Get started on Ark with bark
This step-by-step tutorial will get you started with bark, our Ark wallet client that can be used from the command line or integrated into apps.
Currently, bark only supports signet, a bitcoin testnet. Ark is still in alpha, and we don't want anyone losing any real sats!
Installing bark
Your wallet is called bark and has two installation methods:
- Download and install the binary releases
- Compile from source
Binary release
Binary releases can be downloaded from GitLab.
Below are instructions to download the binary, mark it as executable, and add it to your PATH on different platforms.
Download bark
curl https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark/-/releases/bark-0.1.0-beta.5/downloads/bark-0.1.0-beta.5-linux-x86_64 --output bark
Mark the binary as executable
chmod +x bark
Add bark to your PATH
sudo cp bark /usr/local/bin/
Download bark
curl https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark/-/releases/bark-0.1.0-beta.5/downloads/bark-0.1.0-beta.5-linux-x86_64 --output bark
Mark the binary as executable
chmod +x bark
Add bark to your PATH
sudo cp bark /usr/local/bin/
Download bark
curl https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark/-/releases/bark-0.1.0-beta.5/downloads/bark-0.1.0-beta.5-apple-aarch64 --output bark
Mark the binary as executable
chmod +x bark
Add bark to your PATH
sudo cp bark /usr/local/bin/
Download bark
curl https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark/-/releases/bark-0.1.0-beta.5/downloads/bark-0.1.0-beta.5-apple-x86_64 --output bark
Mark the binary as executable
chmod +x bark
Add bark to your PATH
sudo cp bark /usr/local/bin/
Download bark
wget https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark/-/releases/bark-0.1.0-beta.5/downloads/bark-0.1.0-beta.5-windows-x86_64.exe -OutFile bark.exe
Note
Note that when using Windows, you will have to change the rest of the commands in this tutorial by replacing bark with bark.exe.
Verify installation
Verify you have the correct version installed:
bark --version
You should see: bark 0.1.0-beta.5
Seeing an older version?
If you see a different version number, you likely have an older bark installation from previous testing. This happens due to PATH conflicts where your system finds the old binary before the new one.
To fix this, find where the old binary is located:
which bark
Then remove the outdated binary:
sudo rm $(which bark)
After removing the old version, verify the installation again with bark --version.
Compile from source
Refer to the dedicated page for instructions on how to compile from source.