Is Electrum a safe wallet to keep bitcoins?

[HI-TEC99]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

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[kamalsharma100]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

Yes, I agree.  I have 3 backups, one in another PC, one Memory card (inside USB data card) and one Pen drive.

[kamalsharma100]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

When you say "Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too," will it mean we can restore our wallets that way also?

Also, I know seed and private keys are different things.  Saving private keys are important because if desktop wallet stops functioning or site goes offline and can so the offline wallet, we can still recover from address and private key.  I think I am correct here but still I am Newbie so not exactly 100%.

[HI-TEC99]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

When you say "Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too," will it mean we can restore our wallets that way also?

Also, I know seed and private keys are different things.  Saving private keys are important because if desktop wallet stops functioning or site goes offline and can so the offline wallet, we can still recover from address and private key.  I think I am correct here but still I am Newbie so not exactly 100%.

Besides restoring from seed you can also restore from a backed up wallet file and password. However,wallet files can sometimes get corrupted, and you can generate a new uncorrupted one using the seed.

Electrum can use the seed to generate an almost unlimited number of addresses and corresponding private keys. Each time you send coins from one address it sends the change left over to a new address by default. If you only have a few private keys backed up, then make a lot of transactions most of the change left over could get sent to new addresses which you haven't backed up.

There is an electrum setting that forces your wallet to send left over change back to the address you sent from, but you have to manually change the settings to make your wallet do that. If you don't alter the "out of the box" settings your wallet will send change to a new address after every transaction.

[kamalsharma100]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

When you say "Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too," will it mean we can restore our wallets that way also?

Also, I know seed and private keys are different things.  Saving private keys are important because if desktop wallet stops functioning or site goes offline and can so the offline wallet, we can still recover from address and private key.  I think I am correct here but still I am Newbie so not exactly 100%.

Besides restoring from seed you can also restore from a backed up wallet file and password. However,wallet files can sometimes get corrupted, and you can generate a new uncorrupted one using the seed.

Electrum can use the seed to generate an almost unlimited number of addresses and corresponding private keys. Each time you send coins from one address it sends the change left over to a new address by default. If you only have a few private keys backed up, then make a lot of transactions most of the change left over could get sent to new addresses which you haven't backed up.

There is an electrum setting that forces your wallet to send left over change back to the address you sent from, but you have to manually change the settings to make your wallet do that. If you don't alter the "out of the box" settings your wallet will send change to a new address after every transaction.

But unfortunately, I have saved private keys of only one address where all of my coins are in Electrum.  I have Encrypted with password also.  Isn't it fine? How to fully decrypt (to encrypt later) and save private keys of other addresses in Electrum?

[HI-TEC99]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

When you say "Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too," will it mean we can restore our wallets that way also?

Also, I know seed and private keys are different things.  Saving private keys are important because if desktop wallet stops functioning or site goes offline and can so the offline wallet, we can still recover from address and private key.  I think I am correct here but still I am Newbie so not exactly 100%.

Besides restoring from seed you can also restore from a backed up wallet file and password. However,wallet files can sometimes get corrupted, and you can generate a new uncorrupted one using the seed.

Electrum can use the seed to generate an almost unlimited number of addresses and corresponding private keys. Each time you send coins from one address it sends the change left over to a new address by default. If you only have a few private keys backed up, then make a lot of transactions most of the change left over could get sent to new addresses which you haven't backed up.

There is an electrum setting that forces your wallet to send left over change back to the address you sent from, but you have to manually change the settings to make your wallet do that. If you don't alter the "out of the box" settings your wallet will send change to a new address after every transaction.

But unfortunately, I have saved private keys of only one address where all of my coins are in Electrum.  I have Encrypted with password also.  Isn't it fine? How to fully decrypt (to encrypt later) and save private keys of other addresses in Electrum?

Back up your seed first. You can use that to get all the private keys and addresses your wallet will ever make.

Click wallet in the menu, then seed in the drop down list, and your wallet should show you its seed.



You can get the private key of any address by clicking the addresses tab, then right clicking an address you want, and selecting "private key" in the list that appears.

