Electrum HELP !!!

[blanklol]

Okay so im new to this. I am not new to crypto just a little rusty. I had a wallet about 3 years ago with blockchain.info but I got hacked on my windows laptop and they took lol $9 from me i don't care about it obv. Now im back and trying to get back into crypto. I recently got a macbook so i shouldn't be worried as much about viruses as much as i did on windows. I am trying to get a desktop wallet did some research on Electrum and I like how easy and supports Segwit. I was going to also run it through port 9050 for the Tor connection as i heard it gives it more privacy still not quiet sure but i do like privacy. But the question is should I make a standard segwit wallet or 2fa. I want me and only me to verify a transaction but I heard they eat up on fee's not transactions fee 2fa fee's. what do you guys think I should do here so that I never get hacked on my electrum wallet in the future cause who knows if i would have ex $200 or $500 on my account basically I wan't to sleep knowing my electrum wallet is secure. Thanks

Also if you ask to get a hardware wallet I will in the future don't got the funds rn

[pooya87]

if you care so much about your privacy then you can not use 2FA features of Electrum wallet since the third party you are going to use will ask you to sign up with them and they will also know all your addresses since they are one of the signers.

as for security, i suggest you look into cold storage options and how they work. if it is a long term investment then simply create a paper wallet and store your "funds" that way. with a little effort you can do it right, on a clean offline computer with a legitimate tool. you can even use Electrum to make a paper wallet, but instead of printing one private key you print your seed words.
if you know you are going to spend regularly then buy a hardware wallet for more convenience.

[blanklol]

don't need it as a investment just for sending and receiving but still want privacy and protection

[pooya87]

don't need it as a investment just for sending and receiving but still want privacy and protection

how about mixing different options?
for example lets say you have 1BTC and want to have 0.1BTC ready at hand. you can keep 0.9BTC in your cold storage (like paper wallet) and 0.1BTC in your hot wallet (like simple Electrum desktop wallet). you can also use multi signature options where you store different keys in different locations separate from each other, that way it can offer the same security as 2FA but in a harder way while giving you bit more privacy.

depending on the level of privacy you are looking for, your options change. if you want full anonymity then you shouldn't even use bitcoin. if it is lower level of privacy you require then you should run a full node since with an SPV client you are still relying another node and you send that node all your addresses which they can link together and store and that is not possible with a full node.

[blanklol]

not much of a investor so i wont be storing much close to nothing majority of the time just need a wallet on my mac for example if i want to pay someone in btc i would have to verify that it is me somehow idk maybe Authy and be good nothing to crazy but electrum takes a big cut correct on 2fa and its 3rd party

[HCP]

...but electrum takes a big cut correct on 2fa and its 3rd party

Electrum doesn't really get a "cut" (possibly some small affiliate fee?)... the fees go directly to TrustedCoin, refer here for current fees: https://api.trustedcoin.com/#/electrum-help

At current rates... 0.00005 BTC/tx is about US$0.39c per transaction

How much does it cost?
TrustedCoin charges a small fee to co-sign transactions. The fee depends on how many prepaid transactions you buy. An extra output is added to your transaction every time you run out of prepaid transactions.

Costs depend on how many prepaid transactions you purchase at once (which is configurable by clicking on the TrustedCoin shield icon in the lower right of the Electrum interface).

Pay every 20 transactions:         0.00005 BTC/tx        0.001 BTC total
Pay every 100 transactions:         0.000025 BTC/tx        0.0025 BTC total

TrustedCoin previously supported paying on a per-transaction (as opposed to batch) basis but had to discontinue support for this due to mining fees.
If you disable 2FA (an option available when you restore your wallet from seed), then you will not be charged a cosigning fee.

[NeuroticFish]

And if somebody gets access to OP seed, it won't matter if he had 2FA, the hacker will simply re-create the wallet without 2FA.
So with or without 2FA please keep your seed super safe.
Imho, since it's intended for small funds, 2FA is not really needed there.

[Lucius]

I recently got a macbook so i shouldn't be worried as much about viruses as much as i did on windows. I am trying to get a desktop wallet did some research on Electrum and I like how easy and supports Segwit.

What you need to do first of all is secure your device with good security software (antivirus, antimalware, firewall), and then go to https://electrum.org/#home from where you can download Electrum for your device. As an additional measure of protection before installation you can verify GPG signatures (explanation is on Electrum site)

In setup choose SegWit wallet type, write down your 12 words seed (check every word few times), and set strong password for you wallet. Then you can start to using this wallet, and you will be pretty safe from hackers if you follow some basic rules :

• Download / update wallet only from official site.
• Never expose your seed to anyone.
• Take care of your device security.

[Abdussamad]

Just install electrum and create a standard single sig wallet. Don't bother with cold storage if you're just starting out. Also don't choose segwit when asked. You will find reasons why in step 4.

Another thing you can do is bookmark electrum.org in your browser and make sure you only download electrum using that bookmark. Never ever download it from anywhere else.