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<pre>
==Documentation of Electrum Bitcoin Client (Focus on the GUI)==
Documentation of Basic and Advanced Features in Electrum:
This page tries to document certain aspects of the [[Electrum|Electrum]] Bitcoin Client. The focus is on explaining certain aspects of its GUI, such that it gets easier for the user to understand its use.
=========================================================


Legend in this documentation:
More documentation, especially with regard to command line parameters, can be found at the parent page of this Wiki, i.e. [[Electrum|here]].
-----------------------------
* A [word or term in square brackets] means that this is explained in another dedicated entry of this documentation.
* A {text in curly brackest} means I am not really sure about this... --> other people should correct/clarify


==How to Read this Documentation==
* Text in curly brackets {like this} means that the authour(s) of this documentation are not really sure about this... --> other people are welcome to correct/clarify
==What is a "Wallet" and a "Bitcoin Address"?==
* (General, not specific to Electrum)
Your wallet is a list of Bitcoin addresses (more precisely: a list of privat/public key pairs). Each address "contains" (or is associated with) a certain amount of Bitcoins at a given time.


What is the "Wallet"? (general, not specific to Electrum)
---------------------------------------------------------
Your wallet is a list of Bitcoin addresses (more precisely: the privat/public key pairs). Each address "contains" (or is associated with) a certain amount of Bitcoins at a given time.
Your wallet's balance is the sum of all Bitcoins of all your wallet's Bitcoin addresses.
Your wallet's balance is the sum of all Bitcoins of all your wallet's Bitcoin addresses.
Your wallet consists of both [normal addresses] and [change addresses]. Although they are fully equivalent from the Bitcoin protocol's point of view {right?}, they are different in how they are used by Bitcoin clients like Electrum.


Your wallet consists of both [[#Normal Addresses|normal addresses]] and [[#Change Addresses|change addresses]]. Although they are fully equivalent from the Bitcoin protocol's point of view, they are different in how they are used by Bitcoin clients like Electrum.


How are New "Normal Addresses" Created for my Wallet? (more or less general, not too specific to Electrum)
===Normal Addresses===
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* (More or less general, not too specific to Electrum)
The Bitcoin client (e.g. Electrum) allows you to trigger manually the generation of a new Bitcoin address. you typically want to create a new address when you want to receive Bitcoins from somebody and do not want to use any of the wallet's present addresses for this, for privacy reasons (note that all transfers are publically visible in the blockchain).
====How are New "Normal Addresses" Created for my Wallet?====
The Bitcoin client (e.g. Electrum) allows you to trigger manually the generation of a new Bitcoin address. You typically want to create a new address when you want to receive Bitcoins from somebody and do not want to use any of the wallet's present addresses that have already been used for earlier Bitcoin transfers, for privacy reasons (note that all transfers are publically visible in the blockchain).


===Change Addresses===
* (More or less general, not too specific to Electrum)
====What is a "Change Address", and why is it useful?====
The concept of change addresses is a feature not of the Bitcoin protocol, but of a Bitcoin client. It is implemented not only in Electrum but in most Bitcoin clients, including the original "Satoshi" Bitcoin client.


What is a "Change Address", and why is it useful? (general, not specific to Electrum)
'''How it works:'''
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The concept of change addresses is a feature not of the Bitcoin protocol, but of a Bitcoin client. It is implemented in most {if not all?} Bitcoin clients, including Electrum.


How it works:
Whenever your Bitcoin client (e.g. Electrum) sends Bitcoins from your wallet's address "A" to a foreing address "B", a new change address "C" is created by Electrum and added to your wallet.
Whenever your Bitcoin client (e.g. Electrum) sends Bitcoins from your wallet's address "A" to a foreing address "B", a new change address "C" is created by Electrum and added to your wallet.
Example: Address "A" has 20 BTC. Electrum sends 9 BTC from "A" to "B". The change (20-9 = 11 BTC) is sent to the "change address" "C". For this purpose, address "C" is created by Electrum at this moment and added to your wallet.
Example: Address "A" has 20 BTC. Electrum sends 9 BTC from "A" to "B". The change (20-9 = 11 BTC) is sent to the "change address" "C". For this purpose, address "C" is created by Electrum at this moment and added to your wallet.
{Exception: If all the Bitcoins of "A" are sent to "B", there is no point in creating a change address "C" {or is "C" created anyway, yet without any Bitcoins sent to it??? - depends on the bitcoin client's implementation, would not make any sense, but would not harm either}}