[kamalsharma100]

Thanks! But if the electrum software gets updated, what will happen to my bitcoins? Do I have to use download the latest electrum to keep my bitcoins?

bitcoins aren't physical things... Basically, a wallet is just a piece of software to manage your private keys, generating transactions, broadcasting.
If electrum updates, nothing happens. You either chose to install the update or not (which usually goes seamingly, and if it goes wrong, you just use the seed words you wrote down when you first installed electrum, and restore your wallet... The worst thing that'll happen is the fact that you lost your labels).
If you chose to run an outdated version, you won't have access to the latest bugfixes, patches and new features, but usually,it's not a real problem.

PS: I'm also a big electrum fan. Core might be a tad bit better, since you synced and verified the full blockchain, but electrum is still good, since your private keys don't leave your computer, and can be encrypted with a strong password and 2fa

Electrum is a good desktop wallet, even better when used with a Trezor so your private keys are always kept offline.

But how to find out the private keys here.  Is it same as seed?

No the seed is different from the keys. If you go to the address tab and rightclick on an address you can let the wallet show you its private key.

Ok.

Is it okay if I just save wallet, seed and password in pendrives in a safe place rather than saving private keys?

Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too.

Make multiple backups on multiple types of backup media in case one gets corrupted, and make sure they work before relying on them. Pen drives can stop working, DVDs can get broken. If you have backups on a pendrive, DVD, and memory card then if one of them gets broken you can still use the others. No one backup media is 100% reliable.

When you say "Saving the seed is the most important thing. You can use it to make a new wallet that doesn't have a password if you lose your original password. However, there's no harm in backing up the wallet and password too," will it mean we can restore our wallets that way also?

Also, I know seed and private keys are different things.  Saving private keys are important because if desktop wallet stops functioning or site goes offline and can so the offline wallet, we can still recover from address and private key.  I think I am correct here but still I am Newbie so not exactly 100%.

Besides restoring from seed you can also restore from a backed up wallet file and password. However,wallet files can sometimes get corrupted, and you can generate a new uncorrupted one using the seed.

Electrum can use the seed to generate an almost unlimited number of addresses and corresponding private keys. Each time you send coins from one address it sends the change left over to a new address by default. If you only have a few private keys backed up, then make a lot of transactions most of the change left over could get sent to new addresses which you haven't backed up.

There is an electrum setting that forces your wallet to send left over change back to the address you sent from, but you have to manually change the settings to make your wallet do that. If you don't alter the "out of the box" settings your wallet will send change to a new address after every transaction.

But unfortunately, I have saved private keys of only one address where all of my coins are in Electrum.  I have Encrypted with password also.  Isn't it fine? How to fully decrypt (to encrypt later) and save private keys of other addresses in Electrum?

Back up your seed first. You can use that to get all the private keys and addresses your wallet will ever make.

Click wallet in the menu, then seed in the drop down list, and your wallet should show you its seed.



You can get the private key of any address by clicking the addresses tab, then right clicking an address you want, and selecting "private key" in the list that appears.

Another question:  What will happen if Electrum just disappears (software stops functioning or Electrum people just stops the project), can I still use my coins saved in Electrum with private key and addresses?

[Abdussamad]

Another question:  What will happen if Electrum just disappears (software stops functioning or Electrum people just stops the project), can I still use my coins saved in Electrum with private key and addresses?

Stop mucking about with individual private keys. The seed is all.

Electrum is software. How do you imagine it will disappear? It is hosted on github. It is installed on countless computers around the world. All that will disappear?

If it all disappears then you still need a record of the algorithm they use to convert seed mnemonic into master private key. That algorithm is the same as the one for bip39 AFAIK. bip39 is also hosted on github and is found in countless other wallet software. I guess that could all disappear too in whatever world ending event causes electrum to vanish.

[kamalsharma100]

Another question:  What will happen if Electrum just disappears (software stops functioning or Electrum people just stops the project), can I still use my coins saved in Electrum with private key and addresses?

Stop mucking about with individual private keys. The seed is all.

Electrum is software. How do you imagine it will disappear? It is hosted on github. It is installed on countless computers around the world. All that will disappear?

If it all disappears then you still need a record of the algorithm they use to convert seed mnemonic into master private key. That algorithm is the same as the one for bip39 AFAIK. bip39 is also hosted on github and is found in countless other wallet software. I guess that could all disappear too in whatever world ending event causes electrum to vanish.

