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Quickstart

In this tutorial we will see how to:

  • Download and install Grin and Grin-Wallet.
  • Run a Grin Full Node
  • Create a Grin-Wallet
  • Learn to receive and send grins

Requirements

Grin and Grin-Wallet softwares are compatible with Linux, macOS and Windows. Specifically it has been tested on:

  • Ubuntu 18.04 (earlier versions will work but you'll need to compile )
  • Windows 10
  • macOS 10.15 Catalina

Download Grin and Grin-Wallet

Info

The following section will help you install Grin and Grin-Wallet using precompiled binaries.

If you wish to build Grin and Grin-wallet go the building section.

Linux

Using the Snap Store

If you have Snap installed simply type:

snap install grin

Tip

You can now follow the rest of the documentation. Please note that, when installed with Snap, Grin-Wallet is accessible using the grin.wallet command instead of grin-wallet.

Manually

If your distribution does not include snap or if you do not wish to use it, you can download the binaries by yourself.

On Grin website, download Grin and Grin-Wallet.

Next, open a new terminal windows in the directory where the files were downloaded and type:

sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzf grin-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz --strip-components=1
sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzf grin-wallet-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz --strip-components=1

This will install grin and grin-wallet.

Warning

If you have the following error whe you try to start Grin:

grin: error while loading shared libraries: libncursesw.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Simply install libncursesw5:

sudo apt install libncursesw5

If you wish to build Grin and Grin-wallet go the building section.

macOS

The easiest way to install Grin and Grin-Wallet on macOS is with homebrew.

If you do not have homebrew installed, open the "Terminal.app" and paste the following line:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

This will install homebrew on your computer. Once it is finished you can now install Grin and Grin-Wallet:

brew install grin grin-wallet

That's it! You have the latest version of Grin and Grin-Wallet.

If later you want to update to the latest version simply run:

brew update

Windows

On Windows 10, the easiest way to install Grin and Grin-Wallet is by downloading the binaries on Grin website.

We recommed that you create a directory called grin in C:\Users\%USER%. In this directory, extract both grin.exe and grin-wallet.exe.

That's it, Grin and Grin-Wallet are installed!

Running a Grin Node

Info

The rest of the documentation is common for Linux, macOS and Windows.

On Windows, you will need to replace the grin and grin-wallet commands with grin.exe and grin-wallet.exe.

Running a Grin node is as simple as writting the followig command in your command prompt:

grin

You should see the following window:

TUI

Congratulations 🎉! You now have a fully running Grin full node. The initial sync might take from 30 minutes to a few hours depending on your connection speed and CPU performance.

Creating a Grin Wallet

While your node is syncing, let's create a new Grin wallet.

In the command prompt type the followig:

grin-wallet init

Your wallet will now ask for a password. This password is optional. Enter it 2 times. In order to hide your password, your keyboard input will not be displayed.

Please enter a password for your new wallet
Password:
Confirm Password:

On you have entered the same password two times, the wallet will show your recovery phrase:

Your recovery phrase is:

undo execute festival romance just void custom leopard balcony trick waste castle fire master lecture ordinary million slam wise oil whisper mechanic episode room

Store it somewhere safe, preferably on a non digital format.

That's it, your wallet is now created.