As a newbie, I read a lot about electrum, saw lots of post from others (newbies) and realized that most of peoples have a false idea of how BTC tx and Electrum are connected.

In fact WALLET is not the best word to qualify Electrum, I think that LINK is a better one :
-   In my pocket my wallet can contains banknotes or coins  coming  at anytime from everywhere
-   On my PC my Electrum wallet contains only information about addresses generated by itself (it’s not possible to include addresses generated outside of Electrum,  as far as I know)
The real content of MY Electrum wallet is’nt on my computer (or phone) but outside in the BTC Cloud that means the community of servers.
My wallet is unique only due to the seed which is the key for the software to generate addresses: the oldest can be used and so are present among the servers and the others remains as potential ones (as long Electrum reveal only the 20 next (by default) ) and could be thousands or millions.
Even if there is a physical copy of the addresses on MY computer, each time I open an electrum wallet the software synchronize with the server(s) and explore all the addresses created by the singular seed until it reaches 20 unknown on servers.
So each time you have a problem to retrieve or restore an existing wallet the best way to get the accurate position is to create a new wallet with the existing seed which makes the link with the servers.
No way to bore yourself about problems with restoring old wallets or old releases of the software.
Exception :  There is one information which is only  INSIDE the wallet and can't be retrieve with the seed: that’s the label which is your personnal data linked to the address : as it’s not included in the transaction format, it can’t exist on the servers and so is not retrievable .

Hope that could be useful to keep cool using Electrum

in any cases, unless you've made some specifics changes in the sofware or its running environment, you have the best  to get the latest public release, much more easy for the heping team (for free) to help you   

Hi, abdussamad, thanks a lot for your easy to read (and  understand) explanation 

As I'm not the "code lover" Coin Keeper was expecting, I'm glad not to have to dive in the depths of the  github's files 

ok thanks for your reply,
 but as the process of generating the seed (and then the subsequent wallet/addresses)  is surely always the same,
 the difference between several  wallets (or seed) is due to  

 IMO probably a different starting point which could be  random number or clock or??   somebody knows?

Good, morning, afternoon, evening, night, everybody .

I’ve understood tha the seeeeed is  the graal for electrum wallet…
I install the last release and launch it… Electrum  creates the default_wallet  
Gives me the seed and the first 20 adresses that  I can give to those who want to give me their BTC.

Then … If I loose the seed and the wallet (but not the software still installed on the same PC with the same OS) :
I clean up properly the files, and re-launch  Electrum which has to create a new “default_wallet” and the linked seed.
Will this new “default_w” and the seed be the same than the first time   If YES, that could solve the problem of all the loosers of seeds who have a single wallet
More generally speaking, what is the “starting point “ (or event ) for electrum to generate the seeds and wallets ? the clock of the phone or PC ?  chance?  anything else ?
Your skilled answer or a link to the yet well known one will be appreciate.

At first  I wish a happy new year to the Bitcoin and all it's followers, good health for BTC  (looks rather well this winter)  and prosperity for all of you 

Is there a limit for the mumber of addresses Electrum is able to generate from the seed?
At first 20 are created, then when needed new ones appear to let permanently 20 free.... until ?  hundreds?  thousands?

Explication :
Tout envoi de BTC se fait a partir d'une (ou de plusieurs) adresses : c'est ton logiciel Wallet qui décide en fonction de ses algorythmes
par exemple tu possèdes 200 BTC sur ton WALLET ELECTRUM >> en fait il y a 100 BTC sur adresse A   70 sur Adresse B  et 30 sur adresse C
tu veux envoyer 15 BTC a ton cousin PIerre   Electrum va choisir, par exemple, de tirer sur Adresse B (il aurait pu prendre A ou C )
Il va generer une transaction en direction DE 2 Adresses >>   celle de Pierre pour 15 BTC  et une de ses propres adresses CHANGE pour le solde de 55  ( je vous fais grâce des virgules et autres frais) .

Le sort de ces deux lignes est lié :   validées et confirmées  ou "en attente"  ensemble.

Si tu veux envoyer 120 BTC a PIERRE,  Electrum va devoir vider 2 de tes adresses  (disons A & C par exemple)
Il va egalement "crediter"  2 adresses  celle de Pierre pour 120   et une adresse CHANGE pour 10
Apres la confirmation  tes positions seront les suivantes :
ton wallet  te dis que ton solde est de 80  (200 - les 120 envoyés a Pierre)
Adresse A  = 0   Adresse B = 70  inchangée  Adresse C = 0 (tout envoyé à Pierre)   et chargement d'une nouvelle adresse D  avec les 10 qui restaient sur A.

Nombreux sont ceux qui croient avoir perdu des Bitcoins par méconnaissance  du CHANGE qui charge une adresse qu'à priori tu ne connais pas, mais qui est bien dans le wallet emetteur>>>  inreal life ça correspond au rendu monnaie
Si tu veux donner 120 EUROS à Pierre avec un bifton de 200  va bien falloir qu'il te rende 50+20+10 

By the Way :   ON N'ANNULE PAS une transaction,  impossible !   Elle peut juste rester "en attente"... un certain temps, voire un temps certain 

It's not so easy to remember precisely something for a long time, especially  when you don't use it frequently.
And what if you have (like me) several wallets ?  something must be written somewhere.

In a similar way .... Remembering the PIN code of a credit card,  I have 5 and among them 3 I use at most  four or five time a year.

My solution is a bit different but in the same way : I write a four digit pin code on the card   ( not the real one, but each help me to retrieve the good !)

