How Oyster works

Getting started

Oyster is a browser extension for Chrome and other Chromium browsers such as Brave and Edge. It opens as a popup, or as a side panel where your browser supports it (choose in Settings, under “Open as”).

Create a new wallet

1. Choose Create a new wallet.
2. Set a password of at least 8 characters. Oyster shows how strong it is. You will be asked to confirm that Oyster cannot reset it: only your seed phrase can restore the wallet.
3. Write down the 12-word seed phrase, in order, on paper. Do not screenshot it or store it online.
4. Prove your backup by picking three of the words from a set that includes decoys.
5. The wallet then locks. Enter your password to open it for the first time.

Restore an existing wallet

Choose I already have a seed phrase and enter your 12 or 24 words. Oyster scans the first 250 addresses of the wallet to find your history and balance, so the first load can take a moment. Oyster uses the same address derivation as the official Pearl desktop wallet, so a seed from one works in the other.

Security and recovery

• Encryption. Your seed phrases live in an encrypted vault on your device, locked with a key derived from your password (scrypt, then AES-256-GCM). They are never sent anywhere. Transactions are signed inside the extension.
• Auto-lock. Oyster locks itself after 1, 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes without use (15 by default).
• Wrong passwords. After three wrong attempts, Oyster makes you wait before the next try, rising from 5 seconds to 15 minutes.
• Forgot your password? Choose Restore from seed phrase on the unlock screen. This deletes the vault on this device and rebuilds it from your seed phrase.
• Backup file. Settings, Back up wallet file saves an oyster-backup-YYYY-MM-DD.json file. Your vault inside it stays encrypted, but your settings, address book and watched addresses are in plain text, so keep the file private. Restore from a backup replaces everything on the device.
• Export. You can view your seed phrase (password required) or export the account public key (xpub) for watch-only use elsewhere.

Multiple wallets

Keep savings, mining and trading funds apart. Tap the wallet name at the top to switch. You can add:

• New wallet from my seed: the next account from the seed you already backed up. No new backup needed.
• Import a seed phrase: a wallet from a different seed.
• Watch-only: a single address whose balance you can follow but never spend from.

Give each wallet a name (up to 32 characters) and a color: teal, amber, red, violet, slate or ink. Removing a wallet whose seed phrase would be deleted asks you to confirm it is written down. Your last wallet cannot be removed.

Your portfolio

The home screen shows your portfolio value in USDT, with a PRL price chart for 1D, 1W, 1M, 3M or ALL, as a line or as candles. Below it are Buy, Sell, Send and Receive, and your holdings: buying power (USDT), Pearl (PRL) and wrapped PRL. The price shows where it came from and is marked if it is out of date. Tap Pearl for balances, maturing mining rewards, protected coins and price alerts.

Sending PRL

1. Paste or type a Pearl address, or pick someone from Paid before (your last four recipients).
2. Enter an amount, or tap Max.
3. Choose a network fee: Slow (about 30 minutes), Normal (about 10 minutes), Fast (next block), or set your own rate from 1 to 5000 sat/vB.
4. Review and send.

• Oyster warns you if an address looks like Bitcoin, Ethereum or the wrong Pearl network.
• Every address you pay is added to your address book. Edit labels in Settings.
• Speed up or Cancel payment are offered while a send is unconfirmed. Cancelling replaces it with a payment back to yourself, which only works if it confirms first.
• Use Choose coins to pick exactly which coins a payment spends.
• Mining rewards can be spent once they have 100 confirmations.

Protected coins

Tiny outputs of 0.001 PRL or less may carry PRC-20 inscriptions, which Oyster does not display. To avoid spending one by accident, Oyster freezes them. You can unfreeze a single coin in Settings, but spending it can destroy any token it carries.

Receiving PRL

Show your QR code or copy your address. Ask for a set amount (with an optional label) turns the QR into a pearl: payment link.

Activity and notifications

• Filter history by All, PRL, Trades or Cash. Older history loads as you scroll.
• Add a private note (up to 200 characters) to any transaction. Notes stay on your device.
• Export as CSV with date, txid, direction, amount, fee, confirmations, counterparty and note.
• If you allow notifications, Oyster tells you about incoming PRL, mining rewards, filled orders and price alerts. It checks about every two minutes, even while locked. The toolbar badge counts pending transactions.

Trading

The Trade screen shows the live PRL/USDT order book from the SafeTrade exchange and recent trades. Buy with your USDT buying power, or sell PRL from your wallet.

