In the case of Bitcoin wallets, there are tons of available options for users. There are also tons of them on Linux platform. Bitcoin wallets are the safest media for enjoying your cryptocurrency. Electrum is one of the most popular Bitcoin wallets out there. We also discussed about Bither and Green Address.
Electrum is a nice Bitcoin wallet and of course, a powerful one. Installing it requires a slight familiarity with the terminal on Linux. But don’t worry as we’ll guide you through the entire installation process. All you have to do is follow the instructions properly.
Prerequisites
Before installing Electrum, we need some tools beforehand. Run the following command(s) depending on your Linux distro.
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Ubuntu
sudo apt install python3-setuptools python3-pyqt5 python3-pip
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Debian
sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools python3-pyqt5 python3-pip
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Fedora
sudo dnf install python3-setuptools python3-qt5 python3-pip
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OpenSUSE
sudo zypper install python3-setuptools python3-qt5 python3-pip
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Arch Linux
You can grab the latest version of Electrum from AUR.
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Other Linux
Make sure that you find out the following packages and install them in your system.
- python3-pip
- python3-qt5 or python3-pyqt5
- python3-setuptools
Installing Electrum
After the dependencies are set, it’s very simple to install the software. Just run the following command:
sudo pip3 install https://download.electrum.org/3.1.3/Electrum-3.1.3.tar.gz
Note that this command will install the latest version (currently Electrum v3.1.3). For installing newer version, you can download the latest TAR.GZ from here.
You may end up with warning like running “pip3” with root privilege isn’t a good idea. If you want to install it system-wide, it’s a must. Moreover, it’s documented in the official Electrum site, so you shouldn’t worry about it.
Now, we have to create a desktop shortcut for Electrum. Run the following commands:
touch ~/Desktop/electrum.desktop nano ~/Desktop/electrum.desktop # Paste the following code inside the editor, save and close. [Desktop Entry] Name=Electrum Comment=Lightweight Bitcoin Wallet. GenericName=Bitcoin Wallet. Exec=/usr/local/bin/electrum Icon=/opt/electrum/electrum-icon.png Type=Application # Download icon for the shortcut cd /opt/ sudo mkdir -p electrum cd electrum sudo wget http://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/alecive/flatwoken/256/Apps-Electrum-icon.png sudo mv Apps-Electrum-icon.png electrum-icon.png # Change shortcut permission chmod +x ~/Desktop/electrum.desktop # Add shortcut to launcher sudo cp ~/Desktop/electrum.desktop /usr/share/applications/
Enjoying Electrum
Now, it’s time to enjoy Electrum. After you start Electrum, you’ll see the initialization wizard.
Enjoy the awesome Bitcoin wallet!