Actually, Bitcoin clients would also work without change addresses. In this case, the change would be sent back to "A" instead of the new address "C".
Exception: If all the Bitcoins of "A" are sent to "B", there is no need for creating a change address "C".
 
Actually, Bitcoin clients can also work without change addresses. In this case, the change would be sent back to "A" instead of the new address "C".
 
'''Why the concept of "change addresses" is useful:'''


Why the concept of "change addresses" is useful:
* Using a new change address makes it more difficult for other people (by analyzing the blockchain) to track how many Bitcoins you have or where you're spending them.
* Using a new change address makes it more difficult for other people (by analyzing the blockchain) to track how many Bitcoins you have or where you're spending them.
* It also conceals which output is the "spend" and which is the "change".
* It also conceals which output is the "spend" and which is the "change".


===Deterministic Wallet===
====What is a "Deterministic Wallet" in Electrum?====
Traditionally, all new addresses (incl. the private keys of course) added to the wallet ([[#Normal Addresses|normal addresses]] or [[#Change Addresses|change addresses]]) are generated randomly. This is the case e.g. for the original "Satoshi Bitcoin Client" (at least as of today, version 0.6.2).


What is a "Deterministic Wallet" in Electrum?
Contrary to that, a Bitcoin client with a "Deterministic Wallet" will generate all new addresses accoding to a pre-defined (i.e. "deterministic") algorithm as a function of a wallet-specific [[#Seed|seed]], which is a 128 bit number. This means, if the seed is known, all new addresses that Electrum will ever create for this wallet are known, because Electrum's algorithm is known (and open source).
---------------------------------------------
Traditionally, all new addresses (incl. the private keys of course) added to the wallet ([Normal Addresses] or [Change Addresses]) are generated randomly. This is the case e.g. for the original "Satoshi Bitcoin Client" (at least as of today, version 0.6.2).
Contrary to that, a Bitcoin client with a "Deterministic Wallet" will generate all new addresses accoding to a pre-defined (i.e. "deterministic") algorithm as a function of a wallet-specific [seed] (a 128 bit number). This means, if the seed is known, all new addresses that Electrum will ever create for this wallet are known, because Electrum's algorithm is known (and open source).
This is a big advantage when it comes to making wallet backups:
This is a big advantage when it comes to making wallet backups:
* _Traditionally_, a wallet backup just contains the bitcoin addresses (and private keys of course) that have been created by the client by the time the backup was made. If the user performs transactions after the backup, new addresses ([normal] or [change] addresses) will be generated and added to the wallet. These are not included in the backup yet. If the wallet in use gets lost, all the Bitcoins that are associated with the new addresses will also be lost. To avoid the risk of a too high loss, regular wallet backup are important.
* ''Traditionally'', a wallet backup just contains the bitcoin addresses (and private keys of course) that have been created by the client by the time the backup was made. If the user performs transactions after the backup, new addresses ([[#Normal Addresses|normal]] or [[#Change Addresses|change]] addresses) will be generated and added to the wallet. These are not included in the backup yet. If the wallet in use gets lost, all the Bitcoins that are associated with the new addresses will also be lost. To avoid the risk of a too high loss, regular wallet backups are important.
* _With a Deterministic Wallet_ (like with Electrum), the wallet backup only needs to contain the seed, and all new addresses generated in the future are safe. Regular successive backup are not required! {or is this not entirely true?? I do not know exactly if the "[gap limit]" plays a role here...?!?}
* ''With a Deterministic Wallet'' (like with Electrum), the wallet backup only needs to contain the seed, and all new addresses generated in the future are already secured by the initial backup. Hence, regular new backups are not required! {or is this not entirely true?? It is not really clear if the "[[#Gap Limit|Gap Limit]]" plays a role here...?!? Can anybody clarify?!?}


