Join your community

Joining is a short in-person ceremony between you and the community’s operator. It proves to your phone that it is talking to the real station, and to the station that your phone is welcome. Do it face to face.

Before you start

• You have installed the app and created a wallet.
• Your phone is on the same Wi-Fi as the station.
• The operator is next to you, at the station’s console.

The pairing ceremony

1. On your phone, tap Join your community. The station appears in the list by name. If it does not, tap Add by address and type the address and port the operator gives you (the port is usually 7500).
2. Unlock your wallet. Your phone shows an 8-character code.
3. The operator lists the pending requests on the station. Yours shows up with the same style of code and your rrn1… address.
4. Together, compare the codes. Read yours aloud. The operator reads theirs. If they match, the operator confirms your address and you confirm on your phone.

That is it. Your phone now syncs with the station, receives updates, and can transact.

If the codes do not match, stop. Something on the network answered in the station’s place. Do not confirm. The operator will want to find out what before pairing anyone else.

The code comparison is the security of this step. Everything your phone and the station say to each other afterwards is individually encrypted and signed end to end, so it does not matter that the Wi-Fi is shared. What matters is that the first handshake was with the right machine.

Right after joining

• Set up social recovery as soon as there are a few members you trust. The app nudges you from the Home screen (“Protect your account”), and export your wallet too. See Back up and recover your keys.
• Get vouched for. Ask someone who knows you to vouch. Until you have some standing, larger payments and governance are closed to you. See Vouching and standing.
• Read the Charter. Community → Governance shows the founding document everyone signed up to.

If you see a banner about bootstrap grace, the community is young and has fewer than three established members. During grace, the founders act as the electorate and jury pool so the community can function. It ends by itself as members build standing.