Monero Compendium - Installation and Usage Guides for Popular Wallets (2026)

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

A collection of guides for popular Monero wallets: Monero GUI (Windows, macOS Intel & Linux), Feather (Windows, macOS & Linux), Cake (Windows, Linux, Android & iOS) and Stack (Windows, Linux, Android & iOS). Answers to frequently asked questions and descriptions of methods for buying and selling the Monero cryptocurrency.

What is Monero (XMR) #

Monero (XMR) is a cryptocurrency recommended for users who have difficulty maintaining privacy when using Bitcoin and other transparent coins. Monero is distinguished by on-chain transaction anonymization mechanisms, which is why it’s often called a “privacy coin”. Because of these properties it is commonly used for anonymous payments, including on the darknet. Trading Monero is legal in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other European Union countries, via both instant swap services and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms, for person-to-person purchases.

Wallet installation #

When choosing a wallet, it is recommended to limit the choice to the most popular open-source wallets listed below, which give the user exclusive control over funds. Wallet software should be downloaded only from official sources.

Installation of Feather Wallet (Linux)
Installation of Feather Wallet (Windows)
Installation of Feather Wallet (macOS)
Installation of Monero GUI Wallet (Linux)
Installation of Monero GUI Wallet (Windows)
Installation of Monero GUI Wallet (macOS)
Installation of Cake Wallet (Android)
Installation of Cake Wallet (iOS)
Installation of Cake Wallet (Linux)
Installation of Cake Wallet (Windows)
Installation of Stack Wallet (Android)
Installation of Stack Wallet (iOS)
Installation of Stack Wallet (Linux)
Installation of Stack Wallet (Windows)

Generating a wallet #

This includes setting a strong password, creating and securely recording the recovery phrase, and choosing a synchronization mode. When generating a new wallet, the software will create private keys for making payments and public keys and addresses for receiving funds.

Creating a wallet in Feather Wallet (Linux)
Creating a wallet in Feather Wallet (Windows)
Creating a wallet in Feather Wallet (macOS)
Creating a wallet in Monero GUI Wallet (Linux)
Creating a wallet in Monero GUI Wallet (Windows)
Creating a wallet in Monero GUI Wallet (macOS)
Creating a wallet in Cake Wallet (Android)
Creating a wallet in Cake Wallet (iOS)
Creating a wallet in Cake Wallet (Linux)
Creating a wallet in Cake Wallet (Windows)
Creating a wallet in Stack Wallet (Android)
Creating a wallet in Stack Wallet (iOS)
Creating a wallet in Stack Wallet (Linux)
Creating a wallet in Stack Wallet (Windows)

Receiving funds #

To receive XMR, generate a subaddress in your wallet, copy it, and give it to the sender.

Receiving funds in Feather Wallet (Linux)
Receiving funds in Feather Wallet (Windows)
Receiving funds in Feather Wallet (macOS)
Receiving funds in Monero GUI Wallet (Linux)
Receiving funds in Monero GUI Wallet (Windows)
Receiving funds in Monero GUI Wallet (macOS)
Receiving funds in Cake Wallet (Android)
Receiving funds in Cake Wallet (iOS)
Receiving funds in Cake Wallet (Linux)
Receiving funds in Cake Wallet (Windows)
Receiving funds in Stack Wallet (Android)
Receiving funds in Stack Wallet (iOS)
Receiving funds in Stack Wallet (Linux)
Receiving funds in Stack Wallet (Windows)

Sending funds #

To send XMR, paste the recipient’s address, set the amount and priority, then publish and wait for confirmations from the blockchain network.