 
===Seed===
What is the "Seed" of a Deterministic Wallet in Electrum?
====What is the "Seed" of a Deterministic Wallet in Electrum?====
---------------------------------------------------------
The Seed of a [[#Deterministic Wallet|deterministic wallet]] is a series of 128 random bits in Electrum.
The Seed of a [deterministic wallet] is a series of 128 random bits in Electrum.
For convenience, a seed can also be expressed by a sequence of 12 words in Electrum, and it also supports generation of a QR code to facilitate the backup of the seed.
For convenience, a seed can also be expressed by a sequence of 12 {always 12?} words in Electrum. Also generation of a QR code is supported to facilitate the backup of the seed.


So there are 2^128 possible seeds for a deterministic wallet in Electrum.
So there are 2^128 possible seeds for a deterministic wallet in Electrum.
For comparison, the total number of Bitcoin addresses is 2^160, and the number of atoms on earth is 2^166.
For comparison, the total number of Bitcoin addresses is 2^160, and the number of atoms on earth is 2^166.
So there exists one Bitcoin address per 1 Million atoms on earth, and there exists one seed of Electrum wallets per 4.3 Billion Bitcoin addresses.
So there exists one Bitcoin address per 1 Million atoms on earth, and there exists one seed of Electrum wallets per 4.3 Billion Bitcoin addresses.
(BTW: The number of atoms in the complete universe is estimated as 2^266).
(By the way: The number of atoms in the complete universe is estimated as 2^266).


{
{
Open Point: I _do not know_ whether the algorithm of deterministic address generation is designed such that for any two seeds "S1" and "S2" (out of the 2^128 possible different seeds) the following condition holds true: If 4.3 Billion (2^32 to be exact) new addresses are calculated from S1 and from S2, the algorithm guarantees that there will be no collision between the set of 2^32 addresses from S1 and the set of 2^32 addresses from S2.
If this condition does not hold true, I am wonderng whether the use of deterministic wallets still bares an acceptably low probability of address collisions.
}


Open Point: It is _not clear_ whether the algorithm of deterministic address generation is designed such that for any two seeds "S1" and "S2" (out of the 2^128 possible different seeds) the following condition holds true:
* If 4.3 Billion (2^32 to be exact) new addresses are calculated from each S1 and from S2, does the algorithm guarantee that there will be no collision between the set of 2^32 addresses from S1 and the set of 2^32 addresses from S2?
If this condition does not hold true, it needs to be clarified whether the use of deterministic wallets still bares an acceptably low probability of address collisions.


What is the "Gap Limit" in Electrum?
------------------------------------
{
Apparently, when I generate too many new addresses, I exceed the "gap limit" at some point - whatever this means. It reads to me that this could be dangerous somehow in the sense that the new addresses might not be recoverable from the wallet's seed...?!??!?? Or not?? Not clear to me at all...
Not clear to me what this means. I thought the wallet is deterministic, so why should the be a problem wiht a "gap limit" (whatever this means).
}
}


===Gap Limit===
====What is the "Gap Limit" in Electrum? (YET UNCLEAR IN THIS WIKI !!!)====
{
{
Quote of ThomasV on v.0.54 of Electrum:
The 'receive' tab now has a 'new' button, that allows the user to create addresses beyond the wallet's gap limit. The user gets a warning, and addresses that are beyond the gap limit are displayed in red. The red color will remain until the gap has been filled. (in other words, to fill the gap you need to send coins to the last non-red address of your list).


Quote of ThomasV on v.0.55 of Electrum:
Apparently, when you generate too many new addresses, you exceed the "gap limit" at some point - whatever this means... It appears to the first authour of this documentation that this could be dangerous somehow in the sense that the new addresses might not be recoverable from the wallet's seed...?!??!?? Or not?? Not clear at all...
the 'receive' tab has a 'new' button that allows to create new addresses by raising the wallet's gap limit. Note that the gap limit can be lowered too. The dialog also displays the minimum value of the gap limit that can be set without losing any of your current addresses (this assumes you are connected, because it needs to compute the maximal gap of your sequence of addresses)
Not clear what this means. Isn't the wallet "deterministic"? So why should their be a problem with a "gap limit"?  What is its significance?
 
