Skip to main content

Wallet CLI for Ark

This is a reference implementation of client for the Ark protocol. It allows you to create an Ark wallet on the Liquid Network (or other Elements-compatible blockchains), connect to an Ark service provider (ASP), and make payments off-chain.

▶️ Install​

Start by downloading a compatible binary from the Latest Releases

Available binaries​

Linux​

MacOS​

Permissions​

Move it to somewhere on your PATH:

mv <binary> /usr/local/bin/ark
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ark

⚙️ Create a Wallet & Connect to an ASP​

The CLI requires an initial setup to initialize the wallet and connect to the liquidity provider running an arkd server

ark init --network testnet --password <password> --ark-url https://asp.arkdev.info

You can also restore a wallet by specifying the hex encoded private key with the --prvkey flag.

View balance​

You can see both the onchain and offchain balance of the wallet with:

ark balance

To see your balance with your VTXOs expiration details use --expiry-details:

ark balance --expiry-details

Receive funds​

You can print your onchain and offchain receiving addresses with:

ark receive

Add funds to the ark wallet​

Fund the onchain_address from previous command with the Liquid Testnet faucet.

Onboard the ark​

ark onboard --amount <amount>

This command will send funds from your onchain balance to your offchain balance.

After confirmation, your ark wallet will be funded and ready to spend offchain.

Use sats

Amount is always specified in sats unit.

Make payments​

You can make a payment by sending to either one or many receivers:

ark send --to <address> --amount <amount>
ark send --receivers '[{"to": "<address>", "amount": <amount>}, ...]'
tip

You can send funds to onchain or offchain addresses:

  • funds to onchain addresses will come from your onchain balance
  • funds to offchain addresses will come from your offchain balance

Collaborative redemption​

You can redeem your funds onchain collaborating with the ASP:

ark redeem --address <onchain_address> --amount <amount>

This command will send funds from your offchain balance to your onchain balance.

info

Any change produced with this operation goes to your offchain address.

Unilateral redemption​

If the ASP is unresponsive you can redeem all your offchain funds unilaterally:

ark redeem --address <onchain_address> --force
danger

The tag --force will make ark ignore --amount and redeem all funds.

Help​

You can see all available commands with help:

ark help

🧪 Create a second CLI​

To create a second CLI, on a different terminal use a different datadir by exporting the env var ARK_WALLET_DATADIR:

export ARK_WALLET_DATADIR=path/to/custom
ark init --network testnet --password <password> --ark-url https://asp.arkdev.info
info

By default the CLI uses the following datadir:

  • POSIX (Linux/BSD): ~/.Ark-cli
  • Mac OS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Ark-cli
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ark-cli
  • Plan 9: $home/Ark-cli

📝 License​

This project is licensed under the MIT License.