Electrum Testnet Seed same as Default Seed?

[Linuxpowers]

Back in 2021, I installed Electrum on my Windows 7 Desktop PC. During that time I spent some time trying to learn how to use it and how it works. One thing a did was use Electrum Testnet and went through the motions of transferring In and Out of Faucet.

Anyway, as time went by, I was running into the "Windows 7 is no longer being supported so upgrade to Windows 10" messages, mostly from the multiple browsers I installed to get around that problem. Eventually, I got a bit paranoid in that I was thinking my personal bank would not allow me to log in to do online banking for the very same reason. So, since I had several drives installed on my PC, I decided it was time to go ahead and use one of those drives to install the Linux OS. Needless to say, for the most part I'm glad I made the switch but, while transferring data into the Linux environment, I came across my Electrum Wallet.

While logged back in windows, I found I was so cold and rusty with the Electrum software, I had to take some time to familiarize myself with how far my earlier learning experience took me and how I was now going to integrate this into Linux. The first thing I did was, load up my Electrum "default_wallet". Uh-oh, can't remember or work out my password. I went back to my old bookmarks and loaded up "https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/" and studied up again. It appears I can "restore your wallet from its seed phrase and choose a new password."

Well, now I've spent a week or so going through all my notebooks laying around my desk and cannot for the life of me find where I wrote that seed phrase down. So, I went back to my PC and started playing around to see if I can get it to cough up either of the two, password or seed phrase. One thing I came across and is the main purpose for this post is, I was able to start Electrum Testnet and see everything I did while playing around with it back in 2021. I noticed down in the bottom right there are 4 icons, "Password, Preferences, Seed and Network". The Password Icon just gives me the option to Change Password. But, the Seed Icon tells me my "wallet generation seed is", and proceeds to list out a 12 word seed.

Now, this might be obvious to everyone but me but, is this seed being generated for the Testnet wallet only or is it also the same for my "default_wallet"?

In either case, I might be over-thinking this too much in that I'm thinking I can probably just install new software while in Linux and create a new wallet from there and just leave the one in Windows alone. Keep in mind, I never made any transactions with the default-wallet, only the Testnet wallet.

So, am I and can I?

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[Husna QA]

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Now, this might be obvious to everyone but me but, is this seed being generated for the Testnet wallet only or is it also the same for my "default_wallet"?

Electrum is one of the Hierarchical deterministic wallets (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet).
The seed phrase generated in Electrum is included for Mainnet and Testnet wallets.

Note that the default Seed Electrum generated does not use the BIP39 standard (https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/seedphrase.html). So, for the recovery process, use the Electrum wallet. I don't know if other wallets can recover Electrum's default seed phrase (one method that can still be used is with a private key address).

[mocacinno]

Just for extra clarification: a seed phrase generated whilst running electrum in testnet mode is also a valid seed phrase when you'd run your wallet on the main net... However, odds are big you didn't re-use the seed phrase for your testnet wallet when you generated a wallet on the main net (most people just generate a new seed phrase when they generate a new wallet).

Only when you wrote down the seed phrase when you generated a testnet wallet, and then used that same seed phrase when you switched to the main net, this seed phrase will give you access to your funds (and those odds are usually low).

Never mind, i re-read your post and just noticed you only transacted on the testnet... In that case, you could just generate a new wallet on the main net... You don't have to re-use your wallet, just generate a new one and make sure you write down the seed phrase when you do! Nobody is keeping track, you can have as many wallets as you want, and derive as many addresses as you want. There is no need to recreate a wallet if you're 100% sure you never used it.

[Zaguru12]

So, for the recovery process, use the Electrum wallet. I don't know if other wallets can recover Electrum's default seed phrase (one method that can still be used is with a private key address).

The only wallet I have read about that can actually accept electrum custom seed phrase is the BlueWallet, although I haven’t personally tried it. But even if there is no software for that it is pretty simple that should anything happen to electrum the code is open source and someone can build that up again.

Another thing is the electrum seed phrase and BIP39 seed phrase basically use same method to drive the BIP 32 seed which can be use to derive the master private key that can be imported to just any HD wallet to recover the wallet addresses

[BlackHatCoiner]

OP, when you generate a new wallet, Electrum makes sure to generate a completely different, random seed phrase. You should never reuse seed phrases, anywhere. Only when you want to recover a wallet you type it. I believe that's the answer to your concern.

So, for the recovery process, use the Electrum wallet. I don't know if other wallets can recover Electrum's default seed phrase (one method that can still be used is with a private key address).

Not sure if iancoleman is counted, but you can configure it to accept Electrum seed phrases, as demonstrated in this post.

[NotATether]

A seed phrase can be used, theoretically, to derive bitcoin addresses, testnet addresses, litecoin, doge, etc.

However, I do not know of any wallets that actually share the one seed across all of these coins, except for things like Atomic or Guarda wallet. Electrum: definitely not.

[nc50lc]

Now, this might be obvious to everyone but me but, is this seed being generated for the Testnet wallet only or is it also the same for my "default_wallet"?

Your seed phrase is specific to its associated wallet file: \electrum\wallets\<wallet name>
And not to your whole Electrum wallet.

• If you create another TestNet wallet in "File->New/Restore", it'll create a different new seed phrase if you select "Create a new seed".
• If you create a MainNet wallet, it will create a different seed if you also select "Create a new seed".
• If you create another MainNet wallet, it will create a different seed phrase unless you specifically select "I already have a seed" and paste your other seed phrase, testnet or mainnet.

So yeah, it's a little obvious if you knew that you can create multiple wallet files in Electrum given the self-explanatory options.
Otherwise, I can see where you're coming from.

[Cricktor]

As others have said already mnemonic recovery words are specific to a particular wallet and there's no direct relationship to the wallet being a Testnet or a Mainnet wallet. Unless you deliberately re-use existing mnemonic recovery words, Electrum would always generate unique ones for a newly created wallet where you specify that Electrum should generate the recovery words.

The standard location for Electrum wallets on Windows is:
Mainnet: %APPDATA%\Electrum\wallets ie. \Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum\wallets
Testnet:  %APPDATA%\Electrum\testnet\wallets ie. \Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum\testnet\wallets

[Linuxpowers]

Well thanks to all for your responses.

So I went ahead and logged back into Linux, downloaded the AppImage/AppImage.asc files, verified them and then ran the AppImage program... tricky! I didn't create a wallet yet but when I get some more time to play around on my PC, I'll set one up as though I've never set one up before. And yes, I'm sure I will not go back to the windows partition/installation and try to create another wallet again.

Then, after I get my new wallet set up, in Linux, I might try to see, from what was suggested, if I can create another wallet using the seed phrase I found in the TestNet wallet in Windows. I'll post the results when this takes place!

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to respond to my question, I appreciate it much.