Sparrow vs Electrum for desktop

[DaveF]

The reason I've seen given on their GitHub for this is to discourage address reuse. I can appreciate that, but conversely I occasionally have the need to import a single private key and I won't reuse the address, such as sweeping paper wallets. It would be nice to have this feature even if it was hidden behind "Advanced Options" or similar.

Agreed. It's their world so to speak and we are just living in it, but there are a lot of reasons to want to import a single key.
OTOH, there are enough other ways to do it that it does not matter that much.

Makes you wonder if there really is a 'perfect' wallet out there for power users. Or all of us here going to be running multiple ones.

The 'normal' users probably don't care and the rest of us run all of them to get all the features we need / want.

-Dave

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[DireWolfM14]

The reason I've seen given on their GitHub for this is to discourage address reuse. I can appreciate that, but conversely I occasionally have the need to import a single private key and I won't reuse the address, such as sweeping paper wallets. It would be nice to have this feature even if it was hidden behind "Advanced Options" or similar.

Agreed. It's their world so to speak and we are just living in it, but there are a lot of reasons to want to import a single key.
OTOH, there are enough other ways to do it that it does not matter that much.

Makes you wonder if there really is a 'perfect' wallet out there for power users. Or all of us here going to be running multiple ones.

The 'normal' users probably don't care and the rest of us run all of them to get all the features we need / want.

-Dave

There are indeed plenty of use-cases where one would want to import a single key, but like you said, there are other wallets to use for that.  In fact, since it really does make a lot of sense to have your own node running for private use of Sparrow, one could use core to import single keys when the need arises.

As for a perfect wallet for power users, Electrum was that wallet in the past, and it'll likely be again once the developers implement Taproot.  At this point, that's really the only significant feature where Sparrow has a leg-up on Electrum.

[o_e_l_e_o]

In fact, since it really does make a lot of sense to have your own node running for private use of Sparrow, one could use core to import single keys when the need arises.

If I'm importing single private keys, then I am pretty much exclusively doing it on an offline machine to sign a transaction created from a watch only wallet. The wallet on my airgapped machine will never connect to my node. It's simply easier to use a light wallet such as Electrum (or Sparrow, if it had this function) on your airgapped machine than it is to use Core.

At this point, that's really the only significant feature where Sparrow has a leg-up on Electrum.

I would say the built in coinjoin, stonewall, and stowaway transaction functionality is a significant feature that Electrum does not have, if this kind of thing interests you.

[satscraper]

Under the hood of "Tools" Sparrow offers "Sweep Private Key"  which is much better option  than just  importing as it sends all funds controlled by that prv-key to new address from Sparrow's set. Sure, sweeping requires bitcoin transaction to be made, so Sparrow must be connected to do the action.

BTW, 1.7.7. version has been released 2 days ago.

[Cricktor]

I mainly use Electrum and Bitcoin Core for special purposes, pointing Electrum to my own Electrum server. I tested Sparrow and find it a very interesting wallet contender. It has features that set it apart from Electrum and some of them I find interesting and nice to have.

As Sparrow is rather new and I'm a bit conservative with wallets I monitor it closely and play around with it to see how it evolves. I can't judge it yet as it isn't as time-proven as Electrum is.

[logfiles]

I just downloaded Sparrow wallet, and I am quite impressed with it. Nice UI and a number of options and functionalities to play around with. I haven't explored a lot of its features, but will probably do in the coming days.
I liked the fact that they supported the taproot script type, which is still missing with electrum.

Electrum is really so cool, but sparrow going to be one of those wallets would be an excellent alternative over time.

[DireWolfM14]

Under the hood of "Tools" Sparrow offers "Sweep Private Key"  which is much better option  than just  importing as it sends all funds controlled by that prv-key to new address from Sparrow's set. Sure, sweeping requires bitcoin transaction to be made, so Sparrow must be connected to do the action.

Yeah, I know it's there, but there are still use-cases for importing single addresses.  For example; an old legacy or nested segwit HD wallet with one or two specific addresses that you want to monitor, but you don't need the whole list of addresses that wallet generated, and you don't have multiple hardware wallets to dedicate to each of those seeds.  

I've used a ton of different types of addresses for various services here on the forum (lending, escrow, signatures...) that I want available in one wallet that's convenient to access.  I've imported most of those into a single wallet on an airgapped machine, and have the public addresses in a watch only wallet on my main computer.  Otherwise I would have to restore the seed for each of those if a magic transaction appears or I want to sign a message from one of those addresses.  All of those seeds are archived, and by design, inconvenient to pull out of the archives.

