Bitcoin Forum

Is there a way to use a clean computer from viruses and download electrum on it and than send bitcoin to it, write down the phrase twice and password and than just delete the electrum software and all wallets?

and keep copy of a few addresses in case he wants to invest more?

Is this a safe way, because i don't want my grandpa to have bitcoin on his computer which is super slow (probably virus).

You can do that, but consider the scenario where your computer might have already been infected by malware. Thus, it is suggeted that if you're using Windows, you scan your computer with a good antivirus and anti-malware to be sure that your system is clean before installing electrum and opening a new wallet to send and receive funds.

The other better way would be to download Tails, format your USB drive and to write the ISO to a it. Tails has been working real hard towards a having a secure amnesic (a system that forgets everything that has been installed or any files copied after a reboot) OS. Once installed, open up electrum and create a wallet, then make sure you note down your seed on a paper that you can store securely and then delete the wallet or reboot. This should be good enough.

There shouldn't be any issue as long as you have the seed for Electrum. Also take a backup file, whichever OS you use, a clean system or not, you can always restore the Electrum using seed and also import the backup file.

You might try to use a linux distro if you are having trouble with viruses.

The best approach would be to format the hard drive and reinstall the OS on your grandpa's PC. I mean if it's infected you need to solve that problem first!  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDNmyyrEZho

If you're going to use a live CD then don't use tails. Tails has an old version of electrum that will only cause you problems. Use debian or ubuntu live, boot from it and then install electrum as per the instructions on electrum.org/#download .

Alternatively create the wallet on your own system, note down the seed and only install a watch-only wallet on your grandpa's PC. You can create a watch-only wallet by restoring using your wallet's master public key which you can get via wallet menu > information. It isn't possible to spend from a watch only wallet so it's safe to use on a potentially compromised system.

Thanks guys. So taking note of the seed is all that is needed to restore the bitcoins in the wallet.

Could malware steal one's bitcoins on electrum wallet if they dont have your seed? My question is with electrum, does malware need seed and file or just the file?

You can "steal" coins from Electrum with any combination of:

1. The Seed
2. The wallet file and wallet password (if password protected)
3. The wallet file (if not password protected)
4. Private keys

If someone else has any one of those, your coins are effectively gone :P

You only need the seed. You do not need the password in restoring your Electrum wallet.

That is one good way to have a paper wallet.

Anyone have tried virtual machine?

Install wallet on clean installed linux on a virtual machine on removable drive (usb drive) and then run all transaction and also keep files or any important files on it, seems like highly secure but practically maybe not, so if anyone have tried it please share your finding

I haven't done myself but I am planning to do this because now even windows defender would detect electrum wallet as virus and remove it

To add to what HCP said above in post 6 you should know that watch-only wallets don't contain the seed so there is no risk of theft from them. But you can't spend from watch-only wallets either so you better have the seed recorded somewhere!

Yes, your procedure is right.
Just be sure to first install Electrum on a device which has no malware. It could be your own computer, a USB stick connected to a trusted device or even a linux distribution, in a USB.

Then, save your wallet, write your seeds on several piece of paper, along with addresses and private keys. You'll done!