This is a beginner's guide into creating
Bitcoin P2SH SegWit Wallet by using
Electrum.
I don't even know if this is the right board for this guide, but I'm going to give it a try.
Before joining this forum, I didn't know I could use SegWit addresses or how to create them, but it turned out all I needed was my current Electrum wallet (version 3.0.5) and a little bit of tweaking.
I'm doing this step-by-step guide on my Windows computer, which is probably
not the best operating system to keep your wallet on in terms of security.
Many beginners do use Windows, so this guide might actually be beneficial to them. However, you should definitely switch to a
more secure OS, for example, to a linux distribution. I have no idea, though, if this would work on a
linux Electrum wallet.
This guide is based on
this bitcoinelectrum.com post.
I've added some steps and screenshots for easier navigation.
Here it goes:
1. Open Electrum and click on
"File --> New/Restore"":
https://imgur.com/hovUXzG2. Give it a descriptive name and click
"Next":
https://imgur.com/TbFgwyq3. Choose
"Standard Wallet":
https://imgur.com/fAduOkt4. Select
"Create a new seed":
https://imgur.com/4WULP9e5. Now it will ask if you want a Standard or Segwit wallet.
The way I understand it, you should choose
"Standard". This might be puzzling, because after all you want a Segwit address. But if you chose
"Segwit" here, you would end up using the so-called "full-SegWit" bech32 implementation, which is not yet supported by many important parties. Therefore, here you want to create a more compatible
BIP49 implementation, a so called P2Sh address.
So, choose "Standard":
https://imgur.com/2P8C8sC6.
Save your wallet generation seed on paper (and/or memorize it if you can!?).
7. At this point, once you have your seed, stop with the wallet creation procedure,
close Electrum and open it again.
8. Start Electrum again. Repeat steps 1-3.
9. Instead of choosing
"New seed", now choose
"I already have a seed":
https://imgur.com/O3Qz4F810. Click on
"Options":
https://imgur.com/mASaFVU11. Check
"BIP 39 seed":
https://imgur.com/96LaFz912. Notice how it says
"BIP 39 (checksum: failed)". Never mind that, continue despite the warning:
https://imgur.com/ivxQG4013. Enter the seed you recorded earlier and click on
"Next":
https://imgur.com/dGQCP5Y14. On the next screen you will get a field called
Derivation. It will be like this:
https://imgur.com/8y1BQcX15. Change
m/44'/0'/0' to
m/49'/0'/0' like this:
https://imgur.com/eFoTRGm16. Encrypt your wallet by choosing a strong password:
https://imgur.com/Tsw0C7r17. And finally, if everything went as it should, click on
"Addresses". All of them should start with a
3. These are your
Segwit p2sh addresses.
https://imgur.com/0A8E4HPI hope nothing is wrong with this guide from a technical standpoint and that it could be useful for beginners.
Edit: Before using this method, you should be aware of the
possible problems, thanks to @HCP!