logo
260712 |*| |c|

Monero view-only wallets

~121s

Overview: In this guide we are going to explore XMR view-only wallets by peeking inside the Monero 'General Fund' donation address.

Motivation

Although private by default, Monero can be optionally transparent via its private viewkey system.

Assumptions

  • Linux machine with Monero CLI installed1'2
  • ~5 mins free time (+sync time)

1. Get address and private view key

The GF base XMR address3 and the associated view key4 have always been public5, but if you want to test this with your own address instead, open your wallet and type in address and viewkey.

2. Create Monero view-only wallet

In a terminal:

monero-wallet-cli --generate-from-view-key general-fund

Note: replace 'general-fund' with the name you want for your wallet file; if connecting to a remote node, include the necessary flag --daemon-address <host:port>.

Paste in the address when prompted for Standard address:

44AFFq5kSiGBoZ4NMDwYtN18obc8AemS33DBLWs3H7otXft3XjrpDtQGv7SqSsaBYBb98uNbr2VBBEt7f2wfn3RVGQBEP3A

And then the view key when prompted for View key:

f359631075708155cc3d92a32b75a7d02a5dcf27756707b47a2b31b21c389501

After entering and confirming a password for the wallet, you should be asked to provide an optional restore height or date (format: YYYY-MM-DD). Press Enter if you want to get the full history.

You can start exploring after it fully syncs. Read the Monero CLI Wallet cheat sheet6 to get familiar with the most common commands.

Observations

  • by sharing a viewkey, you are allowing access to view every incoming transaction for that address
  • the balance can be inaccurate, as outgoing transactions cannot be reliably viewed as of June 2017 (you need to import the accompanying key images7 of each output of the wallet to get the correct balance and view spent transactions8; this behavior might change with FCMPs9)
  • note that without the private spend key, view-only wallets cannot spend a balance

That's it. You can now set up a Monero view-only wallet. Use it to validate incoming transactions to cold/hardware wallets, monitor incoming donations, and validate payments.

U260712: removed Seraphis mention, added FCMPs reference.