Bitcoin Forum

Hello
I lost my phone and will not receive another phone for at least another week. I have an electrum wallet that is connected to my phone thru google authentication for transactions. I can not send bitcoins without the google verification, which I can not see because I do not have my phone. Does anyone know how to be able to send bitcoin without google verification? How to get past google verification? A different way to authenticate without having access to my phone & google authentication? Or Electrum customer service email or phone number? How can I use/send the bitcoins in my wallet or get my cash back, a refund?

Will I be able to receive the google authentication code on a new phone even if the phone number is the same?
Thank you for any help.

Being able to make transactions without the 2FA authentication totally defeats the purpose of having 2FA, no? If you really can't wait for a week and need to make a transaction asap, probably install an Android emulator(e.g. BlueStacks) on your computer, install your favorite 2FA software, and import your 2FA code backup.

Reminder: Electrum, and most reputable Bitcoin wallets, are non-custodial. A company being able to retrieve your funds for you totally defeats the purpose of Bitcoin. With non-custodial wallets like Electrum, you have total control over your funds, but at the same time you need to be totally responsible with your security and your backups.

op. You re-install your wallet. Use the previous account. After that you turn it off from security setting or Google Attendance setting. You can try again to use it again and if necessary you can keep it as a backup. You have a new Google Attendance.

This.

You need it.

Did you saved those 2FA back up codes? you need those for you to gain access to your wallet if you've activated Google Auth on your Electrum wallet.

just restore it from your electrum seed (if you have it), open your electrum wallet (in desktop) > file > new/restore > click wallet with two-factor authentication > next > click already have a seed > click disable when asking 2fa.

The electrum wallet 2 factor authenticator type make use 2-of-3 multisig wallet for signing, one signing from you wallet, and the other signing from TrustedCoin. But if you lost your 2fa app and you do not have the backup code, you can still be able to make transactions on your electrum wallet because you are in control of two private keys, all you need to do is to restore you wallet. Use the below guide to restore your wallet.

Restoring your seed from two factor authentication Electrum wallet (https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/2fa.html#restoring-from-seed)

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It will be good not to be careless with your 2fa backup, if not because your wallet generate 2 private keys that can be used for the signing on your Electrum wallet, you will just only have the option to email TrustedCoin, and many cases that no reply after emailing TrustedCoin, but I have not done that before to know the authenticity of the information to be true or not, but there are many reasons losing 2fa backup can lead to the complete lost of your coin, protect your 2fa backup. If you want to still be using 2fa on Electrum wallet, you can create a new 2fa Electrum wallet and send your funds to the new wallet from the old one restored.

You should already have backup of your electrum on paper or in digital form, and that can be private key or backup phrase.
Importing that into new Electrum wallet installed on your computer, or in other phone will restore your wallets just fine and you will be able to send and receive BTC.

You should also have backup of google 2fa codes using apps like Aegis or and OTP, but you should NEVER connect that with your phone number, it's a big security risk.
Restoring of your codes can be done on any device including your computer not connected with phone number.

Just to add to the steps stated above on how to recover your wallet from seed (assuming you still have it): after you enter the seed and click next make sure to select "Disable" to disable two-factor authentication and be in full control over your wallet.

Since your phone is lost you should assume your wallet is compromised. As soon as you recover your wallet, move all your coins to a new one.
Note: keeping your 2fa wallet and Google auth on the same device defeats the purpose of 2 factor authentication in first place. You must keep them on different devices.
In your case, anyone how finds your phone will be able to steal your money.

Google authenticator is not password nor pin protected, if the phone can be accessed and the phone pin or password is known to an attacker, the attacker do not need any password or pin to know the codes the Google 2fa will be revealing. This is a risk to many while havong the 2fa app on the device the wallet is which is risky and not safe at all.

I will advice people to make use of Aegis or andOTP which are password or pin protected, before accessing the codes, password or pin has to be used to get through to reveal the counter based or time based codes. But yet malware like Trojan horse is capable of knowing the codes as attackers can use such malware to monitor someone's device activities, this can be used to know all sensitive information needed to get through to steal Bitcoin on the 2fa-enabled wallet.

In addition to posts above about restoration of your wallet then this one is about backing up the authenticator app. Since you mentioned that you use google authenticator. To have another backup, you need to install an android emulator on your desktop e.g, bluestacks and many more android emulator. Log in your email and go to playstore on the android emulator on your desktop then download the same authenticator you use and you can now add the secret key on the Google Authenticator for 2FA. Here's the list of android emulator you can use https://fossbytes.com/best-android-emulators-pc/. Even if you lost your phone you can still get OTP in your desktop/PC.

Whats the point in having a 2fa set up if it could be by passed or it doesn't work? Of cause it doesn't make sense and there is jo way you could transact without it if you already have it installed. The good news is, your OTP could either be sent o your mail or phone number depending on the means for which you have supplied initially.

Recover your wallet on another device using your recovery phrase or private key,  get your email signed up on the device or phone number as it applies and your good. Or perhaps you used the authenticator app. In that case, there is a code that is often given at the installation and linking face. Should you have the code safely kept, use it in retoring your app, do a time synchronisation and your good to go.

Though, I'll advice patience if you can, not to update your details on someone else's device. Even though you have plans of wiping it out later. There could be always error of forgetting and also, the device might not be safe due to malware and all as, not everyone is duly informed on the dangers that are always lurking in the corner. How secured you are, starts with you.

Correct answer.

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I don't think you can set up TrustedCoin 2fa with an imported private key.  It must have been a seed-phrase HD wallet, and I doubt that he backed up individual, funded private keys from and HD wallet.

