Getting Started with Peercoin StakeBox
StakeBox and Peercoin have partnered together to bring you the Peercoin StakeBox – a device that allows you to mint your Peercoin cryptocurrency and make a return on your investment.
Minting Peercoin is the process of securing the network with your coin weight, which in turn rewards you with new coins.
The StakeBox only require a little bit of setup, allowing you to get up and running in no time at all and including all the essential accessories.
This guide will show you how to get up and running minting your cryptocurrency in no time at all with your Peercoin StakeBox.
Note: This guide is for reference only and we cannot be held responsible for any loss or theft of wallet data. Please make sure you back up your wallet and passphrase in a variety of locations.
What you will need
- 1 x Peercoin StakeBox
- USB Keyboard and Mouse (Required for initial setup and maintenance)
Assemble your hardware
- Connect your HDMI cable to your TV/Monitor
- Connect your Keyboard & Mouse
- Insert your Peercoin microSD card into the SD slot (If purchased separately)
- Connect the micro USB power adapter
Connecting to Internet
Before we start working with the Peercoin application we must first make sure that we have an internet connection in order to download the blockchain and start minting. There are currently two options with the Peercoin StakeBox; firstly you can connect and ethernet cable from your router/switch or you can connect to your local Wi-Fi router using the built-in Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi
To connect to your wireless router follow these steps:
- When your StakeBox boots into the Peercoin desktop you will see a menu bar in the upper right hand side.
- Here you should see an icon with two red crosses on it, which indicates that the Wi-Fi is not connected to a wireless router. Click on this icon and you should see a list of available Wi-Fi hotspots, where you should see the name of your local router.
- Click on the name of your local hotspot and then enter your Wi-Fi password to connect to it. Note: your Wi-Fi SSID and password can usually be found on the back of your router or in the manual.
- Once you have connected you should see the Wi-Fi icon change and if you hover your mouse of it you will see your IP address and other information about the wireless connection
Ethernet
Ethernet is as simple as connecting an Ethernet cable from your StakeBox to the back of your router, you should see a green light on the Ethernet port on your StakeBox to indicate that it has successfully connected. For Ethernet DHCP settings you will need to refer to your instruction manual for your router.
Launching Peercoin
Peercoin is already installed on your StakeBox and just needs to be launched from the Desktop menu.
You should now see the following screen:
Encrypting your Peercoin wallet
- Firstly, and more importantly we need to encrypt your wallet to make sure all your Peercoins and data is safe. To do this go to Settings in the menu and then click Encrypt Wallet
- Here you must type in a passphrase that is at least 10 characters long. Warning: do not lose this passphrase otherwise you will not be able to access your wallet
- Enter your passphrase again to confirm it was correct and click ok
- You will receive a warning notification that if you encrypt your wallet and lose your passphrase you will lose all of your Peercoins. If you are happy to proceed then click Yes to continue
- Once your wallet has finished encrypting you will receive a confirmation message and you will need to restart the Peercoin application for the changes to take effect. Click Ok to close the application
- Once the application has closed go-ahead and launch it again from the command line
Unlocking your Peercoin wallet for minting
In order for you to start minting it is important that you unlock our wallet first, otherwise the minting process will not work as the application cannot access your wallet.
- Go to Settings > Decrypt Wallet for Minting Only in the menu
- Enter your passphrase used to encrypt your wallet and click OK to unlock
- Your wallet is now unlocked and ready for minting. You should see in the bottom right hand corner the unlocked padlock symbol, which indicates the wallet is unlocked.
Note: When you close the Peercoin application your wallet will automatically lock itself for security reasons
Receiving addresses
Now that we have encrypted your wallet it is time to start sending Peercoins to your wallet for minting. To do this you will need to know what your receiving address is.
- In the main application click on Receive tab
- Here you will see a list of available receiving addresses where you can send your Peercoins to.
How to create Peercoin address
If you want to generate multiple public addresses then you can do so in this window.
- Click on the Receive tab in the Peercoin application
- Click on New Address on the bottom
- Give your new address a name that you can easily identify it with if you have multiple addresses
- If your wallet is not unlocked then you will be prompted to enter your wallet passphrase to unlock it
- Finally, your new address will be generated and you can see it in the Receive tab
Once the Peercoin application has finished synchronizing the blocks and as long as your wallet is unlocked and you have coins in your wallet, the minting process will begin automatically.
For further information on the Peercoin cryptocurrency please visit https://peercoin.net and if you have any queries you can visit the community channel https://talk.peercoin.net
How to update Peercoin Software to the latest version
Step 1 - Close the current peer coin software then open up a terminal window.
Step 2 - Type in the following command to update the peer coin software:
sudo apt-get update