How does freeze option works in electrum ?

[Lordshiva]

Hello there i have 2 bitcoins in my electrum wallet and i want to hold them.I see a freeze address option in electrum i wanted to ask how that works.

[1715318284]

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[1715318284]

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[vitarian]

I'm not sure what that button really does, but if somebody else has your private keys they can spend your bitcoin with or without your freeze button

[skyline247]

Hello there i have 2 bitcoins in my electrum wallet and i want to hold them.I see a freeze address option in electrum i wanted to ask how that works.

This is a great question - I would like to know also. And I have been working with Bitcoin for many years, so it must be something interesting because I have never heard of it.

[xhomerx10]

It's similar to the coin control feature in the Bitcoin Core wallet.
 It is a handy feature for sure.  Say you have a bunch of addresses with small amounts of Bitcoin and you want to consolidate those into one address.  You would freeze addresses that don't contain small amounts and then create a transaction to spend the total minus the fees into a new address.  The addresses you have frozen will not be used in the transaction whereas, if you hadn't frozen them, they might have been selected as the wallet will tend to create a tx using the fewest addresses possible.  By freezing the other addresses, the wallet has no alternative to using many addresses with small amounts for your new transaction.

[pooya87]

just to add to what xhomerx10 said, if you want a more precise or flexible "coin control" just enable the "Coins" tab in your electrum from menu "Wallet > Coins" or press "Ctrl + C" and in that tab you can simply see the Unspent Transaction Outputs or your "coins". you can now select those you want to spend by pressing down Ctrl and clicking on each one and then when you are finished selecting, right click and select "Spend". the rest is self explanatory.

[Lordshiva]

Is there any time interval for which we can freeze,say for one year.The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

[kolloh]

Is there any time interval for which we can freeze,say for one year.The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

You wouldn't be able to do this with electrum. I believe you may be able to do this with locktime, which you can read more about here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Timelock

[ranochigo]

Is there any time interval for which we can freeze,say for one year.The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

You wouldn't be able to do this with electrum. I believe you may be able to do this with locktime, which you can read more about here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Timelock

nLockTime itself won't freeze the coins so that you can't do anything with them. It basically means that the transaction is not valid till a certain block or unix time. However, nodes will not keep these transactions in their mempool till the block or time ha passed. This pretty much defeats its purpose since you can still spend the coins.

You can still use it but you will have to script a transaction with nLockTime till the time and sign it but you will have to delete the private key of the address where you are sending from. If you broadcast it after the time, the transaction will be accepted and you can spend it. Its very very risky and I will highly recommend that no one do this.

[kolloh]

Is there any time interval for which we can freeze,say for one year.The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

You wouldn't be able to do this with electrum. I believe you may be able to do this with locktime, which you can read more about here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Timelock

nLockTime itself won't freeze the coins so that you can't do anything with them. It basically means that the transaction is not valid till a certain block or unix time. However, nodes will not keep these transactions in their mempool till the block or time ha passed. This pretty much defeats its purpose since you can still spend the coins.

You can still use it but you will have to script a transaction with nLockTime till the time and sign it but you will have to delete the private key of the address where you are sending from. If you broadcast it after the time, the transaction will be accepted and you can spend it. Its very very risky and I will highly recommend that no one do this.

Oh, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. That indeed sounds very risky and not worth pursuing.

The best bet then is probably to just store the coins in a cold/paper wallet and store it away somewhere safe such as a safety deposit box or similar where it is not easily accessible which would help control impulse spending if that is what you are worried about.

[TryNinja]

Is there any time interval for which we can freeze,say for one year.The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

You wouldn't be able to do this with electrum. I believe you may be able to do this with locktime, which you can read more about here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Timelock

nLockTime itself won't freeze the coins so that you can't do anything with them. It basically means that the transaction is not valid till a certain block or unix time. However, nodes will not keep these transactions in their mempool till the block or time ha passed. This pretty much defeats its purpose since you can still spend the coins.

You can still use it but you will have to script a transaction with nLockTime till the time and sign it but you will have to delete the private key of the address where you are sending from. If you broadcast it after the time, the transaction will be accepted and you can spend it. Its very very risky and I will highly recommend that no one do this.

I had some issues on understand what do you mean about the nLockTime function. I have used it in the past and current I have 0.08BTC in a new address generated by Coinb.in; I have made this address so I don't fall for the temptation of spending some of my coins. I already profited at least 50% of its original value just by holding them in this locked address - 3Q64cQsYyanZPrCjULEqS5Fci5hfRGveY2;

What exactly is the danger in using a nLockTime address? I can sign the redeem script with the address I choose originally, but I can't broadcast it until the time arrives.

