Electrum Server

[alomar]

how does the Electrum node aggregate your addresses to your particular wallet?  is it b/c your specific request for your addy's are bundled or linked to a specific session?

AFAIK your wallet sends the addresses it wants to know the balance/transaction to the node (server), the node figures out this info and sends the balance and transactions data back to you. Your wallet (client) is the one that initially knows the addresses, which are originated from the wallet seed.

Was that your question? (I may have misinterpreted it).

i guess it was a stupid question.  you send it a list of addy's you want from your specific IP (hidden or not) and then the server gathers them up and has to send the info back to your IP.  thus, you wallet addy's are aggregated with total balance known. 

i still don't get the idea of running a personal Electrum server when you have to run a full node right beside it.  is it b/c of the enhanced functionality?  with Andrew Chow's HWI, my guess that Electrum's advantages are becoming much less of a distinction now?

[HCP]

If you're just trying to obscure your IP... your options are TOR (or some other VPN). Although, running via VPNs has been the cause of issues for folks in the past. Mostly the inability to connect to servers and/or sync.

More info here: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tor.html

[Dabs]

Electrum, the wallet itself, is a light client. Just like the Bitcoin Wallet for Android is a light client.

Those things need to connect to either other full nodes, or servers (which are in turn hosting full nodes.) The Bitcoin Wallet is SPV so it connects directly to other full nodes, and you can specify it only connects to one node (maybe your full node that runs at home).

Electrum tries to connect to several different Electrum servers, so it's possible it can get your wallet balance of different addresses from different servers who won't know all the same addresses.

But running your own Electrum server is the only know to know for sure that you don't leak out any of that address info because you're running a full node.

You could run the full node on a separate server, and Electrum wallet client runs at your own computer or on your mobile device.

I happen to have a server and workstation at home, so I just simply run a full node. Eventually I might run my own personal Electrum server just for myself. (Or as another use did, make it a semi-private server and offer to whitelist your ip address so you can connect your Electrum wallet to my Electrum server.; but then you'd have to trust that I'm too lazy to record anything and not keep records.)

As for IP address:

You could do one step further and rent a VPS, install Electrum on it, then remote to it, but then you'd have to trust the VPS provider. Maybe just get a VPS and run a personal VPN on it.

[naska21]

snip

As for IP address:

You could do one step further and rent a VPS, install Electrum on it, then remote to it, but then you'd have to trust the VPS provider. Maybe just get a VPS and run a personal VPN on it.

From where I sit, other option is to run Tails OS that has Electrum client  as one of its apps and communicate with server via TOR network.

[alomar]

If you're just trying to obscure your IP... your options are TOR (or some other VPN). Although, running via VPNs has been the cause of issues for folks in the past. Mostly the inability to connect to servers and/or sync.

More info here: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tor.html

i just read your link and it says this, which is confusing in the sense that this entire discussion is premised on the idea that Electrum is connecting to ONE potentially malicious server.  which is it?:

This is because normally Electrum connects to a few different servers and downloads block headers and checks that they match. This prevents / makes it more difficult for Rogue servers to send you bad information.


edit:  seems to me one should avoid setting the network server to a specific Electrum node but instead leave it on automatic to hopefully connect to multiple servers for your addy balances (assuming you aren't going to use a personal server or want to use a VPN instead).

[HCP]

edit:  seems to me one should avoid setting the network server to a specific Electrum node but instead leave it on automatic to hopefully connect to multiple servers for your addy balances (assuming you aren't going to use a personal server or want to use a VPN instead).

Correct... generally the best course of action would be to leave it on "Auto"... and simply use a VPN to hide your IP if that is your sole concern (and you're not wanting to run a personal server etc).

[alomar]

edit:  seems to me one should avoid setting the network server to a specific Electrum node but instead leave it on automatic to hopefully connect to multiple servers for your addy balances (assuming you aren't going to use a personal server or want to use a VPN instead).

Correct... generally the best course of action would be to leave it on "Auto"... and simply use a VPN to hide your IP if that is your sole concern (and you're not wanting to run a personal server etc).

so do we know how many servers Electrum pulls balances from in Auto mode?  will it sometimes just pull from one?

can one run an ElectrumX server with Bitcoin Core in prune mode?

[TryNinja]

so do we know how many servers Electrum pulls balances from in Auto mode?  will it sometimes just pull from one?

I may be wrong, but I always though you only connected to a single server at once? Like, you can use multiple servers in a short period of time (e.g every time you restart Electrum it can choose a different server), but since in the server list window it only shows a single connected server and there isn't even space for a multi listing, I believe you don't connect to multiple servers at once.

[alomar]

so do we know how many servers Electrum pulls balances from in Auto mode?  will it sometimes just pull from one?

I may be wrong, but I always though you only connected to a single server at once? Like, you can use multiple servers in a short period of time (e.g every time you restart Electrum it can choose a different server), but since in the server list window it only shows a single connected server and there isn't even space for a multi listing, I believe you don't connect to multiple servers at once.

ok, so this is interesting.  i decided to look:





i'm connected to 7 different nodes at once.  did i get my addy balances from all 7 and in what proportion?  or did i just get them from electrum2.hodlister.co?

[HCP]

i'm connected to 7 different nodes at once.  did i get my addy balances from all 7 and in what proportion?  or did i just get them from electrum2.hodlister.co?

All your requests (ie. address balance history, sending transactions etc)... go through whatever is listed in "Server"... so, in your screenshot above "electrum2.hodlister.co" (also highlighted with a * in the node list).

The "nodes" you are connected to provide Blockheader information and help determine what Electrum considers to be the "longest chain" etc

can one run an ElectrumX server with Bitcoin Core in prune mode?

Short answer... NO.

Longer Answer:

You must to be running a non-pruning bitcoin daemon with:

Code:

txindex=1

set in its configuration file. If you have an existing installation of bitcoind and have not previously set this you will need to reindex the blockchain with:

Code:

bitcoind -reindex

which can take some time.

Also... try clicking the "?" buttons in Electrum... The "Status" one shows this:


The "Server" one shows this:

[pooya87]

i still don't get the idea of running a personal Electrum server when you have to run a full node right beside it.  is it b/c of the enhanced functionality? 

it depends on how you are setting up and using that "electrum server". for example if it is on the same computer then you are right, there is no point. but usually people run it on another computer or an actual "server" like Amazon VPS, it is online 24/7 that way and you just connect to that IP address. or maybe you have multiple wallets (on desktop at home, desktop at work, phone, laptop,...) and connect all of them to that one server you yourself run. that way you have control and functionality and can keep your privacy.

[Dabs]

There is also that Personal Electrum Server, and it can run a pruned bitcoin node. It's specific to your wallet or seed or address or something like that.