Merchants will probably find more convenient to use the 'Merchant' page (screenshot below), which is explained in detail in the 'Merchant view' section of
When you create your wallet for the first time, an @address will be automatically shown to you. That's your primary address. If you want, you can simply use that address to receive payments. You should be concerned about who knows about this address (since one address in different locations can be associated), but you do not need to worry about blockchain observers watching transactions to this address like with Bitcoin. A friend can send transactions to the same address without reduced privacy.
As you can see from the picture above, every account has an index number that you can use to switch from one account to the other using the command `account switch [index]`. For example, using the picture above as reference, if you would like to switch to the 'Donations' account to monitor it, you can do so by giving your CLI this command `account switch 1`. Now you are sitting on your 'Donations' account and you can start using it right away.
Every account can host a virtually infinite amount of subaddresses. These work exactly like a normal address and you can create as many as you want and use them to receive XMR to the account they are linked to. To create a new subaddress for an account, use the command:
Note that the instructions below are just the minimal necessary to create and use accounts/subaddresses. The CLI offer more capillary ways to handle accounts and the wallet in general. Use the command 'help' to list all the available options.
This list only includes the tools stewarded by the core team, but the Monero ecosystem is much more vast. People can contribute to the development of libraries, services, documentation, graphics, etc. The list is virtually infinite. Contact or join the workgroup(s) to which you'd like to contribute.
An easy and effective way to help the Monero network is to run a @node. Nodes ensure the network keeps running safe and decentralized. A simple fully synchronized node is enough to help the network, but if you want to go out of your way, you could run an open @remote-node, to allow other people to connect to it.
Mining ensures the safety of the network. Monero uses @randomx, an ASIC-resistant algorithm developed by Monero contributors, which aims to remain mineable by common consumer-grade hardware. For more info about mining see the
One of the most complete resources about Monero. If you have a question which is not in this FAQ, you will likely find the answer on the Monero StackExchange.
Contact a Workgroup. Almost everything in Monero is managed by workgroups, which are groups of contributors (often lead by a coordinator) working on some specific aspect of the development. Some examples are: the localization workgroup (translations), the community workgroup, the GUI workgroup, the Outreach workgroup and so on. Workgroups are mostly independent and have their own structure. Contact the workgroup that interests you and ask how you can help. For a list of contacts see the
A @mnemonic-seed is a set of 25 words that can be used to restore your account anywhere. Keep these words safe and do not share them with someone else. You can use this seed to restore your account, even if your computer crashes.
Monero uses three different privacy technologies: @ring-signatures, ring confidential transactions (@RingCT), and @stealth-addresses. These hide the sender, amount, and receiver in the @transaction, respectively. All transactions on the network are private by mandate; there is no way to accidentally send a transparent transaction. This feature is exclusive to Monero. You do not need to trust anyone else with your privacy.
In Monero, every @transaction output is uniquely associated with a key image that can only be generated by the holder of that output. Key images that are used more than once are rejected by the miners as double-spends and cannot be added to a valid @block. When a new transaction is received, miners verify that the key image does not already exist for a previous transaction to ensure it's not a double-spend.
We can also know that transaction amounts are valid even though the value of the inputs that you are spending and the value of the outputs you are sending are encrypted (these are hidden to everyone except the recipient). Because the amounts are encrypted using @Pedersen-commitments what this means is that no observers can tell the amounts of the inputs and outputs, but they can do math on the Pedersen commitments to determine that no Monero was created out of thin air.
