thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Now I have a better understanding how it works.
I did have my 12 words stored on a cloud so I moved it offline right away.
My next dilemma would be about those mnemonic codes. I have three of them I am not sure what they belong to. One of them is for sure my Electrum wallet, the other two I have no idea, probably just from online wallets/exchanges I created in the last few days. They are empty for sure but they must belong to some websites.
What would you advise I do? Create a new wallet and start over? Is there perhaps a way to tell my electrum wallet to regenerate those 12 words so I can match them to my list and see which one is which?
I do have a password for accessing my wallet so making a copy of the wallet file and hide it somewhere safe it is sounding more and more alluring, maybe on a usb I am thinking.
Dumb question: what is going to stop scammers to generate random mnemonic words and accessing random wallets around the world? I mean are there really so few wallets? I don't think so .. I am thinking down the line guessing or generating 12 words in row and accessing some other people coins must not really be that against the odds of probability, also statistic is not really in our favor since all the words have full meaning and there must be a lot of wallets out there! What am I missing?
Many thanks!
Topic: Understanding Electrum - page 2. (Read 387 times)
The coins are never in the wallet. The coins are always on the blockchain.
If you created the wallet in the default way, the wallet contains the seed and information about a number of "last used addresses". (In other cases may contain directly some private keys or simply view-only addresses, but I guess it's not the case).
The wallet will generate as it needs new addresses (private keys) based on the seed whenever it needs so, based on the privacy/security settings you have.
So, if you want to clearly always have access to your coins no matter what happens, keep that seed safely, maybe in multiple places, offline.
You can, for convenience, also backup your wallet file (default_wallet) and it will be OK for the cases of hardware failures and it will have also the "new coins". In some cases you may not see the new coins by default, but it's only a setting to be changed if that happens (force electrum "see"/"generate" more internal addresses).
Please don't backup your wallet without a minimal password protection, please don't back it up onto e-mail or cloud storage.
If you created the wallet in the default way, the wallet contains the seed and information about a number of "last used addresses". (In other cases may contain directly some private keys or simply view-only addresses, but I guess it's not the case).
The wallet will generate as it needs new addresses (private keys) based on the seed whenever it needs so, based on the privacy/security settings you have.
So, if you want to clearly always have access to your coins no matter what happens, keep that seed safely, maybe in multiple places, offline.
You can, for convenience, also backup your wallet file (default_wallet) and it will be OK for the cases of hardware failures and it will have also the "new coins". In some cases you may not see the new coins by default, but it's only a setting to be changed if that happens (force electrum "see"/"generate" more internal addresses).
Please don't backup your wallet without a minimal password protection, please don't back it up onto e-mail or cloud storage.
Electrum is a hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallet.
This means that all private keys (and therefore also public keys and addresses) are derived by 1 long random number (seed).
This big random number (seed) is being encoded into a 12 word mnemonic code upon creating the wallet.
The wallet file basically holds your master private key (this key can be used to derive all private keys - it is derived from your seed).
Now, if your hard drive crashes, you can always just import your backed up wallet file to restore the whole history and gain access to all of your private keys (this also includes access to any coins sent to you after you have lost access to your initial wallet file).
Another option is to create a new wallet file using the seed (12 word mnemonic code; which you hopefully have a backup of; if not -> create one).
It doesn't matter when someone sends you coins. As long as you have the wallet file / mnemonic code, you will be able to access your coins.
This means that all private keys (and therefore also public keys and addresses) are derived by 1 long random number (seed).
This big random number (seed) is being encoded into a 12 word mnemonic code upon creating the wallet.
The wallet file basically holds your master private key (this key can be used to derive all private keys - it is derived from your seed).
Now, if your hard drive crashes, you can always just import your backed up wallet file to restore the whole history and gain access to all of your private keys (this also includes access to any coins sent to you after you have lost access to your initial wallet file).
Another option is to create a new wallet file using the seed (12 word mnemonic code; which you hopefully have a backup of; if not -> create one).
It doesn't matter when someone sends you coins. As long as you have the wallet file / mnemonic code, you will be able to access your coins.
In the installation process of Electrum you will get 12 words (seed), this is most important thing for you, this is your backup and a way to recovery of your wallet. You need to write down those 12 words, very carefully checking each word. It is also important to not save seed on your PC as text, or to send it to e-mail. In case your hard disk is corrupted / broken, someone steals your computer or in any other unfortunate case, all you need is to download Electrum wallet again (only from https://electrum.org) and use those 12 words to recover your coins.
Your money (bitcoin) will always go to your address, even if you delete your wallet. You do not really own bitcoins, just private keys for generated addresses in your wallet. Bitcoins are stored on blockchain, and your wallet is just user interface which allow you to send / receive coins.
Regarding wallet files, you can also make copy of them for extra security. Just be sure to also save password which you can set in process of installation, it serves for additional protection of your wallet.
Your money (bitcoin) will always go to your address, even if you delete your wallet. You do not really own bitcoins, just private keys for generated addresses in your wallet. Bitcoins are stored on blockchain, and your wallet is just user interface which allow you to send / receive coins.
Regarding wallet files, you can also make copy of them for extra security. Just be sure to also save password which you can set in process of installation, it serves for additional protection of your wallet.
Hi,
I downloaded Electrum, but somehow I still fail to understand how it works.
This is just a scenario for me to better understand, I am probably compromising security by doing some/all of these (I guess):
I see the wallet file default_wallet in the folder on my computer;
If my ssd fails/lose pc/whatever my wallet is gone; right?
But if before I lose pc I make a copy of said file (default_wallet) do I still have my wallet?
What if my friend send me some coins AFTER my ssd failed and I only have the copied file, where do those money go? Into wallet? Into a lost never to be accessible again wallet? into nothing???
Many thanks!
I downloaded Electrum, but somehow I still fail to understand how it works.
This is just a scenario for me to better understand, I am probably compromising security by doing some/all of these (I guess):
I see the wallet file default_wallet in the folder on my computer;
If my ssd fails/lose pc/whatever my wallet is gone; right?
But if before I lose pc I make a copy of said file (default_wallet) do I still have my wallet?
What if my friend send me some coins AFTER my ssd failed and I only have the copied file, where do those money go? Into wallet? Into a lost never to be accessible again wallet? into nothing???
Many thanks!
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