I just wanted to know what will happen if we all find it impossible for transaction to take place with Electrum, we could see the coins in Electrum but unable to send (or even receive) with Electrum.  I am New and so this may be a stupid question.

[Abdussamad]

I just wanted to know what will happen if we all find it impossible for transaction to take place with Electrum, we could see the coins in Electrum but unable to send (or even receive) with Electrum.  I am New and so this may be a stupid question.

Electrum has no control over what other people do with their money so it can never stop you from receiving bitcoins. If you ever find yourself unable to spend your money then you can ask for help here or try and figure it out yourself (usually upgrading to the latest version fixes bugs). If nothing works then you will have to recreate the individual private keys from your seed and use another bitcoin client to spend your money. That is explained in the last paragraph of my answer above.

[silverkamote]

Yes. much better than multibit. The thing I like is I get a seed phrase to use as a recovery incase my HD crashes. Already had to do this twice. The plugins are nice too, like syncing notes/descriptions for transactions, although this may not be very private....but I'm guessing if you want a hosted blockchain wallet then you don't mind

[HCP]

...If it all disappears then you still need a record of the algorithm they use to convert seed mnemonic into master private key. That algorithm is the same as the one for bip39 AFAIK...

Nope... sadly it isn't... Electrum uses their own proprietary seed to master private key algorithm.

ThomasV has his reasons for this: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/seedphrase.html

For these reasons, Electrum does not generate BIP39 seeds. Starting with version 2.0, Electrum uses the following Seed Version System, which addresses these issues.

However, the advice given above is still sound... make sure you have a backup of your seed... that is the whole point of HD wallets. You don't need to worry about backing up wallet files or private keys or passwords. You just need your seed.

[metallicelmo]

...If it all disappears then you still need a record of the algorithm they use to convert seed mnemonic into master private key. That algorithm is the same as the one for bip39 AFAIK...

Nope... sadly it isn't... Electrum uses their own proprietary seed to master private key algorithm.

ThomasV has his reasons for this: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/seedphrase.html

For these reasons, Electrum does not generate BIP39 seeds. Starting with version 2.0, Electrum uses the following Seed Version System, which addresses these issues.

However, the advice given above is still sound... make sure you have a backup of your seed... that is the whole point of HD wallets. You don't need to worry about backing up wallet files or private keys or passwords. You just need your seed.

But what if you would want to change to a different piece of Bitcoin software that does not use seeds?

[HCP]

But what if you would want to change to a different piece of Bitcoin software that does not use seeds?

I'm not sure why you would want move to a non-HD wallet, but iff you're switching to another app that doesn't use seeds... you can very easily export your private keys from Electrum. You don't need to be running the latest version, or for the Electrum network to be running to do this.

It is also possible to make a couple of minor modification to the BIP39 Mnemonic Code Converter webpage (https://iancoleman.github.io/bip39/) and it will convert the Electrum mnemonic into addresses and private keys. Basically, I just disabled the phrase validation (it always returns true) and changed the default Passphrase from "mnemonic" to "electrum"... the page then outputs the same addresses/keys as generated by Electrum

[Olis1000]

What is the correct website to the electrum since there are lots of phishing site everywhere ... I just created a new email mailnly for my wallet only ... So I don't want to sign up in any phishing site... Thanks pls anyone help

[HCP]

You don't need an email address for Electrum. It is not a "web wallet"... You don't "sign up" for anything. It is a desktop software wallet that runs on you PC (Windows or Linux) or your Mac... There is also an Android version, but it is feature limited.

Anyway, the official Electrum website is: https://electrum.org/#home

[standards]

After reading through all the posts of this thread, I guess I should have Electrum installed.
Bitcoin core is way too heavy.

[ThisManIsTesting]

Electrum is an open source wallet, You can see the code behind this wallet here: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum
I assume that any wallet built from this source code is secure to use. Make sure your PC is clean.

[CryptoTwits]

Based on the reviews above it looks like Electrum is a good thin wallet for Bitcoin.

Is there a similar wallet for Ethereum?

[ThisManIsTesting]

Based on the reviews above it looks like Electrum is a good thin wallet for Bitcoin.

Is there a similar wallet for Ethereum?

Electrum wallet cannot be used to store Ethereum, Unfortunately it only support Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash (Fork).
for similarities, I will only recommend you this web wallet, myetherwallet.com