Create an Electrum Wallet

Before you begin

1. First you need to download and install Electrum. You can download it from here . If you are on Windows, you should use the installer version and not the portable version.

2. You will need a pen and a notebook (recommended) or a piece of paper to write down the seed mnemonic. The notebook will need to be kept in a safe place once you have completed the installation process; therefore, it cannot be a notebook that you use every day.

Creation of the portfolio

To create a new wallet file, you'll need to launch the Wallet Creation Wizard. When you first launch Electrum and it sees that you don't have a wallet file on your computer, it will display the New Wallet Creation Wizard. Alternatively, you can explicitly trigger it via the File > New/Restore menu or through other means.

Note : If you are on macOS or Ubuntu, the application menus are located in the upper left corner of the screen and not in the application window itself.

The wallet creation wizard looks like this:

Enter a wallet name and proceed to the next step.

Click next to display the wallet type selection window:

As you can see, Electrum supports different types of wallets. If you're just starting out, you just need to select "Standard Wallet."

In the next step, Electrum asks you to choose where the wallet secret will come from.

The seed is a secret that unlocks all your bitcoins. When you create a new wallet, you want Electrum to generate a seed for you.

Electrum presents the seed to you in the form of a 12-word mnemonic. It's important at this point to write down the seed in a notebook. You must write it down. Don't keep it on your computer!
Also, write "Software: Electrum" in your notebook, under the seed mnemonic. You wouldn't believe how many users forget what software they used!

Electrum will then ask you to verify that you wrote the seed correctly by retyping it:

You can also set a password to protect your wallet file from others who might have access to your computer. This is optional:

Electrum will then generate your addresses and display your wallet window:

Your wallet has been created. You should keep the notebook in which you wrote the seed in a safe place. If you forget your wallet password or your computer crashes and you lose your wallet file, you can still regain access to your wallet using your seed.

This also means that anyone else can access your bitcoins with just your seed, so keep it safe.