The following demonstrates how to set up a Samourai Mobile Wallet.
Alternatively check best Bitcoin wallets for more choices.
To get started we must head to the Samourai website and download the wallet.
You can also go straight to Google Play on your mobile and download the wallet.
In this guide, we are using Samoura Bitcoin Wallet v 0.99.95t
The Samourai wallet is our absolute favorite, it is simplistic in nature, yet offers the top industry features regarding Bitcoin and privacy, it is the true wallet for the streets.
But for the purpose of this guide, we will not go through all the privacy features the wallet is famous for, we will simply get you started with your very own Bitcoin wallet.
That being said, let’s get started.
After you have downloaded and installed the Wallet, you will end up with this.
Click START NEW WALLET
Alternatively, you can Enable Tor, if you do not know what this is, leave it as it is.
Create a passphrase, and make sure you back it up somewhere safe. This passphrase opens your encrypted wallet file, if you lose this passphrase you won’t have any way to access your encrypted wallet file, and no one else to blame other then yourself.
We suggest you have multiple backups in case something goes wrong.
Set a pin code.
The pin code will be used every time you open the app on your mobile. Make sure you back it up or either remember it well.
Continue by confirming your pin
RECOVERY WORDS (Seed) – This is the most important step!
Although the app doesn’t allow screenshots for privacy concerns in this step, it goes like this.
The wallet generates public and private keys from the “seed” words.
The words look like this:
sentence piece soup skull bacon blue release actual cream motion globe author
In other words, the seed + passphrase is your access to your coins if you lose either one of these you won’t have any way to access your wallet, and will lose your coins forever.
Make sure you backup the seed words on the same exact order.
After you are 100% sure you have stored the seed somewhere safe, continue by clicking
RETURN TO WALLET
Next the wallet will ask if you wanna claim your PayNymID.
PayNymID is publicly shareable ID for sending and receiving Bitcoin stealth payments.
Unlike ordinary Bitcoin addresses, PayNym cannot be found on the blockchain, so you can’t see the balance or transactions associated with a PayNym.
You can connect to your friends, family, and anyone else. Once connected there will no longer be a need to request a bitcoin address, the PayNym is all you need.
You may Claim your PayNymID if you want, we will skip it for now.
Next it’s time to backup the actual encrypted wallet file, this is the file you need if you want to transfer your wallet on another phone, it is also just as important as the wallet seed, because with this file, and passphrase, you can always recover your wallet no matter what!
The wallet file backup is extremely long string of text, and the backups can be done in two ways, either export it to your clipboard and copy on somewhere in the phone, or simply mail it to yourself. Since we don’t want to expose our backup we will use clipboard, and transfer it physically somewhere safe.
(Remember that the backup is useless without your passphrase)
And that’s it!
You now have now successfully created the most privacy rich Bitcoin wallet in the industry.
To receive Bitcoin, you simply go to the bottom right corner and click Receive.
Similarly, if you wanna send Bitcoin, you click Send.
Like we mentioned above, the wallet offers a lot of rich features.
For example, when receiving coins, you can specify which address type to use, and the wallet uses advanced address types (bench32) ones automatically.
When sending coins you have a variety of features to choose from, such as PayNymID, Smart Miner Fees, and Batch Spending.
Other rich features include Ricochet, STONEWALL, and Whirlpool.
The wallet is also capable of doing remote SMS commands, you may connect to your personal full node, and operate in full offline mode, meaning the wallet can also be used as cold storage.
We will write extensively more about Samourai wallet in the future, for now, if you want to learn more about these advanced features, we suggest you take a good look at their website.
Now that you have your Bitcoin address, you may want to learn how to get started with Bitcoin.