Any risk doing this ?

[unknowncustomer]

Hello,

I expect to download Electrum on my MacBook, create a password, save my private key in a secret place and send some sats on multiple receptions adresses on the wallet.

Should I then uninstall Electrum or keep the app on my MacBook ?

My two main concerns are:

- Someone steals my MacBook, connects to my Electrum wallet and discovers my password (by brute force or any other technique).
- I unfortunately download a virus on my MacBook which is able to steal my electrum wallet private key.

Am I a maniac guy or one or both above possibilities are plausible ?

Thanks !

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[Charles-Tim]

If you want to have large amount of coins on your wallet, there is nothing bad to go for a reputed hardware wallet or set up a multisig wallet on 2 or 3 safe and secure devices.

If you have Electrum wallet on your PC and you have coins on it, you know you need to protect your computer from malware. Few tips like not clicking on ads and link ads, not downloading pirated copies or torrents, entering the correct URL etc

If you do not want to make use of the wallet frequently but use it like a paper wallet, then there is nothing bad to first reinstall its OS and make it airgapped by not communicating it to the external environment, all possible features like bluetooth, WiFi etc should be disabled. And install Electrum on it to generate the keys and addresses. Backup the seed phrase and have its replica in two other locations and delete the wallet. Protects the backups for recovery purpose.

[NeuroticFish]

Hello,

I expect to download Electrum on my MacBook, create a password, save my private key in a secret place and send some sats on multiple receptions adresses on the wallet.

Should I then uninstall Electrum or keep the app on my MacBook ?

My two main concerns are:

- Someone steals my MacBook, connects to my Electrum wallet and discovers my password (by brute force or any other technique).
- I unfortunately download a virus on my MacBook which is able to steal my electrum wallet private key.

Am I a maniac guy or one or both above possibilities are plausible ?

Thanks !

If you are "a maniac" (a better wording could be security paranoid though) then you're doing it wrong from the early beginning.
If you create a file on your HDD, there's a chance it will be recovered, hence even if you remove Electrum won't help. I'd also add that if you uninstall Electrum software it will most probably not remove the wallet files.

The logic of creating the seed from Electrum and write it down is not that bad, but the execution kinda is.
If you want to do it safely and properly, the correct way would be to start a Live OS (started from an USB or CD/DVD without rights to write anything to disk or the USB) and run Electrum from there.
One pretty easy solution could be booting from an USB stick where you've written Tails OS. It also has Electrum, although some would argue you didn't verify it.

So.. boot from a live OS, obviously with no network set up and no network cable plugged in, run Electrum, create a new seed, write it down to paper, write down a couple of addresses (see addresses tab).
Boot again from the live OS (again, no network), start Electrum, recover from the seed you've written down, verify the addresses you've written down are there.

Now you have some sort of paper wallet. You can fund the addresses you've written down. You can verify the addresses' contend on online block explorers. Copy the seed on multiple pieces of paper and store them safely on multiple (geographically) different locations.

[nc50lc]

Am I a maniac guy or one or both above possibilities are plausible ?

Both are plausible for a standard wallet because it's stored in the drive itself.
Although a strong password may help, the hacker may be able to get it during the times when you type your password.

Should I then uninstall Electrum or keep the app on my MacBook ?

Do you plan to spend from that wallet or just use it to receive funds for hodling bitcoins?

If the latter, then you can delete the wallet right after saving your "seed phrase", it's all you need to restore the wallet once you decided to spend the funds.
But I'd recommend you to create a "watching-only" copy of the wallet to be able to get new receiving addresses or in case you want to monitor its balance without the risk of your funds being hacked.
Here's how to create a watching only wallet: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/creating-a-watch-only-wallet

If the former, there's a cold-storage option: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/creating-a-cold-storage-wallet-in-electrum
Or create a 2FA wallet that's generally safe even if your Mac is hacked/stolen, but it comes with a fee: https://trustedcoin.com/#/faq#fees

[o_e_l_e_o]

It also has Electrum, although some would argue you didn't verify it.

You can get round this step by downloading and verifying the most recent AppImage of Electrum from https://electrum.org/#download, and then transferring it over to your airgapped Tails device via removable media and running that instead of the Electrum package which is bundled with Tails. This also allows you to use the most up to date version, since Tails is still bundled with 4.0.2. If you then add the AppImage to the encrypted persistent storage on the Tails USB drive then you only have to do this step once.

[Pmalek]

I expect to download Electrum on my MacBook, create a password, save my private key in a secret place and send some sats on multiple receptions adresses on the wallet.

With 'private key', were you trying to say 'seed' or 'recovery phrase'? You should write down and store your seed safely, not a (as in one) private key. You said that you want to send coins to multiple addresses. If that is the case, one private key won't allow you to spend from multiple addresses. But the seed will allow you to recover all your private and public keys and addresses. That's why it's imperative to write down the seed. And it's much easier writing down 12 words than a long string of letters and numbers that make no sense to the human brain and you can make mistakes doing it. Remember, one private key will allow you to spend from one of your addresses, not all of them.