Bitcoin Wallet Download: How Do I Get Sending Address and Private Key?

[DireWolfM14]

For Electrum, you can download it directly from Electrum official site, https://electrum.org, you can also verify its signature to make sure the site has not been compromised before you downloaded the wallet.

@Charles-Tim asked me if there was a way to verify PGP signatures on Android.  Unfortunately I don't know of a great way to do it.  The topic was recently discussed in the Electrum sub; here's my response but it's worth reading the whole thread.

If you have access to a PC, you can use the guide quoted above to verify the .apk file and sideload it onto your phone.  That's the method I find inspires the most confidence.

[khaled0111]

I understand that Electrum charges a flat rate fee.  

No, Electrum does not charge any fees.
You have to pay that flat fee only if you create a 2fa wallet and the fees will go to a third party service (TrustedCoin) not Electrum.

Is the flat rate fee 0.2mBTC or 2mBTC, mBTC meaning milliBTC or one thousandth (1/1000) BTC - as if Bitcoin and cryptocurrency generally were not complicated enough.
Accordingly, 0.2mBTC or  2mBTC means 0.0002BTC or 0.002BTC (~6USD or 60USD)?

1mBTC  = 1/1000 BTC = 0.001 BTC = ~ $3
But afaik, Trusted coin charges 0.0005 BTC for every 20 transactions or 0.00125 BTC for 100 transactions.

Are there any other additional fee?

No.

Does any Electrum fee apply to all transactions (i.e. receiving and sending Bitcoins)?

Other than the 2fa fees paid to TrustedCoin you don't have to pay any other fees except the regular transactions fees paid to miners (only when sending).

Any other thing I need to know about Electrum mobile wallet?[/li][/list]

The mobile version lacks some features compared to the desktop version such as coin control, console, testnet... But regular users don't really need them.

[Charles-Tim]

Is the flat rate fee 0.2mBTC or 2mBTC, mBTC meaning milliBTC or one thousandth (1/1000) BTC - as if Bitcoin and cryptocurrency generally were not complicated enough.

If you want to know more about bitcoin transaction fee, you can read these:

Beginner's Guide to Transaction Fees
Bitcoin Transaction Fees - Everything in one
Minimizing bitcoin transaction fee

For mempool, you can use these sites:

For beginners: https://mempool.space/
For advanced users: https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC,24h,weight

If I will brief it, the fee is in transaction weight or virtual size/byte (vsize/vbyte) multiply by the feerate in vbyte which you can check using mempool.

Fee= feerate (in sat/vbyte) * vbyte

Are there any other additional fee?

No. Fee are taken by miners to include your transaction into a block, in the process, your transaction will be confirmed and successful.

Additional fee can be taken by TrustedCoin if you are using Electrum 2FA wallet just as hosseinimr93 and khaled0111 commented.
Exchange charges exorbitantly far higher than the actual bitcoin transaction fee

But the fee are not actually bitcoin transaction fee, they are charged by third parties (TrustedCoin and exchanges)

Does any Electrum fee apply to all transactions (i.e. receiving and sending Bitcoins)?

No, it applies only to senders, not receivers.

But it would be interesting for you to read about child-pay-for-parent which receivers can do if the sender uses low transaction fee, especially when the mempool is congested but the receiver wants the transaction to get confirmed early, the receiver can create another transaction, spending part of the unconfirmed UTXO using higher fee that is able to make miners to include two of the transactions into a block and get confirmed.

Any other thing I need to know about Electrum mobile wallet?

Just as khaled0111 commented, desktop Electrum has more features than Electrum mobile wallet, like the use of Console, testnet and coin control (able to manually select inputs), but on mobile, you can still take advantage of address freeze, but using coin control is more flexible as you can still freeze certain inputs manually on the same address. You can also only use desktop Electrum to verify messaged signed with bitcoin address and also for public key encryption message. In short, there are many features even not yet mention that is on desktop Electrum but not on mobile Electrum.

Thanks for your reply. Briefly, how do I verify Electrum mobile (Android) wallet signature specifically; and what is "BIP39 seed phrase"?

@DireWolfM14, thanks for your reply, I did not pm back again because I know you will read my reply here. I hope Bitfellow will be able to follow you posts into details.

@Bitfellow, seed phrase generates the seed, the seed generates the master private key and master public keys, from master private keys, the child keys (child private keys and child public keys) are geerated, from the child keys, the addresses are generated. Simple sentences can not perfectly explain this, you can read more about it on the GitHub mastering bitcoin link below.

https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/develop/ch05.asciidoc

[Bitfellow]

Thank you all for the great help. I now have Electrum wallet.

My next challenge is to convert some bitcoins to local fiat currency with strict privacy and at little or no cost. I expect to add Electrum sending fee, and other costs (e.g. exchange or other intermediary commission) to the fiat equivalent. Is this an acceptable practice? Your suggestions would be appreciated.

[nc50lc]

Why the settings button (3 dots) is absent in the wallet and whether there is a way to recover it.
-snip-

You've switched to Electrum but this is never mentioned here, so it's worth mentioning:
The 3-dots menu will not show if the Android device itself has a physical menu button.
In that case, pressing the physical menu button will trigger the same menu as the 3-dots menu.

