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Getting Monero

Intro

This guide will walk you through how to open a Monero wallet, how to use it, and how to get it.

This guide will focus on Linux as it’s what I use, but it shouldn’t be much different on Windows.

Wallets

There are 2 wallets I can recommend:

If I had to choose, I would pick Feather, as it’s more lightweight and full of features. Monero GUI might be confusing to set up for most people—even though it’s very straightforward, the amount of options in the wallet creation might confuse some users.

Opening a Wallet

Monero GUI

On Monero GUI, you will be asked if you want the simple mode or 2 other modes. This basically asks you if you want to set up a full node, which you probably don’t want as it’s over 200GB and provides no advantage for most people.

Select the “simple” option.

After that, it will ask you to set up a mnemonic seed. Pick the highest word count seed and save it in a .txt file or a password manager like KeePassXC. The mnemonic seed is the most important aspect of the wallet creation process, as without it you won’t be able to log in on other devices. If you lose it, you will basically lose your wallet. THE MNEMONIC SEED NEEDS TO BE STORED SAFELY. I personally saved mine on a CD.

The last step is to create a password, which can be anything, as it will only be stored on your computer.

Feather

On Feather, you just click on “Create New Account”, and it will generate a 16-word mnemonic with options to generate a new one and an option to extend the seed with a passphrase.

REMEMBER TO COPY YOUR DAMN MNEMONIC!

Just save your mnemonic, name your account, and set up the passphrase.

Nodes

A full node needs about 300GB to be run. You do not need to run a full node to own Monero, but this will increase privacy as nodes have access to your IP.

Both wallets above set up nodes automatically for you.

Mining

Monero mining uses CPU instead of GPU and can be done with XMRig. Read the docs to configure it.

Something you need to know is that you can’t mine from addresses starting with “8”, only the primary address, which starts with “4”.

The primary address is hidden on Feather. To see it, go into “Receive”, right-click on the header, and enable “Show Change Address” and “Show Used Addresses”.

Pools

There are many pools you can use to actually make some money (probably not much, depends on CPU).

Here are 3 pools I recommend:

I will make a different guide in the future on how to host a node and set up P2Pool.

Buying

Buying Monero is not as straightforward as other coins, especially without KYC, but it’s also not as hard as you might think.

The easiest way to buy Monero is by buying it directly from someone who already has Monero. If you don’t know anyone, consider using Bisq or Ravano. These are decentralized exchanges for buying crypto. Bisq is mostly for BTC, but it has the feature of buying XMR with BTC. Ravano, on the other hand, is built around Monero and is made specifically for buying Monero.

If you already own BTC and want Monero, consider using UnstoppableSwap, which lets you atomic swap BTC into XMR easily with no fees.

Conclusion

Monero (XMR) is a cryptocurrency focused on privacy and is highly used on anonymous networks like Tor and I2P.

I made this guide to make it easier for privacy enthusiasts to get their hands on some crypto that is actually used for monetary transactions. The process of opening a Monero wallet and buying stuff with it is very easy and straightforward. Hopefully, this guide was helpful to you, and you can finally buy some stuff anonymously.

For anonymous donations, you can send some XMR here (you can’t mine to this address, by the way):
83LyidzycKd3futS8uah8JWjYVUMFujaNbcLLkMLn1S4U3sLv5YUG3CBkQaoqBtmsa7qAAvGtPKwrNPpHZwxzvKWC2u

tags
Crypto · Privacy