Privacy isn't an issue in the scenario above, so there's no reason to not import those addresses into one wallet.  I don't intend on reusing them, but they are already out there and it doesn't hurt to to have convenient access to them.

Electrum is really so cool, but sparrow going to be one of those wallets would be an excellent alternative over time.

I see it as the other way around.  I was in the habit of recommending Electrum to anyone who's starting their bitcoin journey, but recently I've been recommending Sparrow to newbies.  It's more user friendly, and has default features geared to keep new users' information private.  As people become more sophisticated and aware of how to use bitcoin privately, Electrum offers it's users a bit more control.   When coupled with a self-hosted SPV server, Electrum's privacy features are second to none.

[o_e_l_e_o]

When coupled with a self-hosted SPV server, Electrum's privacy features are second to none.

I'd contest that. Sparrow is even easier to use privately than Electrum is. There is no need to run additional server software for an Electrum server and go through the hassle of getting your server to talk to your node and your Electrum client to talk to your server, which from experience is rarely a completely straightforward task and usually throws up one or two issues. These issues are maybe easily solved for you or I, but for a newbie with no experience of such things they can completely derail the process and cause them to abandon it altogether.

With Sparrow, on the other hand, it's a simple as adding server=1 to your bitcoin.conf and then clicking the "Bitcoin Core" button in Sparrow. I was amazed the first time I used it at just how easy it was to set up.

[apogio]

With Sparrow, on the other hand, it's a simple as adding server=1 to your bitcoin.conf and then clicking the "Bitcoin Core" button in Sparrow. I was amazed the first time I used it at just how easy it was to set up.

Yes, Sparrow can be connected to bitcoin core in 3 clicks literally. I haven't been able to connect it over tor though. I think electrum is more table over tor, at least in my experience.

[DireWolfM14]

When coupled with a self-hosted SPV server, Electrum's privacy features are second to none.

I'd contest that. Sparrow is even easier to use privately than Electrum is.

From an ease-of-use perspective, I totally agree.  Running a full node, an Electrum server, and a block explorer requires some strong computer-fu, not to mention a significant investment in time and computer resources.  Also, I didn't mean to imply that Sparrow is less private, just that Electrum can be used in ways that achieve at least an equal level of privacy.

Having an understanding of how to use a wallet with privacy in mind is a prerequisite for private use of Electrum, but Sparrow forces those methods onto it's users.  That's not a bad thing for new users (or experienced users 99% of the time,) but there might be a situation where a user wants more control.  In my opinion control vs. ease of use is a worthy exchange, despite the extra time, skill, and resources required.

[bettercrypto]

When it comes to features between the two, as far as I know, the features of sparrow wallet are better than Electrum, although they are both popular and good to use. And both also have a large number of users to be honest.

And some of those supported by sparrow are Paynyms, which is looking for the best payment for your transaction. Apart from this it also has built-in tor support. These are just a few that sparrow has more advantage in electrum.

source : https://sparrowwallet.com/

[o_e_l_e_o]

That's not a bad thing for new users (or experienced users 99% of the time,) but there might be a situation where a user wants more control.  In my opinion control vs. ease of use is a worthy exchange, despite the extra time, skill, and resources required.

I don't disagree, and as I've said above there are still advanced features Sparrow doesn't offer that I use Electrum for (such as importing individual keys/addresses). But if you want to use Sparrow while connecting to a public server (as is the default in Electrum), again it is only three clicks (File -> Preferences -> Public Server). If you are a newbie looking to use a wallet privately, then Sparrow beats Electrum in terms of ease of use for not having to set up a server and just connecting directly to Core. I also can't think of any features that newbies would be interested in that Electrum has and Sparrow does not.

[DireWolfM14]

And some of those supported by sparrow are Paynyms, which is looking for the best payment for your transaction. Apart from this it also has built-in tor support. These are just a few that sparrow has more advantage in electrum.

Electrum also has built-in Tor support.

Sparrow does have an advantage for new users in this regard.  Electrum needs a tor node running in the background to connect through tor, it doesn't have a built-in process to create one.  If the tor option is selected in Sparrow, it'll look for a background tor node but if it doesn't find one it'll start it's own, similar to how Bisq and Tor Browser work.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I know it use BIP 157/158 under the hood through getblockfilter RPC, but how good is the performance to retrieve relevant TX?

