How to set up your first Liana wallet
Everything you need to go from download to a funded, secured wallet with a recovery path in place.
Watch the walkthrough
What you'll need
Before you start, gather the following:
- Two hardware signing devices: Ledger, Coldcard, Bitbox, Specter, or any other Liana-compatible signer. One will be your primary key, the other your recovery key.
- A computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux.
- Somewhere safe to store backups. Metal seed storage is ideal; at minimum, use paper in a secure location.
Step 1: Download and install Liana
Download the latest release from lianawallet.com/community/ or directly from the GitHub releases page. If you're comfortable with GPG, verify the signature before running the installer. The signing key is listed on the GitHub page.
Step 2: Choose a wallet template
When you first open Liana, you'll be asked to choose a wallet structure. There are three options:
- Simple Inheritance: One primary key for day-to-day spending, plus one recovery key that becomes spendable after a timelock expires. The most straightforward starting point.
- Expanding Multisig: A 2-of-2 multisig that becomes a 2-of-3 after a timelock, giving you stricter co-signing requirements with a built-in escape hatch if a key is lost. Watch the video walkthrough.
- Build your own: Full flexibility to define any combination of keys and timelocks. The right choice if you want to design your own spending policy from scratch.
Step 3: Add your primary key
Connect your first hardware signer to your computer. Liana will detect the device and derive the appropriate key. Give the key a memorable label (for example "Ledger - home safe") so you can identify it later. This key will be used for all normal spending.
Step 4: Add a recovery key and set the timelock
Connect your second hardware device. If you're setting up inheritance, have your intended heir generate a key on their own device and share their extended public key (xpub) with you instead. Add it as the recovery key and assign it a label.
Then set the timelock duration. For inheritance setups, 12 months is the standard starting point. The timelock is measured in Bitcoin blocks and resets every time you make a transaction. It will only mature if your wallet is completely inactive for the full period, so it will not trigger unexpectedly as long as you use your wallet occasionally.
Step 5: Choose a backend
Liana needs a Bitcoin backend to watch your addresses and broadcast transactions. You have several options (see our guide on choosing a backend):
- Liana Connect: Wizardsardine's hosted backend. No configuration needed; you'll be synced within minutes. The easiest way to get started.
- Bitcoin Core: Your own full node, giving you maximum sovereignty and privacy. Liana includes a one-click setup for a pruned node, which only needs around 30 GB of storage. Note that even a pruned node downloads the entire blockchain to verify it, so the initial sync takes some time.
- Electrum: Connect to your own Electrum server. We recommend not connecting to public Electrum servers.
Step 6: Register the descriptor
Register the wallet descriptor on each of your signing devices. This makes the device aware of the full wallet configuration, including all keys and the timelock policy, so it can verify receive addresses and correctly sign transactions.
Step 7: Back up everything
This step is critical. You need to back up two things:
- The seed phrase for every signing key: Each hardware device has its own seed. Back them up independently, on durable media, in separate physical locations. Never store seeds digitally.
- The wallet descriptor: Go to Settings, then Wallet, then Export descriptor. This file encodes your full spending policy. Without it, recovery is not guaranteed even if you have all your seeds. The descriptor can be stored encrypted, which means you can safely keep copies in multiple locations including online. Multiple copies are strongly encouraged since the descriptor alone cannot be used to spend your funds.
Step 8: Verify your receive address
Before depositing any funds, generate a receive address in Liana and verify it on your signing device's screen. This confirms the device is correctly linked to the wallet. Only send funds to addresses you have verified on the device.
You're set
Your wallet is live with a recovery path in place. The timelock countdown resets per coin with each transaction. As long as you spend from or sweep to yourself at least once before the timelock expires, the recovery key remains dormant. Liana will warn you when the deadline approaches. If you ever need to use that recovery path, see the recovery guide.