I would say the main benefit that Sparrow has over Electrum for your use case is how easy it so connect to your own node and not rely on a third party. Electrum requires that you set up an Electrum server on top of your node first; Sparrow can just be pointed directly at your node.
I have, actually! But I forgot to mention it. It was a 2-clicks process to do it. Provided that you already have a node of course. Can you elaborate though? Is it better (and for what reason), to run Electrum Server upon your node, instead of connecting Sparrow to your node? Although Sparrow excels in terms of UI and UX, in addition to the ease of connecting your nodes, in addition to Taproot addresses and better performance of the Lightning Network, Electrum provides you with basic and good features for all these requirements, so if you are familiar with Electrum or have not used any of these wallets before it is a good choice.
I also think that the way Electrum deals with individual HW plugins is better. so I will vote for it.
There are actually too many people that used to use Electrum since it was released and haven't switched to any other alternative. That's what made me curious. Electrum doesn't generate a BIP39 seed phrase and uses its own algorithm when generating a seed phrase.
Of course, you can import a BIP39 seed phrase in electrum. To do so, just click on "Options" when entering your seed phrase and check "BIP39 seed".
Thanks! I have tried it and I can verify that. |
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Hello people, I am interested in the significant differences that you have found between these two applications.
I have googled it, but the best audience to answer are the people in this forum.
1. I have a multisig vault, which I would like to be able to "monitor" using the cosigners xpubs.
2. I have a cold storage wallet, which I would also like to monitor as "watch-only"
3. I have a hot wallet, created using BlueWallet.
I know I can do all 3 in both of them. But are there differences in features etc, that you have spotted?
Example: I think, and I may be mistaken, that Electrum doesn't use BIP39 seed phrases, am I wrong?
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After joining this forum, I discovered that I wasn't knowledgeable about bitcoin and having been doing research for a while in understanding bitcoin, now am more interested in going into the Technical aspects of Bitcoin, please I need resources to learn about bitcoin Blockchain Hash algorithm and also learning about cryptography as a whole .
Hello! Congrats for your decision. Bitcoin is fascinating. https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook go here, slide towards the bottom and there you will find links to the chapters. Start reading. Btw, this guy is extremely knowledgeable. https://learnmeabitcoin.com/ this is another brilliant place. https://www.youtube.com/c/BTCSessions this channel will teach you how to use software (and hardware) regarding Bitcoin. Finally, this forum is incredible too, so feel free to ask. |
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Hello OP. I am sure you have established good knowledge here. But as a personal opinion, I want to tell you that I have done both:
1. 2-of-3 multisig. I mean actual multisig with 3 cosigners, where 2 are required.
2. cold storage (24 words seed phrase + passphrase).
In my humble opinion, for the average Bitcoiner, the option (2) is more than enough. It's good to understand how the option (1) works and give it a try, but option (2) is much much much simpler, both in terms of back-up and in terms of usage.
Yes but cold storage single sig I am afraid that someone finds my hidden location Let's say you hide the 24 words on a piece of paper in a super secret place. Let's say I find the piece of paper (because I am a super clever detective). What can I do then? I will try to restore the wallet and I will see that it is empy. Why? Because you will have added a passphrase that ONLY YOU know. So even if I stole your seed phrase, I would also need the passphrase. P.S. The passphrase is a part of your wallet. It is not a password that is related to the application that you use. It is attached to your seed phrase, in order to create the seed for your wallet. |
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Hello OP. I am sure you have established good knowledge here. But as a personal opinion, I want to tell you that I have done both:
1. 2-of-3 multisig. I mean actual multisig with 3 cosigners, where 2 are required.
2. cold storage (24 words seed phrase + passphrase).
In my humble opinion, for the average Bitcoiner, the option (2) is more than enough. It's good to understand how the option (1) works and give it a try, but option (2) is much much much simpler, both in terms of back-up and in terms of usage.
