Electrum Scares Me...?

[BitJunkie223]

For some reason, with the way Electrum works, it just scares me a little. I always have this weird looming fear that I'll open Electrum and all my coins will be gone. I never had this issue with the Bitcoinqt, but not being able to make new addresses and things like that, make me not so eager to use Electrum anymore.

What wallet would you recommend that does what Electrum does (light server-based client with no downloading blockchain) but also won't make me worry about not being able to make new addresses, and perhaps maybe feel more like the regular bitcoin client? Thanks!

[mocacinno]

you can always try multibit HD....

But can you elaborate why you don't like electrum? I've been using it for a long time now, without any hiccups.

[ranochigo]

Electrum uses Hierarchical Deterministic seeds which is one of the best ways of generating a wallet since the addresses are predictable and only one backup is needed. You would be able to use your addresses with BIP32 utilities like this:http://bip32.org, if you're using Electrum 2.0+. There isn't much client which is any different from Electrum. Multibit Classic doesn't use seeds for it's generation.

I would be more afraid if I use Bitcoin Core and my HDD fails and I forget to make a backup after the first 100 TX.

[BitJunkie223]

I mainly don't like Electrum because I can't generate new addresses. If I want an address for each transaction I make, or for transactions to a specific place, I don't seem to be able to do that. And I have read of people losing their coins in Electrum, but in reality, I doubt the loss rate is much higher than qt. It's probably less because your seed saves everything you do.

I guess I'm being somewhat irrational, but it's like you put all this time and work into getting BTC, and when you feel like it will all disappear, that's definitely a scary thought.

[Amph]

you don't need an spv client, use core, there are no issue related for the big blockchain to download, buy a strong ssd and good cpu(even an old 4 core is enough actually), problem solved

spv client had some block invalid issues in the past i would not touch them

[JeWay]

If you scared of a Bitcoin wallet, don't use Bitcoin then. There will always be a risk

[coinpr0n]

If you've backed up the wallet seed (12 words) that Electrum gave you why would you be afraid if Electrum fails (eg. doesn't "compile" or gets corrupted) you could restore ALL your addresses from that one seed.

[ranochigo]

you don't need an spv client, use core, there are no issue related for the big blockchain to download, buy a strong ssd and good cpu(even an old 4 core is enough actually), problem solved

spv client had some block invalid issues in the past i would not touch them

Not everyone can afford an SSD, much less with the possible block size increase.

SPV clients are still quite secure. True that SPV clients does trust miners to enforce the network rules but in the 4th July fork, Core clients below 0.9.5 were also affected and there was no known case of any double spend attacks. Even with a major block reorg, it is still quite hard for anyone to execute a double spend since the reference client does not relay them and mining pool won't accept it.

[Amadues]

Hi to all,
but how these people lost their coins?
Some one get the seeds generated by wallet? Or a "tricky" bogus, some one lost the private key?
I use Multibit, it's not the best one, but I am pretty confident whit it.

[RKen]

I was to take an already since a long time and there is no problem

[shorena]

I mainly don't like Electrum because I can't generate new addresses.
-snip-

Sorry, but what? What exactly makes you think you can't generate a new address with electrum? It does this by default anyway for change.

[BitJunkie223]

I mainly don't like Electrum because I can't generate new addresses.
-snip-

Sorry, but what? What exactly makes you think you can't generate a new address with electrum? It does this by default anyway for change.

Perhaps I'm not fully understanding Electrum.

In Core, I was able to generate a bunch of new addresses for receiving, and I organized things that way. Electrum seems to be all over the place for no rhyme or reason, and it's just strange to me. I think it's a lack of understanding on my part, but being tech-savvy and still being puzzled by it, is a problem IMO. But like I said, maybe I just need to use it more to get the hang of what's going on.

Also, in regards to my hardware, I have an FX-8350 based gaming rig, and a 1TB HDD inside, soon to upgrade to a 4TB drive w/ a 500GB SSD as my OS drive.

But in all honesty, I think that's one of the biggest problem facing widespread adoption. The blockchain is huge, and most people have their drives filled with crap, including myself. For someone who's running a 500GB HDD on their laptop probably isn't too excited to fill like 20GB of their remaining 80 (or less if you're me) just for this weird thing called "bitcoin".

[ranochigo]

I mainly don't like Electrum because I can't generate new addresses.
-snip-

Sorry, but what? What exactly makes you think you can't generate a new address with electrum? It does this by default anyway for change.

Perhaps I'm not fully understanding Electrum.

In Core, I was able to generate a bunch of new addresses for receiving, and I organized things that way. Electrum seems to be all over the place for no rhyme or reason, and it's just strange to me. I think it's a lack of understanding on my part, but being tech-savvy and still being puzzled by it, is a problem IMO. But like I said, maybe I just need to use it more to get the hang of what's going on.

