diff --git a/electron/log.js b/electron/log.js
index 95eed588..72404d26 100644
--- a/electron/log.js
+++ b/electron/log.js
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import util from 'util';
 import fs from 'fs-extra';
 import path from 'path';
 import EnvPaths from 'env-paths';
-const envPaths = EnvPaths.default('plebbit', { suffix: false });
+const envPaths = EnvPaths('plebbit', { suffix: false });
 
 // previous version created a file instead of folder
 // we should remove this at some point
diff --git a/electron/main.js b/electron/main.js
index 097d4a84..12705efa 100644
--- a/electron/main.js
+++ b/electron/main.js
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 import './log.js';
-import { app, BrowserWindow, Menu, MenuItem, Tray, screen as electronScreen, shell, dialog, nativeTheme } from 'electron';
+import { app, BrowserWindow, Menu, MenuItem, Tray, screen as electronScreen, shell, dialog, nativeTheme, ipcMain } from 'electron';
 import isDev from 'electron-is-dev';
+import fs from 'fs';
 import path from 'path';
+import EnvPaths from 'env-paths';
 import startIpfs from './start-ipfs.js';
 import './start-plebbit-rpc.js';
 import { URL, fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
@@ -19,6 +21,11 @@ startIpfs.onError = (error) => {
   }
 };
 
+// send plebbit rpc auth key to renderer
+const plebbitDataPath = !isDev ? EnvPaths('plebbit', { suffix: false }).data : path.join(dirname, '..', '.plebbit');
+const plebbitRpcAuthKey = fs.readFileSync(path.join(plebbitDataPath, 'auth-key'), 'utf8');
+ipcMain.on('get-plebbit-rpc-auth-key', (event) => event.reply('plebbit-rpc-auth-key', plebbitRpcAuthKey));
+
 // use common user agent instead of electron so img, video, audio, iframe elements don't get blocked
 // https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/the-latest-version/chrome
 // https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/the-latest-user-agent/chrome
diff --git a/electron/preload.js b/electron/preload.js
index dee2ae9f..dbfd7602 100644
--- a/electron/preload.js
+++ b/electron/preload.js
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-const { contextBridge } = require('electron');
+const { contextBridge, ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
 
 // dev uses http://localhost, prod uses file://...index.html
 const isDev = window.location.protocol === 'http:';
@@ -10,5 +10,9 @@ const defaultPlebbitOptions = {
 contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld('defaultPlebbitOptions', defaultPlebbitOptions);
 contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld('defaultMediaIpfsGatewayUrl', 'http://localhost:6473');
 
+// receive plebbit rpc auth key from main
+ipcRenderer.on('plebbit-rpc-auth-key', (event, plebbitRpcAuthKey) => contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld('plebbitRpcAuthKey', plebbitRpcAuthKey));
+ipcRenderer.send('get-plebbit-rpc-auth-key');
+
 // uncomment for logs
 // localStorage.debug = 'plebbit-js:*,plebbit-react-hooks:*,seedit:*'
diff --git a/electron/start-ipfs.js b/electron/start-ipfs.js
index 787bc15a..cf447735 100644
--- a/electron/start-ipfs.js
+++ b/electron/start-ipfs.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import tcpPortUsed from 'tcp-port-used';
 import EnvPaths from 'env-paths';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
 const dirname = path.join(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)));
-const envPaths = EnvPaths.default('plebbit', { suffix: false });
+const envPaths = EnvPaths('plebbit', { suffix: false });
 
 // use this custom function instead of spawnSync for better logging
 // also spawnSync might have been causing crash on start on windows
diff --git a/electron/start-plebbit-rpc.js b/electron/start-plebbit-rpc.js
index 5a4e7535..248929ee 100644
--- a/electron/start-plebbit-rpc.js
+++ b/electron/start-plebbit-rpc.js
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import path from 'path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
 import isDev from 'electron-is-dev';
 const dirname = path.join(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)));
-const envPaths = EnvPaths.default('plebbit', { suffix: false });
+const envPaths = EnvPaths('plebbit', { suffix: false });
 
 //           PLEB, always run plebbit rpc on this port so all clients can use it
 const port = 9138;