Electrum newbie question

[unknowncustomer]

Hello all,

I just realized that when I sent bitcoins to my electrum wallet, actually it was received on different reception addresses (on the same electrum wallet).
Could you confirm that with my seed phrase I will be able to recover ALL my bitcoins (and not some on specific reception addresses)

Thanks !

[1714673607]

1714673607

[1714673607]

1714673607

[1714673607]

1714673607

[1714673607]

1714673607

[Rath_]

I just realized that when I sent bitcoins to my electrum wallet, actually it was received on different reception addresses (on the same electrum wallet).
Could you confirm that with my seed phrase I will be able to recover ALL my bitcoins (and not some on specific reception addresses)

If the other address has been a part of your wallet since the beginning (meaning you didn't import it and it was generated automatically) then you will be to recover that address using your seed.

[hosseinimr93]

I just realized that when I sent bitcoins to my electrum wallet, actually it was received on different reception addresses (on the same electrum wallet).

Are you saying that you sent the fund to address A and now electrum is saying that the fund has been received in address B?
Am I getting you correctly? If so, that's impossible.
Check the transaction you made on a block explorer. You are probably missing something.

If the other address has been a part of your wallet since the beginning (meaning you didn't import it and it was generated automatically) then you will be to recover that address using your seed.

Electrum doesn't allow you to import a new address to an HD wallet at all.

[LoyceV]

Could you confirm that with my seed phrase I will be able to recover ALL my bitcoins (and not some on specific reception addresses)

That's how the seed phrase is supposed to work. But you can easily test it for yourself: create a new wallet (File > New), and restore your seed phrase. The new wallet should produce the same addresses as your current wallet.

[nc50lc]

-snip-
I just realized that when I sent bitcoins to my electrum wallet, actually it was received on different reception addresses (on the same electrum wallet).

I got a feeling that you mean "when sending from your Electrum wallet", because otherwise, this is impossible to happen.

If that's the case, it must be your "change address" (with yellow highlight) which are the address reserved to receive the excess amount from your transactions.
Bitcoin Wiki - Change: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change

If not, you may be talking about the 'Receive' tab which shows you a different address in every invoice that you make.
You can actually see those addresses right away from the 'Addresses' tab (Menu: "View->Show Addresses").
Those are all derived from your seed phrase, you can refer to that tab if you want to test if your seed phrase can restore them all.

[unknowncustomer]

I mean I received x times several bitcoins on the same electrum wallet and I had to create new adresses each time in order to receive the bitcoins (that's why I have several reception addresses for the same wallet).
But I guess with the seed I will recover the whole wallet.

[pooya87]

I mean I received x times several bitcoins on the same electrum wallet and I had to create new adresses each time in order to receive the bitcoins (that's why I have several reception addresses for the same wallet).

When you create a deterministic wallet such as Electrum (an almost any other bitcoin wallet) that wallet creates as many addresses as you want deterministically using your seed. They also create an initial number of them at creation time.

You don't need to create a new address or get a new one from your list, each time you want to receive payment. The addresses are always part of your wallet and can be reused although we generally advise against it: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse

In your case if you enable your Addresses tab from your View menu you will see all your addresses and any future ones that would be created automatically. You don't need to use the "Receive" tab directly but you are essentially seeing these addresses in that tab.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I mean I received x times several bitcoins on the same electrum wallet and I had to create new adresses each time in order to receive the bitcoins (that's why I have several reception addresses for the same wallet).

This is good practice. Address reuse has a number of privacy implications (as well as some theoretical security implications), and by reusing the same address over and over you compromise your privacy and allow anyone sending you bitcoin to spy on the entire contents of your wallet and all your previous transactions. Every time you go to the receive tab in an HD Electrum wallet, it will by default give you a new address which has never received any coins. You can reuse the same address as many times as you want, but it's better not to and doesn't cost you anything.

And as explain above, as long as you have your seed phrase backed up somewhere safe, then you will be able to easily recreate the entire wallet and all the addresses within it, used or unused.

[Abdussamad]

I mean I received x times several bitcoins on the same electrum wallet and I had to create new adresses each time in order to receive the bitcoins (that's why I have several reception addresses for the same wallet).
But I guess with the seed I will recover the whole wallet.

yes you will

[dkbit98]

I mean I received x times several bitcoins on the same electrum wallet and I had to create new adresses each time in order to receive the bitcoins (that's why I have several reception addresses for the same wallet).
But I guess with the seed I will recover the whole wallet.

You didn't have to create new address each time to receive bitcoin, but doing that is actually better for privacy if you don't send all coins together again.
When you want to send your bitcoin next time, go to Addresses tab, choose one you want and then right click with Spend from option.
Seed words will recover all your addresses, but only Electrum wallet is supported if you generated seed words in Electrum.

[hosseinimr93]

Seed words will recover all your addresses, but only Electrum wallet is supported if you generated seed words in Electrum.

You can import the seed phrase generated using electrum into bluewallet too.
It should be mentioned that if there is no used address in the wallet, you can't import it into bluewallet. There is a requirement that the wallet must have received fund.

[dkbit98]

You can import the seed phrase generated using electrum into bluewallet too.
It should be mentioned that if there is no used address in the wallet, you can't import it into bluewallet. There is a requirement that the wallet must have received fund.

Have you tested if this is actually working, because I didn't and I uninstalled Blue wallet during AOPP mess?
Bluewallet by default supports BIP39 that can't be converted from electrum seed format, so I don't understand how they can make differentiate from imported BIP39 and Electrum seed words.
I see on their website they say we can import Electrum and Bread wallets, but on their github page there are some issues when using multisig:
https://github.com/BlueWallet/BlueWallet/issues/1088

[hosseinimr93]

Have you tested if this is actually working, because I didn't and I uninstalled Blue wallet during AOPP mess?

To make sure it's still working, I just tested it. It had been a long time since the last time I used bluewallet.
Below is the screenshot I took from bluewallet.

Bluewallet by default supports BIP39 that can't be converted from electrum seed format, so I don't understand how they can make differentiate from imported BIP39 and Electrum seed words.

If you enter a BIP39 seed phrase, it generates your BIP39 wallet.
If you enter a seed phrase generated by electrum and there's a used address in the wallet, it automatically detects that and creates same addresses as your electrum wallet.

[Pmalek]

@unknowncustomer
Here is an example of why using the same address for all your Bitcoin needs isn't recommended.

Imagine you invested in Bitcoin a few years ago and your holdings are now worth over $200.000. You also like to gamble and since you are lucky, you win $40.000 worth of BTC. You deposit those coins to the same address as your initial investment. You now have $240.000 worth of BTC in the same place. You do some freelance work and the fees you earn from that goes to the same address. The address now holds over $250.000 in BTC.

Your keyboard breaks and you find a seller online who is willing to sell you a new one. He lives just a few blocks away from your home and he accepts Bitcoin. Perfect! You meet with him and pay from the only BTC address that you have. Do you really want a random dude you found online know that you are holding $250.000 in BTC? Bitcoin uses a transparent ledger and everything is public on the blockchain. It could also be discovered that the same person who initially invested in BTC, also won a nice amount on a casino, and also received deposits from a freelancing site.