The node program supplied with Monero. It downloads and checks blocks, maintains a blockchain database and exchanges information with peers. A wallet connects to it but keeps its own keys.
Also called: daemon, Monero daemon.
The daemon and the wallet have different jobs
monerod exchanges blocks and transactions with peers, checks them against consensus rules and maintains the local blockchain database. It can keep doing this when no wallet application is open.
The wallet holds or accesses wallet keys, scans chain data for its outputs and prepares payments. Connecting a wallet to monerod does not normally give the daemon the wallet's private keys. A daemon RPC interface and a wallet RPC interface expose different capabilities.
References: Daemon options and console commands · Monero source: wallet/wallet2.cpp
A wallet catching up to a synchronized node
You might start a wallet after its node has already reached the network tip. The wallet can still need time to scan for incoming outputs and reconstruct its own history. Node synchronization and wallet synchronization are separate progress indicators.
A wallet connected to a node that is behind cannot see blocks that node has not obtained. If a payment is missing, check both the node's progress and the wallet's scanning state before assuming funds are lost.
References: Daemon options and console commands · Monero source: wallet/wallet2.cpp
P2P traffic and RPC requests
The peer-to-peer interface serves the Monero network. RPC lets applications request node information or submit transactions. Opening a public RPC endpoint is a separate decision from allowing peer connections.
The daemon offers restricted RPC options for public service. Administrative access should remain limited to intended clients. The wallet's trust setting also affects which requests it is willing to send to a node.
References: Daemon options and console commands · Remote node documentation
Storage, mining and privacy
A pruned daemon still validates the chain, but retains less old prunable data. Pruning does not turn it into a wallet, and a large node database is not a wallet backup.
monerod can participate in mining when configured to do so. Merely running it does not earn rewards. Its ordinary network connections can also expose that you operate a node, so node operation alone is not a guarantee of network anonymity.
References: Daemon options and console commands · Moneropedia: pruning
Related glossary terms
Practical guides
Technical baseline: v0.18.5.4. Reviewed 2026-11-08 UTC.