Sending funds in Feather Wallet (Linux)
Sending funds in Feather Wallet (Windows)
Sending funds in Feather Wallet (macOS)
Sending funds in Monero GUI Wallet (Linux)
Sending funds in Monero GUI Wallet (Windows)
Sending funds in Monero GUI Wallet (macOS)
Sending funds in Cake Wallet (Android)
Sending funds in Cake Wallet (iOS)
Sending funds in Cake Wallet (Linux)
Sending funds in Cake Wallet (Windows)
Sending funds in Stack Wallet (Android)
Sending funds in Stack Wallet (iOS)
Sending funds in Stack Wallet (Linux)
Sending funds in Stack Wallet (Windows)

Complementary articles #

List of recommended remote nodes

Frequently Asked Questions #

Answers to the most frequently asked questions about acquiring, selling, and preserving anonymity when using Monero.

What is the simplest way to obtain Monero? Because Monero is a privacy coin, it is not friendly to banking systems or centralized exchanges with strict KYC (identity verification) and AML (anti-money laundering) policies. The simplest method is to buy Monero by first purchasing any other cryptocurrency (or token) and then swapping it for Monero via Trocador.app, providing your wallet address as the destination. Preferred options are popular cryptocurrencies with low network fees, for example Litecoin (supported in the Cake Wallet).

Trocador.app is an aggregator that lets you compare and choose the best offer among many exchange services in a single simple interface and classifies services by privacy. Services ranked A or B for privacy are recommended, as in very rare cases (if coins potentially originating from ransomware or other cyberattacks are detected) a B-ranked service may return funds, while an A-ranked service should not block any exchange. Trocador.app also hides the user’s IP address (only revealing metadata to authorities on request for an ongoing investigation), which reduces the risk of a failed exchange when using the Tor Browser. When choosing a service, also look for the shield icon, which shows the percentage of the exchange covered by the Trocador Guarantee. The guarantee may not cover the full amount in a single instance, so for large sums it is recommended to split the exchange into smaller transactions.

Unlike with Bitcoin and other transparent cryptocurrencies, anonymity is not required at the point when purchasing a choosen transfer cryptocurrency (Litecoin, for example) when the purpose is exchanging it to Monero in your own wallet and then anonymizing the funds by churning them. Anonymity which Monero with additional churning provides is considered sufficient for daily payments.
Can Monero be bought with cash, bank transfer, or payment card Yes, Monero can be purchased directly (skipping exchange from other cryptocurrency) on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms that enable purchases from private individuals. The current leading platform is RetoSwap, a decentralized marketplace modeled after the bitcoin platform Bisq. Trading Monero is legal in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On RetoSwap, you can buy and sell Monero using existing offers or by creating your own. For larger exchanges a Monero deposit as collateral may be required, but there are also no-deposit offers for buying smaller amounts. An extended version of this compendium will include detailed step-by-step instructions on how to purchase Monero on this platform.

Searching for “RetoSwap” outside the project’s official site (retoswap.com) may surface a highly ranked article titled “Haveno (Retoswap) smells like a honeypot”, written by the owner of a competing platform OpenMonero (a fork of the closed LocalMonero / AgoraDesk). That article contains disinformation through references to outdated and false information about RetoSwap used as a marketing strategy. The study the author cites concerns a potential on-chain correlation in exchanges with transparent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin on their transparent blockchains, and this issue was fixed with a patch introduced in June 2025, two months after the study was published. The study also covered alternative decentralized Monero trading platforms, such as the Bitcoin-based Bisq (which offers a BTC/XMR pair), BasicSwap (BSX) enabling automated decentralized exchange via atomic-swap protocols, and eigenwallet (formerly UnstoppableSwap) enabling automatic decentralized Bitcoin-to-Monero exchange, in which no problems were observed. In fact, decentralized markets like RetoSwap store far fewer potentially identifiable metadata and increase user privacy. The intentions of the owner of the centralized market OpenMonero, who also claimed to have been hacked and used that pretext to delay user withdrawals for many months, remain questionable.
Do I need to connect through Tor when using a Monero wallet? Before changes made in 2020, blockchain analysis companies could track Monero transactions by monitoring the IP addresses from which they were sent. Chainalysis, a leading company in this matter, operated many publicly available remote nodes, which made it easier to link originating IP addresses to subsequent fund movements despite Monero’s decoy mechanisms.