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Brilliant! I don't have this window, at least not in this path (perhaps because I don't run the latest Core version). I can see the network traffic under "window" -> "network traffic". Correct, my bad. It's under "Window". Regarding the first bullet, considering that I cannot receive inbound connections, will it make a difference if I allow tor? If you allow Tor, you'll probably connect with Tor nodes, so you'll upload to / download from both Tor and clearnet nodes. Also, you can allow incoming connections through Tor without messing up with firewalls. Could you provide me with a good tutorial on how to do that? I am on Windows unfortunately.
edit:
is this enough? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tor |
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So, what does my node do now? I am only allowing outbound connections. Does this mean that my node "sends" the current blockchain (and mempool) situation to other nodes, to help them validate new transactions? Correct. Your node downloads and verifies blocks whenever you're notified there's a new chain tip, and uploads blocks to whoever requests them from you. In fact, you can open up and see yourself how much data you send and receive by clicking on "Help" -> "Debug Window" -> "Network". Brilliant! I don't have this window, at least not in this path (perhaps because I don't run the latest Core version). I can see the network traffic under "window" -> "network traffic". In fact there is column called "totals" where I can see a received attribute and a sent attribute. I guess Received: 398MB means I have received 398MB of information regarding new blocks and Sent: 82MB means I have sent 82MB of info. If you want to help even more: - Allow Tor, so that you can have mixed connections with both clearnet and anonymous nodes (and act as bridge between these two networks).
- Setup an anonymous SPV server, and let the rest of the peers find you.
- Run a reliable lightning node.
Regarding the first bullet, considering that I cannot receive inbound connections, will it make a difference if I allow tor? |
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Running bitcoin core with outbound connections only, is it ok? I mean, do I help the network? and if so, how is it different than a node that has inbound connections too? Yes, you do help it bandwidth-wise. Allowing incoming connections is just even more helpful, because in comparison with outbound-only (which lets you make up to 8 full-relays), with incoming you can establish up to 125 connections. If you want to help even more: - Allow Tor, so that you can have mixed connections with both clearnet and anonymous nodes (and act as bridge between these two networks).
- Setup an anonymous SPV server, and let the rest of the peers find you.
- Run a reliable lightning node.
Hello! Please consider I am totally new to this, so my questions may sound silly. But I am trying to learn. An I read as much as I can. So, what does my node do now? I am only allowing outbound connections. Does this mean that my node "sends" the current blockchain (and mempool) situation to other nodes, to help them validate new transactions? |
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You will have to open port 8333 in your firewall / router and point it back to the PC running bitcoin.
Also, if there is any software firewall on the PC you would have to allow inbound on port 8333
-Dave
So I have a router, in which I have set a rule to open tcp/udp connections on port 8333. I also checked my firewall on the pc where the Bitcoin Core is installed and I observed that there is also an inbound rule for the port 8333. I rebooted my router. Unfortunately, I still have 10 connections (In: 0 / Out: 10). Have you checked whether your node actually can be reached by other node? Using https://bitnodes.io/ usually is easiest way to do it. If https://bitnodes.io/ can't reach your node, it's possible your ISP use CGNAT. Yes, my ISP indeed use CGNAT. My node is unreachable through bitnodes... Running bitcoin core with outbound connections only, is it ok? I mean, do I help the network? and if so, how is it different than a node that has inbound connections too? |
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You will have to open port 8333 in your firewall / router and point it back to the PC running bitcoin.
Also, if there is any software firewall on the PC you would have to allow inbound on port 8333
-Dave
So I have a router, in which I have set a rule to open tcp/udp connections on port 8333. I also checked my firewall on the pc where the Bitcoin Core is installed and I observed that there is also an inbound rule for the port 8333. I rebooted my router. Unfortunately, I still have 10 connections (In: 0 / Out: 10). |
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Is there any way to be sure that I have done things correctly?
I have downloaded bitcoin core.
I have waited multiple hours to sync.
I have opened a bitcoin.conf file, in which I have set server=1.
I have Bitcoin Core open and I do nothing.
Can I check somehow if my node is reachable? I only want to make sure that I contribute to the network. What is the easiest way to do so?
EDIT
1. I have checked using netstat that my port 8333 is listening, but Bitnodes website shows my node is unreachable.
2. Running getpeerinfo, I get a json where all peers have the attribute "inbound": false. I guess this means that I have no incoming connections.
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"Core just sits there and talks to other nodes taking in and rebroadcasting valid transactions." -> Can I see this process somehow? Can I check which nodes I am connected with etc.?
