Electrum (software)

{{Short description|Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Electrum

| logo =

| screenshot = Zclassic electrum wallet.jpg

| caption =

| author = Electrum Technologies GmbH

| released = 2011

| programming_language = Python

| operating_system = Linux, Windows, macOS, Android

| genre = Cryptocurrency wallet

| license = MIT License

| repo = {{URL|https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum}}

| website = {{URL|https://electrum.org}}

}}

Electrum is a free non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet for Bitcoin and Lightning Network. It is available for Windows, Linux (pre-installed on Tails OS), macOS and Android. Electrum is written in Python and uses the Qt widget toolkit for the user interface. Electrum is a lightweight client: it does not download the entire blockchain and instead uses simplified payment verification. Transactions are sent to public servers.{{Cite book |last=Zhang |first=Yiyin |chapter=SoK: Anonymity of Lightweight Clients in Cryptocurrency Systems |date=May 2023 |title=2023 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC) |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10174913 |pages=1–18 |doi=10.1109/ICBC56567.2023.10174913|isbn=979-8-3503-1019-1 }} It was released in 2011.{{Cite book |last=Conrad |first=Barski |title=Bitcoin for the Befuddled |year=2014 |publisher=No Starch Press |isbn=978-1-59327-573-0 |author-link=Conrad Barski, Chris Wilmer |pages=14}}{{Cite book |last=Caetano|first=Richard |title=Learning Bitcoin |publisher=Packt Publishing |year=2015 |ISBN=978-1-78528-730-5 |author-link=Richard Caetano |pages=70}}

Reception

Mayank Sharma of TechRadar praised the wallet's advanced features, such as multisignature transactions, while noting that the wallet is not designed for inexperienced users.{{Cite web |last=Sharma |first=Mayank |date=2021-01-26 |title=Electrum cryptocurrency wallet review |url=https://www.techradar.com/reviews/electrum-cryptocurrency-wallet |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=TechRadar |language=en}} Marco Monroy Robles of Money liked Electrum's simple setup process, but criticized its lack of direct customer support.{{Cite web |last=Robles |first=Marco Monroy |title=Electrum Crypto Wallet Review |url=https://money.com/electrum-crypto-wallet-review/ |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=Money |language=en}}

Security

Although wallet files are encrypted with PBKDF2, private keys are encrypted with AES256 with the user's password. This could allow an attacker with access to the encrypted data to decrypt the private keys using a dictionary attack or a brute force attack.{{Cite journal |last1=Holmes |first1=Arran |last2=Buchanan |first2=William J. |date=2023-03-01 |title=A framework for live host-based Bitcoin wallet forensics and triage |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666281722001676 |journal=Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation |volume=44 |pages=301486 |doi=10.1016/j.fsidi.2022.301486 |issn=2666-2817}}

References

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