Is this a valid Electrum signature?

[UnitedNot]

I am getting a slightly different look of the signature for ThomasV and Electrum.
Can someone confirm if this is the how it is supposed to look?



I am accessing Electrum using my Ledger Nano S, the Electrum app asked me if I wanted to encrypt my wallet but I chose not to. The wallet is password protected and since no transaction can be sent without physical confirmation on the Ledger itself I figured there is no need to encrypt the wallet. Is my thinking correct?

[1714039366]

1714039366

[1714039366]

1714039366

[1714039366]

1714039366

[Rayser]

that's the same PGP key > https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x2BD5824B7F9470E6 From my tutorial > https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/aa3l6n/how_to_check_if_your_electrum_wallet_is_legit/

the Electrum app asked me if I wanted to encrypt my wallet but I chose not to

wrong move

you must choose yes

[bob123]

Yes, that's the correct PGP key. The signature is valid and the file therefore is the original electrum file.
The reason it shows '.. is not trusted by you or ..' is because you didn't explicitly trust this key.

the Electrum app asked me if I wanted to encrypt my wallet but I chose not to

wrong move

you must choose yes

He MUST ? Not really, no.

You don't need to encrypt your wallet file if you are using electrum as a front-end for your hardware wallet.
One obviously should encrypt the wallet file if it stores sensitive information (i.e. private keys / seed), but without sensitive information being stored (which is the case when using electrum with a hardware wallet) that's definitely not necessary.

The wallet is password protected and since no transaction can be sent without physical confirmation on the Ledger itself I figured there is no need to encrypt the wallet. Is my thinking correct?

Yes, your thinking is correct.

[o_e_l_e_o]

One obviously should encrypt the wallet file if it stores sensitive information (i.e. private keys / seed), but without sensitive information being stored (which is the case when using electrum with a hardware wallet) that's definitely not necessary.

Worth just pointing out - if you don't encrypt your wallet file, it can be opened in watch only mode without your hardware wallet. So if other people have access to your device, or if they somehow gained access to your wallet file, they would be able to see all your addresses, extract your master public key, and see your balances. Not encrypting it isn't a security risk (they can't spend or transact any of your coins), but it is a privacy risk.

The downside to encrypting it is of course that you can't open it as a watch only wallet.

[bob123]

One obviously should encrypt the wallet file if it stores sensitive information (i.e. private keys / seed), but without sensitive information being stored (which is the case when using electrum with a hardware wallet) that's definitely not necessary.

Worth just pointing out - if you don't encrypt your wallet file, it can be opened in watch only mode without your hardware wallet. So if other people have access to your device, or if they somehow gained access to your wallet file, they would be able to see all your addresses, extract your master public key, and see your balances. Not encrypting it isn't a security risk (they can't spend or transact any of your coins), but it is a privacy risk.

The downside to encrypting it is of course that you can't open it as a watch only wallet.

OP has his wallet protected with a password.

Therefore without knowing the password, other people can't simply open the wallet and spy on his transactions.

[o_e_l_e_o]

OP has his wallet protected with a password.

I wasn't aware it was possible to do both?

When I open Electrum and run through the options for setting up a new wallet using my Ledger, I only get the page that offers to encrypt my wallet, and I don't get the page that offers to password protect it like I would if I was to set up a new wallet with Electrum generating the seed. Am I missing something?

Or I suppose OP could mean he had password protected the file with a third party program?

[bob123]

~snip~

Actually, i am not sure what OP exactly means either.

I also had in mind that you can only protect your wallet file once.
Unfortunately i currently don't have access to electrum and therefore couldn't search through the settings.

Might definitely be possible that he protected the file with a 3rd party program (which would automatically mean encryption tho).


However, as long as it is somehow protected from access without a password everything is fine privacy-wise. Regardless of how he accomplishes that  

[UnitedNot]

o_e_l_e_o
Yes after syncing my Ledger with Electrum I was given an option to encrypt the new wallet but doing so would require that I connect my Ledger wallet every time I want to open my Electrum wallet to view the balance.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I also had in mind that you can only protect your wallet file once.

I've been playing around some more - I definitely have no way of doing both on the same wallet file. I supposed I could import all my addresses from my Ledger protected wallet file to a password protected watch only wallet file, but if there is the option to do both on the same wallet I'd like to know.

Yes after syncing my Ledger with Electrum I was given an option to encrypt the new wallet but doing so would require that I connect my Ledger wallet every time I want to open my Electrum wallet to view the balance.

This is correct.

How did you password protect your wallet file instead? Did Electrum give you an option to do that, or did you use a different program?

[bitdaric]

I am getting a slightly different look of the signature for ThomasV and Electrum.
Can someone confirm if this is the how it is supposed to look?



