KeyStone
Get in touch
EN ES
← All articles

Signing · Electrum

Signing a message in Electrum: step by step

In Electrum, signing is direct: no website and nothing to connect. It all happens inside the program, offline if you like, and the result is a block of text you can send with no risk at all.

September 26, 2026 · 4-minute read

The steps

  1. Open your wallet in Electrum.
  2. If you can’t see the addresses tab, enable it in the view menu: it is off by default and it is where almost everyone gets stuck.
  3. In the addresses tab, find one of your addresses with history. One you actually used is preferable.
  4. Right-click on it and choose the sign/verify message option.
  5. In the window that opens, type the text you want to sign in the relevant field.
  6. Click sign. It will ask for your wallet password.
  7. Copy the signature block that appears.
What you hand over is three things: the address, the exact text you signed and the signature. All three are needed to verify, and none of them compromises anything. Anyone can check it from that same Electrum window using the verify option.

What text to sign

Something specific and dated, that can’t be reused elsewhere. For example: «I am the holder of this wallet. For KeyStone, 20 September 2026.» Avoid generic texts like «hello» or «it’s me»: such a signature proves nothing in particular and could be reused.

If the wallet asks for a password you don’t remember

Then you can’t sign, and you are in a password-recovery case. The good news is that if Electrum lets you see the balance even though you can’t sign, you already have another way to prove ownership: the address with history and screenshots from the program itself. See what counts as proof when you can’t get in.

Don’t sign texts you don’t understand and don’t sign anything sent by someone who messaged you first privately. And if you are asked to sign from a website instead of from your own Electrum, be suspicious: the whole point of Electrum is that no website is needed.

A note on address types

If your address starts with bc1, some older programs and tools can’t verify its signature, even though Electrum generates it perfectly. If whoever receives it can’t verify it, try signing with an address starting with 1 if you have one in the same wallet.

Keep reading