Automatic sending of payment to specific address

[AbuBhakar]

Do automatic transfer for funds is possible on Electrum? Example, I want to send specific amount of BTC to an address every week/month in regular basis without the need to open my electrum wallet.

I'm planning to commit funds on a foundation using my signature campaign earnings every week. Is this possible on Electrum? If not, what wallet do you recommend doing this kind of transaction?

Your help will be appreciated. Thanks

[1714221987]

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[1714221987]

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[1714221987]

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[1714221987]

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[mocacinno]

You can actually run electrum as a daemon and run a systemd timer or a cronjob to automate weekly payments.

Here's some more info in case you're interested: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cmdline.html#how-to-use-the-daemon

Once the daemon is started, you can even use the json rpc api, this reply basically tells you how you can do this: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/2400#issuecomment-676127361

Do keep an eye on your opsec tough... I would not recommend loading a wallet on a publicly accesible server while being funded with more than pocket change.

[OmegaStarScream]

If you have the technical knowledge for it, you could also maybe use this library[1] to load your private keys and send funds. You just need to check the wallet balance periodically or maybe use an API similar to this[2] to be notified as soon as the address receives a new transaction.

[1] https://github.com/ofek/bit
[2] https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/api/api_websocket

[Yamane_Keto]

Do automatic transfer for funds is possible on Electrum? Example, I want to send specific amount of BTC to an address every week/month in regular basis without the need to open my electrum wallet.

Yes, it is possible that you can automate it, but you need to write a script that checks every day, minute, hour, or week, when the balance is more than a certain amount, then something like

Code:

electrum payto <address> <amount>

But I do not advise you to do that, as the script will need to be connected to the Internet, and therefore the wallet will be hot.

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/tree/d3f65e24e143121e6209547d49463171af01b1a0/electrum/scripts

[nc50lc]

Example, I want to send specific amount of BTC to an address every week/month in regular basis without the need to open my electrum wallet.
-snip-
Is this possible on Electrum? If not, what wallet do you recommend doing this kind of transaction?

That is only possible with a custodial service;
Because even though those suggested automated process in the previous replies works, it still requires your Electrum wallet to be open in the background.
The wallet requires your private keys to perform the automatic send process.

If you want to go for it, you'll need a PC/VPS that'll run the script and Electrum daemon;
if you're going to leave it for months to do its job, the machine needs to be operating 24/7.

As for custodial service that automates send, I don't know any and wont recommend any.

[Yamane_Keto]

As for custodial service that automates send, I don't know any and wont recommend any.

I found some services, but they are closed source and custodial, they have free plans for about 1000 TX and good plans for commercial accounts but I don't think it is a good idea.

If there is a campaign manager and is sure that the members are creating high-quality posts, then writing code as well would be fun, or at least on the Lightning Network if the payment was for each individual post.

I'm planning to commit funds on a foundation using my signature campaign earnings every week. Is this possible on Electrum? If not, what wallet do you recommend doing this kind of transaction?

After reading your topic again, why not ask the campaign manager to modify your address to the foundation address directly, he will not mind doing that for a week or two, and you can ask him to send, for example, 50% of the balance and keep the rest for you.

[NeuroticFish]

After reading your topic again, why not ask the campaign manager to modify your address to the foundation address directly, he will not mind doing that for a week or two, and you can ask him to send, for example, 50% of the balance and keep the rest for you.

Some managers may need a signed message, usually from the "old address" and if that's not under OP control may be strange (when trying to come back to payments to his own wallet).
But OP can state from start that it's a temporary donation and OP can also properly stake one of his addresses to the correct thread if he didn't do so yet and then this is no longer an issue.
And then yes, this would be the easiest approach, by far.

[arabspaceship123]

If it's charity it's generous you're using sig campaign earnings to commit funds. Isn't it convenient if the sig campaign manager made payments directly to the foundation? If he did it for you it'll save trying to find ways automating payments by yourself.

Do automatic transfer for funds is possible on Electrum? Example, I want to send specific amount of BTC to an address every week/month in regular basis without the need to open my electrum wallet.

I'm planning to commit funds on a foundation using my signature campaign earnings every week. Is this possible on Electrum? If not, what wallet do you recommend doing this kind of transaction?

Your help will be appreciated. Thanks

[pooya87]

Do keep an eye on your opsec tough... I would not recommend loading a wallet on a publicly accesible server while being funded with more than pocket change.

That's right but also "automatic payment" may mean fixed and predefined payments for example a fixed amount of bitcoin sent to a fixed address(es). In that case the transactions could be created by utilizing the transaction locktime and setting it to the date and time of the payment while each tx is in a chain meaning they each spend the output of the previous one.
This way each tx can not be broadcasted or mined before its time and the online system does not need to hold the key anymore.

[arabspaceship123]

If you're using Electrum daemon you can send funds using CLI without hosting a full node. It shouldn't be difficult sending funds using CLI automatically from cronjob. Why don't you ask your sig campaign manager to send funds to the foundation?

