Tutorial on How to Switch to the Reddcoin POSV Wallet

As many of you may know, the lead developer of Reddcoin, Laudney, announced the official release of the Reddcoin POSV Wallet v1.3.0.0 today.  While it is not necessary to upgrade to this wallet immediately, as the full switch to POSV will not happen until August 2, 2014, Reddcoin users should consider switching as soon as possible.  Unlike previous wallet upgrades, this one takes a bit more work, so we will help you take it step-by-step:

Download the New Reddcoin POSV Wallet

The new wallet can be obtained from Github, by going to this link.  Choose your operating system to download the appropriate format.  This guide will focus on the Windows version of the wallet, but may be updated to include Linux, and possibly Mac, in the future.

Encrypt Your Current Reddcoin Wallet

WARNING:  When Encrypting Your Wallet, MAKE SURE You Record The Encryption Password In A Way That You Cannot Forget It, and That No One Else Can Access It.  If You Lose Your Password, You CANNOT Use Your Wallet.

Open your current Reddcoin wallet, click “Settings”, and then “Encrypt Wallet”

This will bring up the menu to enter you encryption password.  Once again, PLEASE be careful with this.  Once you encrypt your wallet, you must have the password to use the funds in it.  If you lose the password, any Reddcoin in the wallet are effectively lost as well.  While I would not suggest keeping a copy of the wallet that is unencrypted, as that is not a secure practice, if you are unsure that you can remember a password, or keep up with a record, and prefer to give up that security, then you should make a copy of the unencrypted wallet before you encrypt it.  However, as I said, that is not a safe way to store any digital currency.

Backup Your Reddcoin Wallet.dat

Once you have encrypted your Reddcoin wallet, make a copy of the wallet.dat file that is in your Reddcoin folder.

Make sure you paste this copy in a different directory than your normal Reddcoin wallet.dat.  It is an even better idea to make a copy on a flash drive, external harddrive, a different computer, or all of the above.

Uninstall The Old Reddcoin Wallet and Install The New Reddcoin POSV Wallet

To uninstall your old Reddcoin wallet, first you should run the uninstall application

This will leave some files intact.  You must now delete ALL of the remaining files, with the exception of the wallet.dat.

Now copy the reddcoin-1.3.0.0-win.zip to your Reddcoin folder, and unzip it.

This will make new folders, so navigate to the sub folders created in your Reddcoin directory, reddcoin-1.3.0.0-win32 and run the reddcoin-1.3.0.0-win32-setup application.

During the setup process, you will be prompted to provide your Reddcoin directory.  Make sure that you select the folder that contains your Reddcoin wallet.dat.

Launch the new Reddcoin POSV Wallet

Now, navigate to your Reddcoin-qt application, launch it, and the Reddcoin network should begin to sync.  You may notice that I am using a shortcut, as I use –datadir=”folderpath” to direct where my Reddcoin data files are stored.  This is not necessary, but I do it to keep from filling my SSD.  You can ignore that, unless you have a reason to store all of the data files in the same directory.

Now, all you need to do is wait for the network to catch up.  Mine is currently listing “no block sources available”, though that generally will clear up with a bit of time, and should become less common as more users switch to the new wallet. Update:  It is now syncing!  Image is updated to show that.

[divider] I hope this guide is helpful.  If you have any further questions, or see an error in my tutorial, please let me know!  I can’t wait to see POSV in action.