Personal wallet

Your personal wallet is a bitcoin wallet that belongs to you, not to a business. It lives in the Wallet tab of the merchant app, alongside the business till but kept firmly apart from it, so money that is yours is never mixed up with the business’s takings.

It is yours and it follows you: there is one personal wallet per account, and it stays with you across every business you work at. It is self-custody, which means the keys live on your phone and Musqet never has them. As with any self-custody wallet, if you lose your phone and your backup, nobody, including Musqet, can recover the funds.

Setting it up

There is nothing to set up by hand. The first time you need it, the app quietly creates your personal wallet for you, with no recovery-phrase screen to work through. It just appears, ready to use.

One thing is required: your phone must have a screen lock, because that is what protects the wallet’s keys. A PIN, pattern, password, fingerprint or face unlock all count on iPhone and on Android 11 or later; on Android 10 or earlier a fingerprint or face unlock is needed. If your phone has no lock, the app asks you to set one and try again. The personal wallet is not available in the app’s demo mode.

Unlocking the app also opens your business wallet, but not your personal one: the personal wallet asks for your face, fingerprint or passcode on its own the first time you open it after starting the app.

Your balance

Your personal wallet card shows your balance both ways at once: the amount in sats and its value in your local currency at the current bitcoin rate. Tap the figure to switch which one shows on top, or to hide the balance so it cannot be read over your shoulder. That choice applies to every balance in the app together.

Keeping it private

Your personal wallet keeps your bitcoin activity private. Your wallet address and the payments you receive do not appear on public block explorers, so what you hold and receive is not on show to anyone searching the blockchain. This is on by default; there is nothing to switch on, and it does not change how or when a payment reaches you.

Backing it up

Your personal wallet is backed up automatically to your phone’s secure storage as soon as it is created, and the card shows when that has happened. Because it is self-custody, you should also keep your own copy: you can reveal your recovery phrase at any time (behind your phone’s biometrics) and write it down. The app will prompt you to do this as your balance grows, more insistently the more you are holding.

If you ever move to a new phone, you restore the wallet by entering your recovery phrase.

If the phrase you enter is for a different wallet from the one registered to your account, the app asks you to confirm it is you with your password and an authenticator code before it changes where your personal payments land. If two-factor authentication is not on yet, or your account uses passkeys with no authenticator app, the app says so and links you to where you can set one up (see Confirming it is you).

Receiving bitcoin

Open your personal wallet and choose to receive. You can share:

a QR code anyone can scan to pay you,
your lightning address (see Your Musqet handle) to be paid by name, or
a request for a set amount, which shows as paid once it arrives.

When you request a set amount, you can enter it in your local currency and Musqet works out the bitcoin amount at the current rate, or switch to sats to set the exact amount yourself. The request shows both figures, and once it is paid the amount you asked for is confirmed on screen.

Everything you receive here is yours.

Your Musqet handle

Instead of a long address, you can claim a handle so people pay you at a memorable name@musqet.me lightning address. Pick one from your wallet under “get paid by name”.

A handle is 3 to 32 characters, using letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores, starting and ending with a letter or number.
Handles are first come, first served and each is unique. Some names are reserved.
You need a personal wallet before you can claim one (the app sets the wallet up first).
You can add an optional display name that payers see.
If you change your handle later, the old one stops working immediately and is never given to anyone else, so an old address can never end up paying a different person.

Payments to your handle go straight to your self-custody wallet; Musqet never holds them.

Sending bitcoin

From your personal wallet you can send bitcoin out of your own balance: enter who you are paying and the amount, review, and confirm.

Getting your tips paid to your wallet

If you serve customers, the tips you earn can be paid straight into your personal wallet. You link your till identity to your account once: in the Wallet tab, pick your name from the roster and confirm your till PIN. From then on, tips for the sales served under your name arrive in your personal wallet, and nothing is booked to the business.

This needs a few things to be in place: the business has staff tips switched on, the sale was recorded against you (see Team and staff), and you have a personal wallet set up. The tip itself is covered on the Tips page; this is just how you point it at your wallet.

Where the personal wallet is available

The personal wallet is available in the merchant app by default. It does not appear in demo mode, and it needs a screen lock on your phone. It may also be held back in a country where taking bitcoin personally is not permitted; in that case the wallet simply does not appear.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means	What to do
You cannot see the personal wallet	It is hidden in demo mode, or your phone has no screen lock	Leave demo mode and set a screen lock, then reopen the Wallet tab
The app asks you to set a screen lock	A lock is needed to protect the wallet’s keys	Set a PIN, pattern or fingerprint on your phone and try again
”That handle is not available”	It is taken, reserved, or no longer offered	Choose a different handle
You cannot claim a handle yet	A handle needs a personal wallet first	Open the Wallet tab so the wallet is set up, then claim
Your tips are not arriving in your wallet	Your till identity is not linked, or you have no wallet	Link it in the Wallet tab with your till PIN, and make sure your wallet is set up
You lost your phone	Self-custody funds need your backup	Restore on a new phone with your recovery phrase; without it the funds cannot be recovered