Topic: Regarding amount of Electrum addresses and security overall (Read 835 times)

Electrum is a deterministic wallet which means that all address specific private keys are derived from a single seed. This is shown in the user interface in the human friendly form of 13 random words. The words and their order is important. Write down the seed and it is the only backup you need. *All* the address specific private keys can be derived from it. The addresses themselves are derived from the private keys so all your addresses can be recovered with just the 13 word seed.

If you like you can also make a backup of the wallet file using file menu > save copy. The wallet file stores address and transaction labels that cannot be recovered from the seed alone.


Electrum will automatically create new addresses from your seed when you start to use the old ones. It tries to make sure you always have at least 10 UNUSED addresses. As mentioned above all addresses and address specific private keys can be recovered from the seed or a one time wallet file backup. Although if you add a lot of labels you will want to make more frequent backups of the wallet file just for the labels.

Oh and desktop wallets are definitely better than web wallets.

Thanks for the fast replys shorena, appreciate it.

I am fully aware of the fact that with Electrum all I need to recover and spend my bitcoins is the seed. Regardless, I'd like someone who currently uses electrum to answer the following:

1)Once all 10 addresses I get by default upon creating my wallet have already been used once, will Electrum detect this lack of addresses and AUTOMATICALLY generate me more addresses for me to use?

2)In case the answer to the previous question is YES, will my seed be able to recover ALL the addresses generated since my wallet was created or only the original 10 that I got by default when i created the wallet?

I kinda wanna stay away from bitcoin core since it downloads the entire blockchain and that shit takes ages to download with my third world country internet provider lmao. Plus, it takes way too much space.

Thanks!

Local wallets are always more secure than an online wallet unless the operator doesn't operate hot wallets at all. The moment an online wallet operates hot wallets they also control (have) the private key and that's where the security issue comes into play. There is a million ways of hot wallets or keys getting compromised from both, internal and external sources.


The advice of not using any address more than 1x is garbage unless you're a high volume drug dealer, terrorist or money launderer who already has a tail.

To understand how wallets and keys work you need to first understand how the blockchain works. Technically there is no coins no, not even in your wallet. Bitcoin is a series of inputs and outputs processed by and on the blockchain. Thus yes, you should always backup your private keys no matter what wallet you're using sine you'll be always able to regain control the balance in your address as long as you have the private key. You can import that key into any wallet or service that supports it, also into multiple wallets which allows you to receive and send coins from each app you've imported the key to.


Now for privacy, enable "use change address" in Electrum for additional security and you can create new addresses in Electrum as needed but you shouldn't have to.

Correct, for electrum all you need is the seed. The wallet can be restored from it even if you dont have the password, so be careful who sees it. Other wallets might need more care, e.g. I mainly use bitcoin core and make backups every few weeks.

Thanks for the reply.

1)By "a good backup scheme" you mean backuping the wallet+storing the seed in a safe place, right? anything else?
2)I am not that sure that more address will be provided by default on Electrum once all have funds on them.

Anyone else experienced in Electrum wants to help me out? Thanks!

Nope. You need a good backup scheme. Writing down private keys by hand sounds like a bad scheme to me. There is too much room for error IMHO.


Since you consider using electurm already, it has a seed. Writing down that seed on paper and storing it somewhere safe is a good idea. That seed must only be written down once and it is a number of words that are difficult to mix up. IIRC none of them have the same first 3 letters.


Yes, all address will be restored by the seed. Most servers have a limit of 10,000 address per user, this should be enough for a long time.
IIRC more address are shown once you used those visible, but I dont commonly use electrum. Its probably better if someone else answers this part.

Hello there, first time here, hope you guys can help me out.

I'm currently using blockchain.info as a web wallet but kinda want to switch over to a much more secure wallet such as a desktop one (I heard they are much more secure), but I'm having some doubts before I finally make the change.

1)It is advised that to have the perfect security, you should remember/write down the private keys of every bitcoin address where you receive funds, right? At the same time, it is advised not to use an address to receive funds more than once. So do I really need to write down every private key of every bitcoin address I receive funds to? seriously? I know this might be overreacting, but I really want to have my wallet 100000% secured.

2)Upon creating a wallet in electrum, I am provided with 10x different addresses, but I can't seem to be able to create more. Now if I do not want to use an address more than once, 10 addresses is definitely NOT enough for me, I fail to see any button or something to generate a new address. Also, if there is actually a way to generate more addresses, will these new ones also be backed up by the seed?

Hope someone experienced can clear my doubts,
Thanks!