Migrating from Multibit HD to Electrum

[Makarevicius]

Hello ,

i only recently realized that Multibit HD closed down. After my HDD crashed and i had to recover my wallet on new HDD. i tried to follow video tutorial how to create wallet with existing Multibit seed to no avail since in video they used 2.9 and latest version was 3.x it created wallets but all empty .

So later on i salvaged multibit installer on new HDD restored wallet and thought gonna just to a payment to myself to new Electrum wallet. No luck since my balance was unconfirmed ...

So i decided to find older version of electrum the one used in video tutorial and it actually worked . Now i have my Multibit balance in electrum wallet .

But as far as i can understand it's not seeded? and it's in different format?? BIP 59 or something similar .

So the question would be if i create a new seeded wallet with Electrum can i send my bitcoins from unseeded wallet ? Sort of like money laundering ?

all this bitcoin stuff is really confusing to me to be fair .
Thanks for help in advance

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[HCP]

It is technically seeded... just not with a native Electrum seed. It is using a "generic" BIP39 seed... and the seed mnemonic (the "12 words") are not stored in the wallet... so there is no way to export them if you lose your current copy of the words!

To answer you question, Yes, of course you can send the Bitcoins from your current imported wallet a new "seeded" Electrum wallet. This will require that you send an on chain transaction which will of course require a transaction fee.

[Makarevicius]

thanks HCP.

So basically i have to keep safe my words from old ( multiBit ) wallet safe if anything happens .

And if i did as you said on chain transaction to new ''seeded '' Electrum wallet my fund would become tied to new safe words right? And therefore become differently encrypted and easier to recover in the future ? ( sorry i just done a lot of reading when trying to recover it and got all more confused the more i read)

And one more thing . I know key words are more or less like a back up but is it possible to somehow back it up otherwise like doing image back up of HDD or similar ways ? 

thanks again for your time

[HCP]

So basically i have to keep safe my words from old ( multiBit ) wallet safe if anything happens .

Pretty much... you'd need to the same for Electrum words as well

And if i did as you said on chain transaction to new ''seeded '' Electrum wallet my fund would become tied to new safe words right? And therefore become differently encrypted and easier to recover in the future ? ( sorry i just done a lot of reading when trying to recover it and got all more confused the more i read)

Yes... if you moved the coins to addresses generated by Electrum wallet, they are then backed up with new words.

And one more thing . I know key words are more or less like a back up but is it possible to somehow back it up otherwise like doing image back up of HDD or similar ways ? 

The whole point of the seed mnemonics... aka "word phrases"... is that you can simply write those down, and store them safely and securely OFFLINE. You entire wallet and ALL of it's addresses (old and new) and transaction history can be restored by using those words.

It completely eliminates the need for digital backups of HDD's and/or wallet files... and even allows you to recover from lost wallet passwords (NOT lost BIP39 passphrases tho)... as when you restore from seed you can simply choose a new password

But, there is no reason you can't do HDD and/or wallet file backups if you want... it just isn't strictly necessary.

[Makarevicius]

Thanks a lot for your time and info you put my mind at ease ))