If it's not showing despite having no physical menu button,
then it's either an error in the app's part, android phone's firmware or combination of both.

[Bitfellow]

You've switched to Electrum but this is never mentioned here, so it's worth mentioning:

Point taken, switch to Electrum wallet has been added to my last post.

[Bitfellow]

It's not easy challenge if you want privacy at low cost. But how strict do you want?
1. If you don't want to perform KYC verification (usually with your legal ID card, driving card or passport), centralized exchange isn't option. You could take risk by using centralized exchange where it's required on certain condition, but i wouldn't recommend it.
2. DEX such as Bisq[1] offer best privacy, but it has higher cost due to few reasons[2-4].
3. P2P such as HodlHodl[5] have great trade-off between privacy and cost. But you'll need to do research about the seller and payment method you use to reduce trading risks[6].

[1] https://bisq.network/
[2] https://bisq.wiki/Security_deposit
[3] https://bisq.wiki/Trading_fees
[4] https://bisq.wiki/Frequently_asked_questions#Mining_fees_are_too_high._How_can_I_trade_on_Bisq_cost-effectively.3F
[5] https://hodlhodl.com/
[6] https://hodlhodl.com/pages/help

Thank you very much for your helpful suggestions and links. As a seller, is it good practice to add to the fiat equivalent, sending fee (from Electrum wallet) and trading fee charged by the platform (i.e. fiat equivalent + sending fee + trading fee = fiat received)? By strict privacy, the idea is to avoid any connection with fiat or fiat-related payment system - a clean separation between personal id and the blockchain.

[NotATether]

Thank you very much for your helpful suggestions and links. As a seller, is it good practice to add to the fiat equivalent, sending fee (from Electrum wallet) and trading fee charged by the platform (i.e. fiat equivalent + sending fee + trading fee = fiat received)?

The Electrum transaction fee is negligible, a few cents to several dozen cents, so you don't have to include it.

The trading fee, however, might be fairly large (I have the withdrawal fee in mind as I type this). So if it is anything above a few dollars, you should add it to your asking price. So long as your crypto purchase is large enough, it should also be a negligible part of the price.

[Bitfellow]

The Electrum transaction fee is negligible, a few cents to several dozen cents, so you don't have to include it.

The trading fee, however, might be fairly large (I have the withdrawal fee in mind as I type this). So if it is anything above a few dollars, you should add it to your asking price. So long as your crypto purchase is large enough, it should also be a negligible part of the price.

I understand, thanks. Also, is there a way to receive the asking price in PayPal, without connecting my identity to the transaction and therefore, blockchain?

[Cookdata]

Thank you very much for your helpful suggestions and links. As a seller, is it good practice to add to the fiat equivalent, sending fee (from Electrum wallet) and trading fee charged by the platform (i.e. fiat equivalent + sending fee + trading fee = fiat received)? By strict privacy, the idea is to avoid any connection with fiat or fiat-related payment system - a clean separation between personal id and the blockchain.

In addition to what NotATether has said, I don't know the platform you intend to sell but the trading fee varies from exchange to exchange, while some are free for the first month, some are negligible and some are way expensive, here https://withdrawalfees.com/coins/bitcoin you can see the withdrawal fees charged by different exchanges, thus, make sure the one you have in mind doesn't request for KYC before you can initiate a withdrawal.
You should utilise an exchange that also has p2pwkh or bech32 address, this allows you to spend little amount on fees, it usually starts with bc1q........

[khaled0111]

By strict privacy, the idea is to avoid any connection with fiat or fiat-related payment system - a clean separation between personal id and the blockchain.

If you are going to exchange bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency directly to fiat, then I don't think you will be able to achieve complete anonymity even if you use a fully decentralized exchange.
It's true that you don't have to verify your identity when using a decentralized exchange such as Bisq or HodlHodl but you will need to either meet the buyer/seller in person or share your payment information (ie bank account) with him, hence, revealing your identity.
To mitigate this, you will have to use an intermediary payment method which doesn't require revealing your personal information (ie vouchers) then exchange those vouchers for fiat on the appropriate platform.

[Bitfellow]

If you are going to exchange bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency directly to fiat, then I don't think you will be able to achieve complete anonymity even if you use a fully decentralized exchange.
It's true that you don't have to verify your identity when using a decentralized exchange such as Bisq or HodlHodl but you will need to either meet the buyer/seller in person or share your payment information (ie bank account) with him, hence, revealing your identity.
To mitigate this, you will have to use an intermediary payment method which doesn't require revealing your personal information (ie vouchers) then exchange those vouchers for fiat on the appropriate platform.

Agreed. Even if payment were made from an escrow account, into a PayPal wallet, in a way that is disconnected from the original Bitcoin transanction,  there is still a real risk that the payment could somehow be tied to the transaction, including one's sending address - revealing one's identify.

So, it all boils down to method of payment, which makes inperson worth focusing on, but keeping in mind the risk mitigation measures.

Regarding voucher and other intermediary routes, it is back to square one, involving a potential loss of value in the original asking price, in order to make an attractive offer for a quick sale.