Electrum 4.0.9 Receive Address Problems

[malcolmfoster]

Hi Everyone. I hope I am in the right place? An Electrum thread seems to exist but seems not used? First time here and a very senior citizen novice who dabbles a little in crypto. Not highly computer experienced. I used to use Coinbase (no more) to buy some BTC and use an Electrum 4.0.9 offline wallet to store it. I have since used Bitcoin UK straightforwardly but have just funded my new Kraken account instead in order to buy more Bitcoin. My problem is that Kraken are asking for a "Receive" address for me to send my Bitcoin to for storing, and I am not sure where to find it. I am worried about giving wrong information and loosing over £1000.

I seem to recall that using Electron in the beginning, the tabs "Receive" and "Send" already had an address there to copy and paste as needed. Now that looks to have changed and there is a tab called "Addresses" under which there is a list of many addresses (seemingly for previous transactions?), some with "Receiving" highlighted in green then some below with "Change" in yellow. I was tempted to copy and paste the top one in to use that one, but I thought there should be a means of generating a new one somewhere instead but can find no method to do that. Sorry for the long tail, which I hope makes sense. Is there anyone available who could kindly advise me on what I should be doing - apart from not getting involved in things I don't understand enough  I like Bitcoin and my muddling through has been very profitable for me. Many thanks in advance.

[1714003595]

1714003595

[hosseinimr93]

All addresses shown in "Addresses" tab are yours. They are all backed by your seed phrase and can be used for receiving bitcoin.

Note that addresses highlighted in yellow are your change addresses. This means that electrum will use them for receiving the remaining balance of selected UTXOs whenever you make a transaction. This doesn't mean you can't use them for receiving bitcoin.

I seem to recall that using Electron in the beginning,

In the case you are referring to Electron Cash, that's not a bitcoin wallet. That's BCH wallet.

[Oshosondy]

You want to generate new address on electrum? Click on the Receive tab, click on new address after, another address will be generated. It is not truly good to be reusing same address but I am still wondering how you find this difficult on electrum 4.0.9.

[malcolmfoster]

Many thanks to both respondents for your prompt replies, both very helpful. I know I have more questions to ask so am glad to have come across this forum but will leave that until another time. 

[malcolmfoster]

Oshosondy. I don't know how I missed it, but I have just seen that New Address tab. Must have been there all the time, probably even in the older version. Not used for a long time and getting quite forgetful.
Thanks.

[AB de Royse777]

Oshosondy. I don't know how I missed it, but I have just seen that New Address tab. Must have been there all the time, probably even in the older version. Not used for a long time and getting quite forgetful.
Thanks.

Explore the interface, it is much easier to use and find different features. You may also google information or look on this forum too. By the way, make sure that you have stored your seed in a safe place there are no email and password things any more and no customer service too. You are on your own.

[Abdussamad]

I was tempted to copy and paste the top one in to use that one, but I thought there should be a means of generating a new one somewhere instead but can find no method to do that.

Yeah,  Electrum has the option to generate the new addresses (explore Receive tab for this)  which go beyond  20 entries  but sending funds to such addresses  is not recommended action if your default 20 addresses were never used. Electrum is SPV client which ^{"  will get all addresses until 20 unused addresses are found".} You  may  fall into situation which would weird you out.

receive tab doesn't generate addresses beyond the gap limit.

[hosseinimr93]

receive tab doesn't generate addresses beyond the gap limit.

It's possible to generate addresses beyond the gap limit.
If you click on "New address" more than 20 times, electrum will generate addresses beyond the gap limit.
Addresses generated beyond the gap limit are highlighted in red and electrum displays a warning saying that the address cannot be recovered automatically if you restore the wallet from seed.

[decodx]

I don't know how I missed it, but I have just seen that New Address tab. Must have been there all the time, probably even in the older version. Not used for a long time and getting quite forgetful.
Thanks.

Hello malcolmfoster, welcome to the forum.
Electrum is a powerful Bitcoin wallet and offers many advanced features. The user interface is more utilitarian than aesthetically pleasing. That is the price we must pay for such an extensive feature set. You can tailor the Electrum interface to your needs by choosing View from the menu bar, where you can show/hide additional tabs such as the one that displays your addresses.

Maybe an older version of Electrum app didn't show that tab by default, so you didn't notice it before. Anyway, as others have mentioned before me, all of the addresses listed there are yours, and you can use them to receive coins.

[Abdussamad]

receive tab doesn't generate addresses beyond the gap limit.

It's possible to generate addresses beyond the gap limit.
If you click on "New address" more than 20 times, electrum will generate addresses beyond the gap limit.
Addresses generated beyond the gap limit are highlighted in red and electrum displays a warning saying that the address cannot be recovered automatically if you restore the wallet from seed.

you're right. i didn't know about this change.

 but it'll first hand out addresses within the gap limit.

[bob123]

Since all the addresses in the tab are derived from the private keys which are derived from your mnemonic code, you are free to actually use any of them.
It doesn't really matter whether you take an unused address from the address tab or from the receiving tab.

As others have pointed out, as long as you stay within the gap limit (which by default is 20), you won't have any troubles in recovering your coins later on (note that the recovery still will always be possible, just a little bit more hassle).