If you are running the GUI you can see the peers under Window -> peers If you are running the cli then use bitcoin-cli getpeerinfo That will show you the connected nodes. I don't know if it's still current / 100% accurate but I used to point people here: https://medium.com/@peterjd42/basic-commands-to-interact-with-the-bitcoin-core-rpc-console-180da2c2dc45For a bit of command info. There are other guides but that one was good a couple of years ago. -Dave Thanks Dave, you ve been very helpful |
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1. Can I validate transactions? If so, how? Will it happen automatically while running the program? Which transactions will I be able to validate? Only mine?
Core just sits there and talks to other nodes taking in and rebroadcasting valid transactions. 2. Can I run a block explorer like mempool.space? I am interested in developing an app that needs access to address balances etc. However I can't use an online API because the websites use rate limits. Therefore, could I use my own full node to do this?
Yes you will need to install a few other things but: https://github.com/mempool/mempoolYou can also run this explorer https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorerIt's slower with less features, but needs a lot less on the back end to run it. Or you can just use calls direct to core using bitcoin-cli see here: https://developer.bitcoin.org/reference/3. What else can I possibly do? Give me ideas. I am totally new to this.
Take a look at the pre-configured nodes in a box like umbrel or raspiblitz. See what they can do and the features they have. -Dave Thanks! I will definetely check umbrel. "Core just sits there and talks to other nodes taking in and rebroadcasting valid transactions." -> Can I see this process somehow? Can I check which nodes I am connected with etc.? |
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Hello. I have just synced the Bitcoin blockchain on my HDD.
I am curious now, what can I do with it?
1. Can I validate transactions? If so, how? Will it happen automatically while running the program? Which transactions will I be able to validate? Only mine?
2. Can I run a block explorer like mempool.space? I am interested in developing an app that needs access to address balances etc. However I can't use an online API because the websites use rate limits. Therefore, could I use my own full node to do this?
3. What else can I possibly do? Give me ideas. I am totally new to this.
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Hello friends. Has anyone ever lost bitcoin? I am curious to listen to your stories. My purspose is to educate ourselves of possible scams, or rookie mistakes that we may do, that can lead to our BTC being stolen or lost.
Edit: Back in Feb 2020, I gave my seed phrase to someone on twitter. The convinced me the seed phrase was equal to my address and that they needed it to send me bitcoin. Don't ask me why I was so stupid... I lost approx. 1M sats and I had to start accumulating again. I bought a Trezor and I started reading...
Bitcoin doubler for me when I was still inexperienced, way back in 2017. I thought that I can double it right away, the scam was good, they give me my first payout and so I reinvest it again, roll my bitcoin on that site. Then suddenly it goes offline and when I search about it, maybe have been bitching that they have lost big amount. Luckily for me, it's just small as I just want to test that scheme or shall I shall now "scam". As for the seed phrase or private key, no I haven't go to that extend to give someone that information because right away I knew that it is very important to us. It's good that we have learn this kind of lessons when we are a newbie, it's a wake up call to us to really be vigilant and learn safety practices before hand as not to fall for this trick again. This is an investment case, and when it comes to investing, there are different ways to lose bitcoins. I also joined many bitcoin doubler sites when I was new to the market and can say at the time, there were countless such sites, doubling bitcoin weekly, daily, and even hourly...I lost quite a bit at that point, but it was a pleasant experience I don't regret. I only lose when investing with greed and lack of knowledge, I have never lost or hacked in my bitcoin storage. Ι ve never heard of this before... the bitcoin doublers. As a newbie, mistakes are inevitable, I don't lose bitcoins by giving my private keys to someone, but I also lose a lot of bitcoins because of investing in scam projects like HYIP or Ponzi...The important thing is that we have learned from the experience and not let it happen again in the future.
I have never had this kind of temptation to buy something for quick money. However, I understand what you say and it is unfortunately very common. I have never come across a bitcoin scam. Ever since I started investing in Bitcoin, the number of scammers in cryptocurrency has been very low.But nowadays the number of scammers is increasing day by day. But I lost some bitcoins due to my own mistakes. Back in 2017 when the price of bitcoin was $12k I held some bitcoins, but later I lost some bitcoins due to a transaction to a wrong address.But the most important thing in cryptocurrency is to secure full access to your seed phrase and wallet.These accesses should never be shared with anyone, as sharing them is tantamount to giving away your bitcoins to that person. And while adding different tokens to the wallet should be well justified because there are many scam coins in the market.