I've only ever paired Sparrow with a node running on the same device, but in this set up anything I've done on Sparrow has been pretty much instant. The only downside is of course if you import a wallet with historical transactions in to Sparrow then you have to rescan, just as if you imported a wallet with historical transactions in to Core. This is obviously not the case if you were running a full Electrum server, but of course Sparrow can connect to those too.

[ABCbits]

And some of those supported by sparrow are Paynyms, which is looking for the best payment for your transaction. Apart from this it also has built-in tor support. These are just a few that sparrow has more advantage in electrum.

Electrum also has built-in Tor support.

Sparrow does have an advantage for new users in this regard.  Electrum needs a tor node running in the background to connect through tor, it doesn't have a built-in process to create one.  If the tor option is selected in Sparrow, it'll look for a background tor node but if it doesn't find one it'll start it's own, similar to how Bisq and Tor Browser work.

That's true, thanks for the reminder. I forget such feature is exist since my system already have Tor service running. Although it seems it only use it's own Tor when you attempt connect to .onion server[1].

I know it use BIP 157/158 under the hood through getblockfilter RPC, but how good is the performance to retrieve relevant TX?

I've only ever paired Sparrow with a node running on the same device, but in this set up anything I've done on Sparrow has been pretty much instant. The only downside is of course if you import a wallet with historical transactions in to Sparrow then you have to rescan, just as if you imported a wallet with historical transactions in to Core. This is obviously not the case if you were running a full Electrum server, but of course Sparrow can connect to those too.

I see. But since you mention rescan, i just checked Sparrow source code and it looks like they create new wallet[2] rather than using getblockfilter RPC.

[1] https://sparrowwallet.com/docs/faq.html#how-does-the-proxy-support-work
[2] https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/blob/1.7.7/src/main/java/com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/net/cormorant/bitcoind/BitcoindClientService.java

[bettercrypto]

When it comes to features between the two, as far as I know, the features of sparrow wallet are better than Electrum, although they are both popular and good to use. And both also have a large number of users to be honest.

Could you explain why both have large users? AFAIK Electrum is more popular and has more user.

In my personal knowledge, They are both easy to use, they are also well-respected wallets when it comes to the number of features they have, especially in terms of security, which I think is what we users are always looking for, because we will put Bitcoin in it.

In addition to this, they also give us control over our so-called privacy, which is of course the most important thing to us. And maybe or maybe Electrum is better for others, but for others it's sparrow gaining more, meaning it depends on us which of the two is better.

[witcher_sense]

Sparrow doesn't offer that I use Electrum for (such as importing individual keys/addresses).

I thought single address wallets was a thing of the past, I see no reason for modern software to support this outdated technology since it directly affects the quality of wallet back ups as well as security of funds. As for Sparrow Wallet, it has an option of sweeping a single WIF private key into existing HD wallet:

Sparrow supports both xprv and WIF formats. The former represents a BIP32 wallet, containing a chaincode, and the latter a single address wallet. Sparrow can import an xprv as an HD wallet, and can sweep the funds in a WIF to any existing HD wallet. Single address wallets are not supported, and despite the label your WIF key does not represent an 'hdseed'.

And maybe or maybe Electrum is better for others, but for others it's sparrow gaining more, meaning it depends on us which of the two is better.

These wallets can complement each other in certain circumstances, and they are definitely better and more secure than, for example, Atomic Wallet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I thought single address wallets was a thing of the past

Even so, they still exist. I still have a bunch of paper wallets which use single private keys which are many years old. I'm not going to move the coins from their perfectly safe location if I don't need to, so I still need software which supports importing raw private keys. I also need more than a simple sweep function since I usually want to direct the coins form such paper wallets to more than one location, which may or may not be addresses I control.

[satscraper]

I thought single address wallets was a thing of the past

Even so, they still exist. I still have a bunch of paper wallets which use single private keys which are many years old. I'm not going to move the coins from their perfectly safe location if I don't need to, so I still need software which supports importing raw private keys. I also need more than a simple sweep function since I usually want to direct the coins form such paper wallets to more than one location, which may or may not be addresses I control.

Then, coinb.in is right for you as it fits  both your  needs  and your qualification. It’s crucial to remember that  this software is better to run i on cold computer ( I recollect that you said somewhere that you have such one) and  create relevant  transaction being offline.    

[o_e_l_e_o]

Then, coinb.in is right for you as it fits  both your your needs  and qualification. It’s crucial to remember that  this software is better to run i on cold computer ( I recollect that you said somewhere that you have such one) and  create relevant  transaction being offline.

I have no need to use coinb.in - I use an airgapped Electrum wallet for importing such raw private keys.