Also, in regards to my hardware, I have an FX-8350 based gaming rig, and a 1TB HDD inside, soon to upgrade to a 4TB drive w/ a 500GB SSD as my OS drive.

But in all honesty, I think that's one of the biggest problem facing widespread adoption. The blockchain is huge, and most people have their drives filled with crap, including myself. For someone who's running a 500GB HDD on their laptop probably isn't too excited to fill like 20GB of their remaining 80 (or less if you're me) just for this weird thing called "bitcoin".

You have an whole bunch of address for you to use in Electrum. Just go to Addresses. You can even add labels. The used addresses are kept away in a separate tab. After using an address, Electrum will generate more.

I have 128GB of SSD space, I didn't run Bitcoin Core and I feel safe. Anyway, Bitcoin Core should soon allow Blockchain pruning without disabling the wallet mode. The only problem left is the bandwidth and CPU speed.

[shorena]

I mainly don't like Electrum because I can't generate new addresses.
-snip-

Sorry, but what? What exactly makes you think you can't generate a new address with electrum? It does this by default anyway for change.

Perhaps I'm not fully understanding Electrum.

In Core, I was able to generate a bunch of new addresses for receiving, and I organized things that way. Electrum seems to be all over the place for no rhyme or reason, and it's just strange to me. I think it's a lack of understanding on my part, but being tech-savvy and still being puzzled by it, is a problem IMO. But like I said, maybe I just need to use it more to get the hang of what's going on.

Electrum will keep 20 unused address for you ready at all times. At least I think its 20, the value might be different. Just checked its 20. You can just use them and it will create more for you. If you want you can also enter a specific command into its console to generate any number addresses. That might result in problems when restoring from the seed so its not recommended. The problem is not severe as in you lose coins though. Since you change the default behaviour electrum might not show you the 1000 addresses you generated in the old wallet again after restoring, but only 20.

The way restoring address works is that it generates the first 20 addresses from the seed and checks for a balance or past activity. If it finds activity on 7 addresses it will create 7 more, if it finds a balance on all 20 it will create 20 more and so on until it found 20 addresses that have not been used in the past.

Also, in regards to my hardware, I have an FX-8350 based gaming rig, and a 1TB HDD inside, soon to upgrade to a 4TB drive w/ a 500GB SSD as my OS drive.

But in all honesty, I think that's one of the biggest problem facing widespread adoption. The blockchain is huge, and most people have their drives filled with crap, including myself. For someone who's running a 500GB HDD on their laptop probably isn't too excited to fill like 20GB of their remaining 80 (or less if you're me) just for this weird thing called "bitcoin".

No, certainly running core becomes more and more server based, as was predicted by satoshi.

[lofeifeive]

I backed up the seeds! I don't have the reasons to worry I will lose my money! The only annoying issues is that I cannot choose the sending address mannually!

[shorena]

I backed up the seeds! I don't have the reasons to worry I will lose my money! The only annoying issues is that I cannot choose the sending address mannually!

Yes, there is no coin control, well unless you create the TX by hand and only sign it with electrum. Sounds overly complicated though.

[Mickeyb]

Almost any wallet out there is good if you use it the proper way. Keep in mind what I said, not all of them, but almost all of them!!

If you don't like a certain wallet, you have many others to choose from. That's a beauty of Bitcoin in my opinion as well.

Just use what it makes you comfortable and use it as it's supposed to be used and you will be fine.

[lemoncoolers]

you don't need an spv client, use core, there are no issue related for the big blockchain to download, buy a strong ssd and good cpu(even an old 4 core is enough actually), problem solved

spv client had some block invalid issues in the past i would not touch them

Average Bitcoin holders wouldn't buy extra hardware for using Bitcoin core, just want easy solutions, like spv, security wallet! Otherwise it will affect the adoption by masses.

[teukon]

I mainly don't like Electrum because I can't generate new addresses. If I want an address for each transaction I make, or for transactions to a specific place, I don't seem to be able to do that.

As shorena points out, each wallet contains an effectively infinite* sequence of addresses but the client only lists an initial part of this sequence (enough so that you have 20 unused addresses at the end of the list).  This list will automatically expand as you consume addresses.

If you would like a larger buffer, say 50 addresses, then enter:

Code:

wallet.storage.put('gap_limit', 50)

into Electrum's console and restart Electrum.

* 2³¹ addresses.

[torusJKL]

Or

Code:

wallet.gaplimit(50)

You need to restart Electrum after this command.

And you will need to redo this if you restore your wallet from the seed.