 IMO, all the wallets should replace "seed phrase" with "secret phrase, don't share". That way newbies won't confuse it with a normal bitcoin address.
yeap. And there is also a misconception between passhphrase and passwords. The passphrase in BIP39 is extending your seed phrase and therefore in order to recover the wallet you need 12 + passphrase and you can recover it in any device that utilizes BIP39. If you lose your passphrase everything is lost. Some wallets also allow you to add a password which is tied to the specific device that you use and you can simply recover the wallet using your 12 words. If you forget your password you can just factory reset the device and import the 12 words later. |
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I am very sorry to hear that you had such a very unpleasant experience. It is important to remember that the seed phrase is very important and confidential, as it is the key to accessing your bitcoin wallet. Giving someone else a seed phrase gives full access to your bitcoin wallet and can result in the loss of bitcoins stored in it.
I highly recommend continuing to read and learn about bitcoin safety, so that you can take the appropriate actions to protect your investment and ensure that an incident like this does not happen again in the future. Always be careful and don't be easily swayed by unreasonable offers or suspicious requests, as these could be signs of fraud. Hopefully this experience can be a valuable lesson for you and can help you secure your bitcoin investment in the future.
Until now, I myself have never experienced anything like yours, thankfully I have known from the beginning the importance of maintaining seed phrases.
Maybe as a newbie before years ago many have experienced of being a victim of HYIP and that's the first ever lost of bitcoin that anyone can. It's different now because scammers are making it look like that they're hackers through direct asking for someone's seed. Yeah, I have reached a level where I feel confident having set up a 2-3 multisig wallet. In the beginning I didn't even know what a private key was. But, thanks to certain people and websites, I have educated myself well. Still lots to learn of course.
Good on you, we learn from our mistakes and that's why it's important to be aware of these details whether they're just small or big information that can save lives, yes, life savings and crypto assets. Thank you guys. I appreciate both of your answers. Losing an amount of money causes very strong feelings. I got into a mindset where I was blaming my stupid mind for being scammed like this. However, this mistake taught me the importance of being more suspicious and of course more well educated. Then, I started blaming the thief and not myself. Finally, I got the opportunity to learn more about bitcoin. And the more I have learnt, the more I have liked it. Today, I am much better. But still, I try to learn more and more, absorbing knowledge from daily events. That's why I made this post. |
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Good question. I don't kknow if he/she/they are still around. Once I sent them my seed phrase in DM, they blocked me 10 minutes later. I thought they were just late, but apparently they just needed 10 minutes to empty my wallet.
Well, you learn from mistakes, I think you now have more awareness, that is to keep your private keys and not give them to anyone and a few less satoshis. Yeah, I have reached a level where I feel confident having set up a 2-3 multisig wallet. In the beginning I didn't even know what a private key was. But, thanks to certain people and websites, I have educated myself well. Still lots to learn of course. |
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Back in Feb 2020, I gave my seed phrase to someone on twitter. The convinced me the seed phrase was equal to my address and that they needed it to send me bitcoin. Is he still around? What led you to know them/interact with them through Twitter? 2020 is around the last bear market, I'm surprised you got scammed through Twitter instead of Telegram. IIRC, Telegram scammers are more active at that time if my memory serves me correctly. Good question. I don't kknow if he/she/they are still around. Once I sent them my seed phrase in DM, they blocked me 10 minutes later. I thought they were just late, but apparently they just needed 10 minutes to empty my wallet. |
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Hello friends. Has anyone ever lost bitcoin? I am curious to listen to your stories. My purspose is to educate ourselves of possible scams, or rookie mistakes that we may do, that can lead to our BTC being stolen or lost.
Edit: Back in Feb 2020, I gave my seed phrase to someone on twitter. The convinced me the seed phrase was equal to my address and that they needed it to send me bitcoin. Don't ask me why I was so stupid... I lost approx. 1M sats and I had to start accumulating again. I bought a Trezor and I started reading...
