Linux Installation Guide

This guide describes how to download, verify, install and encrypt the Dash Core wallet for Linux. The guide is written for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but the steps should be similar for other Linux distributions.

Downloading the Dash Core wallet

Visit https://www.dash.org/downloads/ to download the latest Dash Core wallet. In most cases, the website will properly detect which version you need. Click the Dash Core button to download the package directly.

The website properly detects the wallet appropriate for your system

If detection does not work, you will need to manually choose your operating system and whether you need a 32 or 64 bit version. If you are unsure whether your version of Linux is 32 or 64 bit, you can check in Ubuntu under the Settings > About > OS Type. For details on how to check this in other versions of Linux, see here.

Ubuntu System Overview. This is a 64 bit system.

If you have a 32-bit system, download Dash Core x86. If you have a 64-bit system, download Dash Core x64. Once you know which version you need, download the Dash Core TGZ file to your computer from https://www.dash.org/downloads/ and save it to your Downloads folder.

Verifying Dash Core

This step is optional, but recommended to verify the authenticity of the file you downloaded. This is done by checking its detached signature against the public key published by the Dash Core development team. To download the detached signature, click the Signature button on the wallet download page and save it to the same folder as the downloaded binary.

All releases of Dash are signed using GPG with one of the following keys:

• Alexander Block (codablock) with the key 63A9 6B40 6102 E091, verifiable here on Keybase

• Pasta (pasta) with the key 5252 7BED ABE8 7984, verifiable here on Keybase

Open a terminal, import the keys and verify the authenticity of your download as follows:

curl https://keybase.io/codablock/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
curl https://keybase.io/pasta/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
gpg --verify dashcore-18.2.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz.asc

Downloading the PGP key and verifying the signed binary

If you see the message Good signature from ... then you have an authentic copy of Dash Core for Linux.

Extracting Dash Core

Dash Core for Linux is distributed as a compressed archive and not an installer. This is because this same archive also contains other files built for running a masternode on a server, for example. In this guide, we will extract the executable file with a graphical user interface (GUI) designed for use by end users as a wallet.

Extract Dash Core as follows:

tar xzf dashcore-18.2.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

This will create a folder named dashcore-18.2.1 in the current working directory. We will now install the executable binaries to /usr/local/bin using the install command:

sudo install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin dashcore-18.2.1/bin/*

Start Dash Core from the terminal with the following command:

dash-qt

The first time the program is launched, you will be offered a choice of where you want to store your blockchain and wallet data. Choose a location with enough free space, as the blockchain can reach 30GB+ in size. It is recommended to use the default data folder if possible.

Choosing the Dash Core data folder

Dash Core will then start up. This will take a little longer than usual the first time you run it, since Dash Core needs to generate cryptographic data to secure your wallet.

Starting Dash Core

Synchronizing Dash Core to the Dash network

Once Dash Core is successfully installed and started, you will see the wallet overview screen. You will notice that the wallet is “out of sync”, and the status bar at the bottom of the window will show the synchronization progress.

Dash Core begins synchronizing with the Dash network

During this process, Dash Core will download a full copy of the Dash blockchain from other nodes to your device. Depending on your internet connection, this may take a long time. If you see the message “No block source available”, check your internet connection. When synchronization is complete, you will see a small blue tick in the lower right corner.

Dash Core synchronization is complete

You can now begin to use your wallet to send and receive funds.

Setting up a desktop entry

You can set up an XDG Desktop Entry in order to be able to launch Dash Core from your KDE or Gnome desktop environment. To do so, create a file named ~/.local/share/applications/dash.desktop and add the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.5
Name=Dash Core
Comment=Dash Core is used to interact with the Dash blockchain
Exec=/usr/local/bin/dash-qt
Icon=dash-icon
Terminal=false
Type=Application

Ensure the file is executable:

chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/dash.desktop

An appropriate icon can optionally be downloaded from the Dash Brand Guidelines page:

wget https://media.dash.org/wp-content/uploads/dash-d-rounded-square-250.png
xdg-icon-resource install --size 256 dash-d-rounded-square-250.png dash-icon

Encrypting your Dash wallet

After your wallet has synchronized with the Dash network, it is strongly advised to encrypt the wallet with a password or passphrase to prevent unauthorized access. You should use a strong, new password that you have never used somewhere else. Take note of your password and store it somewhere safe or you will be locked out of your wallet and lose access to your funds.

To encrypt your wallet, click Settings > Encrypt wallet.

Encrypting the Dash wallet with a password

You will be asked to enter and verify a password.

Entering a password

Confirm you want to encrypt your wallet

When the encryption process is complete, you will see a warning that past backups of your wallet will no longer be usable, and be asked to shut down Dash Core. When you restart Dash Core, you will see a small blue lock in the lower right corner.

Fully encrypted and synchronized Dash Core wallet