Guide

Share a view key

Your view key lets someone see the payments coming into your wallet without being able to spend a thing. Give it to your accountant, an auditor or a fundraiser's supporters.

Your wallet's keysWhat each one can do

Address

Lets people pay you.

Share freely

View key (private)

Shows your incoming payments.

Share with care

Spend key (private)

Spends your coins.

Never share

Seed, 25 words

Rebuilds the whole wallet, keys and all.

Never share

Find your view key

Open Settings > Wallet > Show seed & keys and enter your password. Give the other person your primary address and the View key (private). Never send the spend key or the seed.

Make a view-only wallet

In the COIN Wallet, choose Restore wallet from keys or mnemonic seed, then Restore from keys.
Enter the Account address (public) and the View key (private). Leave Spend key (private) empty.
Finish the setup. The new wallet shows incoming payments, and it can't spend.

On your own computer it's even quicker: open your wallet and choose Settings > Wallet > Create a view-only wallet. It's saved next to your wallet, with the same password.

What a view-only wallet can't see

It sees money coming in, but it can't tell when coins are spent. If you've sent payments, the balance it shows will be too high. To correct it, export your key images from the full wallet and import them into the view-only one, under Send > Advanced options > Key images.

A view key can't be taken back.Whoever has it can see your incoming payments for as long as you use that wallet. To stop sharing, move your coins to a new wallet.

Advanced: the command-line wallet

> viewkey

Shows your private view key. Use address to show your address.

--generate-from-view-key NEW_WALLET_NAME

Start the command-line wallet with this option to make a view-only wallet from an address and view key.