Ootle / Guides / Setup a Wallet

Setup a Wallet

Covered in this guide

In this guide, you will:

Download and install the Tari Ootle Wallet daemon.
Connect your wallet to the esmeralda testnet.
Create a default account for managing your keys and funds.
Claim testnet funds from the built-in faucet to pay for transactions.

This guide will walk you through setting up a wallet daemon and connecting it to the esmeralda testnet. This wallet will allow you to manage your funds and interact with the Tari L2 network.

1. Running a Wallet Daemon

Download the latest release of the wallet daemon for your platform:

Release Notes: v0.45.0 (10/6/2026)

Asset Name	Size	Link
`tari_ootle_walletd-0.45.0-9c62606-linux-arm64`	58.62 MB	Download
`tari_ootle_walletd-0.45.0-9c62606-linux-x86_64`	59.02 MB	Download
`tari_ootle_walletd-0.45.0-9c62606-macos-arm64`	49.26 MB	Download
`tari_ootle_walletd-0.45.0-9c62606-windows-arm64.exe`	32.70 MB	Download
`tari_ootle_walletd-0.45.0-9c62606-windows-x64.exe`	35.95 MB	Download

Once downloaded, place the executable in a directory of your choice (probably somewhere in your PATH).

On Linux and MacOS, you may need to set execute permission before running it. You can do this with the following command:

# Rename the downloaded file to tari_ootle_walletd for convenience
mv [downloaded-file] tari_ootle_walletd
# Set execute permission
chmod +x tari_ootle_walletd

Check that it works by running:

./tari_ootle_walletd --help

Start the wallet daemon with the following command:

# To connect to the esmeralda testnet, use the --network flag:
./tari_ootle_walletd --network esme

Tip

The first time you run the wallet, it will create a directory/directories for your new wallet. This includes configuration and the wallet SQLite database. The location depends on your platform. You can specify a specific location with the --base-path/-b flag.

Note

By specifying the “esme”(ralda) network, your wallet will connect to a esmeralda testnet indexer. An indexer provides a view into the state of the blockchain, allowing your wallet to see transactions, balances, and other on-chain data.

The wallet will serve a web UI by default at http://localhost:5100. You can open this in your browser to manage your wallet and view transactions. You can change this by using the --listen-on flag when starting the wallet daemon.

# Listens on 127.0.0.1:12345 instead of the default
./tari_ootle_walletd --network esme --listen-on 127.0.0.1:12345

Caution

The Wallet Daemon is not necessarily how you’d want to work with mainnet funds as a user. It’s primary purpose is to provide a RPC service in a secure environment e.g. an exchange could use the wallet daemon internally. Other wallets suited for end users are in the works.

2. Creating your first account

When you first start the wallet, it will prompt you to create a new “default” account. The only step is to name it. This account represents a secret key and associated address that you can use to send and receive funds. You can create multiple accounts if you wish, but for this guide we’ll just use the default account.

Once you create the account, you should see it in the wallet UI with a balance of 0.

Tip

You can create multiple accounts in the wallet. Each account has its own secret key and address managed within the same wallet.

3. Get funds from the faucet

Once your wallet is running, you’ll need some funds to pay for transactions. You can get funds from the testnet faucet. The wallet has built-in support for the faucet, so you can request funds directly from the wallet UI.

Simply click the “Claim Testnet Funds” button.

This will submit a transaction to the testnet faucet component, and create a new vault in your account that contains your funds.

You’re good to go! You can now use your wallet to send funds to your friends, publish templates, and explore the Tari L2 network.

4. Sending and Receiving funds

To send funds, click the “Send” button in the wallet UI. This will open a form where you can enter the recipient’s address and the amount you want to send.

To receive funds, simply share your wallet address with the sender. You can find your wallet address under Account details > Address in the wallet UI.

Tip

You can send funds within accounts in the same wallet, or to other wallets on the same network.

5. A Note on Authentication

You may have noticed that the wallet didn’t require any authentication. This is because the wallet daemon currently defaults to no auth. This will surely change in future.

If you would like to enable authentication, pass --auth webauthn when starting the wallet daemon. This will require you to register a passkey for the wallet.

./tari_ootle_walletd --network esme --auth webauthn

6. Resetting your wallet (testnet only)

During testnet development, the network may be reset, which invalidates all on-chain state. When this happens, your wallet’s local database will be out of sync with the network.

To reset your wallet and clear all local on-chain state (accounts, transactions, balances, etc.), run:

./tari_ootle_walletd --network esme reset

This will move your wallet database to a timestamped backup file (e.g. wallet.sqlite.1711540000.bak) and print a confirmation. The next time you start the wallet daemon, a fresh database will be created automatically.

Tip

Your seed key is stored in the OS keyring and is not affected by the reset. After resetting, your wallet will derive the same addresses from the seed, so your send addresses remain the same. However, since the network itself was reset, previous accounts and balances no longer exist on-chain.

Caution

The reset command is only available on testnet networks. It will refuse to run on mainnet.

To skip the interactive confirmation prompt (useful for scripts), pass --confirm:

./tari_ootle_walletd --network esme reset --confirm

We’re done

Congratulations! If everything went smoothly you’ve successfully set up a wallet and connected it to the esmeralda testnet.

Next Steps

Now that you have a running wallet, you can start exploring the Tari L2 network. Here are some next steps:

Explore the wallet UI and get familiar with its features.
Try sending and receiving funds with your wallet.
If you’re ready to start learning about template development, head over to Templates Overview guide.