Topic: How to hide btc balance on electrum on startup? (Read 193 times)

First up... please stop double posting... if you realise there is more to add to your post a minute or two later... click the "Edit" button and simply add the new comments to the current post. There is no need to create an entirely new post.

You have ONE password per Electrum wallet. You can't choose to have one to open and one to send. The same password does both.



Then the only 3 attempts at the 4-8 digit PIN before the device resets itself should stop them... and if they somehow guess that correctly, then the nice strong passphrase with at least 10 characters of lowercase, uppercase, numbers and symbols that you use should stop them getting into your wallet.

They would also need a copy of your wallet file... but it's not too far fetched to think that if they have access to your machine, then they probably have access to your wallet file.


If the wallet file itself is encrypted, they'd need the password to get into it... if they have a keylogger and can get your wallet password as well as your wallet... then your coins are gone.

If you use a hardware wallet, if they got your wallet file it wouldn't matter, your coins will be safe, because the wallet file won't contain any private keys... even if they have your password. They would need to physically have your hardware wallet as well. If you notice your hardware wallet is lost, you simply move your coins ASAP.

If you put bitlocker on, the entire drive would be encrypted and they'd need the password for that before the computer would even start up... it's possible they could use a USB hardware keylogger to capture directly from your keyboard, but that's easy to notice a little box between the keyboard and computer (or you can super glue your keyboard into the USB port so no one can unplug it to install the hardware keylogger ) But in theory, anyone with physical access won't even be able to read the drive contents as it would be stored encrypted.

Also, at some point, you're just going to have to accept that NO SYSTEM is 100% hack or disaster proof. There will ALWAYS be some way to compromise or break a system...

Paper wallets - can be lost or stolen or damaged by fire/flood etc
Brain wallet - not random enough and guessed by people bruteforcing, head injury causes memory loss
Hardware wallet - disassembly and reading of chip using forensic techniques, loss of password (same as brain wallet), loss of seed written on paper (same as paper wallet)
Software wallet - loss of wallet file (hacking, hardware failure), loss of password (same as brain wallet), loss of seed written on paper (same as paper wallet)
Offline Air-Gapped PC - loading of malware by someone with physical access... loss of wallet file (same as software wallet), loss of password (same as brain wallet), loss of seed written on paper (same as paper wallet)
Encrypted drive - loss of data (brute forcing of encryption, hardware failure), loss of password (same as brain wallet)

if im planning to send btc a lot from wallet to bittrex, then i could still use cold storage?  Well what if someone has access to your hardware wallet then? 


So basically if you keep btc in your electrum even if its encrypted to not show btc balance... they can just download a keylogger on it and thats all?


What could be done to prevent this?  So if you install a program like bitlocker to secure your computer such as you need to put a password on it in order to use your computer, would that prevent it or not?  I want to know what is needed to be done on my computer where if someone had access to my computer, they cannot view my electrum or anything else on my computer.  Because i believe putting just a password for windows 10 is not enough?

Okay so if want to encrypt my electrum similar to like how i did it with my electrum litecoin... does that password have to be the same as the one i send my btc?  Or is it suppose to be different?

when you don't check that checkbox and use a password, what happens is that Electrum encrypts your sensitive data inside your wallet file. things such as your private keys (in case it is an imported wallet) and seed. you can even open this wallet in a text editor and see the human readable content which is a properly formatted JSON. which is why when you open Electrum it doesn't ask you any passwords and you can see the history and addresses, balance,... but when you want to spend it asks for password.

when you check that checkbox, Electrum encrypts everything instead, the whole wallet file. if you open it in a text editor you see an encrypted string. that is why when you open this wallet Electrum needs the password so it asks you to enter your password so it can read the file.


obviously yes! it can be a simple keylogger stealing your password or a more complicated malware that steals your coins.
solution? use cold storage or a hardware wallet.

Also do most people encrypt their wallet where if you open it, you cannot see the balance or account history?


What if someone had access to your computer?  Could they install a virus/program and that would mean you lose all your bitcoin etc?  Because i read about people downloading the wrong electron cash for claiming bitcoin cash and gold etc and then their electrum wallets got hacked and coins emptied.

Hi there.  So does that mean the electrum password could be the same one when you open it... and when you send it?  Or is that not recommended?  Or is that preferred?


Also if someone i mess this up, as long as i have the 12 word seed, then there is no issue at all right?  Because i read something related to it where if you create another electrum wallet on your computer... then when you open electrum, it opens the last electrum that you use?



With my electrum litecoin wallet, i have to put in a password to open it to view balance etc.

You need to set the password... AND make sure that the "Encrypt Wallet File" option is selected.

From the menus select: "Wallet -> Password"... enter your current password, then enter a new password (can actually be your current password if you want)... make sure the box is ticked.

Now, when you try to open that wallet file, you will need your password before it even opens.

When i open electrum on my computer, it shows the btc balance and history.  When i send btc with it... i have to put the password though in order to send btc.


I also have electrum litecoin and when i open it... it ask for the password before i can open up electrum where i could view my litecoin balance etc.  I believe i did this when i installed litecoin. 


Can someone tell me how i can hide my balance in electrum when i first open electrum?  Also this is more safer right?  So that means there are 2 encryptions for electrum wallet?  Thus one should always have the password encryption for sending btc.  The other would be called encryption for opening the wallet?  Can someone tell me what this is called?  Also, is the encryption password for opening electrum suppose to be the same password as the password you put down when you send btc or litecoin etc?  Thus if you have a password for opening the wallet to see the balance... is that generally the same password when you are readying to send btc or litecoin etc?