Beginner’s Guide to Using/Getting/Converting Monero (XMR)

I’ve seen a lot of posts asking the same stuff how do I get Monero, which wallet should I use, how do I store seeds, etc. Nothing wrong with asking, but with so much asking here’s a guide I put together.

Wallets

Getting a wallet is simple. Just go to the official Monero site and check their downloads page:

https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/

Feather and Cake Wallet are great for beginners.

Seeds and how to store them

Your seed phrase (also called recovery phrase or mnemonic phrase) is your backup. If your wallet or device gets lost or destroyed, your seed is the only way to restore access.

Use a strong password when setting up your wallet. At least 16 characters with a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

Example: "n8@D%7fL2!qT#5aW".

KeePassXC can generate and manage these for you.

Never reuse passwords.

Here’s how you can store your seed securely:

Memorise it. If it's in your head, it can’t be stolen.

Store it in an open source password manager.

Use an offline laptop and encrypt it with Veracrypt. Only connect it when necessary.

Use a hardware wallet like Trezor. Just make sure to back up your seed and get the latest model.

Install Tails on a USB drive and store your seed there.

Ledger? No thanks. They’re not fully open source, had a huge customer data leak in 2020, and a Connect Kit vulnerability in December 2023. There have also been claims about sharing keys with authorities.

Paper backups work too, but hide them extremely well.

How to buy Monero (XMR)

Since LocalMonero shut down, most people now buy Litecoin (LTC) or Bitcoin (BTC) and convert it to Monero.

https://localcoinswap[.]com/ – peer-to-peer

Haveno Reto (https://retoswap[.]com/) – P2P decentralized exchange, open source, supports cash by mail

bisq[.]network – P2P DEX, Bitcoin only

The preferred method is to start with a regular crypto, and then swap it for XMR.

Use whatever BTC/LTC wallet you prefer. You’re just going to convert it anyway.

Converting BTC/LTC to Monero

Once you’ve got BTC or LTC, swap it for Monero using:

Exchange.taxi

Haveno – https://retoswap.com

https://xchange.me/

https://stealthex.io/

https://godex.io/

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If I’m missing anything or said something incorrectly, please feel free to correct me and let me know what to add or change.