; Quote of Electrum's author ThomasV on v.0.54 of Electrum in the Bitcoin Forum:
: ''The 'receive' tab now has a 'new' button, that allows the user to create addresses beyond the wallet's gap limit. The user gets a warning, and addresses that are beyond the gap limit are displayed in red. The red color will remain until the gap has been filled. (in other words, to fill the gap you need to send coins to the last non-red address of your list).''
 
;Quote of Electrum's author ThomasV on v.0.55 of Electrum in the Bitcoin Forum:
: ''the 'receive' tab has a 'new' button that allows to create new addresses by raising the wallet's gap limit. Note that the gap limit can be lowered too. The dialog also displays the minimum value of the gap limit that can be set without losing any of your current addresses (this assumes you are connected, because it needs to compute the maximal gap of your sequence of addresses)''


But still I do not understand at all the meaning of "gap limit" and what should be my concerns as a user about it.
}
}


 
==More on the Electrum GUI==
What does it mean to "Prioritze" or "Freeze" Addresses in Electrum?
===What does it mean to "Prioritize" or "Freeze" Addresses in Electrum?===
-------------------------------------------------------------------
{
{This is my understanding/assumption - please correct if necessary}
When sending Bitcoins to a foreign address, Electrum will by default use a built-in method to select the address(es) of the wallet used for sending these Bitcoins.
When sending Bitcoins to a foreign address, Electrum will by default use a built-in method to select the address(es) of the wallet used for sending these Bitcoins.


* When you _prioritize_ some of your wallet's addresses, these addresses will be used with priorities, and other addresses will not be used until the prioritized addresses contain no more Bitcoins.
* When you ''prioritize'' some of your wallet's addresses, these addresses will be used with preference. Other addresses will not be used until the prioritized addresses contain no more Bitcoins.
* When you _freeze_ some of your wallet's addresses, these addresses will not be used for sending bitcoins but they will keep their balance.
* When you ''freeze'' some of your wallet's addresses, these addresses will not be used for sending bitcoins but they will keep their balance. Instead, other addresses will be used. {To clarify: Will they still not be used if all other addresses have zero balance, such that sending Bitcoins is not possible although the wallet has a balance? Probably yes, just not 100% sure...}
  {Will they still not be used if all other addresses have zero balance,such that sending Bitcoins is not possible although the wallet has a vbalance? I think so, just not 100% sure...}


Note: Clearly, an address can not be tagged "prioritied" and "frozen" at the same time.
The user can (de)prioritize or (un)freeze both [[#Normal Addresses|normal]] and [[#Change Addresses|change]] addresses.
}


Note: Clearly, an address can not be "prioritized" and "frozen" at the same time.


What does the "Tx" column mean in Electrum?
===What does the "Tx" column mean in Electrum?===
-------------------------------------------
* Applies to "Receive" tab (own wallet's addresses) and "Contacts" tab (foreing addresses).
--> Applies to "Receive" tab (own wallet's addresses) and "Contacts" tab (foreing addresses).


Tx stands for {... ?? "Transaction"? "Transmission" ?? ...}
Tx stands for {... ?? "Transaction"? "Transmission" ?? ...}
Line 102: Line 101:
The Tx column in Electrum displays a number for each Bitcoin address in the address list, both for own addresses ("Receive" tab) and for foreing addresses ("Contacts" tab).
The Tx column in Electrum displays a number for each Bitcoin address in the address list, both for own addresses ("Receive" tab) and for foreing addresses ("Contacts" tab).


