Electrum Private keys

[alex3232]

Hi

Sorry I'm new to Electrum, just started my std wallet yesterday, and I was wondering where my private key is kept.
I only entered a password, and I assume that is not my private key, which I guess should be in some file..

Many thanks !

[1715511570]

1715511570

[1715511570]

1715511570

[Abdussamad]

Did you write down the 12 word seed mnemonic? That is in effect your private key. If you were not shown a seed mnemonic then that means you already have a wallet on your PC that either you or some malware created for you.

[alex3232]

Yes, I got it.

Thank you

[crairezx20]

The password you put is not for private keys its generated for every bitcoin address inside your electrum wallet..
To get and backup your private keys you can see the wallet option in the top left click it or follow this
wallet>addresses>addresses tab> used bitcoin address or just pick what bitcoin address you wanted to backup just right click> click private key type your password if your electrum wallet had password..
And it will popup the privatekey and copy and save them in notepad in place it to drive D or any safe places in your computer..  you can also write them down in the paper if ever your copy was broken or deleted you can be still recover your bitcoin address..

[alex3232]

Thanks Crair

I've exported the key as csv from Wallet > Private Keys > Export
Pretty straighforward.

My next step now is to deposit some BCH into my wallet. I'll use Bitstamp for that.

Many thanks

[Coin-Keeper]

Electrum is designed to make things really simple and secure.  Thomas, the author, has designed it so that you only need to safely save the SEED presented when you created your wallet.  Take it from me and others here, if you learn to protect and save the SEED you will fare much better than trying to screw around with private keys.  The SEED will always generate all the private keys needed for every single address in your standard wallet.  I have seen so many threads here where users start importing private keys and other things (its OK but error prone especially for newer users) and before they know it they lose their coins.  Electrum used in SOP mode is almost idiot proof.

[alex3232]

Thank you Coin

I appreciate your feedback.

[HCP]

I've exported the key as csv from Wallet > Private Keys > Export
Pretty straighforward.

Which will become outdated and effectively useless after you use more than 20 receive addresses or 5 change addresses... And it starts generating more keys in the key pool which aren't in your backup.

You don't need to mess around with private keys when you have an HD wallet like Electrum... Just make sure you have safe and secure backups of your 12 word seed phrase. That will enable full recovery of your wallet, regardless of how many addresses you have used.

My next step now is to deposit some BCH into my wallet. I'll use Bitstamp for that.

Wait... What? BCH??!?

Are you using Electrum or ElectronCash?? Electrum is BTC only! ElectronCash is BCH.

Be careful about what currency you're sending and to what wallet address!

[alex3232]

Hi HCP

Thanks a lot for your feedback, it really helps me to start with the right foot.
I was not aware that Electrum is only for BTC, I thought I could manage different wallets with it, each one with its own currency.
Then I'll install both versions of Electrum so I can have BTC & BCH in my wallets.

And I didn't know that my private key was changing with time (transactions).

Many thanks !

[Rinaze]

Electrum is designed to make things really simple and secure.  Thomas, the author, has designed it so that you only need to safely save the SEED presented when you created your wallet.  Take it from me and others here, if you learn to protect and save the SEED you will fare much better than trying to screw around with private keys.  The SEED will always generate all the private keys needed for every single address in your standard wallet.  I have seen so many threads here where users start importing private keys and other things (its OK but error prone especially for newer users) and before they know it they lose their coins.  Electrum used in SOP mode is almost idiot proof.

Does this mean even if one day your current drives spoil and you install a new drive with a fresh Electrum, you just need your SEED and password to recover your wallet/bitcoin address? What's the private key is effectively for then? I mean I thought you had to have your private key, SEED and password to recover your wallet in another drive with another Electrum. Am I right to also assume that Electrum is one of the more special case/wallet that have its' SEED = private key?

[HCP]

You don't even need the password...

You only need the 12 word recover seed phrase. And there isn't really anything "special" about Electrum in that regard. It is simply a "Hierarchically Deterministic" (or HD) wallet... https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet

In other words, all the wallet addresses can be regenerated from the seed. Most modern wallets use this method for backup/recovery.

[LeGaulois]

I've exported the key as csv from Wallet > Private Keys > Export
Pretty straighforward.

Which will become outdated and effectively useless after you use more than 20 receive addresses or 5 change addresses... And it starts generating more keys in the key pool which aren't in your backup.

You don't need to mess around with private keys when you have an HD wallet like Electrum... Just make sure you have safe and secure backups of your 12 word seed phrase. That will enable full recovery of your wallet, regardless of how many addresses you have used.

My next step now is to deposit some BCH into my wallet. I'll use Bitstamp for that.

Wait... What? BCH??!?