 Stolen, my card will go quickly to... a cash machine   normal : what will you do if you find a credit card with the Pin Code ?? bring it back to the lost objects office?  or try to get some cash?
So you type  the code  Wrong  1st trial   , damned, probably your too big fingers slipped on the small keyboard..
 you type carefully  the same code for the second trial  >> Wrong
For the third and last trial , you'll probably type the code from last to first digit...  Wrong
And my card could sleep in the  cash machine
By chance "brut force" is limited no more than 3 trials.
And the encryption is different for each card, for the quite impossible event : my five cards stolen by the same who by chance (1/9998 ) succeeds with the third trial on the first or second card.

I prefer the card to finish in the safe box of the bank either than visiting the web where it can move money without using the Pin.

And at first, it remains the simpler way for me to retrieve this damned pin code

Yes clearly, the seed is secure from brut force, at least for a human life, which is long enough in most of cases, (very few peoples need to stock or to spend money after the last day on earth, and for thoses concerned by "heaven", it seems, according to most of it's coming back visitors, that's there is no special need of any currency there  )

And so what    You red this thread, and you know my way...  but do you know me   My name, address ?, (BtW i've NO smartphone, forbidden by my religion)  , I'm far from to be a Geek 

By chance if you come home (you're welcome ) , you'll probably be afraid by the amount of Books and handwritten papers ... not very useful for your nice cracking software. maybe after a couple of months of busy holidays (nice place close to the sea side)... you'll find the Graal 


I just wanted to say, that's the best place to hide a very important thing (in that case information) is to let it, unhidden in the middle of a lot of others looking without any interest.

  Everybody has a phone list, few people ( 0,001%  surely more less) have an electrum wallet and SEED to hide.

Q.E.D    or as said in French  C.Q.F.D.

I just want to notice, that the purpose is to hide the mean to retrive the Seed in a place that can't look like a safe box...
If you put your banknote in a plastic bag in the flush of your toilets, they'r probably more secure than in your big safe boxor under your mattress or Under a pile of shirts in your wardrobe.

Ok anybody could crack your smartphone or any other device, but for what???  is there any Electrum's seed to find among 6 or seven of any phone numbers anywhere in the world in that case you can also try to find A seed among the words or figures of a school paperbook or in a shopping list 

Everybody has a phone book (paper or electronic) but only few have an Electrum (or other) Wallet with the famous "Seed", so a thief visiting my car or home or office will probably find something more interesting than my phone book, and if, he has to choose the 6 rights phone numbers among the more than 200 of mine...  good luck ( because naturally he knows that there is a seed hidden in the list)

I can keep cool,  for sure if he find the same phone book in my safe case close to my bank notes and credit cards ,  his interest for my Friends will increase 

Not in a safe box or other technical device with many locks, but simply hidden where nobody could imagine there’s something precious to discover :

My way is to hide the seed among phone numbers

The whole list is public  https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/lib/wordlist/english.txt easy to find anywhere as soon as you're connected

Each word has a number  between  0001 and 2048 ( I use the number with 4 digits)

For example  (only 6 words)    1613  sister   0003 able  0832 gun  0558 eat   0242 bullet   0082 any

Then  I add 3 new friends in my address book (paper or electronic ‘s one) with their phone number: In my coutry the phone numbers are 10 digits long.
 
The last 8 digits of each phone number are 2 words (4 +4)

Jane  01 16 13 00 03    Peter  01 08 32 05 58    Steve  01 02 42 00 82 (in alphabetical order )
My address book in my pocket or laptop or smartphone, and anywhere I can access to the list, I am able to rewrite this damned seed within minuts
A list of phone numbers is much more easy to be “anonymous” than a sequence of words which can hardly look like a sentence.

Hope it could be helpful.

Hi all,

I've  downloaded the "portable" from the website, installed on a SD card, run it

that's great,   Ihad a dream  ... Thomas V done it 

many thanks for your help

But if "portable" means "smartphone, that's no way for me,  smartphones are forbidden by my religion 
that must be on a removable media,
i've seen post of 2012 about this subject, ... and so what?

Sorry but as a newbie I don't know " Electrum Portable"  but if it's the way to get the result, I'll learn

I try just to use the tool the best way for my activities and neighbourhood

One suggestion to improve the privacy of Electrum with little technicals issues !! ? (according to my poor knowledges).

Electrum use a password only for access at the “send” operations…
 that  leads to have a wallet open to all the eyes surrounding the screen (at least… very unpleasant, and more looks like “unsafe” even if not )

If Thomas is able to put all the Electrum components  in a single folder like C:/ Programm/Electrum, that means to put into the same folder  the wallets and others living in Users/xx/App Data/Roaming/Electrum…
This folder could be easily transferred  on a removable media (or several) like SD SSD  USB,… that could be encrypted >> Bitlocker  or others.
The result… nothing about electrum on the main computer, all encrypted on a removal media, and all Bitcoins operations can be realized on any computer without using it’s own storage features.

Privacy and safety 

What do you think about       

Of course;: the solution , is when the wallet is restored with the seed, to ask for the generation of the hundred (for example) of the previously generated addresses, then ELECTRUM will search in the block chain the effective content of each of them...

what a wonderful world... something like... paradise ?

If the explanation of Abdussamad is clear and helpful, it could remains a problem,

Electrum allows to generate "manually" more new addresses, imagine 100 news empy ones .
I send one different to each of my 100 "future customers"  from my e-shop,
naturally only 30% among them will really buy and send money...
as I can't manage the order of the real "actives addresses" it's possible than more than 20 consecutives adresses remains unused

so when restoring from the seed, Electrum will stop as soon as 20 empty addresses are found...  YES    NO ?
and if YES  what about the "orphans addresses" (number  55  to 100)     lost for ever???

If that's the way... people must be awarded

Abdussama.... you're the best    and more  the fastest   

thanks