Get Started (Install)

Particl Marketplace provides you with the most secure, private, and unrestricted e-commerce experience on the web. This section will teach you how to install and configure it to your liking, as well as how to back up your Marketplace data.

Install Particl Marketplace

To get started with Particl Marketplace, you need to first download and install the Particl Desktop client.

Download

Choose the correct version to download.

Windows file version

Download the particl-desktop-X.X.X-win.exe installer file. It supports any version of Windows.

Download sources

Attention

NEVER download Particl clients from third-party websites! Bad actors are constantly trying to distribute malware-infected versions of popular cryptocurrency wallets to steal your funds! Always download directly from official sources.

Installation process

Windows installation

  1. Verify the checksum of the file.

  2. Open the downloaded particl-desktop-X.X.X-win.exe installer file.

  3. Follow the installation instructions.

  4. An executable file will be added to your desktop and into the application launcher menu. Use this to start Particl Desktop.

  5. Assign allow-rules to your computer’s firewall and antivirus software. On a standard Windows installation, Microsoft Defender pops up.

Note

Ignoring step 5 may cause a degraded blockchain sync or communications problems with other peers. If you are unsure how to apply rules to your firewall and anti-virus software, please review the vendor’s documentation of your installed programs.

Congratulations! You have installed Particl Marketplace.

Hint

Loading and Syncing Times

Because the Particl Marketplace’s content is hosted on a distributed network for payments and exchange of data, the marketplace may take a few minutes to sync. It may also take a few more minutes to load all marketplace listings fully. Those short wait times are normal in the current state of the marketplace and will get much faster in future updates.

If you open the Market > Browse module, keep an eye on the Refresh button. As soon as a count appears, new listings have arrived. Click on it to refresh the listings display. With very slow connections, the entire syncing process can sometimes take up to an hour.

Checksum verification

Obtain the checksum code from the official download sources for the downloaded file. Each file has its own checksum.

From the official download source, obtain the checksum of the file you’ve just downloaded. Each file has its own checksum, so make sure you select the release you’ve downloaded.

To verify the integrity of the downloaded file — ensuring that it hasn’t been tampered with in any way — validate your file’s hash against the checksum provided in the official download source.

Checksum verification command with terminal

  1. Open Windows Explorer.

  2. Press SHIFT ⇧ + MOUSE-RIGHT ◳ on the Download folder and choose Open command window here or Open power shell here.

  3. Type the following command into the terminal while changing filename for the real and complete filename of the downloaded file and hit ENTER ↵.

    CertUtil -hashfile filename SHA256

Once that is done, compare the checksum output you’ve received in the step above with the checksum provided in the official download sources. The screenshot below shows an example of this checksum highlighted from the GitHub release notes Verification section.

Particl Marketplace installation checksum highlighted image

Particl Marketplace installation checksum highlighted image

Troubleshooting checksum mismatch

If the output does not match, try downloading the file again. Verify that you did not unzip or rename the file. In some cases, it might be possible that antivirus software may alter files; be sure to have a solution on your own in that case.

Attention

If all attempts fail to have a matching number, do not install Particl Desktop unless you know what you are doing, and reach out to Particl Support for assistance.

Starting Particl Desktop

You have two options: startup with the launcher icon (recommended) or a terminal command.

Startup with Launcher

Launching Particl Desktop with Launcher

  1. Open your Start Menu by pressing the WIN ⊞ key.

  2. Start typing Particl.

  3. Click on the Particl Desktop launcher icon.

Startup from Terminal

Sometimes it is handy to start Particl Marketplace from the terminal, aka command line. It gives you plenty of output and information about what is happening in the background.

Launching Particl Desktop from terminal

  1. Open Windows Explorer.

  2. Press SHIFT ⇧ + MOUSE-RIGHT ◳ on the Installation folder (e.g., C:/Program Files/Particl) and choose Open command window here or Open power shell here.

  3. Type the following command into the terminal and hit ENTER ↵.

    “Particl Desktop.exe”

Backup Account and Data

File locations

After a successful installation of Particl Desktop, the main application has been installed into the standard location of your operating system. When running Particl Desktopfor the first time, it will create user-specific data within your user account. These files include settings, log files, wallets, and the blockchain data itself. We recommend manually backing up that data on a secure device from time to time as a good practice to follow.

 ## Windows paths

"%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Particl"
"%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\particl-bot"
"%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\particl-market"
"%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Particl Desktop"

See also

Other sources for useful or more in-depth information:

Install Tor (Network Privacy)

Attention

For security reasons, Tor is the only privacy setting not enabled by default. You can easily enable it by routing your client’s connection through its network.

Danger

Always make sure your Tor node is up-to-date with the latest version. This is a critical requirement that, if not followed, can heavily compromise your online privacy and potentially let other people spy on your online activity.

To make sure you don’t download a compromised version of Tor, always download it from their official website. Additionally, avoid any man-in-the-middle attack by always verifying the encrypted signature attached to the Tor files you download. To do so, follow this tutorial on how to verify Tor signatures written by the Tor team itself.

