Best Linux Wallet 2019

[ChronoGN]

Electrum's support for linux is lacking and there's that whole phishing issue from few months ago so I want to switch to a different wallet.
What in your opinion in the best Linux wallet?
I'm not interested in the Bitcoin core since I don't want to wait a whole week to download the whole blockchain.

[mk4]

You should be fine fine with Electrum on linux as long as you don't click on those phishing links.

Anyway, you can also try the Wasabi wallet[1], or the Armory[2] wallet, though I think Armory is more for advanced users I think.

[1] https://wasabiwallet.io/
[2] https://btcarmory.com/

[bob123]

Electrum's support for linux is lacking

 

The 'electrum support' for linux is the same as for windows.

What do you exactly mean?

Electrum runs even better on linux than on windows, or are you talking about the 'support from electrum'. In this case.. there isn't a support at all, because it is not a company.

and there's that whole phishing issue from few months ago

Yes, and it is over.
All the attacker could do is to show a popup with a custom message.

What in your opinion in the best Linux wallet?
I'm not interested in the Bitcoin core since I don't want to wait a whole week to download the whole blockchain.

IMO (if you don't want to use a hardware wallet), electrum.

[jackg]

Are you talking about the python compatibility issues? There's outdated python repos on a lot of Linux distros and I tried installing it from source but it just kept failing for random reasons so if that's the sane issue as you then I suggest you wait (wasabi was previously suggested but afaik armory needs bitcoin core).

[fronti]

In this case.. there isn't a support at all, because it is not a company.

There is an existing company:
 Electrum Technologies GmbH

Its mission is to develop, package and distribute Electrum software, and to provide services to Bitcoin users and businesses.

see: https://electrum.org/#impressum


but you are right, this is not to provide support and to buy the software from them, but to be responsible mainly for the website.

[OmegaStarScream]

If you're that worried about your funds (which you should) then a hardware wallet (Trezor) is more suitable for you and you could use it everywhere as long as you have a browser.

[bitmover]

If you're that worried about your funds (which you should) then a hardware wallet (Trezor) is more suitable for you and you could use it everywhere as long as you have a browser.

Another good hardware wallet option is ledger nano.

As others already said, Electrum is by far the safestest option out there for a lightweight wallet on Linux.

[bob123]

Are you talking about the python compatibility issues? There's outdated python repos on a lot of Linux distros and I tried installing it from source but it just kept failing for random reasons so if that's the sane issue as you then I suggest you wait (wasabi was previously suggested but afaik armory needs bitcoin core).

Which compatibility issues ?
Python3 is available on every distro. The only dependency it has is python3-pyqt5, which is also available on all distros.

Or are you talking about electrum from PIP ? In this case, yes. It is outdated.

But you don't have to install electrum from source then.. so i guess you are talking about outdated python? 
Which distro does not have python3 in their repository ?

[jackg]

There's a difference between python 3.6 and 3.7 that is used by electrum (I think). Debian (when I last used it) only had 3.6 on its repo meaning that the installs of electrum (from the website using git clone and curl - both methods) failed to load due to incompatibility issues.

[bob123]

There's a difference between python 3.6 and 3.7 that is used by electrum (I think). Debian (when I last used it) only had 3.6 on its repo meaning that the installs of electrum (from the website using git clone and curl - both methods) failed to load due to incompatibility issues.

Just tested it with Debian stable (testing has newer versions), and it seems it really only has python 3.5.3 in its repositories while electrum needs python 3.6.

However, it can be installed this way (python 3.6.3; just tested on debian stable):

Code:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.3/Python-3.6.3.tgz
tar xvf Python-3.6.3.tgz
cd Python-3.6.3
./configure --enable-optimizations
make -j8
sudo make altinstall

You will have python3 (3.5.3) and python3.6 installed.

Then you'll need to install pyqt5 via:

Code:

sudo pip3.6 install pyqt5

Afterwards electrum can be run using:

Code:

python3.6 run_electrum

inside of the electrum directory.


Of course this also works with newer versions of python.

[jackg]

Yeah... I've done that and then I get some random errors. I think it's a nondescript build error.

I'm using only android and windows 1.0 (I need the old version of Windows for research purposes, I think it's the 1990 version so I'm trying not to use anything else until I get this done but I'll try it again sometime).

[ChronoGN]

Are you talking about the python compatibility issues? There's outdated python repos on a lot of Linux distros and I tried installing it from source but it just kept failing for random reasons so if that's the sane issue as you then I suggest you wait (wasabi was previously suggested but afaik armory needs bitcoin core).

Yup, that's the issue I was having.

Just tested it with Debian stable (testing has newer versions), and it seems it really only has python 3.5.3 in its repositories while electrum needs python 3.6.

However, it can be installed this way (python 3.6.3; just tested on debian stable):

Code:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.3/Python-3.6.3.tgz
tar xvf Python-3.6.3.tgz
cd Python-3.6.3
./configure --enable-optimizations
make -j8
sudo make altinstall

You will have python3 (3.5.3) and python3.6 installed.

Then you'll need to install pyqt5 via:

Code:

sudo pip3.6 install pyqt5

Afterwards electrum can be run using:

Code:

python3.6 run_electrum

inside of the electrum directory.


Of course this also works with newer versions of python.

I will give this a try.

[HCP]

Why not just use the Linux "app image" for Electrum, available on the download page? https://electrum.org/#download

It is a self contained package that has all the necessary dependencies included... Avoids a lot of dicking around trying to get the various versions of Python and libraries playing nicely together.