monero-site/knowledge-base/user-guides/view_only.md

---
layout: static_page
title: "View Only Wallets"
title-pre-kick: "Creating a view only wallet "
title-kick: ""
title-post-kick: ""
kick-class: ""
icon: "icon_userguides"
attribution: "<!-- Icon is based on work by Freepik (http://www.freepik.com) and is licensed under Creative Commons BY 3.0 -->"
---

A view-only wallet can only see which incoming transactions belong to you. It can not spend any of your Monero, in fact it can't even see outgoing transactions from this wallet. This makes view-only wallets particularly interesting for

* Developers writing libraries to validate payments
* End users validating incoming transactions to cold wallets

### Creating A View-Only Wallet

You can create a view-only wallet from any existing wallet.

Open an existing wallet or create a new one using `monero-wallet-cli`. In the wallet, type `address` and `viewkey` to display the wallet's address and secret viewkey. Type `exit` to close the wallet.

Next, create your view-only wallet by typing `monero-wallet-cli --generate-from-view-key wallet-name`. The last argument will be your new wallet's file name. You will be prompted for `Standard address` and `View key` by the wallet. Paste in your original wallet's address and secret view key. Next, enter and confirm a password for your new wallet and you're done.
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00			`---`
			`layout: static_page`
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`title: "View Only Wallets"`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00			`title-pre-kick: "Creating a view only wallet "`
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`title-kick: ""`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00			`title-post-kick: ""`
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`kick-class: ""`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00			`icon: "icon_userguides"`
			`attribution: "<!-- Icon is based on work by Freepik (http://www.freepik.com) and is licensed under Creative Commons BY 3.0 -->"`
			`---`

Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`A view-only wallet can only see which incoming transactions belong to you. It can not spend any of your Monero, in fact it can't even see outgoing transactions from this wallet. This makes view-only wallets particularly interesting for`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`* Developers writing libraries to validate payments`
			`* End users validating incoming transactions to cold wallets`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`### Creating A View-Only Wallet`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			`You can create a view-only wallet from any existing wallet.`
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			Open an existing wallet or create a new one using `monero-wallet-cli`. In the wallet, type `address` and `viewkey` to display the wallet's address and secret viewkey. Type `exit` to close the wallet.
Update and rename how to create a view only wallet to how to create a view only wallet.md 2015-09-15 19:15:07 +00:00
Rewrite View Only Wallet user guide 2017-03-07 08:01:23 +00:00			Next, create your view-only wallet by typing `monero-wallet-cli --generate-from-view-key wallet-name`. The last argument will be your new wallet's file name. You will be prompted for `Standard address` and `View key` by the wallet. Paste in your original wallet's address and secret view key. Next, enter and confirm a password for your new wallet and you're done.