From zero to a working Ravencoin wallet in six steps.
Run through this once. By the end you'll have a fully working desktop wallet with a properly backed-up seed and your first confirmed RVN.
- 01
Install the wallet
Download the installer from the download page and run it on your OS. - 02
Create a new wallet
On first launch choose 'New wallet → Standard wallet'. The app generates a 12-word seed on your machine. - 03
Back up the seed
Write the 12 words on paper or stamp them into metal. Store the backup somewhere you'd trust with cash. - 04
Set a wallet password
Choose a password that encrypts the wallet file on disk. You'll enter it to sign transactions. - 05
Receive your first RVN
Open the Receive tab, copy your address, and send a small test amount before moving real balances. - 06
Wait for confirmations
Ravencoin blocks are ~1 minute. Three confirmations is a reasonable default for everyday transfers.
What actually happens the first time you open the wallet.
The six-step list above is the workflow. This section explains what each step does under the hood, what to double-check, and how to recover if something goes wrong before you've moved any real RVN.
The wallet is a standard desktop application — no online account, no email signup, nothing to register.
Download the installer from the download page and run it. On first launch the wallet asks where to store its data directory and offers a sensible per-OS default — accept it unless you have a specific reason to choose a different location. The wallet then prompts for the kind of wallet you want to create.
Creating a Ravencoin wallet (Standard wallet)
Choose "New wallet → Standard wallet → Create a new seed". The application generates a 12-word BIP-39 seed phrase locally on your computer using the operating system's cryptographic random source. The seed is shown once. Write it down on paper or stamp it into metal — do not screenshot it, do not store it in a password manager that syncs to a cloud, and do not type it into anything other than this wallet during recovery.
After the seed is confirmed, the wallet asks for a password. That password encrypts the wallet file on disk and is requested every time you sign a transaction. It is not a replacement for the seed — if you forget the password but still have the 12 words, you can restore the wallet on any machine. If you forget both, the funds are unrecoverable.
Open the "Receive" tab. The wallet shows a fresh RVN receiving address (it starts with the letter R). Click "New address" any time you want a different one — generating a new address per payment is a privacy best-practice and costs nothing. All of those addresses are derived from the same 12-word seed, so a single backup recovers every one of them.
- Open Receive → copy the address shown.
- Double-check the first four and last four characters before sharing it.
- Send a small test amount from your source (exchange, miner, friend).
- Watch the wallet's history tab for the incoming transaction.
- Wait for three confirmations (~3 minutes) before treating it as final.
If something looks wrong before you've moved real RVN
Before depositing meaningful balances, do one full dry run with a small amount. If the address generates but the deposit never shows up, the most common reasons are: deposit sent on the wrong chain (Ravencoin is its own network, not an ERC-20), wallet is offline so it has not synced, or the sending exchange has not broadcast the transaction yet. Open the address on a public Ravencoin block explorer — if the explorer shows the deposit, the wallet just hasn't caught up; if the explorer shows nothing, the sender hasn't actually sent it.
If you already have a Ravencoin seed phrase — from a previous install, a paper backup, or migrating off another wallet — choose "New wallet → Standard wallet → I already have a seed" on the first-run screen. Type the 12 words in the original order, set a new password to encrypt the wallet file on this machine, and the wallet will re-derive every address from the seed and sync the on-chain history. The same seed always produces the same addresses, so the balance and transaction history will appear exactly as on the original install once the sync completes.
If you bought a Ledger or Trezor specifically to hold RVN, the cleanest path is to pair the device during first run instead of creating a standard wallet first. Plug the device in, unlock it with its PIN, choose "New wallet → Standard wallet → Use a hardware device", and the wallet will detect the connected signer. From that point on, every send transaction is built on the desktop and sent to the device for signing — the seed never leaves the hardware, even during setup.
Sending your first transaction
Once a small deposit has confirmed, send a small amount back out to a second address you control (or back to the exchange) to complete the round trip. Open Send, paste the destination address, set an amount well under the balance, leave the fee on the recommended default, and click Send. Enter the wallet password when prompted, confirm on the hardware device if one is attached, and the wallet broadcasts the signed transaction. Watch the History tab for the outgoing entry and wait for one or two confirmations on the block explorer before assuming the path works end-to-end.
Frequently asked
Continue with Electrum RVN
- download Ravencoin wallet — grab the installer for your OS
- Ravencoin wallet recovery — what to do if you lose access
- is Electrum RVN safe — harden the install before you fund it
Run your own Ravencoin wallet.
Open-source, lightweight, and built for the desktop user who wants real control over keys and assets. Download the wallet directly from our download page — signed installers for every operating system.