In response, Monero developers implemented the Dandelion++ protocol, which anonymizes the originating IP of each transaction by relaying it through several randomly chosen nodes before publication and confirmation in the blockchain. Like any anonymizing network, Dandelion++ can be attacked. Bad actors may try to control a significant portion of nodes to locate the source. Furthermore, when using a public remote nodes, there is a risk that the selected node will act maliciously by logging the IP addresses of directly connected users and associate them with published transactions before they are broadcast to the network and anonymized by the Dandelion++ protocol. For these reasons, you should always connect to remote nodes through the Tor network, which remains the most popular and most thoroughly researched, practically tested anonymizing network. Using .onion addresses is recommended and helps ensure that the wallet connects to the selected remote node through the Tor network. Clearnet addresses may have greater availability but should only be used in anonymized operating systems (Whonix-Workstation and Tails) to mitigate a risk of accidental direct connection.
What is churning and when should it be used? Monero uses multiple privacy mechanisms such as stealth addresses, ring signatures (CLSAG), confidential transactions (RingCT), and the anonymity network protocol (Dandelion++). Every sent transaction on the blockchain today is accompanied by 15 decoys, wich are fake inputs that make it harder to identify the real source of funds. Churning is sending your own funds back to your own address, which multiplies the pool of fake decoys and further complicates linking transaction inputs and outputs. It is recommended to always churn when moving funds between separate identities. To avoid mixing funds from different identities, create separate wallets for each activity area: acquiring Monero, darknet payments, and selling or swapping Monero for other cryptocurrencies. It should be noted that for funds originating from multiple deposits the first churn operation will consolidate them into a single transaction, at the second churn privacy will be comparable to a standard transaction, and from the third churn onwards does the number of total decoys increase exponentially. Monero network fees are low, so sending funds back to your own address several times at intervals of 1–2 days or longer, mimicking the natural timing of other users’ transactions, effectively hides the source and destination of funds without creating a suspicious pattern. In addition, a delay of at least a few days provided by churning significantly hinders possible time correlation.
Which remote node should I choose? Is it worth running and using my own remote node? A node is software (run locally or remotely on a server) that has access to the Monero network and blockchain. It is necessary to synchronize a wallet and send transactions. Nodes cannot obtain detailed information, such as the true spent outputs, receivers, and amounts of transactions published by a user’s wallet. However, many publicly available nodes are controlled by blockchain analysis companies. Their malicious nodes can observe the IP addresses of directly connected users and associate them with published transactions before they are broadcast to the network and anonymized by the Dandelion++ protocol. They can also attempt to exploit potential wallet vulnerabilities.

An example of such vulnerability is a bug causing information to leak to the node about the outgoing transactions belonging to the wallet, fixed in 2025. It is also possible to manipulate the block data returned to a wallet to suggest decoys that the attacker can easily recognize and eliminate during analysis. Another threat is malicious manipulation of fee data leading to inflated suggested fees. Wallets include safeguards that largely detect manipulation and warn the user, but it is recommended to avoid unmoderated node lists and use only remote nodes, always anonymously through Tor, run by known entities such as Monero developers, official nodes of popular wallets, and nodes owned by reputable services and non-profit organizations. Technically advanced users can anonymously (paying in Monero and through Tor) rent a server and run their own remote node. This supports network decentralization and is encouraged by the Monero community.
How can I check if a chosen remote node is working? After selecting a remote node the wallet will attempt to connect and will start local synchronization after a short time. Because Monero transactions are private, the wallet downloads new blocks and decrypts their contents using private keys to determine the account’s current state. If the node does not respond, the wallet will report a connection failure after a while. Some nodes may temporarily block certain IP addresses, including Tor exit node addresses, so it is worth changing the circuit and trying again. When choosing a remote node with a .onion address, ensure your wallet is configured to connect via Tor.
What is the difference between the main address and a subaddress? Which should be given to receive payments? In a Monero wallet, besides the account’s main address (4…), you can generate an unlimited number of subaddresses (8…). The main address is single and does not allow distinguishing incoming payments from different senders. Subaddresses can be created repeatedly and assigned to individual senders or transactions, so their use is recommended. For transparent cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, reusing the same address links transactions on the blockchain and reduces privacy. In Monero, a one‑time stealth address is created for each transaction, generated from the recipient’s keys and random data from the sender, so receiving multiple payments to the same subaddress does not directly reveal links between those transactions on the blockchain and is considered safe.