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Your post contradicts the instructions you quoted.  I don't know what you mean by "backup code" but I'm assuming you're talking about the seed phrase.  In order to restore the wallet you need the seed phrase, there's no way to do so otherwise.  And I also don't know what you're talking about when you say "in control of two private keys," but again I'm going to assume you mean seed phrases, which is wrong.  There's only one seed phrase that's needed to make or restore a 2fa wallet.  TrustedCoin doesn't provide a second seed phrase, that would defeat the purpose of having them issue the second signature in the first place.

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@OP, I hope you have the seed phrase that was created when you set up your wallet, that's the only way you'll be able to restore your coins.  I also recommend that you don't use TrustedCoin 2fa.  If you're concerned about the security of your coins you should buy a hardware wallet.  The fees charged by TrustedCoin will more than pay for a hardware wallet, which is much more secure, and leaves you and only you in control of your coins.

No, I meant 2fa backup. I posted a link up there for more clarity which GoldenMonk24 can follow as mentioned, did you check the link? If not, try to check the link, the whole guide for the recovery is what the link is all about and nothing more.

I meant the 2fa wallet is 2-of-3 multisig, 3 keys are generated, while 2 are necessary for signing. If the TrustedCoin key signing is not accessible as the 2fa app is lost and no backup, the wallet can still be restored using seed phrase and transactions can still be made as the wallet owner's wallet controls 2 keys.

This is the link I included above:
Restoring your seed from two factor authentication Electrum wallet (https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/2fa.html#restoring-from-seed)

Nothing like two seed phrase, but the wallet is 2-of-3 multisig which is still the reason the wallet owner can still be able to have access to his funds as his wallet controls 2 of the keys.

Dude, proof read your own shit before clicking "post."  You're constantly spreading misinformation on this forum.  I used to think it was just a language barrier, but I'm starting to think that you're just trying to meet your signature quota.

If you'd like to challenge my reading comprehension vs. your butchering of the English language I'll take that challenge any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

There's a language barrier, but Charles-Tim is not incorrect.

Every service which allows 2FA must provide a shared secret - this is how 2FA works. You use the shared secret and the current time to generate the 6 digit code which you enter, and the service in question does the same thing to check the code you provided matches the code they generated. This shared secret is usually presented as a QR code to scan with your 2FA app, but should also be presented as a (usually 16 character) alphanumeric string, which you are supposed to back up by writing on paper. If OP has this back up code, then he can import it in to any good 2FA app and that app will generate the correct codes for his 2FA Electrum wallet.

2FA Electrum wallets are indeed 2-of-3 multi-sig wallet, with TrustedCoin holding one of the master private keys. The seed phrase can be used to derive the other two of the three master private keys, allowing the funds to be spent from the multi-sig wallet without TrustedCoin's input.

In that case Charles-Tim has my full and sincere apology.


I'm well aware of how 2fa works, I use it regularly for a variety of services, and again I apologize for misinterpreting what he meant by "backup code."


Yet another need for me to apologize to Charles-Tim.  Of course he was talking about the master private keys, and I now I recognize that.  I should have spent a bit more time trying to interpret his post before being a jack-ass.  Which I was.

@Charles-Tim, please accept my apology.  It's not the first time I've been wrong, it's not the first time I've been a jerk, and it's not the first time I've been both at once...  

And I doubt it'll be last.   :-X

This is the sad part about having to use google authenticator, you need to manually enter these secret keys to regain access which is too much work if you ask me, and that's not all...you need a backup of the secret code too :P.

The best of apps to use is authy by twilio as this backups your secret codes automatically but the most important step to remember is backing up your password to the app to be able to access it on other devices, when all is said and done it's smoothsailing.

You have already received instructions on how to restore your wallet and disable the 2FA feature, so I will not repeat that. Although khaled0111 briefly mentioned that you should move your coins to another wallet after you recover them, he was talking about something else. Even after you recover that wallet and disable 2FA, it will still be a 2-of-3 multisig wallet. You will pay more in transaction fees because you require 2 signatures to move your funds if you keep using it. Create a new standard wallet instead and move all your coins there. 

when OP can restore from seed and disabled 2fa, no additional fee is needed, the fee back to normal (mining fee only).

Which is exactly how it should work. No one except you should have a backup of your secret codes, and no one except you should be able to recover your account. Anything else is a security risk.

Authy is one of the worst 2FA apps you can use. It spies on you, tracks your activity and log-ins, links that to your real life identity, shares that with info with third parties, it is closed source, and they have the ability to lock your Authy account which would lock you out of every account you own on which you have enabled 2FA. If you want to unlock your Authy account, then you need to complete KYC with them.

See my post here which examines their Terms of Use: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5320903.msg56489018#msg56489018

You are right, only 2 signatures are needed for signing on 2-of-3 multisig wallet, but three public keys will count for transaction fee, not the number of signers are counting for transaction fee but the numbers of keys generated for the multisig wallet, which means the total (3) public keys will count for fee while only 2 for signing.

This is not the fee deducted by TrustedCoin, yes the fee deduction by TrustedCoin will be disabled. But the fee duducted will be high which is also normal transaction (miner's) fee needed for 2-of-3 multisig transaction which is higher than transaction fee on wallets with one master key.

That means you lost your mobile phone, not the 2fa code which was given during adding 2fa in electrum right? If it's right and You have a backup of 2fa code then you can send the fund without your phone. Just install a google authenticator extension on your chrome browser. add the code there and you can use it to unlock you electrum wallet like as phone authenticator.

Here is the extension link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/authenticator/bhghoamapcdpbohphigoooaddinpkbai