That is only possible with a custodial service;
Because even though those suggested automated process in the previous replies works, it still requires your Electrum wallet to be open in the background.
The wallet requires your private keys to perform the automatic send process.

If you want to go for it, you'll need a PC/VPS that'll run the script and Electrum daemon;
if you're going to leave it for months to do its job, the machine needs to be operating 24/7.

As for custodial service that automates send, I don't know any and wont recommend any.

[nc50lc]

If you're using Electrum daemon you can send funds using CLI without hosting a full node. It shouldn't be difficult sending funds using CLI automatically from cronjob. Why don't you ask your sig campaign manager to send funds to the foundation?

-snip-

I don't know why I'm quoted in your reply...
But think you misunderstand the post since it has nothing to do with hosting a full node.

My post is pointing that the suggestions to automatically use wallet-related commands still requires his wallet to be open.

[FatFork]

<cut>
My post is pointing that the suggestions to automatically use wallet-related commands still requires his wallet to be open.

Well, that depends on how we define a program as "open." In the first reply in this thread, mocacinno already mentioned that Electrum software can be run as a daemon, which means it runs as a background process. In this setup, you have access to all its CLI commands, and you can easily create scripts to perform specific actions at specified times.

[AbuBhakar]

If you're using Electrum daemon you can send funds using CLI without hosting a full node. It shouldn't be difficult sending funds using CLI automatically from cronjob. Why don't you ask your sig campaign manager to send funds to the foundation?

I will only send part of my signature campaign earnings to foundation and I don’t want to cause trouble for my campaign manager to do this kind of task because he is very busy. Actually, This is just me being lazy on doing repetitive task every week.

You can actually run electrum as a daemon and run a systemd timer or a cronjob to automate weekly payments.

Here's some more info in case you're interested: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cmdline.html#how-to-use-the-daemon

Once the daemon is started, you can even use the json rpc api, this reply basically tells you how you can do this: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/2400#issuecomment-676127361

Do keep an eye on your opsec tough... I would not recommend loading a wallet on a publicly accesible server while being funded with more than pocket change.

I really appreciate this reply, I get the idea but sadly I don't have enough programming skills to write a code for myself even though I understand the guide. I'm afraid that I might messed it up. Is there a video tutorial available for an easy guide to create this? Thank you 🙏

[arabspaceship123]

If you're using Electrum daemon you can send funds using CLI without hosting a full node. It shouldn't be difficult sending funds using CLI automatically from cronjob. Why don't you ask your sig campaign manager to send funds to the foundation?

I will only send part of my signature campaign earnings to foundation and I don’t want to cause trouble for my campaign manager to do this kind of task because he is very busy. Actually, This is just me being lazy on doing repetitive task every week.

I've understood you're sending part of your earnings it's generous you'll give to the foundation. Every sig campaign manager's busy so you won't know if they'll help you until you've asked.

You can actually run electrum as a daemon and run a systemd timer or a cronjob to automate weekly payments.

Here's some more info in case you're interested: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cmdline.html#how-to-use-the-daemon

Once the daemon is started, you can even use the json rpc api, this reply basically tells you how you can do this: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/2400#issuecomment-676127361

Do keep an eye on your opsec tough... I would not recommend loading a wallet on a publicly accesible server while being funded with more than pocket change.

I really appreciate this reply, I get the idea but sadly I don't have enough programming skills to write a code for myself even though I understand the guide. I'm afraid that I might messed it up. Is there a video tutorial available for an easy guide to create this? Thank you 🙏

If you don't have programming skills videos won't help because you'll need some knowledge in what you're doing so you shouldn't try it. Ask the sig campaign manager or make payments yourself when you've been paid.

[nc50lc]

<cut>
My post is pointing that the suggestions to automatically use wallet-related commands still requires his wallet to be open.

Well, that depends on how we define a program as "open." In the first reply in this thread, mocacinno already mentioned that Electrum software can be run as a daemon, which means it runs as a background process. In this setup, you have access to all its CLI commands, and you can easily create scripts to perform specific actions at specified times.

And I already explained that in my first reply in this thread.
It was necessary to explain to OP what are the circumstances on going for that method since it's not just as simple as getting a script.

[mocacinno]

@OP: if you're afraid to mess things up, it might be a good idear to look into the testnet (the usecase of setting up things like this is one of the reasons for it's existence).
It's pretty trivial to run electrum on the testnet... It's just a flag. You use the same binary, the same commands, you're just using worthless tBTC to test out your setup.

In case you're interested: before i shut down my server, i used to run a testnet faucet, i don't mind giving people a couple millisat of tBTC to do stuff like this. Yesterday was my last day @the office before going on vacation tough, so i won't be able to send you anything for a while (~2 weeks)

[Cricktor]

I highly recommend to do any testing on Testnet, too. To obtain tBTC the following faucet is in my opinion one of the best: https://testnet.coinfaucet.eu

I have no idea though how to implement automated secure signing of transactions with Electrum without exposing the wallet encryption password in some scripts.