A noobie question about secret words

[Possu81]

Hi

Wallet has worked well. However I'm a noobie with this stuff. If I buy another computer and download Electrum software there do I need to use recover words? They are behind username and password currently but I'm not sure are they bound to physical device somehow and what point do I need to use recover words. I understood coins are being held on Electrum servers.

Thanks

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[Orpichukwu]

One thing that's most important is your Phrase. If your Phrase is kept safe, you can use it to move your Wallet to the next Computer. And if it's password protected, I guess the Phrase can go a long way in recovering or changing that. Passphrase is what I know is very important and moves and works together with the Wallet Phrase in the other for you to have complete access to the Wallet. You need both. 

[Hatchy]

Hi

Wallet has worked well. However I'm a noobie with this stuff. If I buy another computer and download Electrum software there do I need to use recover words?

Yes mate. You need your 12 recovery phrase or rather seed phrase so that you can importyour wallet to a new device.for instance, When you install Electrum on a new computer, you'll need to use your recovery words to access your wallet. The recovery phrase are like a master key that allows you to restore your wallet on any device.  It's usually adviced to backup this recovery phrase when ever you create a new wallet, writing them out and storing in a safe place.

They are behind username and password currently but I'm not sure are they bound to physical device somehow and what point do I need to use recover words. I understood coins are being held on Electrum servers.
Thanks

Your wallet doesn't hodl your coins, neither are they stored on the Electrum servers; instead, they exist on the blockchain. The wallet merely manages your access to them, giving you a display of how much total funds are allocated to your wallet address on the Blockchain.

[Charles-Tim]

I understood coins are being held on Electrum servers

Bitcoin is stored on the blockchain, not on Electrum server.

Orpichukwu is right, what that is most important is your seed phrase. If you have your seed phrase, you have your coins. If you use seed phrase and passphrase to generate your keys, you will also need the passphrase with the seed phrase to recover your coins.

You need your 12 recovery phrase or rather seed phrase...

It is worth knowing that seed phrase can be 12, 15, 18, 21 or 24 words.

[bitmover]

Hi

Wallet has worked well. However I'm a noobie with this stuff. If I buy another computer and download Electrum software there do I need to use recover words? They are behind username and password currently but I'm not sure are they bound to physical device somehow and what point do I need to use recover words. I understood coins are being held on Electrum servers.

Thanks

Electrum is just an interface to interact with the blockchain using your private keys (your seed phrase)

Your seed phrase is thee only thing that you need to generate addresses and spend funds. Never write it online , never share it with anyone. Note down in a paper and use it only for backup purposes.

Your seed can spend your coins in other software as well, not just electrum.

If you want to go deeper , you can play here with generated seeds to how it works
https://iancoleman.io/bip39/

Never put your seed there or in any other website.

[TheUltraElite]

Wallet has worked well. However I'm a noobie with this stuff. If I buy another computer and download Electrum software there do I need to use recover words?

Use the link @bitmover posted, bookmark it if necessary. Remember that to recover the wallet you need your seed phrase.

They are behind username and password currently but I'm not sure are they bound to physical device somehow and what point do I need to use recover words.

I dont know if there is a username involved, but there is a wallet naming and a password to encrypt the wallet. These are only required to access the wallet on the device where it already loaded up. You will not need them on a new device where you want to load up your wallet again. There you will need the seed phrase once again and after that you can encrypt that wallet with a different password.

I understood coins are being held on Electrum servers.

This is wrong. Coins are never stored in servers. The coins are accessible by your private key, electrum is only the "window" to access the blockchain.

[tranthidung]

I dont know if there is a username involved, but there is a wallet naming and a password to encrypt the wallet. These are only required to access the wallet on the device where it already loaded up. You will not need them on a new device where you want to load up your wallet again. There you will need the seed phrase once again and after that you can encrypt that wallet with a different password.

The user perhaps implied about the name of his wallet file.

I did not see people mention about another backup method, the wallet file.

Ideally, the wallet seed phrase must be backed up first because with it, a wallet owner can recover the wallet anytime, on any new device.

Secondly, he can use the wallet file as a backup but it is a digital file and will need a password to access the file and private keys in that wallet. So if he has a wallet file backup, he will need a wallet password.

With a wallet seed phrase, when recover the wallet, he can set up a new wallet file name and a new wallet file password. Wallet seed phrase is most important for backkup.

[BlackHatCoiner]

They are behind username and password currently

What kind of username and password? Your seed phrase should not be "behind" anything. As for your wallet file, it is advised to keep it encrypted in your PC if you decide to not use a cold storage. When choosing a wallet password from Electrum, that's what it does, it encrypts it.

I understood coins are being held on Electrum servers.

Okay, pay attention. If you're not familiar with how Bitcoin operates, take some time to study before diving into buying, selling, or doing any other transactions with your coins. Electrum servers don't "deliver" bitcoins. What Electrum provides you with is information about the number of coins you own, sourced directly from the "blockchain" as contributed by others in this discussion. Essentially, this information originates from the Bitcoin network, which is secured by nodes distributed worldwide.

[electronicash]

seed phrase is what is important as you can import to some other wallets if in case you want your wallet to also be accessible in another device with other wallets. seed is what you use to import it to another computer, let's say you also installed electrum on another computer. you can even have a different password on another device but the seed will always be the same. keep it safe so that no one sees it.

[joniboini]

They are behind username and password currently but I'm not sure are they bound to physical device somehow and what point do I need to use recover words.

What kind of username and password are you referring to? Maybe you can share how you created this wallet first so that people don't misunderstand it. Electrum doesn't need a username to create a wallet. Did you create it on a custodial wallet or another software? If that is the case, depending on how you create it, you might need to sweep to a new wallet if you care about security.

[pooya87]

There are a couple of concepts you should not confuse with each other:
1. Mnemonic or seed phrase
this is the only thing you need to recover your keys and regain access to your coins on any device at any time.

2. Passphrase (extension words)
There is an option to "extend" the mnemonic the wallet produced for you at the start with some extra words known as the passphrase. It is optional to use this but if you do then you will need to have that too when recovering your keys later.

3. Password (encrypting wallet file)
This is only needed if you want to recover the "file" itself because it is encrypted and if you have the digital backup and want to use it on another device you have to also enter the password you used to encrypt it.

[NotATether]

Nobody really transfers a wallet file from one computer to another, they just use the seed phrase (what recovers the crypto to the new wallet file).

Although you don't *need* the seed phrase if your wallet file doesn't have a password, although it is strongly recommended to set a password for your wallet, that is very complex.

[hd49728]

Nobody really transfers a wallet file from one computer to another, they just use the seed phrase (what recovers the crypto to the new wallet file).

Although you don't *need* the seed phrase if your wallet file doesn't have a password, although it is strongly recommended to set a password for your wallet, that is very complex.

If I am right, wallet softwares have default setting to force users to set up a wallet password. Users can disable it and make a wallet file that is not encrypted with password but it is very risky as you said.

A password must be strong to protect that wallet file from hackers or amateur people who want to steal bitcoin but are not professional enough to crack your wallet passwords.

Are your passwords in the green.