• At market fills now at the best prices in the book. Set the worst price you will accept (0.5%, 1%, 2% or 5% away, 1% by default). Oyster refuses an order that would fill past it.
• At my price places a limit order that waits until the market reaches your price.
• The minimum order is 2 PRL. Review shows the average price, fees and what you receive before you confirm.
• Open orders can be cancelled. Cancelling takes a moment to reach the exchange.

After a buy fills

• Send to my wallet: the PRL is paid to your wallet on the Pearl network a few minutes later.
• Keep on exchange: Oyster holds the PRL on the exchange so you can sell it instantly. Tap Send to my wallet whenever you want it moved.

Selling PRL from your wallet

Your wallet sends the PRL to an exchange deposit address. The exchange credits it after 10 Pearl blocks, about 30 minutes, and then it is sold. Oyster shows the sale’s progress on the home screen the whole time.

Buying power (USDT)

Buying power is USDT that Oyster holds for you to buy PRL with.

1. Pick a chain: Solana, Arbitrum or BNB Chain.
2. Save the address you will send from. Use a wallet you control, such as Phantom or MetaMask. Exchange withdrawals often cannot be matched to you and may be lost.
3. Your first deposit must be the exact amount Oyster shows. That proves the address is yours. The amount is reserved for 48 hours. After that, send any amount.
4. Send USDT to the deposit address shown, from your saved address only.

Withdraw sends USDT back to the address it came from, on the same chain. The minimum is 5 USDT, with a 1 USDT network fee on top. One withdrawal can be in progress at a time.

Mining and auto-sell

Turn on miner mode for a wallet and Oyster gives you one fixed payout address. Put it in your pool’s payout setting; it never changes. The Mining screen shows what you mined today, the last 7 days and your daily average.

Auto-sell

Choose a threshold (at least 10 PRL, 100 by default) and a share to sell (up to 100%). Once your mined balance passes the threshold, Oyster sells that share of what is above it. Auto-sell runs only while your wallet is unlocked, because each sale starts with a transaction your wallet has to sign.

Wrapped PRL

If you hold wPRL on Ethereum, enter the Ethereum address to watch it. Oyster reads the public balance; no Ethereum keys are involved. You can choose whether it counts toward your portfolio total.

Connecting to sites

Pearl apps can talk to Oyster through window.pearl. Every request opens an approval window, which closes after 5 minutes if you do nothing. Oyster warns you about sites that are not on HTTPS.

Oyster never signs PSBTs for websites, and never signs its own sign-in messages for them. Watch-only wallets cannot connect. Manage connected sites in Settings.

Settings

• Theme (system, light or dark), auto-lock time and password.
• Back up and restore the wallet file; view the seed phrase; export the account public key.
• Manage wallets, address book, protected coins and connected sites.
• Open as popup or side panel.
• Network (mainnet or testnet) and the data server address. Leave the operator key empty.

Fees and limits

Who holds what

You hold your seed phrase, your keys and the PRL in your wallet. Oyster cannot move it.

Oyster holds assets while you use trading and buying power: your USDT buying power, PRL kept on the exchange, PRL on its way to be sold, and bought PRL or USDT on its way to you. These are held in exchange and wallet accounts Oyster operates, and tracked per wallet address in Oyster’s ledger. See the terms for what that means.

Networks and addresses

• Mainnet addresses start with prl1; testnet addresses start with tprl1.
• Oyster uses BIP-39 seed phrases and BIP-86 Taproot addresses on the path m/86'/808276'/0', matching the official Pearl desktop wallet.
• Balances and history come from a Pearl block explorer, one address at a time.

Troubleshooting

My balance looks wrong after restoring

Give the first scan a moment. Oyster checks 250 addresses on restore. Use the refresh button to rescan.

I sold PRL but nothing has arrived yet

The exchange waits 10 blocks, about 30 minutes, before crediting it. Progress shows on the home screen.

My USDT deposit is not showing

Check that it came from your saved sender address, on the chain you chose, and that your first deposit was the exact amount shown. Deposits from exchanges or other addresses cannot be matched automatically.

A coin shows as protected

It is 0.001 PRL or less and may carry a token. Leave it frozen unless you know it is safe to spend.

I forgot my password

On the unlock screen choose Restore from seed phrase. You will need your seed phrase. Still stuck? See the FAQ.