Your first wallet, safely, on stagenet

You will create a Monero wallet on stagenet, prove that your paper seed really restores it, receive test coins, send a payment to yourself, and save an encrypted backup. Stagenet coins have no value, so nothing you do here can cost you money.

Level: beginner · Time: 45 to 60 minutes, much of it waiting for blocks · Before this: Lessons 1 to 5

What you need

• Kilonova installed on Linux, Windows or Android. See Install Kilonova, and check the download against SHA256SUMS as it describes.
• A pen and a sheet of paper. Write STAGENET at the top.
• Optional, for part 4: a Linux computer running your own stagenet node (monerod --stagenet), fully synced, and poolwatch installed on the same computer.

DANGER

The 16 words you are about to see control this wallet. Treat them as you would a real seed: paper only. No photo, no screenshot, no copying into a notes app or chat. The habit you build here is the one that protects real funds later.

Part 1: create a stagenet wallet

1. Open Kilonova. The Wallets screen opens. In the Network switcher at the top, select Stagenet.

   Expected: a strip reads Stagenet. These coins have no value.

2. Select Create wallet (or the + button, then Create wallet). In Wallet name, type Lab.

3. Under Seed format, keep Polyseed, 16 words. Under How should this wallet sync?, keep Full sync. Select Continue.

4. On Write down your seed, copy every word onto your paper, in order, with its number. Check the spelling, then select I wrote them down.

5. On Check your seed, type each word Kilonova asks for (for example Word number 7) from your paper, then select Continue.

   Expected: you move on. If you see That word does not match. Check what you wrote down., fix the paper copy, not only the field.

6. Type a Password of at least 8 characters, type it again in Confirm password, and select Create wallet.

   Expected: the wallet opens. The status line goes from Starting sync to Scanning block … of … and then Synced, block ….

Part 2: prove the seed restores the wallet

A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a backup. Here you rebuild the wallet from the paper alone.

1. In the Lab wallet, select Receive. Write the first six and last six characters of the Main address on a separate scrap of paper. It starts with 5, because this is stagenet.

2. Back on the Wallets screen, select +, then Restore wallet. Under Restore from, choose Seed words.

3. In Wallet name, type Lab restored. In Seed words, type the 16 words from your paper, separated by spaces.

   Leave Restore height (optional) empty: a Polyseed seed already includes it.

4. Under How should this wallet sync?, choose Full sync. Set a password, then select Restore wallet.

5. When Lab restored shows Synced, block …, select Receive in it and compare its Main address with your scrap of paper.

   Expected: the same address, character for character. Nothing was copied from the first wallet; everything came from the 16 words. Your paper backup works.

Part 3: receive stagenet coins

1. In Lab, select Receive, then Copy to copy the Main address.

2. Open a public stagenet faucet in your browser (search for one), paste the address, and ask for coins. Check that the address you pasted starts with 5.

   A faucet needs only your address. If any site asks for your seed or keys, close it.

3. Watch the wallet.

   Expected: first +… XMR waiting for a block while the payment sits in the mempool. A few minutes later it appears under History, marked Locked.

4. Wait for the coins to unlock: 10 blocks, about 20 minutes. Use the time for part 4.

   Expected: Locked disappears from the payment, and the spendable balance rises. Lab restored shows the same payment once it has synced, because it is the same wallet.

Part 4 (optional): get poolwatch watching your stagenet node

Skip this part if you do not run a stagenet node. Everything else in the lab works without it.

1. In the poolwatch folder, copy the example configuration:

   cp poolwatch.example.toml poolwatch.toml

2. Open poolwatch.toml. Keep [general] as it is. Delete all four [[chain]] blocks and add this one. Port 38081 is monerod's default RPC port on stagenet:

   [[chain]]
   id = "monero-stagenet"
   display_name = "Monero stagenet"
   ticker = "XMR"
   family = "cryptonote"
   rpc_url = "http://127.0.0.1:38081"
   decimals = 12
   fee_rate_unit = "pN/B"

3. Check the configuration with a one-off report:

   ./poolwatch --once

   Expected: Monero stagenet (monero-stagenet): OK, then txs:, pool size: and height:. If you see ERROR -, check that monerod --stagenet is running and compare rpc_url with its RPC port.

4. Start the full view with ./poolwatch.

   Expected: one row, Monero stagenet, with a green dot. Its HEIGHT is close to the block number Kilonova shows in Synced, block ….

