* Downloading: First of all, you will need to download the plugin. You can download the latest release as a .zip file from https://github.com/monero-integrations/monerowp/releases If you wish, you can also download the latest source code from GitHub. This can be done with the command `git clone https://github.com/monero-integrations/monerowp.git` or can be downloaded as a zip file from the GitHub web page.
* Unzip the file monerowp_release.zip if you downloaded the zip from the releases page [here](https://github.com/monero-integrations/monerowp/releases).
* Put the plugin in the correct directory: You will need to put the folder named `monero` from this repo/unzipped release into the wordpress plugins directory. This can be found at `path/to/wordpress/folder/wp-content/plugins`
* Activate the plugin from the WordPress admin panel: Once you login to the admin panel in WordPress, click on "Installed Plugins" under "Plugins". Then simply click "Activate" where it says "Monero - WooCommerce Gateway"
## Step 2 Option 1: Use your wallet address and viewkey
* Get your Monero wallet address starting with '4'
* Get your wallet secret viewkey from your wallet
A note on privacy: When you validate transactions with your private viewkey, your viewkey is sent to (but not stored on) xmrchain.net over HTTPS. This could potentally allow an attacker to see your incoming, but not outgoing, transactions if he were to get his hands on your viewkey. Even if this were to happen, your funds would still be safe and it would be impossible for somebody to steal your money. For maximum privacy use your own monero-wallet-rpc instance.
## Step 2 Option 2: Get a monero daemon to connect to
To do this: start the monero daemon on your server and leave it running in the background. This can be accomplished by running `./monerod` inside your monero downloads folder. The first time that you start your node, the monero daemon will download and sync the entire monero blockchain. This can take several hours and is best done on a machine with at least 4GB of ram, an SSD hard drive (with at least 40GB of free space), and a high speed internet connection.
The easiest way to find a remote node to connect to is to visit [moneroworld.com](https://moneroworld.com/#nodes) and use one of the nodes offered. It is probably easiest to use node.moneroworld.com:18089 which will automatically connect you to a random node.
* Setup a monero wallet using the monero-wallet-cli tool. If you do not know how to do this you can learn about it at [getmonero.org](https://getmonero.org/resources/user-guides/monero-wallet-cli.html)
* [Create a view-only wallet from that wallet for security.](https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/3178/how-to-create-a-view-only-wallet-for-the-gui/4582#4582)
* Start the Wallet RPC and leave it running in the background. This can be accomplished by running `./monero-wallet-rpc --rpc-bind-port 18082 --disable-rpc-login --log-level 2 --wallet-file /path/viewOnlyWalletFile` where "/path/viewOnlyWalletFile" is the wallet file for your view-only wallet. If you wish to use a remote node you can add the `--daemon-address` flag followed by the address of the node. `--daemon-address node.moneroworld.com:18089` for example.
* Check either "Use ViewKey" or "Use monero-wallet-rpc"
If You chose to use viewkey:
* Enter your monero wallet address in the box labled "Monero Address". If you do not know your address, you can run the `address` commmand in your monero wallet
* Enter your secret viewkey in the box labeled "ViewKey"
* Enter your monero wallet address in the box labled "Monero Address". If you do not know your address, you can run the `address` commmand in your monero wallet
