I have an airgapped Electrum install. How do I update my balance offline?

[PrivacyG]

Greetings fellow Bitcoiners,

I have an airgapped computer containing an Electrum install.  Even though I have been using it for years, I never found a way to update my balance offline.  Instead, I use Address labels as a way to manually update the balance of each address.

Whenever I sign transactions from my airgapped Electrum the balance does not change.  Previously, I tried to load a broadcasted transaction from my online computer but that does not seem to work either.  Is there a way to see transactions and balance without going online at all?

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

[dkbit98]

Is there a way to see transactions and balance without going online at all?

You can't really update balance for offline wallet but I guess you can import your addresses as watch only wallet on other computer device with online connection.
Other option you have is to follow your address balance with any bitcoin explorer.

[AverageGlabella]

The safest and probably the most convenient way of doing this would be with a watch only address on a online computer. This way you do not put your airgapped offline computer at risk but can still monitor how much Bitcoin you have in the address.

Follow these steps:

1. Open your Electrum wallet on your airgapped computer. Go to the menu option Wallet>Information copy the master public key
2. Put this master public key inside a text document on a USB
3. Create a new wallet using Electrum on a online computer (choose standard wallet>use a master key)
4. Copy the Master Public Key that you have on your USB and paste it inside the filed thats open in Electrum.

Electrum should then take care of the rest and you have an address inside the newly generated Electrum wallet file which is a watch only address which does not contain a private key for your address imported from your offline computer.

The second option is you can copy and paste the address and keep that in a text document and input it into a Blockchain explorer every time you want to check the address although I think the watch only address is a better and more efficient way of doing it.


The reason your balance does not update is because it cannot connect to the Bitcoin network and therefore can not verify the balance. A online computer verifys each addresses value by connecting to the nodes on the network and then verifying the balance between multiple nodes to assure its correct because you were attempting to do this on your offline computer it cannot connect to the internet so it cannot verify the balance. If you put the address inside a explorer that would be able to verify since that can access the nodes.

[ranochigo]

It is possible.

On your online watch-only wallet, start exporting your transactions sequentially:

1. Right click on the transaction > View Transaction > Export > Export to File and name them TX1, TX2, and so on.
2. Put them to your USB flash drive.

Afterwards, bring it to your offline computer, go to Tools> Load transaction > From file and start importing it sequentially as well. For each transaction, you should see an advanced transaction details Window. Click Save on the bottom right and it would be saved as a local transaction. Note that the balance depends on what transactions you choose to import and it is by no means an accurate way to determine the balance or the transactions as there is no way for Electrum to actually validate without having the headers. It won't display the actual balance as it isn't connected to any server.

It won't be in sync with the actual balance though without you doing so manually but if that is what you need, then doing so would be fine. When you're sending any transactions from the airgapped computer, click Save on the advanced transaction window as well.

[BitMaxz]

I think it's impossible to update the balance of your offline Electrum already did some test before but you can only get the newer balance if you sync the wallet online.
So it needs internet before you can able to see your latest balance.

What is your purpose in updating the balance of your offline wallet?

If you are going to use it daily much better to use it as normal compared to disconnecting the wallet online. Airagapped Electrum can be only use for long-term holdings not good for daily used unless if you are going to use it with a Hardware wallet.


The purpose of having a watch-only wallet is to watch the current balance of your wallet and to make a raw transaction.

What you can do in the offline wallet is to sign a transaction or make a signed message and nothing else.

[nc50lc]

ranochigo's reply is the only way AFAIK.

Whenever I sign transactions from my airgapped Electrum the balance does not change.  Previously, I tried to load a broadcasted transaction from my online computer but that does not seem to work either.  Is there a way to see transactions and balance without going online at all?

My method to keep the air-gap electrum's balance in the history up-to-date is to save every transaction that it signed before closing the window
and also save transactions from the watch-only wallet that I haven't spent yet. But there's really no reasonable reason to do that aside from my OCD.

If you want to follow ranochigo's reply but there are too many transactions in your history, you can just export-import the entries in the watch-only wallet's 'coins' tab (View->Show Coins).
You might need to increase the cold-storage Electrum's gap limit to be able to save the transactions that used addresses beyond its gap limit.

• In the offline Electrum, open console and type wallet.change_gap_limit(1000) (increase "1000" depending on your expected wallet usage), then restart Electrum.
• In the watch-only Electrum, open coins tab, right-click a UTXO, select "details" and use "Export" menu. Do that to all of the available coins.
• Back to the offline Electrum, import them using the menu "Tools->Load transaction" and click "save" to save the txn locally in the history.

With the same number of coins, the balance that's displayed in the latest transaction should be your current balance (not on the lower-left).

To maintain the correct balance, you can copy the "method" I've mentioned.

[pooya87]

ranochigo's reply is the only way AFAIK.