5. In Kilonova, point stagenet at your node: open Settings, then Nodes, and pick Stagenet. Type 127.0.0.1:38081 in Add a node, as host:port or https://host:port and select Add. In its Node actions menu, choose Use this node.

   Expected: the node is tagged Your node. Check next to it shows Answering, at block ….

Part 5: send a payment to yourself

Wait until the faucet coins are no longer Locked.

1. In Lab, select Receive, then New address. Give it the label Lab test, and Copy that new address.

2. Wait for Synced, then select Send. In To, select Paste. Type 0.01 in Amount (or less, if the faucet sent less). Leave Fee on Normal. Select Review.

   Expected: Choosing decoys and signing. Nothing is sent yet.

3. On Check before sending, read every line: the recipient and amount, Network fee, Leaves this wallet and Change back to this wallet.

   Expected: the screen also reads This is a test network. These coins have no value.

4. Select Send now and confirm with your password.

   Expected: Sent. It confirms when the next block is mined. The payment shows as Pending in History.

5. In History, select the pending payment. The Transaction screen shows its Transaction ID. Note its first six characters.

6. If you did part 4: in poolwatch, press 1 to open the detail view. Press /, type those six characters, and press Enter.

   Expected: the table title shows your filter, such as [/a4f3c2], and one row is left: your transaction, with its SIZE, FEE/B and an AGE that keeps counting. That is your payment waiting in your node's mempool.

7. Keep watching both apps for a few minutes.

   Expected: the row disappears from poolwatch and departed (mined/dropped) goes up by at least one. In Kilonova, Pending changes to the block number. Press / and then Esc in poolwatch to clear the filter.

Your balance went down by the fee only: the 0.01 went to an address of the same wallet.

Part 6: make an encrypted backup

1. Open Settings, then Backup (under Your data).

2. Under Wallets to include, choose Lab.

3. Type a Backup passphrase of at least 12 characters, and type it again in Repeat the passphrase. Write the passphrase on your STAGENET paper.

4. Select Save backup and choose where to save the file.

   Expected: Encrypting and saving the backup, then Saved … with the file name and size.

5. Prove the backup opens: open Settings, then Restore from backup. Select Choose file, pick the backup, type its passphrase and select Open backup.

   Expected: This backup holds 1 wallet. Go back without selecting Restore these wallets; you only wanted to know that it opens.

Break it, try it

Each of these shows a safety net doing its job. None of them changes your wallet.

Try this	Expected
Start Restore wallet with your seed, but replace the first two letters of one word with zz	One of the words is not in the English seed word list.
Start it again with two different words swapped	The words do not match their checksum. Check the spelling and order. The checksum is there to catch exactly this kind of copying mistake
Leave out one word	A seed has 25 words, or 16 for Polyseed.
Open your backup with a wrong passphrase	Wrong passphrase, or the backup is damaged. The passphrase is case-sensitive
(Part 4) Stop monerod while poolwatch runs	The dot turns red and the bottom line shows last error: with a retry in countdown. Start the node again and it turns green

Leave each restore attempt without finishing it once you have seen the message.

You may notice that a typo late in a long word is accepted. For 16-word Polyseed seeds, Kilonova recognises each word by its first four letters, which are unique in the word list. A mistake in those first four letters is the one that matters, so check them most carefully on your paper.

Clean up

1. Delete the duplicate: open Lab restored, then Wallet options, choose Delete wallet and enter its password. Nothing is lost, because Lab and your paper seed are the same wallet.

2. If you did part 4: press q to quit poolwatch. In Kilonova, open Settings, Nodes, Stagenet, select a node tagged Public node to use it again, and choose Remove from your node's Node actions menu. Stop monerod when you no longer need it.

3. Decide what to keep. You can keep Lab, its paper and the backup file for more practice; they hold nothing of value. If you throw the paper away, shred it anyway: it is good practice for the real thing.

Check yourself

QuizLab: your first wallet, safely

Question 1 of 6

In the lab, how do you prove that your paper seed restores the wallet?

Score: 0

What you learned

• How to create a wallet on stagenet and copy its seed correctly.
• That a seed restores the same wallet, proved by an identical main address.
• What a payment looks like from mempool to block to unlocked, in Kilonova and in poolwatch.
• How to make an encrypted backup and check that it opens.

Next steps

• Kilonova: Full sync or light wallet server
• Kilonova: Nodes, proxy and Tor
• poolwatch: Read the dashboard and detail view
• Back to the Crypto wallets track