How to Run Particl Desktop & the Open Marketplace Through Tor

Anonymize Your IP Address With Tor 👤

The only privacy protocol that’s not enabled by default on Particl Desktop is the ability to hide your IP address using the Tor network. While it could eventually be enabled by default or through the Settings page, Tor currently needs to be activated manually to route your Particl Desktop connection through its network. Don’t worry, it’s not complicated at all and will only take you a few minutes.

How to Enable Tor on Particl Desktop

Using the Tor Browser

The easiest way to enable the Tor network on Particl Desktop is probably by using the same connection being used by the Tor Browser. To do that, follow these steps:

• Download the Tor Browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/
• Install the Tor Browser on your computer
• Launch the Tor Browser
• Connect to the Tor network by clicking on Connect or configure your connection parameters by clicking on Configure
• Once connected, leave the Tor Browser running in the background
• Open a terminal and go to the folder you’ve installed your Particl Desktop executable file
• Launch Particl Desktop with the -proxy=127.0.0.1:9150 argument

Windows: “Particl Desktop.exe” -proxy=127.0.0.1:9150
MacOS: ./Particl\ Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/Particl\ Desktop -proxy=127.0.0.1:9150
Linux: ./Particl\ Desktop -proxy=127.0.0.1:9150
Linux (if installed with .deb installer): particl-desktop -proxy=127.0.0.1:9150

Using the Tor Daemon

The Tor Browser method is quite easy, but if you don’t want to run the Tor Browser alongside Particl Desktop, you can only run the Tor daemon instead. This Tor daemon will run seamlessly in the background and won’t bother you with a browser that you need to keep open.

Windows

• Download the Tor Browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/
• Install the Tor Browser on your computer
• Open the Windows File Explorer and navigate to the directory in which you’ve installed the Tor Browser (i.e. C:\Tor Browser\)
• Go into the Browser\TorBrowser\Tor directory
• Hold down the SHIFT key and right-click on the Tor folder
• Click on Open command window here
• In the terminal that pops up, type tor.exe –service install
• Tor should now be running as a Windows service. To verify, hold down the Windows key and press r to open up the Run window. Then, type services.msc and then press OK
• You should see Tor running as a service somewhere in the list
• Go to the folder where your Particl Desktop executable is located
• Hold down the SHIFT key and right-click on the Tor folder
• Click on Open command window here
• Launch Particl Desktop and route its connection through Tor by typing “Particl Desktop.exe” -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

MacOS

• Open a terminal
• Install Brew by typing /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
• Go through the installation process
• Install the Tor daemon by typing brew install tor
• Enable Tor as a Brew service by typing: brew services start tor
• Navigate, using cd, to the folder where your Particl Desktop application icon is located (i.e. cd /home/USER/Applications/)
• Launch Particl Desktop by routing its connection through the Tor network by typing ./Particl\ Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/Particl\ Desktop -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

Linux

• Open a terminal
• Install the Tor daemon by typing apt install tor
• Make sure Tor launches on startup by typing sudo systemctl enable tor
• Navigate, using cd, to the folder where your Particl Desktop application icon is located (i.e. cd /home/USER/Particl/)
• Launch Particl Desktop by routing its connection through the Tor network by typing ./Particl\ Desktop -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050
• If you’ve installed Particl using the .deb installer, then simply type this command, regardless of the folder from which you’re executing the command: particl-desktop -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

Tor as a Hidden Service

As seen on Particl.wiki

You can also run Tor as a hidden service and connect your Particl Desktop to it. By running Tor as a hidden service, you allow other Tor users to use your node as an entry or exit point. This helps the Tor network being more decentralized, thus increasing its anonymity.

Linux

• Open a terminal
• Install the Tor network by typing sudo apt-get install tor
• Define that you want to use Tor as a hidden service by modifying the Tor config file. To do so, type sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc
• In the config file, add these two lines:
  HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/particl-service/
HiddenServicePort 51738 127.0.0.1:51738
• Save and exit the file editor by pressing CTRL + X, then type y followed by ENTER
• Restart Tor by typing sudo service tor restart
• Find your hidden service’s IP address (.onion) by typing sudo cat /var/lib/tor/particl-service/hostname. For the purpose of this tutorial, we'll refer to this address as [yourexternalip].onion
• Modify your Particl config file to route its connection through your hidden service by typing nano ~/.particl/particl.conf
• If that file doesn’t exist, create it by typing mkdir ~/.particl then nano ~/.particl/particl.conf
• Your particl.conf file will need to contain at least the following. Replace [yourexternalip].onion with the onion domain of your hidden service

externalip=[yourexternalip].onion
onion=127.0.0.1:9050
addnode=7vusex6gv5eerqi2.onion
addnode=quf7tm4gk3xn3aee.onion
addnode=46fvsrrq75dx5vq4.onion
addnode=ciikdjtoop7l6p6h.onion
addnode=frlfghlielxq2ncy.onion
addnode=partusq5qad6jd2c.onion
addnode=x6fxdwpq2krxzmr3.onion
addnode=amu2ck7lyw26fiqs.onion
addnode=kfyopkn3shigcneh.onion
onlynet=tor
listen=1
bind=127.0.0.1:51738
maxconnections=30

• Start your Particl Desktop client the usual way