Create the view wallet

Now that you've created your cold wallet, you're now going to create a corresponding view-only wallet. This wallet is linked to your cold wallet (same address), but it has some notable properties.

This view-only wallet can:

  • See incoming transactions
  • Create transactions

but is not allowed to sign transactions (aka, spend funds).

This view-only wallet can be placed on a "hot" machine, and you can be more relaxed with it, as it cannot spend funds.

👁 Creating the view-only wallet

In your cold wallet, goto:

  • Settings
  • Wallet

and click Create a view-only wallet.

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Take note of where the new view-only wallet is saved.

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Go to the location of where your view-only wallet is saved.

On Windows, by default it is:

C:\Users\COLD_COMPUTER\Documents\Monero\wallets\YOUR_WALLET\YOUR_WALLET_viewonly

Now, plug in your data transfer medium of choice (USB, SD Card, etc), and copy the view-only wallet over.

Only the view-only wallet.

There will be a normal file (malvarma_viewonly in the picture) and a corresponding .keys version, only the .keys version is required but you can copy both.

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📥 Importing the view-only wallet

Stepping away from the cold device - we're now switching over to your view-only device (maybe the computer you're using to read this guide?)

Plug in your data transfer medium of choice, import the view-only wallet files.

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The view-only wallet files should be placed where your Monero GUI looks for wallet files, again by default this is in:

C:\Users\HOT_COMPUTER\Documents\Monero\wallets\YOUR_WALLET

If you don't know where Monero GUI looks for wallet files, that's fine, it will allow you to select them in the next step.

Import the view-only wallet by selecting Open a wallet from file.

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There's our view-only wallet, select it and open.

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You now have a view-only wallet version of your cold wallet!

Make sure the address is the same as your cold wallet.

Note that in the top-left corner, a View Only marker appears.

From now on, if you're ever confused on which wallet we're dealing with in the guide, look for the View Only marker.

⏳ Syncing the view-only wallet

To view funds sent to this wallet, you'll be syncing this view-only wallet just like you would for a regular wallet.

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Fast forward some amount of time.

We've received some funds, and we can see it after syncing the view-only wallet.

But, we can't spend it.

To address this, let's continue to the next chapter: Transactions.

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