How does Electrum wallet list my transaction record?

0

I'm a beginner of Bitcoin and blockchain. I use Electrum as my BitCoin wallet, and install it on both home PC and office PC.

I can see all transaction records on Electrum wallet of both home PC and office PC.

You know a new receiving address will be generated when I require a new receiving bitcoin every time. I think that the new receiving address is generated randomly.

I think that Electrum wallet will not record all receiving address I used.

so I'm very stranger that how Electrum wallet find my transaction records from blockchain quickly, could you tell me?

A bad way is to calculate all private key based seed, and calculate all public key and my receiving bitcoin address based private key, then find all transaction based all my receiving bitcoin address from blockchain. it's a huge work!

HelloCW

Posted 2018-10-23T08:09:23.197

Reputation: 87

Answers

1

Electrum is backed by a number of electrum-servers (electrumx is a more recent implementation). These servers maintain the full utxo set, and also serve information such as block headers to electrum clients.

Since both your electrum installations are using the same seed, they will always generate the same addresses.

When you start electrum, it will contact an electrum server to retrieve the latest blockchain information. It will then utilize a simplified payment verification (SPV) system to query the node for transactions relating to your addresses. As it realizes addresses have been used, it will generate more addresses using the seed words.

The process of how addresses are created from a common root is described in BIP32. The SPV protocol is described in the whitepaper, and also by MultiBit (another wallet that utilized SPV systems)

Raghav Sood

Posted 2018-10-23T08:09:23.197

Reputation: 10 897

Thanks! Do you mean that electrum server will record all receiving address I used? – HelloCW – 2018-10-23T09:12:15.190

And if electrum server crash, how can I list my transaction quickly? – HelloCW – 2018-10-23T09:13:26.460

And if electrum down, will I lost all my bitcoin? – HelloCW – 2018-10-23T09:15:15.153

If the Electrum servers are all down (probably won't happen), you will see an old balance. You can set up an Electrum Personal Server just for you if something like that happens or you want to have better security.

– Janus Troelsen – 2018-10-23T09:43:26.420

Yes, the default server you use in Electrum will receive all your used addresses. Electrum will generate new addresses when addresses are used. The server won't know about them until it is asked, of course, and it can't predict your unused addresses. – Janus Troelsen – 2018-10-23T09:45:28.317

Thanks! Do you mean that Electrum servers are decentralized ? Is my transaction records hard to query if all Electrum servers crash? – HelloCW – 2018-10-23T10:52:54.133

And if all electrum down, will I lost all my bitcoin ? – HelloCW – 2018-10-23T10:54:34.727

Anyone can run an electrum server, similar to how anyone can run a bitcoin node. You can select which server to connect to. As long as you maintain a backup of your private keys, you should never lose your bitcoin, regardless of the availability of whichever wallet you use – Raghav Sood – 2018-10-23T11:10:58.957

Asked: 2018-10-23T08:09:23.197

Viewed: 220 times

Active: 2018-10-23T08:53:59.180