🖥️Desktop Wallet & motacoind

What you get

• motacoin-qt — GUI wallet with built-in send/receive, transaction history, address book, and signing tools
• motacoind — headless daemon for servers, Raspberry Pi, systemd deployments, and scripting
• motacoin-cli — RPC client for talking to a running daemon
• motacoin-tx — transaction construction/decoding utility

Both Qt and daemon speak the same JSON-RPC and use the same wallet.dat — you can run Qt for day-to-day and switch to daemon for headless staking with no migration.

Download + SHA-256 verification

Pick your platform, download the binary, and verify the SHA-256 before installing. Never skip this step — a tampered binary can drain every wallet that runs it.

Full checksum file: SHA256SUMS.

Verify on Linux/macOS

$ curl -O https://explorer.motacoin.net/downloads/SHA256SUMS
$ sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
motacoin-2.0.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz: OK

Verify on Windows (PowerShell)

PS> Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\motacoin-2.0.1-win64-setup.exe
# Compare the Hash column against the matching line in SHA256SUMS

Install on Windows

1. Run motacoin-2.0.1-win64-setup.exe

   SmartScreen may warn — click More info → Run anyway. The installer creates a Start menu entry and installs to C:\Program Files\MotaCoin\.

2. First launch

   Open MotaCoin from the Start menu. On first run you'll be asked to choose a data directory — accept the default (%APPDATA%\MotaCoin\) unless you have a reason to put it elsewhere.

   The wallet will start syncing from the P2P network via seeds.motacoin.net. Initial sync takes 1–4 hours depending on bandwidth and disk speed. Watch the progress bar at the bottom of the window.

3. Encrypt the wallet

   Settings → Encrypt Wallet. Pick a strong passphrase. The wallet restarts itself. Back up %APPDATA%\MotaCoin\wallet.dat to an external drive immediately afterward.

Windows portable zip (no installer)

For USB-stick portability, use the portable zip instead — unzip anywhere and run bin\motacoin-qt.exe. Specify a custom data directory with -datadir=D:\MotaCoin-Portable if you want it on the same USB drive.

Install on macOS

1. Pick the right build

   M1/M2/M3/M4 Macs → arm64-apple-darwin.tar.gz. Pre-2020 Intel Macs → x86_64-apple-darwin.zip. Under Rosetta either works, but native ARM is significantly faster on Apple Silicon.

2. Extract and strip the quarantine attribute

   $ tar xzf motacoin-2.0.1-arm64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
   $ cd motacoin-2.0.1/
   $ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine bin/*

   The quarantine strip is required because the binaries aren't notarized. Without it, macOS will refuse to run them with a "cannot be verified" error.

3. Launch the GUI

   $ ./bin/motacoin-qt

   Default data directory on macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/MotaCoin/.

4. (Optional) Install as a Mac app

   Drag motacoin-qt to /Applications/, then right-click → Open the first time. macOS will permanently trust it after that first right-click-open.

Install on Linux / Raspberry Pi

1. Pick the right build

   • x86_64 desktop / server → x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
   • Raspberry Pi 4/5 (64-bit OS) → aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
   • Raspberry Pi 2/3 (32-bit OS) → arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.gz

2. Extract + install to /usr/local/bin

   $ tar xzf motacoin-2.0.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
   $ sudo install -m 0755 motacoin-2.0.1/bin/motacoind   /usr/local/bin/
   $ sudo install -m 0755 motacoin-2.0.1/bin/motacoin-cli /usr/local/bin/
   $ sudo install -m 0755 motacoin-2.0.1/bin/motacoin-qt  /usr/local/bin/   # optional, GUI only

3. Create a minimal config

   $ mkdir -p ~/.motacoin
   $ cat > ~/.motacoin/motacoin.conf << 'EOF'
   daemon=1
   server=1
   rpcuser=mota
   rpcpassword=change-this-to-something-long-and-random
   rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
   EOF
   $ chmod 0600 ~/.motacoin/motacoin.conf

   chmod 0600 is important The config file holds your RPC password. If another user on the machine can read it, they can control your wallet. 0600 restricts it to your user only.

4. Start the daemon + watch sync

   $ motacoind
   MotaCoin server starting
   $ motacoin-cli getinfo
   {
     "version": 2000100,
     "blocks": 412,
     "connections": 4,
     ...
   }

   Sync can take a few hours on a Pi — leave it running. Watch ~/.motacoin/debug.log in another terminal with tail -f ~/.motacoin/debug.log.

5. (Raspberry Pi) Run as a systemd service

   See the headless staking section of the staking tutorial for the full systemd unit file and auto-unlock recipe.

First-run checklist

1. Encrypt the wallet — Qt: Settings → Encrypt Wallet. CLI: motacoin-cli encryptwallet "passphrase".
2. Back up wallet.dat — to an external drive or encrypted cloud. Copy again after every significant change (new addresses, large receive).
3. Record the passphrase — steel plate, password manager, or sealed envelope in a safe. Losing it means losing every coin in the wallet.
4. Verify sync — getinfo should show blocks matching explorer.motacoin.net's height within 1–2 blocks.
5. Test with a small receive + send before moving large amounts.

Essential CLI commands

# Chain + wallet status
$ motacoin-cli getinfo
$ motacoin-cli getblockchaininfo
$ motacoin-cli getwalletinfo

# Addresses
$ motacoin-cli getnewaddress "optional label"
$ motacoin-cli listreceivedbyaddress 0 true

# Send
$ motacoin-cli walletpassphrase "PASSPHRASE" 60 false
$ motacoin-cli sendtoaddress "MFqkH1..." 10.5
$ motacoin-cli walletlock

# Staking
$ motacoin-cli walletpassphrase "PASSPHRASE" 99999999 true   # stake-only unlock
$ motacoin-cli getstakinginfo

# Backup
$ motacoin-cli backupwallet ~/motacoin-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).dat

# Stop the daemon cleanly
$ motacoin-cli stop

Headless staking setup

For always-on staking rigs (Raspberry Pi, cloud VM, home server), see the dedicated staking tutorial — it covers the walletpassphrase ... true stake-only unlock and systemd auto-restart patterns.

Common issues

"Cannot connect to any peers"

• Check firewall — mainnet P2P uses port 16420. Open it inbound for best peer discovery.
• Verify DNS seeds: getaddednodeinfo should list entries from seeds.motacoin.net after ~30 seconds.
• As a fallback, add: addnode=seeds.motacoin.net to motacoin.conf.

"Stuck at block X, not catching up"

• Kill the daemon, delete ~/.motacoin/peers.dat, restart. Forces a fresh peer handshake.
• If still stuck, grab the current tip from explorer.motacoin.net and verify your binary is at least v2.0.1 — older wallets have a known stuck-sync bug fixed in the 2026 release cycle.

"I forgot my passphrase"

There is no recovery. The wallet is encrypted with your passphrase; without it, wallet.dat is mathematically useless. If you wrote down the seed (12/24 words), use Restore Wallet from seed. If not, the coins are gone.