In the "Receive" tab (own addresses):
'''In the "Receive" tab (own addresses):'''
 
The number in the Tx column indicates the total number of _incoming_ Bitcoin transactions that have ever been sent to this address.
The number in the Tx column indicates the total number of _incoming_ Bitcoin transactions that have ever been sent to this address.
{
{
The number of outgoing transactions is apparently not counted. I am wondering why the column is called "Tx" and not "Rx", because I understand that it indicates the number of times that Bitcoins had been sent to this address, i.e. how often This address "received" Bitcoins.
The number of outgoing transactions is apparently not counted. It is unclear why the column is called "Tx" and not "Rx", because it indicates the number of times that Bitcoins have been sent to this address, i.e. how often this address has "received" Bitcoins.
Does this "Tx" come from blockchain/blockexplorer terminology? Or why is it called "Tx" ("transmit") and not "Rx" ("receive")?
Does this "Tx" come from blockchain/blockexplorer terminology? Or why is it called "Tx" ("transmit") and not "Rx" ("receive")? To be clarified.
}
}


In the "Contacts" tab (foreign addresses):
'''In the "Contacts" tab (foreign addresses):'''
The number in the Tx column indicates the total number of Bitcoin transactions that have ever been received by this address {from anyobody? or just from myself, i.e. from addresses in my wallet? - I assume the latter - but to be confirmed...}.


The number in the Tx column indicates the total number of Bitcoin transactions that have ever been received by this address
{from anyobody? or just from myself, i.e. from addresses in my wallet? - Probably the latter - to be confirmed...}.


What does the "Balance" column mean in Electrum?
===What does the "Balance" column mean in Electrum?===
------------------------------------------------
* Applies to "Receive" tab  only (i.e. own wallet's addresses).
--> Applies to "Receive" tab  only (i.e. own wallet's addresses).


The balance column indicates the amount of Bitcoins belonging to the given address.
The balance column indicates the amount of Bitcoins belonging to the given address.
The individual balances add up to the total balance of your wallet.
The individual balances add up to the total balance of your wallet.


===What does the "Flag" column mean in Electrum?===
* Applies to "Receive" tab  only (i.e. own wallet's addresses).


What does the "Flag" column mean in Electrum?
This column indicates certain properties of the different addresses:
---------------------------------------------
* C = [[#Change Addresses|Change address]] (without a "C" it means it is a [[#Normal Addresses|normal address]])
--> Applies to "Receive" tab  only (i.e. own wallet's addresses).
* P = Prioritized address
* F = Frozen address


This column indicates certain properties of the different addresses:
Note: P and F flags can be applied to both [[#Normal Addresses|normal]] and [[#Change Addresses|change]] addresses.
C = [Change address]
    Without a "C" it means it is a [normal address]
P = [Prioritized address]
F = [Frozen address]


Note: P and F flags can be applied to both [normal] and [change] addresses.
{Are any flags missing?}


{Am I missing any flags?}
==External Links==
</pre>
* [http://ecdsa.org/electrum Electrum] project website
* [https://gitorious.org/electrum Electrum] project source (gitorius)
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50936.msg950497#msg950497 Electrum Forum] - here this documentation was started

Revision as of 00:30, 12 June 2012

Documentation of Electrum Bitcoin Client (Focus on the GUI)

This page tries to document certain aspects of the Electrum Bitcoin Client. The focus is on explaining certain aspects of its GUI, such that it gets easier for the user to understand its use.

More documentation, especially with regard to command line parameters, can be found at the parent page of this Wiki, i.e. here.

How to Read this Documentation

  • Text in curly brackets {like this} means that the authour(s) of this documentation are not really sure about this... --> other people are welcome to correct/clarify

What is a "Wallet" and a "Bitcoin Address"?

  • (General, not specific to Electrum)

Your wallet is a list of Bitcoin addresses (more precisely: a list of privat/public key pairs). Each address "contains" (or is associated with) a certain amount of Bitcoins at a given time.

Your wallet's balance is the sum of all Bitcoins of all your wallet's Bitcoin addresses.

Your wallet consists of both normal addresses and change addresses. Although they are fully equivalent from the Bitcoin protocol's point of view, they are different in how they are used by Bitcoin clients like Electrum.

Normal Addresses

  • (More or less general, not too specific to Electrum)

How are New "Normal Addresses" Created for my Wallet?

The Bitcoin client (e.g. Electrum) allows you to trigger manually the generation of a new Bitcoin address. You typically want to create a new address when you want to receive Bitcoins from somebody and do not want to use any of the wallet's present addresses that have already been used for earlier Bitcoin transfers, for privacy reasons (note that all transfers are publically visible in the blockchain).

Change Addresses

  • (More or less general, not too specific to Electrum)

What is a "Change Address", and why is it useful?

The concept of change addresses is a feature not of the Bitcoin protocol, but of a Bitcoin client. It is implemented not only in Electrum but in most Bitcoin clients, including the original "Satoshi" Bitcoin client.

How it works:

Whenever your Bitcoin client (e.g. Electrum) sends Bitcoins from your wallet's address "A" to a foreing address "B", a new change address "C" is created by Electrum and added to your wallet.

Example: Address "A" has 20 BTC. Electrum sends 9 BTC from "A" to "B". The change (20-9 = 11 BTC) is sent to the "change address" "C". For this purpose, address "C" is created by Electrum at this moment and added to your wallet.

Exception: If all the Bitcoins of "A" are sent to "B", there is no need for creating a change address "C".

Actually, Bitcoin clients can also work without change addresses. In this case, the change would be sent back to "A" instead of the new address "C".

Why the concept of "change addresses" is useful:

  • Using a new change address makes it more difficult for other people (by analyzing the blockchain) to track how many Bitcoins you have or where you're spending them.
  • It also conceals which output is the "spend" and which is the "change".

Deterministic Wallet

What is a "Deterministic Wallet" in Electrum?

Traditionally, all new addresses (incl. the private keys of course) added to the wallet (normal addresses or change addresses) are generated randomly. This is the case e.g. for the original "Satoshi Bitcoin Client" (at least as of today, version 0.6.2).

Contrary to that, a Bitcoin client with a "Deterministic Wallet" will generate all new addresses accoding to a pre-defined (i.e. "deterministic") algorithm as a function of a wallet-specific seed, which is a 128 bit number. This means, if the seed is known, all new addresses that Electrum will ever create for this wallet are known, because Electrum's algorithm is known (and open source). This is a big advantage when it comes to making wallet backups:

  • Traditionally, a wallet backup just contains the bitcoin addresses (and private keys of course) that have been created by the client by the time the backup was made. If the user performs transactions after the backup, new addresses (normal or change addresses) will be generated and added to the wallet. These are not included in the backup yet. If the wallet in use gets lost, all the Bitcoins that are associated with the new addresses will also be lost. To avoid the risk of a too high loss, regular wallet backups are important.
  • With a Deterministic Wallet (like with Electrum), the wallet backup only needs to contain the seed, and all new addresses generated in the future are already secured by the initial backup. Hence, regular new backups are not required! {or is this not entirely true?? It is not really clear if the "Gap Limit" plays a role here...?!? Can anybody clarify?!?}

Seed

What is the "Seed" of a Deterministic Wallet in Electrum?

The Seed of a deterministic wallet is a series of 128 random bits in Electrum. For convenience, a seed can also be expressed by a sequence of 12 words in Electrum, and it also supports generation of a QR code to facilitate the backup of the seed.

So there are 2^128 possible seeds for a deterministic wallet in Electrum. For comparison, the total number of Bitcoin addresses is 2^160, and the number of atoms on earth is 2^166. So there exists one Bitcoin address per 1 Million atoms on earth, and there exists one seed of Electrum wallets per 4.3 Billion Bitcoin addresses. (By the way: The number of atoms in the complete universe is estimated as 2^266).

{

Open Point: It is _not clear_ whether the algorithm of deterministic address generation is designed such that for any two seeds "S1" and "S2" (out of the 2^128 possible different seeds) the following condition holds true:

  • If 4.3 Billion (2^32 to be exact) new addresses are calculated from each S1 and from S2, does the algorithm guarantee that there will be no collision between the set of 2^32 addresses from S1 and the set of 2^32 addresses from S2?

If this condition does not hold true, it needs to be clarified whether the use of deterministic wallets still bares an acceptably low probability of address collisions.

}

Gap Limit

What is the "Gap Limit" in Electrum? (YET UNCLEAR IN THIS WIKI !!!)

{

Apparently, when you generate too many new addresses, you exceed the "gap limit" at some point - whatever this means... It appears to the first authour of this documentation that this could be dangerous somehow in the sense that the new addresses might not be recoverable from the wallet's seed...?!??!?? Or not?? Not clear at all... Not clear what this means. Isn't the wallet "deterministic"? So why should their be a problem with a "gap limit"? What is its significance?

Quote of Electrum's author ThomasV on v.0.54 of Electrum in the Bitcoin Forum
The 'receive' tab now has a 'new' button, that allows the user to create addresses beyond the wallet's gap limit. The user gets a warning, and addresses that are beyond the gap limit are displayed in red. The red color will remain until the gap has been filled. (in other words, to fill the gap you need to send coins to the last non-red address of your list).
Quote of Electrum's author ThomasV on v.0.55 of Electrum in the Bitcoin Forum
the 'receive' tab has a 'new' button that allows to create new addresses by raising the wallet's gap limit. Note that the gap limit can be lowered too. The dialog also displays the minimum value of the gap limit that can be set without losing any of your current addresses (this assumes you are connected, because it needs to compute the maximal gap of your sequence of addresses)

}

More on the Electrum GUI

What does it mean to "Prioritize" or "Freeze" Addresses in Electrum?

When sending Bitcoins to a foreign address, Electrum will by default use a built-in method to select the address(es) of the wallet used for sending these Bitcoins.

  • When you prioritize some of your wallet's addresses, these addresses will be used with preference. Other addresses will not be used until the prioritized addresses contain no more Bitcoins.
  • When you freeze some of your wallet's addresses, these addresses will not be used for sending bitcoins but they will keep their balance. Instead, other addresses will be used. {To clarify: Will they still not be used if all other addresses have zero balance, such that sending Bitcoins is not possible although the wallet has a balance? Probably yes, just not 100% sure...}

The user can (de)prioritize or (un)freeze both normal and change addresses.

Note: Clearly, an address can not be "prioritized" and "frozen" at the same time.

What does the "Tx" column mean in Electrum?

  • Applies to "Receive" tab (own wallet's addresses) and "Contacts" tab (foreing addresses).

Tx stands for {... ?? "Transaction"? "Transmission" ?? ...}

The Tx column in Electrum displays a number for each Bitcoin address in the address list, both for own addresses ("Receive" tab) and for foreing addresses ("Contacts" tab).

In the "Receive" tab (own addresses):

The number in the Tx column indicates the total number of _incoming_ Bitcoin transactions that have ever been sent to this address.

{ The number of outgoing transactions is apparently not counted. It is unclear why the column is called "Tx" and not "Rx", because it indicates the number of times that Bitcoins have been sent to this address, i.e. how often this address has "received" Bitcoins. Does this "Tx" come from blockchain/blockexplorer terminology? Or why is it called "Tx" ("transmit") and not "Rx" ("receive")? To be clarified. }

In the "Contacts" tab (foreign addresses):

The number in the Tx column indicates the total number of Bitcoin transactions that have ever been received by this address {from anyobody? or just from myself, i.e. from addresses in my wallet? - Probably the latter - to be confirmed...}.

What does the "Balance" column mean in Electrum?

  • Applies to "Receive" tab only (i.e. own wallet's addresses).

The balance column indicates the amount of Bitcoins belonging to the given address. The individual balances add up to the total balance of your wallet.

What does the "Flag" column mean in Electrum?

  • Applies to "Receive" tab only (i.e. own wallet's addresses).

This column indicates certain properties of the different addresses:

Note: P and F flags can be applied to both normal and change addresses.

{Are any flags missing?}

External Links

Retrieved from "https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Electrum/Documentation&oldid=27730"