When a new user logs into BTCPay Server, the environment is empty and needs a first store. The introduction wizard of BTCPay Server will give the user the option to ‘Create your store’ (1). A Store can be seen as a Home for your Bitcoin needs. A new BTCPay Server Node will start by synchronising the Bitcoin Blockchain (2). Depending on what infrastructure you run BTCPay Server on, this can range from a few hours to a few days. The instance's current version is shown in the bottom right corner of your BTCPay Server UI. This is useful for reference when troubleshooting.

Following this course will start with a slightly different screen from the previous page. As your instructor has prepared the Demo environment, the Bitcoin blockchain has been synchronized prior, and therefore, you will not see the nodes’ sync status.

A user may decide to delete their whole account. This can be done by clicking the delete button on the Account tab.

BTCPay Server accounts can create an unlimited number of stores. Each store is a wallet or “ home”.

Start by clicking on "Create your store".

This will create your first Home and dashboard for using BTCPay Server.

(1) After clicking "Create your store", BTCPay Server will require you to name the store; this can be anything useful to you.

(2) A default store currency must be set next, either a fiat currency or one denominated in Bitcoin or Sats. For the demo environment, we will set it to USD.

(3) As a last parameter on the store setup, BTCPay Server requires you to set a "Preferred price source" to compare Bitcoin’s price against the current fiat price so your store displays the correct exchange rate between Bitcoin and the store-set fiat currency. We will stick with the default in the Demo example and set this to the Kraken exchange. BTCPay Server uses the Kraken API to check the exchange rates.

(4) Now that these store parameters have been set, click on the Create button, and BTCPay Server will create your first store’s dashboard, where the wizard will continue.

Congratulations, you have created your first store, and this rounds up this exercise.

In this section, you learned: