, half of the CPU cache (if you have a 8MB cache, you should use 4 threads). You may also want to use another miner as the wallet is not the most efficient one.

You can also verify a third party transaction by clicking “Check payment”.

You’ll need to input the recipient address, the transaction ID, and the secret transaction key, which allows you to view the transaction which is otherwise private. Then click “Check”.

Lastly, you can sign or verify messages and even files. To do so, click “Sign/verify”.

To sign a message with your private key, which can prove useful to prove ownership of a wallet or to prove that the content of a certain message did come from you. Enter the message and click “Sign”.

You can then send the unsigned message (1) along with the signature (2).

You can also verify that message was signed with the correct private key. Enter the unsigned message in the first field (1), then the Signing address which is a XMR wallet address (2), lastly enter the signature (3) and click “Verify”.

If the signature corresponds the message and the wallet address, you’ll see the following message.

If not, you’ll see this one:

Part 4 – Settings

Lastly, we have settings. Here, there are additional tools that can be useful for you. Click the “Settings” tab.

In the “Manage Wallet” section, you can:

• Close the wallet.
• Create a view only wallet, which is useful if you want to have a secure offline wallet and a view only wallet in an online environment.
• Show seed. In case you lost the seed, you can always recover it here if you have the password.

In the “Manage Daemon” section, we can:

• Start or Stop the daemon.
• Show status of the daemon.
• Connect to an external Daemon.

Conclusion

Now that you know the basics, you can start using XMR in the deep web which, if done right, can be safer than using a transparent crypto like Bitcoin. It will also save you some money in mixer fees.