You could just copy the wallet file and move that to the offline machine and load it through File > Open option since the file already contains the transaction history and can have an updated balance (specially if there is a huge history). But that way the "air-gap" "cold storage" can no longer be considered safe because it is not "air-gap" anymore.

[nc50lc]

ranochigo's reply is the only way AFAIK.

You could just copy the wallet file and move that to the offline machine and load it through File > Open option since the file already contains the transaction history and can have an updated balance (specially if there is a huge history). But that way the "air-gap" "cold storage" can no longer be considered safe because it is not "air-gap" anymore.

Isn't that the watch-only wallet?
Then he didn't actually update the balance of the offline wallet.

And copying the watch-only wallet wont affect the cold-storage Electrum since it's basically the same as transferring transaction files between devices through USB.

[pooya87]

ranochigo's reply is the only way AFAIK.

You could just copy the wallet file and move that to the offline machine and load it through File > Open option since the file already contains the transaction history and can have an updated balance (specially if there is a huge history). But that way the "air-gap" "cold storage" can no longer be considered safe because it is not "air-gap" anymore.

Isn't that the watch-only wallet?
Then he didn't actually update the balance of the offline wallet.

And copying the watch-only wallet wont affect the cold-storage Electrum since it's basically the same as transferring transaction files between devices through USB.

You are right, I didn't consider that. The wallet file will be the watch-only one without the keys so you'd be only able to see the balance and histories without being able to spend using this file.

[Pmalek]

Can someone explain in more details what the point is in having the balance updated on your offline computer, I don't get it?!

If your master public key is imported on a computer that is connected to the internet, why can't you just use that every time you need to check the balance? If you don't always have access to that watch-only wallet, you can import the same master public key into a mobile version of Electrum which will probably be at your fingertips all the time...

[HCP]

Can someone explain in more details what the point is in having the balance updated on your offline computer, I don't get it?!

I don't understand it either...

The "offline" computer is nothing more than a repository for your seed/private keys and used to sign transactions that are created on your "online" machine (which will have the updated balance/transaction history).

It's like a hardware wallet. Your hardware wallet doesn't need your transaction history or current balance to be able to sign a transaction.

[ranochigo]

Why do you need to update your balance offline? By and large, you can always check you balance by using online services like ^{https://blockchair.com/bitcoin} and such or open your watch-only client and allow it to do it when connected to Electrum server. Use your airgapped Electrum exclusively for signing  transaction.

Possibly something to do with the inability to access a secured computer or device and OP also wants to check the balance on the go? I would never attempt to check my actual cold storage balance on any unsecured computer. Although it isn't accurate by any means, it would be sufficient for a quick reference for an albeit out-dated transaction history.

[Saltius]

Offline or cold wallet is just a signing machine, nothing more.

Why do you need a signing pen or stamp show you your bank balances??

Your odd need will make your cold wallet not cold any more.

[PrivacyG]

(..) it is by no means an accurate way to determine the balance or the transactions as there is no way for Electrum to actually validate without having the headers. It won't display the actual balance as it isn't connected to any server. (..)

All my respect goes to you, ranochigo.  I successfully updated my balance using your technique even if it kind of annoys me that transactions are not showing up in the correct order and there is no easy way of re-ordering them.

However, this is likely my fault as I have probably saved them in the wrong order myself.  Not a big deal in any case.

Speaking of balance, one thing I particularly noticed is that balance shows up in the right side of transactions.  Have not checked if it is also correct however, but I reckon it is.

-----

(..) What is your purpose in updating the balance of your offline wallet?

If you are going to use it daily much better to use it as normal compared to disconnecting the wallet online. (..)

To my surprise, this question has been asked multiple times on my thread.  Here is my explanation, so that I can put an end to everyone's curiosity.

I am not moving my Bitcoins daily.  I have no intentions of handing out all my airgapped addresses to a server.  At any given time, at least one of the Electrum servers may be owned and maliciously used by Blockchain Analysis tools.  I do not want my Bitcoins to be subject to successful blockchain analysis.

If I own five separate unused private keys from five separate Chip Mixer invoices, it is catastrophic for my privacy to insert all five into a single Electrum wallet simultaneously.  The Electrum server now knows that someone owns all five public keys.  As a result, I have linked all my Chip Mixer invoices to only one IP address.

My coins are as anonymous as they can be.  Handing out the Master Public Key entirely cancels the purpose of having anonymous coins in the first place.

In consequence, I am only using one address at a time.  My Operating System is amnesic, there is no storage drive inside my build.  In consequence, I cannot run a full node.  If I can update the offline balance by myself, it becomes much easier to maintain the airgapped cold storage balances and transactions without headaches.  Ranochigo provided me with the perfect tip.

From now on, I will only need to launch Electrum on my airgapped setup to know which of the addresses has enough Bitcoins to fulfill my transactions.  Thank you.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG