How to install and verify Electron Cash the Bitcoin-Cash wallet on Linux

Objective

The objective is to install Electron Cash the Bitcoin-Cash wallet on Linux

Operating System and Software Versions

• Operating System: – Debian 9.3
• Software: – Electron Cash 3.0

Requirements

Privileged access to your system will be required.

Difficulty

EASY

Conventions

• # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
• $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Instructions

Let us get started my installation of all prerequisites:

$ su
# apt install git dirmngr python3-pyqt5 python3-setuptools

Download and Verify Electron Cash source and signature

The following linux command will download a latest version of Electron Cash wallet. The current version at the time of writing is 3.0. Check https://electroncash.org/ and amend the below installation command to fit your downloaded version.

$ wget https://electroncash.org/downloads/3.0/win-linux/ElectronCash-3.0.tar.gz

Next, clone a verification signatures:

$ git clone https://github.com/fyookball/keys-n-hashes.git

Electron source code is signed by Jonald Fyookball jonf@electroncash.org. To verify our download we first need to download a relevant signature:

$ gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 4FD06489EFF1DDE1
gpg: key 4FD06489EFF1DDE1: public key "Jonald Fyookball " imported
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1

Now it is time to verify a source code:

$ gpg --verify keys-n-hashes/sigs-and-sums/3.0/win-linux/ElectronCash-3.0.tar.gz.sig ElectronCash-3.0.tar.gz
gpg: Signature made Fri 08 Dec 2017 22:53:51 AEDT
gpg:                using DSA key 4FD06489EFF1DDE1
gpg: Good signature from "Jonald Fyookball " [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: D56C 110F 4555 F371 AEEF  CB25 4FD0 6489 EFF1 DDE1

Note gpg: Good signature line. All good!

Install Electron Cash

Almost there. Extract Electron Cash source code, navigate to a newly extracted directory and run python install command:

$ tar xvzf ElectronCash-3.0.tar.gz
$ su
# cd Electron\ Cash-3.0/
# python3 setup.py install

Electron Cash is now installed. Start it from command line by executing:

$ electron-cash

Navigate to the following page to learn how to create a Bitcoin Cash offline/paper wallet.