Updated on GitHub 4 months ago (see history)

How to install and use Electrum over Tor on macOS

Requirements

• Computer running macOS Big Sur or Monterey

Caveats

• When copy/pasting commands that start with $, strip out $ as this character is not part of the command
• Press ctrl+c to stop running command before closing “Terminal” app

Setup guide

Step 1: install Homebrew

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

$ uname -m | grep arm64 && echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

Step 2: disable Homebrew analytics

brew analytics off

Step 3: install GnuPG

brew install gnupg

Step 4: install Electrum

Import ThomasV’s PGP public key

$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spesmilo/electrum/master/pubkeys/ThomasV.asc | gpg --import
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  4739  100  4739    0     0  29073      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 29073
gpg: key 0x2BD5824B7F9470E6: public key "Thomas Voegtlin (https://electrum.org) <thomasv@electrum.org>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1

imported: 1

👍

Download Electrum release

Go to https://electrum.org/#download and download latest release and associated PGP signature to ~/Downloads folder.

Verify Electrum release (learn how here)

Heads-up: replace 4.2.1 with latest release semver.

$ gpg --verify ~/Downloads/electrum-4.2.1.dmg.asc
gpg: assuming signed data in '/Users/sunknudsen/Downloads/electrum-4.2.1.dmg'
gpg: Signature made Sun 27 Mar 12:31:59 2022 EDT
gpg:                using RSA key 637DB1E23370F84AFF88CCE03152347D07DA627C
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
gpg: Signature made Sun 27 Mar 09:55:54 2022 EDT
gpg:                using RSA key 0EEDCFD5CAFB459067349B23CA9EEEC43DF911DC
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
gpg: Signature made Sun 27 Mar 01:57:04 2022 EDT
gpg:                using RSA key 6694D8DE7BE8EE5631BED9502BD5824B7F9470E6
gpg: Good signature from "Thomas Voegtlin (https://electrum.org) <thomasv@electrum.org>" [unknown]
gpg:                 aka "ThomasV <thomasv1@gmx.de>" [unknown]
gpg:                 aka "Thomas Voegtlin <thomasv1@gmx.de>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 6694 D8DE 7BE8 EE56 31BE  D950 2BD5 824B 7F94 70E6

Good signature

👍

Install Electrum

Double-click “electrum-4.2.1.dmg” and drag-and-drop “Electrum” into “Applications” folder.

Step 5: install Tor Browser (used to connect to Electrum public servers over Tor)

Heads-up: using public servers can compromised privacy of wallet (learn how to self-host Bitcoin node here).

Import “Tor Browser Developers (signing key)” PGP public key

$ gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys 0x4E2C6E8793298290
gpg: key 0x4E2C6E8793298290: public key "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <torbrowser@torproject.org>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1

imported: 1

👍

Download “Tor Browser” release

Go to https://www.torproject.org/download/ and download latest release and associated PGP signature to ~/Downloads folder.

Verify “Tor Browser” release (learn how here)

Heads-up: replace 11.0.10 with latest release semver.

$ gpg --verify ~/Downloads/TorBrowser-11.0.10-osx64_en-US.dmg.asc
gpg: assuming signed data in '/Users/sunknudsen/Downloads/TorBrowser-11.0.10-osx64_en-US.dmg'
gpg: Signature made Tue  5 Apr 20:06:23 2022 EDT
gpg:                using RSA key 0xE53D989A9E2D47BF
gpg: Good signature from "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <torbrowser@torproject.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: EF6E 286D DA85 EA2A 4BA7  DE68 4E2C 6E87 9329 8290
     Subkey fingerprint: 6131 88FC 5BE2 176E 3ED5  4901 E53D 989A 9E2D 47BF

Good signature

👍

Install “Tor Browser”

Double-click “TorBrowser-11.0.10-osx64_en-US.dmg” and drag-and-drop “Tor Browser” into “Applications” folder.

👍

Usage guide

Step 1: start Tor SOCKSv5 proxy

$ /Applications/Tor\ Browser.app/Contents/Resources/TorBrowser/Tor/tor
Jun 21 08:20:47.065 [notice] Tor 0.4.5.8 (git-27e5e33d2ca35de8) running on Darwin with Libevent 2.1.11-stable, OpenSSL 1.1.1k, Zlib 1.2.11, Liblzma N/A, Libzstd N/A and Unknown N/A as libc.
Jun 21 08:20:47.065 [notice] Tor can't help you if you use it wrong! Learn how to be safe at https://www.torproject.org/download/download#warning
Jun 21 08:20:47.065 [notice] Configuration file "/var/tmp/dist/tor/etc/tor/torrc" not present, using reasonable defaults.
Jun 21 08:20:47.067 [notice] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9050
Jun 21 08:20:47.067 [notice] Opened Socks listener connection (ready) on 127.0.0.1:9050
Jun 21 08:20:47.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 0% (starting): Starting
Jun 21 08:20:47.000 [notice] Starting with guard context "default"
Jun 21 08:20:48.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 5% (conn): Connecting to a relay
Jun 21 08:20:48.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 10% (conn_done): Connected to a relay
Jun 21 08:20:48.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 14% (handshake): Handshaking with a relay
Jun 21 08:20:49.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 15% (handshake_done): Handshake with a relay done
Jun 21 08:20:49.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 75% (enough_dirinfo): Loaded enough directory info to build circuits
Jun 21 08:20:49.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 90% (ap_handshake_done): Handshake finished with a relay to build circuits
Jun 21 08:20:49.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 95% (circuit_create): Establishing a Tor circuit
Jun 21 08:20:51.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 100% (done): Done

Done

👍

Step 2: start Electrum using Tor SOCKSv5 proxy

Heads-up: append --testnet for Testnet.

/Applications/Electrum.app/Contents/MacOS/run_electrum --proxy socks5:127.0.0.1:9050