Are you using Electrum or ElectronCash?? Electrum is BTC only! ElectronCash is BCH.

Be careful about what currency you're sending and to what wallet address!

I though Electrum doesn't generate more than 20 addresses and 5 change addresses ? The doc is not talking about generating new addresses as far I remember. And while I am at it. How many words the software knows/use to generate the seed? There is something confusing me with it

[pooya87]

I though Electrum doesn't generate more than 20 addresses and 5 change addresses ?

that is the default initial number of addresses but there is no limit, you can create as many as you want. but a regular user won't need that many active at one time so there is no need to have more. when you use 1 key the wallet creates the next one automatically and adds it to your list.

How many words the software knows/use to generate the seed? There is something confusing me with it

exactly 2048 words: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/lib/wordlist/english.txt

[LeGaulois]

Ok, then there is something confusing me. To be able to recover an Electrum wallet the user needs the seed phrase only? With 2048 words it's easy to recover the seed of random people? With 2048 how many different seeds can be generated? I tried to install Electrum and set a password, I don't remember if I had the choice to use one. This password is need as well to recover a wallet?

[Abdussamad]

regarding the password see post number 11 above. regarding the strength of the seed it is 128 bits which is very secure. converting it to a human friendly representation in the form of 12 words does not change that.

[HCP]

Ok, then there is something confusing me. To be able to recover an Electrum wallet the user needs the seed phrase only? With 2048 words it's easy to recover the seed of random people? With 2048 how many different seeds can be generated? I tried to install Electrum and set a password, I don't remember if I had the choice to use one. This password is need as well to recover a wallet?

12 words... 2048 possible words in each position...

2048^12 = 5444517870735015415413993718908291383296 possible combinations...

In other words... Your chances of finding someone else's seed is slim to none.

It should also be noted that not all combinations of words generate valid seeds due to checksum calculations.

As I mentioned earlier, password is only required for decrypting a given wallet file (or the private keys stored in that wallet file)...

To restore a wallet, you ONLY need the seed phrase.

The password that Electrum uses is only for encrypting the contents of the wallet file... It doesn't affect the wallet generation in any way... Ie. It isn't like a BIP38 passphrase

[Snippy6]

So i have tryed to extract my private keys from electrum but the option is not availible to me its greyed out and if i right click its not evan listed as an option the wallet was improted from my trazor inhopes of geting my privite keys so i can use them to extract Bitcoin Gold from conomi not to sure what my next step is took me 2 days to figure out how to get electrum to display my address that started with 3 insteed of 1 thanks for any help in advance

[Abdussamad]

Your trezor holds your private keys. The entire point of using a hardware wallet is that it keeps your private keys away from your computer.

In order to get your priv keys on to your computer you will have to restore from your trezor seed. Begin via file > new/restore. On the seed entry step click on options and check bip39. After that when you right click on addresses in the restored wallet the private key option will be there.

[HCP]

Just adding... that if you do this (ie. enter your Trezor seed into your computer)... you should consider that Trezor seed compromised... and take appropriate action to generate a new seed for your Trezor and move all your coins to it as soon as possible.

You will have dramatically reduced the "security" of all the wallets/addresses/coins that are using your current seed if you enter that seed into any other wallet software. It is supposed to be written on a piece of paper and stored safely OFFLINE for a reason!

[HashRaptor]

Hey,
I found this conversation while trying to prepare for the ZClassic hard fork to Bitcoin Private. It sounds like the “seed” is not the same as the private keys, correct?  I have my password and seed, just wondering if I need to track down my private keys as well to claim my Bitcoin Private?  Thanks in advance!

[pooya87]

Hey,
I found this conversation while trying to prepare for the ZClassic hard fork to Bitcoin Private. It sounds like the “seed” is not the same as the private keys, correct?  I have my password and seed, just wondering if I need to track down my private keys as well to claim my Bitcoin Private?  Thanks in advance!

not exactly!
private keys are needed to sign a transaction (in other words to spend your funds). so that is what you need directly.
Seed is like a master key that can give you all of your private keys. so if you have your seed you can generate all of your private keys that are currently in use or will be generated and used in the future.

so that gives you 2 options: either import your private keys 1 by 1 in the new wallet and claim the new tokens or simply import your Seed in the new wallet and claim your new tokens.
the problem is that the new wallet has to support the seed that you already have, and not all of them support it. specially since different clients (Electrum, blockchain.info, ...) have different seeds that may not be compatible with each other easily and need additional tweaks to work.
also the other problem is the bold part above. you need to move your funds (bitcoin) to a new wallet with a new seed because your whole wallet is compromised as you import your seed your multiple private keys in a new wallet for the fork coin.