You can run the Tor network using two different methods, after which you can route Particl Desktop through it. Always make sure that, regardless of the installation method you choose, Tor is running the latest version before using it.

Using the Tor browser

  1. Download the Tor Browser and install it on your computer.

  2. Launch the Tor browser.

  3. Connect to the Tor network by clicking on Connect or configure your connection parameters by clicking on Configure.

  4. Once connected, leave the Tor Browser running in the background of your computer.

Using the Tor daemon

  1. Download the Tor Browser and install it on your computer.

  2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the Tor installation directory (e.g., C:/Program Files/Tor Browser).

  3. Go into the Tor directory, hold down SHIFT ⇧ and click with MOUSE-RIGHT ◳.

  4. Open the Open command window here from the menu.

  5. In the terminal that pops up, type:

    tor.exe –service install

  6. Verify that the Tor service is running, type:

    sc query "Tor" | find "RUNNING"

Enable Tor on Particl Desktop

After starting Tor on your computer using either the Tor Browser or a daemon, route your Particl Desktop connection through it. You can do this by either adding a proxy argument to the desktop’s launch command or by changing its settings after launching the application.

Enable Tor by Default From GUI

  1. Open Particl Desktop and click on Particl Desktop Settings in the bottom left corner.

  2. Go to Core network connection and enter 127.0.0.1:9150 into the Connect via Proxy field if you are using the Tor Browser OR 127.0.0.1:9050 if you are using the Tor daemon.

  3. Hit Save changes and restart Particl Desktop.

Enable by Tor Default From Terminal

  1. Open the configuration file:

    nano ~/.particl/particl.conf

  2. If you are using Tor Browser, add this line to the configuration file:

    proxy=127.0.0.1:9150

    If you are using Tor daemon, add this line to the configuration file:

    proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

Note

From now on, Particl Desktop will always connect to the internet using Tor. If Tor is not running on your machine, then Particl Desktop will not be able to connect to other peers. You can always revert back to the default setting to disable Tor.

Enable Tor Once From Terminal

Launching Particl With Tor

  1. Open Windows Explorer, press SHIFT ⇧ + MOUSE-RIGHT ◳ on the installation folder (e.g., C:/Program Files/Particl), and choose Open command window here or Open power shell here.

  2. If you are using Tor Browser, type the following commands into the terminal and hit ENTER ↵.

    “Particl Desktop.exe” -proxy=127.0.0.1:9150

    If you are using Tor daemon, type the following commands into the terminal and hit ENTER ↵.

    “Particl Desktop.exe” -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

Using Tor as a Hidden Service

On Linux, you can also run Tor as a hidden service and connect your Particl Desktop to it. This allows other people to use your node as an entry or exit point, making the Tor network more decentralized and private for all.

  1. Open a Terminal and install the Tor network by typing:

    sudo apt-get install tor

  2. Define that you want to use Tor as a hidden service by modifying the Tor config file. To do so, type:

    sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc

    In the config file, add these two lines:

    HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/particl-service/
HiddenServicePort 51738 127.0.0.1:51738

    Save and exit the nano file editor by pressing CTRL+c, then type y followed by ENTER ↵ to save the changes.

  3. Restart Tor by typing into the terminal:

    sudo service tor restart

  4. Find your hidden service’s IP address (.onion) by typing:

    sudo cat /var/lib/tor/particl-service/hostname

  5. Modify your Particl config file to route its connection through your hidden service by typing:

    touch ~/.particl/particl.conf && nano ~/.particl/particl.conf

    Then add these lines to the file, and don’t forget to set yourexternalip.onion

    externalip=[yourexternalip].onion
onion=127.0.0.1:9050
addnode=7vusex6gv5eerqi2.onion
addnode=quf7tm4gk3xn3aee.onion
addnode=46fvsrrq75dx5vq4.onion
addnode=ciikdjtoop7l6p6h.onion
addnode=frlfghlielxq2ncy.onion
addnode=partusq5qad6jd2c.onion
addnode=x6fxdwpq2krxzmr3.onion
addnode=amu2ck7lyw26fiqs.onion
addnode=kfyopkn3shigcneh.onion
onlynet=tor
listen=1
bind=127.0.0.1:51738
maxconnections=30

    Save and exit the nano file editor by pressing CTRL + c, then type y followed by ENTER ↵ to save the changes.

Important Considerations

Keep Tor up-to-date

It is critical to manually maintain your Tor node to the latest version. Otherwise, you can heavily compromise your online privacy and security by remaining vulnerable to a wide range of potential attacks on the network.

As the network itself is widely targeted by hackers due to the privacy it provides, unpatched versions of Tor are considered unsafe to use. If exploited, a compromised version of Tor may leak your true identity and even let others spy on your online activity.

Tor constantly pushes important security updates, so make sure to always be on the lookout for them.

Updating Tor

  1. Open the Tor Browser.

  2. Check if the browser prompts you to update to a newer version.

See also