Create or restore a wallet

A wallet is its recovery phrase. Every wallet that follows TCC-0001 derives the same addresses from it, and every wallet that follows TCC-0002 opens the same wallet file. The Tenrai project ships three:

Wallet	For
Tenrai Wallet	Everyday use on a computer or phone
`tenrai-wallet`	The command line, servers and automation
Tenrai Paper Wallet	Creating a wallet offline and keeping it on paper

What protects your wallet

Secret	What it does	Where it is kept
Recovery phrase	24 English words. Restores the wallet on any device	Only where you write it down
Password	Opens the encrypted wallet file on this device, at least 12 characters	Nowhere; asked when needed
Recovery passphrase	Optional second secret on top of the 24 words	Nowhere; asked when needed

Create a wallet

Tenrai Wallet

Choose Create.
Write the 24 words on paper, in order, and check every word.
Choose a password. It locks the wallet on this device; the 24 words restore it anywhere.
Open the wallet. Receive shows your first address.

Command line

Shell

tenrai-wallet

The first start finds no wallet and offers to create one or to restore one. It asks for a password, shows the 24 words and names the wallet file:

System	Wallet file
Windows	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Tenrai\wallet\mainnet\wallet.vault`
Linux, macOS	`~/.tenrai/wallet/mainnet/wallet.vault`

Every later start asks for the password and opens the menu. For scripts, tenrai-wallet init creates the wallet in one step.

Recovery passphrase

A passphrase is an extra secret on top of the 24 words. With it, the words alone no longer open the wallet, which protects a written backup that someone finds or photographs. Keep it apart from the words.

A wrong passphrase does not fail: it opens a different, empty wallet. Every wallet therefore shows a recovery fingerprint such as TRAI-9C41-0B7E when it is created or restored. Note it down and compare it after every restore.

Restore a wallet

Tenrai Wallet

From	Steps
The 24 words	Restore, then Recovery phrase. Each word is checked as you type; choose a new password
A wallet file	Restore, then Wallet file. Enter the password the file was saved with

Command line

Shell

tenrai-wallet import --mnemonic-file words.txt
tenrai-wallet import --from-vault saved.vault

--passphrase-file adds the recovery passphrase. import prints the recovery_fingerprint; the wallet keeps it and refuses a passphrase that would open another wallet. An existing wallet file is never replaced.

The first unlock after a restore looks 100 addresses past the last used one, so coins on later addresses show up too. Finding coins on other addresses explains how to look further.

Back up the wallet file

The wallet file holds only the encrypted seed: 103 bytes, sealed with Argon2id and XChaCha20-Poly1305. It opens with the wallet's password in any wallet that follows TCC-0002.

Tenrai Wallet

Settings, Security, Wallet file saves it as a .vault file.

Command line

Copy the wallet file, or write a copy with tenrai-wallet export-vault.

The 24 words restore the wallet without the file; the file restores it without the words, but only with its password.

Several wallets on one device

The Tenrai Wallet keeps up to 64 wallets on one device, each with its own password, addresses, history and settings. Only the open one talks to the network, and opening another locks it first. Add a wallet on the unlock screen creates or restores another; Settings, Wallets renames them and deletes what the device keeps of them.

On the command line, --file and --password-file choose another wallet file for any command.

Paper wallet

The Tenrai Paper Wallet is a single page that you open from disk and that never connects to a network. It creates a wallet, or reprints one from its 24 words, and prints the phrase with up to five receiving addresses and their QR codes, the verification words of the first address and the recovery fingerprint.