This guide covers installing and configuring the Oxen CLI (Command Line Interface) Wallet on macOS.
If you are new to console or terminal commands and/or would prefer a wallet with buttons and Oxen branding, we suggest you download the GUI Wallet.
Before following the guide below, you'll need to download the CLI Wallet for macOS. This guide assumes you are running the latest version of macOS and have Xcode installed.
To use the oxen-wallet-cli we must first have the daemon, oxend, up and running. The oxend is your node which the oxen-wallet-cli broadcasts through. Without the node running the oxen-wallet-cli will not be able to operate.
Open up the oxend file in the folder you extracted the release from. In most cases you will have the following security dialog box pop up.
If the dialog box opens up you will need to allow the oxend to open by moving your cursor to the top-left of your screen, clicking the apple logo, and then clicking on system preferences.
Once in System Preferences, click on the Security & Privacy button, check in this new screen that the oxend file was blocked, if it was you should be confident to click “Open Anyway”.
Keep clicking open and allow to give the software permission to run.
Once the software has permission a terminal window should pop up and say the following text:
Let the daemon run until the node is completely synced, you will know the node is synced once the terminal outputs the following text:
Now the daemon is synced we can run the oxen-wallet-cli file.
If this is your first time opening the oxen-wallet-cli it will request for you to specify a wallet name. For the purposes of this user guide we will use the example name MyWallet
Because this is the first time we have used the name MyWallet the following text will appear in our terminal. Type in Y or Yes to confirm your wallet name.
The oxen-wallet-cli has now generated us a wallet called MyWallet and is now prompting us for a password for our generated wallet.
Please note:
When typing the password, the characters will not appear. It will seem as if you are typing and no text is appearing however the terminal is logging every character your clicking including if it is capitalised or lowercase.
Write down your wallet name and password on a piece of paper as this information will be required every time we want to enter our wallet.
Use a password with uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, symbols and make the password at least 9 characters long.
Now once we have chosen our password for the wallet we must choose our language. For the purposes of this user guide I suggest you use English by typing 1 and clicking enter.
The oxen-wallet-cli will generate and spit out several lines of text. Some of the information that was outputted will only ever show once, therefore it is very important to do this next section properly otherwise we may lose access to our account, thus losing access to our funds.
Let’s take a close look at each section of the newly generated wallet:
The text after Generated new wallet shows your public address. This address can be shared and will be used to receive $OXEN to your wallet. All Oxen public addresses start with an L.... and are followed with a string of characters. The public address shown will be your primary address however multiple public addresses can be generated from this primary address.
You do not need to write down the public address, the command address will re-display it whenever required.
The View key address is not to be shared unless you want to show the transactions received to the public address connected to this wallet. You do not need to write down the view key as it can be re-displayed with the command viewkey.
The next few lines of text show how to navigate the oxen-wallet-client.
The next section with the random 25 words is your mnemonic seed. The seed is used to easily back-up and restore your wallet without needing any other information. At this stage, grab a pen and paper and write down your 25 words in order (having these words out of order will not restore your wallet) and store the piece of paper in a safe and secure place. If your words are stored in a text file on your computer or stored online, you increase your risk of someone else getting control of your account.
The last of the outputs are the account balance, because your wallet does not have any $OXEN in it currently the balance is showing 0.
Once we receive a transaction of $OXEN into our wallet the balance will appear as soon as the transaction is confirmed in one block (usually less than 2 minutes). Once the transaction has been confirmed over 10 blocks the balance will show in unlocked balance.
The unlocked balance is the $OXEN available to be spent/sent to other addresses.