Electrum is a lightweight software Bitcoin Wallet. It can support multiple wallets from a single seed or the so called deterministic wallets. You can execute offline transactions and “root public key” where other application compatible with Electrum can monitor your bitcoin wallet. You can also import and export your private keys from other bitcoin wallets. The software is available on different operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

When it comes to security, offers a lot of features to protect your funds. They allow users to enable two factor authentication. They encrypt your private keys and do not leave your computer. It means that your private keys are kept offline and you go online with a watching-only bitcoin wallet. The software Wallet uses Simple Payment Verification (SPV) in verifying all of your transactions in your history. Electrum supports third party applications such as Multisignature services and Hardware Wallets.

How to install and use Electrum wallet?

Step 1: Install Electrum software

Go to the download page of Electrum and download the software. Here, we will use Windows installation.

Click on “Standalone Executable” for Windows

Once the download is done, go to your Downloads folder and double click the electrum-2.6.4 file to run the installation

On the installation wizard, tick “Create a new wallet” option and choose any kind of wallet you want except hardware wallet for the meantime. For a start, we will use Standard wallet.

On the next window, you will be provided with a seed. Copy these words (important) to keep for recovery purposes and hit Next.
You will then be asked to retype your seed, so make sure you were able to copy it.

Next, Choose a password to encrypt your keys
On the next window, choose automatic server or your may prefer to select your own

Step 2: Send and receive Bitcoins

To send Bitcoins, click the Send tab and place the address of the recipient, description of the transaction and the amount of Bitcoin respectively then hit Send

To receive Bitcoins, click on Receive tab and fill out description and amount, and the request expiry

You will be provided with a Bitcoin address automatically but you can change this by clicking on the Addresses tab

On the Addresses tab, right click on your chosen address and left click on Request payment

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