Electrum Servers

In this Bitcoin related article, I'm going to cover what an Electrum Server is, explain why you'd want one, and point you to resources to set one up.

If you prefer a video format of this content you can watch below. Otherwise, read on.

What is an Electrum Server?

An electrum server is an additional database that sits on top of Bitcoin Core and serves information about the status of the blockchain. Instead of having your wallet query the Bitcoin blockchain database directly, your wallet queries this 'Electrum Server' database instead.

What's the point?

I can name 3 reasons.

• When presented with a new wallet with funds already in it, Bitcoin Core can take up to 10-15 minutes for a balance to appear, whilst an Electrum Server will give you the balance of a wallet it doesn't know about in mere seconds. Electrum Servers are a significantly faster, more efficient database for wallet software to query.
• The Bitcoin Core database cannot query the balance of individual addresses.
• When a new wallet is imported into Bitcoin Core, an unencrypted file in the 'wallets' folder is created on the computer that's running Bitcoin Core. This file contains sensitive address information, which can be a privacy risk. Electrum Servers, on the other hand, are queried without a trace.

Popular Electrum Servers

There are three popular implementations Electrum Servers, each of them with their pros and cons. I've also included video tutorial setup guides that I have made.

• Electrum Rust Server (electrs) - this is the most common Electrum Server. Low storage space required, rock solid and reliable, suitable for most individual users, but completely unsuitable for wallets with lots of history (coinjoins, businesses). See setup video guide below.

BNB24 - 08 - Electrum Rust Server

Installation and configuration of electrum rust serverGithub: https://github.com/romanz/electrsUseful commands:sudo apt updatesudo apt install clang cmake bu…

YouTube

• ElectrumX - larger storage space required, decent performance on wallets with lots of history, a happy medium. See setup video guide below.

Running an ElectrumX server

In this video, I run through how to set up an ElectrumX server on Ubuntu 20.04. Github: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrumxServer performance article: http…

YouTube

• Fulcrum - largest storage space requirements, excellent performance on wallets with lots of history, sometimes unstable and prone to database corruption, suitable for wallets with coinjoins, businesses and large transaction volumes. See setup video guide below.

UNB22 - 05 - Fulcrum Server

In this video, we learn to download and install a performant Electrum Server called Fulcrum.Command to create keys for SSLopenssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -new -…

YouTube

All the popular node-in-box implementations such as Start9/Umbrel/myNode etc will offer one or more of these Electrum Servers. So if you're using one of those, it should just be a one-click install away.

Final thoughts

Electrum Servers are a great tool to improve your privacy and speed at which you can query the Bitcoin blockchain. I will continue to run one and I'd encourage you to do the same.