Electrum Bitcoin Wallet Review

What is Electrum?

Electrum is a desktop bitcoin wallet that supports multiple operating platforms. The German computer scientist designed it with efficient and lightweight features.

Electrum’s core features- Its integration with major hardware wallets, like KeepKey, TREZOR, and Ledger Nano S.  You can integrate Electrum with any of the mentioned premium hardware wallets.

It mainly aims at the speed and simplicity, together with low resource usage. Using remote servers Electrum handles the most complicated parts of the Bitcoin system. It lets you recover the wallet from a secret phrase.

At the moment, Electrum only supports Bitcoin

Electrum Wallet Supports:

• Windows, Mac and Linux (Android wallet was also built in 2016 for mobile usage)
• It supports the majority of bitcoin hardware wallets.

Electrum Bitcoin Wallet Specialty

Electrum is a software wallet. It offers much security than an online wallet, and however less security than a paper wallet or hardware wallet.

I can say it’s not the entire secure fund storage solution around. The Electrum wallet provides you a user-friendly solution to send/receive Bitcoin payments regularly.

If you use crypto to pay online, then Electrum is perfect to keep a small amount ready for use.

Electrum Features

The Electrum bitcoin wallet comes with the following facets:

Deterministic Key Generation: If you lose the wallet, this helps recover from its seed.

Encryption: Bitcoin wallet is encrypted, which protects your password; even if your device is lost.

Instant On: You don’t need to download the blockchain. Instead, you request details from the server. With no delays, the blockchain is always up-to-date.

Freedom & Privacy: The server never store user accounts. You own the right to export your private keys.

Local Transaction Signatures: Transactions are signed locally, so you need not share private keys with the server.

No Scripts: Electrum blocks the downloading of any scripts. So, a compromised server cannot send you arbitrary code and steal the funds.

Multisig: Electrum accepts multi-signature transactions. Multiple wallets are required to sign a transaction prior to its approval.

No Single Point of Failure: The server code is an open source; coded in basic Python. Anyone can easily operate the wallet on their server.

Firewall Friendly: Electrum doesn’t need a particular port in the firewall. It simply polls the server for any updates.

Electrum ensures to be a secure, easy-to-use, cold storage wallet with multi-signature support.

How Much Electrum Cost?

Being a service provider, Electrum charges transaction fees to send bitcoin. The default fee: Flat rate of 0.2 mBTC. (Rate can be min to 0.1 mBTC in some cases)

In the sum of the amount, the transaction fee is included.

The Electrum platform issues a warning if the total amount exceeds the wallet balance.

Note: mBTC = millibitcoin or one-thousandth of a bitcoin.

Where Is Electrum Bitcoin Wallet Available?

You can download Electrum Bitcoin Wallet on the official website at “electrum.org”. Users of Ledger Nano S, KeepKey and TREZOR hardware wallets can also use Electrum.

How to Set Up the Electrum Wallet?

Setting up an Electrum Bitcoin wallet is very simple. Here are the detailed steps for windows users below:

Navigate to “electrum.org” —>  click “Download” shown at the top screen.

Click “Windows Installer” to download the essential files to your system.

Open the download  —>  follow the instructions —> complete the installation process.

After Installing  —>  open Electrum

The system asks you with 2 options: “To create a new wallet” or “Restore the existing one”.

Lets’ create a new one! Click “Create a new wallet” —>  “standard wallet” —>  then click “next”.

You’ll be given the recover seed phrase.

Remember: It’s very crucial. Write it down and store it somewhere safe!

Re-enter the seed phrase. (Just to ensure you’ve noted it correctly).

Enter a password.

Remember: Create a strong one that you’ve never used before. The one you can easily remember!

After entering your password  —>  confirm it  —>  click “next”.

Select a server which you want to connect to. If you are doing this for first time, you should click “Auto-connect”.

Click “next”. “Your Electrum Bitcoin wallet is now ready to use!”

How to Use the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet?

Now, let’s move to the next step: How to send/receive a transaction with Electrum.

Receiving Bitcoin with Electrum Wallet

Receiving Bitcoin with Electrum is quite easy. Follow the steps given below:

Click “Receive” tab on the main Electrum window.

Next to “Receiving address” label, there’s a string of characters (under red box above).

Click “Copy symbol” (two pieces of paper with a blue background).

Paste the “public key” from where you are sending the Bitcoin.

• Say, if you’re using an exchange, paste public key into the “send address field” on the exchange.
• If you’re using a mobile device, use the QR code. This is under the large purple box above.

Once you’ve send, it might take a while to receive into the Electrum wallet.

Now you have some amount in your Electrum wallet to spend!

Sending Bitcoin with Electrum Wallet

Click “Send” tab shown on the top of main Electrum Wallet screen.

Copy the address to send Bitcoins. (Online store, exchange or a mate)

Paste the address into the box labeled “pay to”.

Enter the Bitcoin amount you want to send in the box labeled “amount”.

Adjust the fee via slider.

Remember: Smaller the fee, longer time the transaction will take.

Cross check all the details are correct  —> click “send”.

That’s it; finally you’ve done with your first transaction via Electrum wallet.

Is Electrum Safe?

Electrum Bitcoin Wallet is the most secure wallets available today. Let’s discuss how?

• The encrypted wallet file having your private keys is secured with a password.
• Electrum Bitcoin wallet as a backup measure uses a seed phrase. This is a protection concern if you lose device.
• Electrum wallet does not download external script. Even if server gets hack, you will not lose your money.
• This decentralized model guards you since there’s not a single point of failure.
• Electrum is written in an old, well-known language, so many community members can review the code.
• Users can use two-factor authentication with an Electrum wallet. This also adds extra security to the wallet.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for the Bitcoin wallet, then you must try Electrum.

Have you used the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet before? How was your experience and review about this wallet?

Share your experience in the comment section below and let’s connect on Twitter and Telegram.