What is Monero?
Monero is a cryptocurrency focused on privacy. When you send Bitcoin, anyone can see the amount and addresses on the blockchain. With Monero — no one can. Transactions are completely private by default.
How is Monero different?
Regular crypto wallets have one private key. Monero has two:
- Private spend key — needed to send coins
- Private view key — needed to see your balance and incoming transactions
Mitilena Wallet handles both automatically. You don’t need to manage them manually.
Adding a Monero wallet
- Open Mitilena Wallet
- Tap “Add wallet”
- Search for Monero (XMR)
- Choose a scan period — this is how far back the wallet will look for your past transactions
- Done — your wallet address is ready
What is the scan period?
Monero doesn’t let you check your balance instantly like Bitcoin or Ethereum. It needs to scan the blockchain block by block to find your transactions. The longer the period, the longer the sync takes.
- 1 day — fast, use this for a brand new wallet
- 1–2 weeks — if you’ve had recent transactions
- 4 weeks — maximum, if you need older history
If your balance shows 0 but you know there are older transactions — create a new Monero wallet in Mitilena and transfer your funds there from your previous wallet.
Sending XMR
- Open your Monero wallet
- Tap “Send”
- Enter the recipient’s Monero address (starts with 4 or 8)
- Enter the amount
- Confirm and send
Transactions typically confirm in about 2 minutes. The recipient needs to wait for 10 confirmations (~20 minutes) before they can spend the coins.
Good to know
- Monero addresses are long — always copy-paste, never type manually
- Your balance may take a moment to sync after opening the wallet — this is normal
- Monero fees are low, usually under $0.01
For advanced users
Mitilena stores your Monero private key in the format spend_key:view_key, separated by a colon. The first part is your private spend key, the second is your private view key. This same format is used when importing a private key or signing transactions.
Monero key generation is also available in Mitilena Keys — our fully offline app designed for air-gapped key generation. No internet connection, no servers, no data leaving your device. Generate your keys on a device that has never been online for maximum security.
