exccwallet Setup Guide

This guide is intended to help you set up the exccwallet application using startup flags.

Prerequisites:

Use the latest exccinstall to install exccwallet. Additional steps will be required if another installation method was used.
Review how the launch commands differ for the Command Prompt (Windows) and Bash (macOS/Linux) shells, and how the home directories differ here.
Setup exccd and have it running in the background.

exccwallet is a daemon responsible for managing ExchangeCoin wallets for a single user. It enables users to manage their accounts, addresses, and transactions, as well as track balances across addresses. Additionally, it allows stakeholders to participate in Proof-of-Stake voting.

exccwallet requires a wallet.db file to exist in its home directory before it can be run. This file contains all the wallet’s accounts, addresses, and transactions, and can only be created by creating a new wallet. If you used exccinstall, this process would have been handled automatically for you. If you have deleted your wallet.db file or used a different installation process, you can manually create a new wallet using the command outlined in the manual wallet creation command section.

Critical Information

During your wallet’s creation process, you will receive a series of 24 words known as a seed phrase. This seed phrase essentially serves as the private key for your wallet. With this seed phrase, you can restore your private keys, transaction history, and balances using any ExchangeCoin wallet on any computer.

This implies that anyone with knowledge of your seed can restore your private keys, transaction history, and balances to an ExchangeCoin wallet on their computer without your consent. Therefore, safeguarding your seed phrase is crucial. Treat this seed as you would a physical key to a safe. Losing your seed phrase results in permanent loss of access to your wallet and its funds. Neither you nor the ExchangeCoin developers can recover it. It is advisable to write your seed phrase on paper and store it securely. If you opt to keep it on your computer, store it in an encrypted document (do not forget the password) to protect against theft of the file or your computer.

Each seed phrase is also linked to a 64-character seed hex. The seed hex operates similarly to the seed phrase, so securing your seed hex is equally important.

NEVER SHARE YOUR SEED OR THE ASSOCIATED HEX KEY WITH ANYONE, INCLUDING EXCHANGECOIN DEVELOPERS!

Manual Wallet Creation Command

If you do not already have a wallet.db file stored in exccwallet‘s home directory, you must run the exccwallet --create command. Steps for this can be found below.

Open a new shell window (Bash/Command Prompt/etc,..).
Navigate to the directory of the exccwallet executable.
Enter the command exccwallet --create (review the Prerequisites above if you are unsure whether you should use ./exccwallet or exccwallet.exe for the previous command).

Wallet Creation Walkthrough

During the wallet creation process, you will set a private passphrase and have the option to set a public passphrase. This is done by following these steps:

Set Passphrases for Your Wallet

Once you have executed the exccwallet --create command, you will be prompted to enter your private passphrase:
```
Enter the private passphrase for your new wallet:
```
This passphrase is used to unlock your wallet when creating transactions or voting with Proof-of-Stake. It is essential to use a unique and strong password to protect the private keys within your wallet file from theft.

After confirming your private passphrase, you will see the following prompt:
```
Do you want to add an additional layer of encryption for public data? (n/no/y/yes) [no]:
```
The public passphrase is optional and is used to encrypt all of the public data (transactions and addresses) within your wallet file. If your wallet file is stolen, an adversary cannot link you to your transactions.
Record Your Seed

Before proceeding to create a new seed for your wallet, it is crucial to review the Critical Information section above to ensure the safety of your funds.

Once you have set your private passphrase and optional public passphrase, you will be prompted with the option to use an existing wallet seed. This guide assumes that you do not have an existing seed, so you can simply hit Enter to proceed.
```
Do you have an existing wallet seed you want to use? (n/no/y/yes) [no]:
```
This guide assumes you do not have an existing seed, so continue by hitting Enter which will answer the prompt with the default [no]. NOTE: If you wish to restore your wallet by using your seed, you would simply enter [yes] here and follow the instructions on screen.

After answering [no], your seed phrase (wallet generation seed) and its hex will be displayed in the window. Please read through the IMPORTANT section displayed immediately after the hex.

It is essential to emphasize the importance of securely storing your seed phrase. If you have not already memorized it, please refer to the Critical Information section above and take the necessary steps to ensure it is saved in a secure location.

Once you have written down the seed phrase and hex, type OK and press Enter. NOTE: if you did not write the phrase down before continuing, you should start this process over after deleting your wallet file

After pressing Enter, you should see the following message:
```
Creating the wallet...
The wallet has been created successfully.
```
The wallet will then be created. This might take a few minutes if you have a slow computer.

Launching exccwallet

In order to launch exccwallet, you first must have created your wallet and connected exccd to the ExchangeCoin network.

Configure RPC Username and Password

If you used exccinstall, your configuration files are already setup with the RPC username/password for exccd, exccwallet, and exccctl.

If you did not use exccinstall, you will need to enable the bare minimum settings in your configuration files. Follow this guide to do so.
Start exccwallet

Assuming the configuration files are set up correctly, open another command prompt or terminal window in your ExchangeCoin directory. You can also use the existing window if you just created your wallet. Then, enter the command provided below (refer to the Prerequisites section of this guide to ensure that you have the correct command for your operating system and shell application).
```
exccwallet
```
Your exccwallet will now connect to the network via exccd. It will begin to scan the network for your active addresses which can take a few minutes on slow computers. Eventually it will start showing lines like:
```
[INF] WLLT: Connecting block 0000000000002004ea8fa74af334cb291a22832642b5be603995683534bbb97b, height 9990
```
This means your wallet is successfully connected to the network through your daemon.

To learn how to use exccd and exccwallet, visit the exccctl Basics guide. You’ll learn how to unlock your wallet, send and receive EXCC using exccctl, check your balance, and check various network stats.