Is the newest of Electrum or Ledger Live the best for use with hardware wallets?

[Thomas29]

I normally use my Ledger Nano S Hardware Wallet with Electrum & I’ve noticed all the changes to it & I haven’t used it since Version 3.3.8… I don’t want to use it thinking I know what I’m doing & end up losing my money somehow.

I have only used Ledger once a really long time ago I just preferred using my Hardware Wallet with Electrum since I was used to it.


Now which one would you personally recommend a user that has been using Bitcoin like me that has been sending Bitcoin using Electrum infrequently for about 2-3 years-ish I think lol.

Now time to discuss this I do got one more question. Thank you for taking the time to read all of this btw.










I read on Electrums Twitter feed something that is probably not important regarding my situation… it said this:


“Trampoline routing only works with trampoline nodes. If you have created channels with non-trampoline nodes in Electrum 4.0, they will be frozen for sending in Electrum 4.1. Disable trampoline in your settings if you want to keep using them in both directions.”


I think I Googled what it means but I don’t remember or I didn’t google it.

[NeuroticFish]

Now which one would you personally recommend a user that has been using Bitcoin like me that has been sending Bitcoin using Electrum infrequently for about 2-3 years-ish I think lol.

I would still recommend Electrum, but with a note: before every use, go to electrum.org (remember and enter the name, don't search) and check if there's any critical update.
If there's nothing critical, don't bother much, since especially the new changes are more related to Lighning Network (LN) you don't use.
Still, now and then when you have, it may worth downloading the latest version, verify it (!), and run it on testnet (with free coins) to "keep in touch".

“Trampoline routing only works with trampoline nodes.

This is LN related; you should not worry about it for now.

[dkbit98]

Now which one would you personally recommend a user that has been using Bitcoin like me that has been sending Bitcoin using Electrum infrequently for about 2-3 years-ish I think lol.

I would recommend using Electrum or other open source wallets like Wasabi with ledger hardware wallet instead of their native ledger live app.
Latest Electrum version is 4.1.2 and changes are mostly with adding Lightning Network options and replacing Send with Pay button, and wasabi wallet is using TOR so IP addresses for your transactions will be hidden.

I was looking to find some easy tutorial for using new Electrum wallet but so far I couldn't find anything on the forum (except old tutorial from 2018) so I found this short youtube video that is fairly new.
For all Electrum wallet changelog since version 3.3.8 check their github page release notes:
https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES

[o_e_l_e_o]

I would still recommend Electrum, but with a note: before every use, go to electrum.org (remember and enter the name, don't search) and check if there's any critical update.

I think more importantly than that, by never using Ledger Live he will have missed out on firmware updates for his Nano S, which are likely to be far more important than any updates to Electrum when Electrum is simply being used as an interface for this hardware wallet. I also never use Ledger Live to interact with my keys, addresses, coins, etc., but you still need to use it to update the firmware on your device and install the latest bitcoin app. There have been a couple of significant vulnerabilities I can think of in the last 3 years which have been patched by Ledger.

I would suggest getting the latest version of Ledger Live, updating the firmware on your Nano S to the latest version,* and also downloading and verifying the latest version of Electrum, but it is perfectly fine to continue to use Electrum especially since that is what you are used to.

*There are some rare cases where Ledger wallets have reset themselves to factory settings upon firmware updates. Before you update your firmware you should double check you have access to the correct seed phrase and any additional passphrase you may have set.

[HCP]

I'd vote for Electrum simply because it gives you better control over your coins/transactions than Ledger Live does... It's also, imo, easier to setup your own node and connect a "personal" Electrum server to it than trying to use a personal node with Ledger Live, if you don't want to rely on "random" Electrum servers and/or relay everything through Ledger servers using LL.

However, having said that... Electrum can be a bit of a nuisance if you have several Bitcoin "accounts" setup on your Ledger. Electrum can only handle one "Account" per wallet, so you'd need to create multiple wallet files (each with the appropriate account derivation path)... it's not a huge deal, but definitely not quite as easy as simply having your old "legacy", "segwit" and "native segwit" accounts all in one place like they can be in Ledger Live.

Additionally, as o_e_l_e_o has mentioned, you need Ledger Live for firmware updates and "coin app" updates... so you'll still need to have LL installed to ensure you have the latest firmware and bitcoin coin apps installed on your device.

[Pmalek]

I use Ledger Live as a way to check my portfolio, confirm receiving addresses, and keep the wallet up-to-date. Whenever I need to send bitcoin, I do it through Electrum. You are right, there have been several changes since 3.3.8. especially when selecting UTXOs to include in your transaction. On the newer versions after selecting which UTXOs to pay from, you have to manually click on the send/pay button to continue the process. In the past, you did all this from the send tab. My memory is a bit blurry.

However, having said that... Electrum can be a bit of a nuisance if you have several Bitcoin "accounts" setup on your Ledger. Electrum can only handle one "Account" per wallet, so you'd need to create multiple wallet files (each with the appropriate account derivation path)... it's not a huge deal, but definitely not quite as easy as simply having your old "legacy", "segwit" and "native segwit" accounts all in one place like they can be in Ledger Live.

Ledger Live's limited coin control can help in those situations. I only used it once because I was in a bit of hurry. Instead of creating a new wallet with Electrum, I just did it using the LL coin control feature.

[Thomas29]

Now which one would you personally recommend a user that has been using Bitcoin like me that has been sending Bitcoin using Electrum infrequently for about 2-3 years-ish I think lol.

I would recommend using Electrum or other open source wallets like Wasabi with ledger hardware wallet instead of their native ledger live app.
Latest Electrum version is 4.1.2 and changes are mostly with adding Lightning Network options and replacing Send with Pay button, and wasabi wallet is using TOR so IP addresses for your transactions will be hidden.

I was looking to find some easy tutorial for using new Electrum wallet but so far I couldn't find anything on the forum (except old tutorial from 2018) so I found this short youtube video that is fairly new.
For all Electrum wallet changelog since version 3.3.8 check their github page release notes:
https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES

Thank you for your advice and



This is one similar change I noticed... it won't let you see the fees without clicking pay 1st if you got zero Bitcoin in your wallet for example.

@o_e_l_e_o I always update the Firmware or Bitcoin App+updating Ledger Live in & of itself on my Ledger Nano S but thank you for the advice too.






If anyone has anymore questions or want to continue friendly debating this subject further I'd love that.