Frequently asked questions.

Yes — free, open-source software under the MIT license. There are no fees beyond standard XEC network fees.

No. Electrum ABC is non-custodial: your keys are generated and stored on your computer. Nobody else can access your XEC.

No. Electrum ABC has no online account and no login page — the wallet runs locally on your computer. Anything that looks like an Electrum ABC login is not Electrum ABC.

eCash (XEC) only. Not Bitcoin, not Bitcoin Cash, not Ethereum.

No official mobile build. Cashtab is a common XEC mobile choice.

Electrum ABC follows an open-source review model: every release is built from a public repository, releases are reproducible so anyone can rebuild and compare binaries against source, and issues and pull requests are triaged in the open.

Yes, with AES-256 derived from a password you set at creation.

If you also lose the wallet file, the XEC at those addresses is permanently unrecoverable. There is no support team that can help — that's the non-custodial trade-off.

Email security@electrum-abc.org. Responsible disclosure preferred.

New wallets use a 12-word Electrum-style seed. Legacy imports may accept 12- or 24-word BIP39 seeds from other wallets during restore.

On Windows it lives at %APPDATA%\ElectrumABC\wallets. On macOS at ~/Library/Application Support/ElectrumABC/wallets. On Linux at ~/.electrum-abc/wallets. Back up the whole folder — it holds every wallet file and the config.

The seed alone can restore addresses and balances. The wallet file additionally preserves labels, contacts, custom derivation paths, watch-only setups, and multisig cosigner information. For any non-trivial wallet, back up both.

Install the same major version, choose 'Restore from seed' on first launch, paste the words, pick the derivation path you originally used, and let the wallet resync from the network. Balances reappear once the chain history is downloaded.

Yes. Restore the seed into a fresh wallet directory on another machine (or in a Linux VM), let it sync, and check that the address list and balance match. Delete the test wallet folder afterwards.

Ledger (Nano S, S Plus, Nano X), Trezor (One and Model T), Satochip, and Coldcard via PSBT are the tested devices. All sign XEC transactions with keys that never leave the device.

A hardware wallet keeps the private key inside a signing device even when the desktop machine is compromised. Malware on the computer can propose a transaction, but it cannot sign one without physical confirmation on the device.

Native m-of-n up to 15 cosigners. Common setups are 2-of-3 for personal cold storage (one hot, one hardware, one paper backup) and 3-of-5 for treasuries where any three officers can co-sign.

Yes. Import the extended public key on a networked machine to view balances and craft transactions, then move the unsigned transaction (PSBT) to the offline machine holding the hardware wallet for signing.

The online wallet produces an unsigned partially-signed transaction. You transfer it — QR code, USB stick, or file — to the signing machine, sign it there, and bring the signed version back to broadcast. The private key never touches an internet-connected device.

It uses the ElectrumX protocol: light clients talk to indexer servers that hold the full chain, rather than each user running a full node. This makes syncing near-instant while keeping key custody local.

Yes. Run Fulcrum or ElectrumX against a Bitcoin ABC full node and point Electrum ABC at it in Tools → Network. Solo operators get the strongest privacy posture — no third-party server sees which addresses belong to your wallet.

Electrum ABC estimates fees in satoshis per byte based on recent network conditions and shows the total in XEC before you sign. eCash typically settles for a fraction of a cent per transaction.

CashFusion integration is available in builds that ship the plugin. It coordinates transaction merging across users to reduce address-linkability, without requiring a trusted mixer.

No. Every wallet screen generates a fresh receive address on demand. Reuse is possible but weakens on-chain privacy because it links all past and future payments to the same address.

Download only from electrum-abc.org. Confirm the URL in the address bar matches exactly — no extra words, no hyphenated lookalikes, no .com or .io variants. Avoid search-ad results and third-party download portals.

Install the new version over the old one — settings and wallet files are preserved. Back up the wallets folder first as standard hygiene.

Uninstall the app through the OS, then remove the data folder (%APPDATA%\ElectrumABC on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/ElectrumABC on macOS, ~/.electrum-abc on Linux) if you also want to remove wallets and history.

The AppImage bundles its runtime. Native packages depend on Python 3.9+ and PyQt5. Most modern distributions satisfy both from the default repositories.

The ticker for eCash, a Bitcoin-family chain that forked from Bitcoin Cash in 2021.

21,000,000,000,000 XEC — the same 21M cap as Bitcoin, expressed in a smaller unit.

No. They share a lineage but are separate chains with different consensus rules and address formats.

Electrum is the Bitcoin wallet. Electrum ABC is the eCash wallet. Different installers, different coins.

Electrum ABC is a desktop wallet for power users. Cashtab is a browser/mobile wallet for everyday spending. Both are non-custodial XEC wallets.

SmartScreen shows a standard caution for any installer it has not yet seen widely. Confirm the download came from electrum-abc.org, verify the digital signature, and review Microsoft's own SmartScreen guidance before deciding how to proceed. The caution fades on its own as the signed build reaches more users.

Almost always a derivation-path mismatch. Try a different path or script type in the restore dialog.

A low-fee transaction can sit until network conditions improve. With RBF enabled you can bump the fee.