[ranochigo]

Is there any time interval for which we can freeze,say for one year.The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

You wouldn't be able to do this with electrum. I believe you may be able to do this with locktime, which you can read more about here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Timelock

nLockTime itself won't freeze the coins so that you can't do anything with them. It basically means that the transaction is not valid till a certain block or unix time. However, nodes will not keep these transactions in their mempool till the block or time ha passed. This pretty much defeats its purpose since you can still spend the coins.

You can still use it but you will have to script a transaction with nLockTime till the time and sign it but you will have to delete the private key of the address where you are sending from. If you broadcast it after the time, the transaction will be accepted and you can spend it. Its very very risky and I will highly recommend that no one do this.

I had some issues on understand what do you mean about the nLockTime function. I have used it in the past and current I have 0.08BTC in a new address generated by Coinb.in; I have made this address so I don't fall for the temptation of spending some of my coins. I already profited at least 50% of its original value just by holding them in this locked address - 3Q64cQsYyanZPrCjULEqS5Fci5hfRGveY2;

What exactly is the danger in using a nLockTime address? I can sign the redeem script with the address I choose originally, but I can't broadcast it until the time arrives.

Locked address? It looks to be a P2SH address so it will work but it will also require the participation of a third party if you want to prevent yourself from using it. If its 2 of 2, a third party will have to hold one of the key and you can hold one of the key. Theres no risk in this except the fact that a third party has to sign it and your coins will be lost if they hold your coins hostage.

There's no nLocktime address, only nLockTime transactions where a transaction will only be valid after the specified time in the transaction. What I described was a way to prevent yourself from using the coins, not highlighting any risk in using nLockTime. For you to effectively lock yourself out of your own Bitcoins, you will have to:
1. Send Bitcoins to a specified address.
2. Create a raw transaction to another address that you control.
3. Delete the private key.
4. Keep the raw transaction and the address that you are sending the coins to safe.

3 and 4 is extremely risky to do and nLocktime can't help.

The best bet then is probably to just store the coins in a cold/paper wallet and store it away somewhere safe such as a safety deposit box or similar where it is not easily accessible which would help control impulse spending if that is what you are worried about.

Yup, thats the best way.

[TryNinja]

Locked address? It looks to be a P2SH address so it will work but it will also require the participation of a third party if you want to prevent yourself from using it. If its 2 of 2, a third party will have to hold one of the key and you can hold one of the key. Theres no risk in this except the fact that a third party has to sign it and your coins will be lost if they hold your coins hostage.

There's no nLocktime address, only nLockTime transactions where a transaction will only be valid after the specified time in the transaction. What I described was a way to prevent yourself from using the coins, not highlighting any risk in using nLockTime. For you to effectively lock yourself out of your own Bitcoins, you will have to:
1. Send Bitcoins to a specified address.
2. Create a raw transaction to another address that you control.
3. Delete the private key.
4. Keep the raw transaction and the address that you are sending the coins to safe.

3 and 4 is extremely risky to do and nLocktime can't help.

The best bet then is probably to just store the coins in a cold/paper wallet and store it away somewhere safe such as a safety deposit box or similar where it is not easily accessible which would help control impulse spending if that is what you are worried about.

Yup, thats the best way.

With "locked address" I mean the address that is generated by Coinbin, which coins can only be spent with the redeem script they give you, and after the time you choose while creating it. https://coinb.in/#newTimeLocked

While using the method you described above, won't you be able to receive the coins by broadcasting the raw transaction anytime after deleting the private key? Or is the transaction not signed? If this is the case, then what is this for?

The same can be applied to the deposit box method. You can go there anytime and just spend the coins. I guess that OP is looking for a way to prevent him from spending the coins until a specific date even if he is tempted to do so.

The main poinnt is i want to hold my bitcoins for a long period and want to freeze then for 1 year so that i myself cannot do anything with them

[ranochigo]

With "locked address" I mean the address that is generated by Coinbin, which coins can only be spent with the redeem script they give you, and after the time you choose while creating it. https://coinb.in/#newTimeLocked

Interesting. Definitely didn't see that at all, was assuming that you meant multisig, apologies for the confusion. It looks pretty good and safe.

While using the method you described above, won't you be able to receive the coins by broadcasting the raw transaction anytime after deleting the private key? Or is the transaction not signed? If this is the case, then what is this for?

Transaction is signed, broadcasted after the nLockTime expires.