The stories associated with the loss of bitcoin always excite the minds of readers. Reading them, it seems that how is it possible to be stupid and lose for one reason or another. Until you experience it yourself. Often this is due to the loss of seed phrases, as in your case. You could have avoided this if you had sufficient knowledge and the attackers could not fool you. The conclusion is simple: it is necessary to carefully and as quickly as possible study the basic principles of the work of bitcoin in order not to fall into such unpleasant stories. I won't say you were stupid. You were little technically aware of bitcoin and paid the price for that. Let your negative experience serve as an example for other beginners and it will encourage them not to delay the moment they start learning about the technical aspects of bitcoin.I 'd say the most common reason must be the loss of the seed backup. I was totally unaware. To me, everything back then, was just "my bitcoin". I was clueless, I had no idea how anything worked. The phrase that I got in bold in your answer, is exactly the reason why I made this thread. Hello friends. Has anyone ever lost bitcoin? I am curious to listen to your stories. My purspose is to educate ourselves of possible scams, or rookie mistakes that we may do, that can lead to our BTC being stolen or lost. This thread will be quite educating and funny. The best means of learning is from people's experience or stories. This will indeed help others not to make the same mistakes. I have never lost any Bitcoin and I was just fortunate. But I have heard stories of people that have lost money due to carelessness and lack of knowledge. One of my friends downloaded a wallet and failed to copy and save the seed phrase. After he has bought some bitcoin, he lost his phone few months after and couldn't retrieve his coins because he doesn't have the keys. Edit: Back in Feb 2020, I gave my seed phrase to someone on twitter. The convinced me the seed phrase was equal to my address and that they needed it to send me bitcoin. Don't ask me why I was so stupid... I lost approx. 1M sats and I had to start accumulating again. I bought a Trezor and I started reading...
I am glad I located this forum because I don't think I can be a victim of such cheap scam. This forum is a goldmine of information about bitcoin and other issues like security and privacy. If you fall victim to scam after joining this forum it might be because you are not learning or you are greedy. I am glad you learned your lessons, but you learnt it the hard way. Indeed, this forum is full of intelligent and educated people. Sorry to hear that you lost some bitcoin, that's really unfortunate. I haven't personally lost any bitcoin, but I have heard some horror stories.
I've heard of people falling victim to phishing scams, where they click on a link that looks like a legitimate website, but it's actually a fake site designed to steal their login information. Another common scam is the "tech support" scam, where scammers pose as customer support for a cryptocurrency exchange or wallet and convince people to give them access to their accounts.
That's why it's important to never give out your login information or other personal details to anyone, even if they seem trustworthy. It's also a good idea to stay up to date on the latest scams and security best practices by following reputable news sources and forums. Knowledge is power when it comes to protecting your bitcoin.
Yeah. A friend of mine sent 0.04ETH to a scammer who pretended to initiate and NFT collection. Luckily enough, I have only been interested in Bitcoin. |
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Hello friends. Has anyone ever lost bitcoin? I am curious to listen to your stories. My purspose is to educate ourselves of possible scams, or rookie mistakes that we may do, that can lead to our BTC being stolen or lost.
Edit: Back in Feb 2020, I gave my seed phrase to someone on twitter. The convinced me the seed phrase was equal to my address and that they needed it to send me bitcoin. Don't ask me why I was so stupid... I lost approx. 1M sats and I had to start accumulating again. I bought a Trezor and I started reading...
Hearing your story, actually giving your sheed phrase to someone else is the same as giving your bitcoin to the person you gave it to that person, because they definitely have full access to your wallet. The most important thing is never to give sheed phrases to other people, not even your own family. I have never lost bitcoin before. Maybe some time ago I tried to make a transaction with a coin that suddenly entered my wallet, we can be sure it was a coin that was sent to me by scammer. I'm trying to put some $ in BNB in order to see if they are interested in a small amount or not. And sure enough the next day some $ in my wallet was gone.  Yeah of course. To be honest, with other "coins" I have never been involved. However it seems to me that, with ETH for example, anyone could deploy any shitty code they wanted and share a smart contract with you. It is much easier to be scammed this way, I guess. |
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