However, subaddresses are not perfect and the potential risk of a Janus attack should be considered. If an attacker suspects that subaddresses A and B belong to the same wallet, they can send funds to subaddress A but manipulate the payment metadata so that the recipient’s wallet history shows a deposit to subaddress B. If you then confirm receipt of funds for subaddress B, the attacker will be certain you control both subaddresses. This attack is impossible to detect and is related to the subaddress generation algorithms. For example, if John Doe exchanges Litecoin for Monero and provides subaddress A as the destination to an exchange service, then later provides subaddress B from the same wallet to receive a refund from an escrow transaction on the darknet. For this reason it is recommended to keep separate wallets dedicated to different identities.
How to verify and prove payments when the Monero blockchain is encrypted? Besides the standard transaction ID on the blockchain, you must obtain the transaction key or a signature, which allow verification that a payment was made. The first method is to provide a set of three pieces of information available in the wallet history: the transaction ID (Tx ID), the destination address, and the transaction key (Tx key). These enable verification in the Explore Monero tool (exploremonero.com/receipt, requires Javascript) or in any block explorer by other parties (even when the recipient denies receiving the funds). The second method is providing the transaction ID together with a signature (OutProof…), which are sufficient for the recipient to verify the payment locally in their wallet. Note that the first method reveals payment details to the block explorer website and should therefore be performed only when necessary, for cases of transactions with anonymized funds, and with block explorer website visited over the Tor network.
How to sell Monero? How to pay for a service or product when Monero is not accepted? Selling Monero can be done using methods analogous to buying, but in the reverse direction. The simplest option is to exchange Monero for another cryptocurrency (e.g., Litecoin) via Trocador.app, then sell the received Litecoin at a crypto ATM, on an exchange, or via a P2P trade with a private individual. Alternatively, you can exchange Monero directly on a P2P platform such as RetoSwap. The process is similar to buying but you should account for tax obligations. In Germany, crypto profits from selling within 12 months are taxable at your personal income‑tax (on the full amount if a prior purchase was not declared), and when sold after one year is tax‑free. In Austria most crypto profits (for assets acquired after 28 Feb 2021) are taxed at a flat 27.5%, and in Switzerland private individuals pay no capital‑gains tax on crypto unless considered as “professional” traders where income tax obligation would apply. It is generally advised to appropriately maintain anonymity in the sale transaction, for example, preferring cash and avoiding methods which require identity verification. To make it harder to link the sale with the earlier purchase and to prevent tracing of funds, it is recommended to perform churning beforehand and use a dedicated wallet for the sale.

If the vendor does not accept Monero, the most convenient option is to exchange it via Trocador.app in Payment mode, specifying the destination payment address in another accepted cryptocurrency (e.g., Litecoin). Payment mode allows specifying the exact target amount, and the chosen service will perform the transfer in Litecoin, which reduces privacy risks associated with using transparent cryptocurrency wallets. For larger amounts, it is recommended to split the exchange into smaller transactions and fund a one-time-use Litecoin wallet run in an anonymized operating system (Whonix-Workstation or Tails).

MoneroGUI Wallet on Germania Blog