Next, you will see several services such as Bitcoin Core, Node.js, Indexer, BTC-RPC Explorer, Database, Nginx, Tor, and Samourai Whirlpool start. This takes a few minutes.
Once there is a green check mark next to each service, you can click on the “Take me to the Dashboard” button.
Step 3: Initial Blockchain Download (IBD)
Once you are at your dashboard, you can see the progress of the Bitcoin IBD and the vitals of your Tanto. The IBD will take about two days to complete, as the Tanto is connecting to other Bitcoin nodes and downloading the entire Bitcoin blockchain all the way back to the first block from January 2009. Once the IBD completes, you will have your own full copy of the blockchain and you will use your own copy to verify your transactions against and display your balances in your mobile wallet.
Some other vitals you can monitor are uptime, version, temperature, CPU load, and memory usage. Let this process run for a couple of days. Tanto will log you out automatically after some idle time but the processes continue to run in the background.
The IBD took a total of 2 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes in this demonstration.
Step 4: Indexing
Now that the entire Bitcoin blockchain has been downloaded, it needs to be indexed so that it is searchable. The indexing process begins automatically once the IBD is finished, and this process can take an additional day. You may notice that the “Indexer” status in the lower right-hand corner remains on 0%; don’t panic! Simply navigate to the “Logs” option on the left-hand side menu and then the “Indexer” tab. You should see something like this screenshot below where the blocks are getting indexed in chunks of 2,000. Just let this process run to completion, which again can take another 24 hours.
Once the Indexer has caught up to the latest block height, you should see both Indexer and Dojo reporting 100% synchronized.
Step 5: Connecting To Mobile
You can click on “Manage” in the lower left-hand corner of the “Dojo” window and this will bring up the QR code that you can use to connect your Samourai Wallet. Make sure to toggle “Display values” to make the QR codes legible. The other QR code is for connecting your own BTC-RPC explorer. The explorer provides a way to use your own Dojo to feed data to a full-fledged Bitcoin blockchain explorer over Tor. Copy the .onion URL and password for the explorer, paste into Tor Browser, use “ronindojo” for the username, and bookmark page.
In your Samourai Wallet, from the home screen, press the icon at the top that looks like the WiFi symbol. Toggle on the option to connect to your own Dojo. Then click on “Scan QR” and the application will ask you to grant camera permission. Then scan the “Samourai Dojo” QR code in your Tanto dashboard from your mobile device. Make sure you toggle on the option to display values in your Tanto dashboard so the QR code is legible.
Now your mobile Samourai Wallet will communicate with your own full node. There are a couple of other important options to go over before covering the desktop Whirlpool GUI.
For example, you can log into your RoninDojo user interface (UI) from your mobile phone with the Tor Browser. From the dashboard, click on “Manage” in the lower left-hand corner of the “RoninDojo” window. This will bring up a QR code that you can scan to follow the .onion link to your RoninDojo UI. Then enter your RoninDojo UI password and bookmark this page.
Once you are logged into your RoninDojo UI on mobile, then you can just copy/paste the .onion URL and password for the explorer into your Tor browser as well. Leave the username blank, you can bookmark this page as well and now you have a mobile block explorer that uses your own Dojo as a backend and communicates with it via Tor.
Step 6: Install The Whirlpool GUI
This section will demonstrate how to connect the Whirlpool desktop client to your Tanto full node and your Samourai Wallet. With this configuration, you will be able to have your UTXOs mixing nonstop in the background from your desktop client and powered by your own full node.
First, you will need to download the Whirlpool client appropriate for your operating system. The different options along with accompanying developer signatures can be found here and detailed installation instructions can be found here . Be aware you will likely need to install OpenJDK as well, which is covered in the installation instructions.
*In a future release of the RoninDojo UI, the Whirlpool URL will be available from the web interface dashboard and you will no longer need to retrieve this information from the terminal as demonstrated here. *
Step 7: Connecting Tanto With The Whirlpool GUI
Once you have your Whirlpool client installed and your Samourai Wallet connected to your RoninDojo Tanto, you can make an SSH connection to the RoninDojo and start the Whirlpool service. The Whirlpool .onion URL you need is not available through the RoninDojo user interface dashboard. The Secure Shell (SSH) connection can be made with the same username password you used for the RoninDojo UI.
Once connected, navigate to “Samourai Toolkit” > “Whirlpool”:
Then select “start;” a script will run briefly and then you can hit any key to return to the main menu when prompted.
With the Whirlpool service started, and back at the main menu, now navigate to “Credentials” > “Whirlpool.”
This is where you can retrieve the .onion URL you need to use in the Whirlpool client graphical user interface (GUI) to get it configured. Highlight this URL and use “ctrl+shift+c” to copy it to your clipboard.
Now open the Whirlpool client application you installed earlier. Select the “Advanced: remote CLI” option and where it says “https://my-cli-host:8899” paste the .onion URL from your RoninDojo terminal. Depending on whether or not you are running a Tor daemon or just the Tor browser, you may need to select either “9050” or “9150” for appending the Tor proxy. Leave the API key blank; this will automatically be handled once initialized. Then click on “Connect.” Give the GUI some time, Tor connections can take a little while. You may need to try this a couple of times before the connection is made.
RoninUI22.png
Step 8: Connecting Samourai Wallet To The Whirlpool GUI
Once the connection is made, you will be presented with a screen asking you to input the Whirlpool pairing payload from your Samourai Wallet. In Samourai Wallet, click on the 3‑dot menu in the upper right-hand corner and select “Settings” > “Transactions” > “Pair to Whirlpool GUI” at the bottom. This will display a QR code that contains your Whirlpool payload. Simply click on the QR code option in the desktop GUI and this should launch your webcam, then hold up the QR code on your mobile so the camera can scan it.
Once received, then click on “Initialize GUI.”
Next, enter the passphrase for your Samourai Wallet and click on “Sign in.”
Once signed in, you should be able to see your balances, mixing activity, and then you can set targets for how many mixes you wish to achieve. You can even generate deposit addresses from the Whirlpool GUI.
Now when you initiate mixes from your mobile Samourai Wallet app, you can close the app afterwards and your UTXOs will continue to be registered as available inputs to mixes as free riders so long as your desktop client stays running. Plus this is all being done using your own node as a backend and communicating with it via Tor. Just follow the exact same steps as covered in the last section to initiate Whirlpool mixes on mobile like normal.
The next part of this series will demonstrate how to use Sparrow Wallet and Whirlpool, which is a great alternative for those who want the privacy preserving benefits of Whirlpool but don’t have an Android mobile device to install Samourai Wallet on.
This is a guest post by Econoalchemist. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.