Topic: Completely new to Bitcoin just downloaded Electrum, help set it up properly plz. - page 3. (Read 855 times)

Regarding safety overall, yes. That's correct.

But as bones261 already pointed out, in a targeted attack it doesn't matter which OS you are using.

Since 98%+ of all malware is written for windows, using MAC / linux is definitely a safer option. Especially when storing BTC on your computer.


Note, that running linux in a virtual machine won't protect you at all.
If you host (your win7) is compromised, your guest (VM) will be too. Just not vice versa .




Hardware wallets do not only store your private keys encrypted.
They have a secure element built in, which does not leak the private keys under any circumstances.

The secure element itself is responsible for signing transactions upon approving them on their built-in screen.
The private keys are basically always cut off from the internet or from an internet-connected device, which is not the case with your computer.

Encryption is only one (small) aspect which makes a hardware wallet secure.




Where electrum is installed doesn't matter.
It matters where your wallet file is stored.

You can easily install electrum directly on your main drive, but store the wallet file on your encrypted hard drive.


But generally, yes if your wallet file is stored on a drive which is connected to your computer all the time, it is less secure than a non-mounted and/or encrypted hard drive.

However, once your computer is compromised (e.g. with a malware which waits for you to open electrum), it doesn't matter where your file is stored if you open it anyway at some time.




You CAN use it wherever you want.
Make sure to have a backup of your 12 word mnemonic code, and you are fine.




Feel free to ask as many questions as you want. A lot of us will be happy to help you out where we can.

  A 15 word seed is more secure than a 12 word seed. However, the probability that someone will be able to brute force your 12 word seed is very small.

  Blockchain.com stores the private keys on your device. Therefore, it is only as secure as your device.

  One of the main reasons that Windows is less secure is because it has the most users and hackers want to program their malware to reach the widest audience possible as easy as possible. Don't be fooled. If a situation arises where hackers suspect that many Bitcoin users are using Linux, they will come up with malware that works on Linux to steal your Bitcoins.

 Both the Ledger and Trezor have measures to ensure that the private keys never leaves the device and gets exposed to a hacker. I believe that your 2TB Hard-Drive may end up loading your private keys into the memory of the device, before signing. You could connect your 2tB Hard drive to an air-gapped computer to create a signed transaction. Then use an internet connected machine to broadcast the transaction.

Yes. But once you have it interact with a compromised computer, anything loaded into the compromised computer's memory can also be considered compromised.


As long as you have your seed words, you can restore your Electrum wallet on any device that you choose. You may want to ensure that the wallet is indeed restored, before purging it entirely from your computer.

if you are talking about "extending" your seed with additional 3 words then it is there to give you the opportunity to have 1 seed (the 12 words) but derive a different set of keys by having a "password" on top of it. they usually refer to it as plausible deniability. i personally don't know why it would be used though.

they changed their name from blockchain.info to blockchain.com and it is a web wallet.
if you are worried then do it with a small amount to test things out, then spend that amount from your Electrum wallet too to be sure.
to test your Electrum setup you can also use TestNet mode. although you need to be extra careful in the future not to mix things up (like confusing the TestNet seed with your main wallet seed).
for example you can create a TestNet wallet, claim free (worthless) TestNet coins which are exactly like bitcoin from a faucet, receive this amount in your wallet then spend it (send back to the faucet) to see how things work.

use cold storage if you want to be safe. Mac, Linux,... aren't giving you the safety you require.
this may answer your follow up questions too, using a portable hard disk.
disconnect your network physically, plug in the disk, install a fresh OS (Linux would work best here). change its setting so that it never connects to the internet. add necessary encryption (setting login password, user file encryption, disabling guest login,...) install Electrum (that you downloaded and verified before) add a strong password to that too. now this is your cold storage. never connect it to internet ever.
read more on how to send coins: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/coldstorage.html

So I have Installed Electrum and I made my 12 Word Seed Code but I think i want to go back and make a 15 Word Seed Key but I don't even know if that's necessary like why is it an option is just for extra security for people who do like large investments/hold large amounts of Bitcoins.


  Now I am worried I am going to screw up Sending the Bitcoins from my Blockchain Wallet which I know it's not technically a wallet and I forget whatever the exact name is for what it's called but does it matter if I Call it A Blockchain.com Wallet or Blockchain.com's something that is the place they "put your Bitcoins in which is where everyone's Bitcoins are who uses Blockchain.com I'm assuming and using this an example and hence prone to Hackers taking my Money including everyone else's Money that Created an Account.


  I want to make it clear I never ever needed an Electrum Desktop Bitcoin Wallet which I am using Windows 7 and I am told that it's the worse O.S. to use and Mac second safest and Linux being safest. I have a Oracle VirtualBox VM and if you Google about it basically it's a program that let's you run it and if your running Windows 7 like I am and I want to use the Open Observator Network Interface which is only supported on Mac Computers it referred Me to using this program.


  Is the difference between using a Nano Ledger S U.S.B. Wallet Vs. just my regular WD Passport Portable 2TB U.S.B. Hard-Drive which has a Password for Encryption and that's it is the Encryption Capability of those U.S.B. devices and the Trezor Bitcoin U.S.B. Wallet etc.


  Now regardless of the answer to the question above is Downloading Electrum on my Password Protected WD Passport U.S.B. Hard-Drive more secure than just leaving Bitcoin on my Desktop Electrum Wallet which will be Online 24/7 as I leave my Computer Online to Upload Torrents for my Tracker to give back to the Downloading Community Tracker I am part of.


  If I Send Bitcoins to my Wallet it does not exactly seem as Easy to use as Advertised as I got my Bitcoin Address I can find it for the Bitcoin to be Sent to my specific Wallet now I am wondering if I simply use Add And Remove Programs to uninstall Electrum and Re-Install on my WD Passport U.S.B. Password Protected Hard-Drive which I won't loose and unlike the Hard Drive for my Computer it is less likely to stop working as it is not constantly being used 24/7 which is another reason why I am not asking whether I can even Download and USE ELECTRUM ON THIS Portable 2TB U.S.B. Hard-Drive or if I can only use it on my Desktop Windows 7 Computer which is constantly online.


  I got more questions but I thought I'd start with these.