I am accessing Electrum using my Ledger Nano S, the Electrum app asked me if I wanted to encrypt my wallet but I chose not to. The wallet is password protected and since no transaction can be sent without physical confirmation on the Ledger itself I figured there is no need to encrypt the wallet. Is my thinking correct?

try this :
 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5105901.msg49578820#msg49578820
 

[UnitedNot]

o_e_l_e_o
I actually made a mistake when I said that. It turns out that I had a very old version of Electrum installed on my computer and I totally forgot about it. It was something like 2.7.X... I created a wallet back in that time probably to see the options Electrum had available, never made any transfers. That wallet was password protected because when I opened Electrum it asked for a password.

After I opened Electrum a 2nd time it immediately opened my newly created wallet, the one that I use with Ledger. So it was in fact not password protected at all. I encrypted it though, just to be safe although I am the only using this computer. 

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

That makes sense. I though I was going loopy by completely missing an option in Electrum.

So yeah, encrypting the wallet is safer as it prevents unauthorized watch-only access, but also prevents you from using it as watch-only wallet without attaching your hardware device. You can get round this by creating a second wallet in Electrum, choosing the "Import Bitcoin addresses" option, and then pasting a list of addresses from your hardware-encrypted wallet. This will create a watch-only wallet, which you will then be given the option to encrypt with a password.

Hope you managed to sort out your consolidation without any issues!

[UnitedNot]

o_e_l_e_o
Yes I was planning on doing that after work today but Bitcoin has started a new run so I will wait for the weekend or next week for the fees to get back to normal again. Thanks again.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Fair enough. The mempool does look to be filling up at the moment.

Just to mention though - you don't actually have to wait until the fees are around 1-2 sats/byte to make your transaction. Provided you don't need access to your coins in the meantime, you can broadcast the transaction now and then just be patient. The mempool is generally the least full in the early hours of the morning if you are living in Europe, or around midnight if you are living in the Americas. If you are in these time zones you might be waiting quite a while for the mempool to empty during the day time.

[TryNinja]

Just to mention though - you don't actually have to wait until the fees are around 1-2 sats/byte to make your transaction. Provided you don't need access to your coins in the meantime, you can broadcast the transaction now and then just be patient. The mempool is generally the least full in the early hours of the morning if you are living in Europe, or around midnight if you are living in the Americas. If you are in these time zones you might be waiting quite a while for the mempool to empty during the day time.

Also, besides pushing now with a 1-2 say/byte fee, you can actually bump these fees with RBF if the fees don't go down and you suddenly need your coins to get confirmed asap.

https://freedomnode.com/blog/75/how-to-fix-slow-bitcoin-transactions-with-replace-by-fee

[UnitedNot]

Fair enough. The mempool does look to be filling up at the moment.

Just to mention though - you don't actually have to wait until the fees are around 1-2 sats/byte to make your transaction. Provided you don't need access to your coins in the meantime, you can broadcast the transaction now and then just be patient. The mempool is generally the least full in the early hours of the morning if you are living in Europe, or around midnight if you are living in the Americas. If you are in these time zones you might be waiting quite a while for the mempool to empty during the day time.

The consolidation worked out just fine, thanks again for helping me out throughout the whole process.

I have another question though. I consolidated most of the transactions and left some on their own because I will need to use them for some other transactions in the near future. When I open my Electrum now I expected to see 0 balance next to the consolidated transactions and the whole balance move to the new address but it remains the same for every single line.
Is there a way for me to have a better overview of which of these inputs were spent and which are still on their own so I dont attempt to send from the addresses that are now empty after the consolidation?

[o_e_l_e_o]

When I open my Electrum now I expected to see 0 balance next to the consolidated transactions and the whole balance move to the new address but it remains the same for every single line.

This is how it should be displayed. Addresses which you emptied in the consolidation should have a balance of zero, and the address you sent all the coins to should have the combined balance displayed. If this isn't the case, then there is a problem with your Electrum. Are you sure that has synced properly? There should be a big green circle down the bottom right of your Electrum window.

[HCP]

I have another question though. I consolidated most of the transactions and left some on their own because I will need to use them for some other transactions in the near future. When I open my Electrum now I expected to see 0 balance next to the consolidated transactions and the whole balance move to the new address but it remains the same for every single line.

Are you looking at the "History" tab or the "Addresses" tab?

After consolidation, only the values on the "addresses" tab will change. The "History" tab will pretty much remain unchanged (just with the new transaction shown)... you can't rewrite history after all!

If you goto the "Addresses" tab (may need to use "View -> Show addresses" menu item first), you will see which addresses contain which funds. You can also view individual UTXOs on the "Coins" tab.

[UnitedNot]

HCP you were absolutely right. I was looking at the History tab and when I switched to the Addresses or Coins tab the balance was displayed correctly.
Thanks again to everyone who helped me!  

I will now close this thread since I have received the help I needed.