👛 Monero Wallet Setup

Download the Monero GUI Wallet only from getmonero.org, and take the extra step of checking the SSL certificate and comparing the download's SHA256 hash against the one published on the site — a wallet binary is one of the highest-value targets for a tampered download precisely because compromising it hands over your funds directly, not just your metadata. Tails OS users are better served by the Monero CLI wallet, which runs entirely in the terminal and has no GUI dependencies to keep patched. On mobile, Cake Wallet (iOS/Android) and Monerujo (Android) are the two options with enough of a track record to be worth trusting; skip anything found through an app store search instead of a direct link, since Monero wallet names get squatted by clones the same way market names do.

Simple Mode connects to a remote node while keeping your keys entirely local, which is the practical choice for most people — your funds stay under your control even though a third-party node technically sees which transactions you broadcast and roughly when. Advanced Mode, pointed at your own full node (ideally reached over Tor), removes that node operator from the picture entirely, at the cost of a multi-gigabyte blockchain sync and more moving parts to maintain. Whichever mode you pick, set a wallet password that exists nowhere else, then write down the 25-word mnemonic seed phrase the wallet generates on first launch — on paper, immediately, before you do anything else with the wallet. That seed is the actual key to the funds; the password only locks the local file, and a lost seed with no backup is money gone for good, with no support line and no exception.

Generate a fresh subaddress for every transaction you receive (Receive tab → Create new address) instead of reusing your primary address. Subaddresses are unlinkable from each other by anyone who doesn't hold your private view key, so a vendor who's seen one payment from you can't use it to track down others — that's a meaningfully stronger default than Bitcoin's address model, not just a cosmetic option. Sending works the same as any wallet: paste the address, enter the amount, leave the transaction priority on default unless a payment genuinely needs to confirm faster. The catch is that Monero transactions are irreversible the moment they're broadcast — there's no equivalent of a bank recall, so double-check the address before you hit send, not after. Expect confirmation in around 2 minutes, with practical finality around 10 confirmations (roughly 20 minutes) — that's the point most vendors and exchanges treat a deposit as settled.