For an explanation of how Bitcoin works in simple terms, read [The In-Depth Guide to Bitcoin That Won’t Leave You Frustrated](https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/ultimate-guide-bitcoin/).
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To start *Electrum* choose <span class="menuchoice"> **Applications** ▸ **Internet** ▸ **Electrum Bitcoin Wallet** </span>.<p><i>Electrum</i> uses <i>mBTC</i> as the default base unit. 1 mBTC = 0.001 BTC. To change the base unit, choose <b>Tools ▸ Preferences</b>.</p>
Your wallet can be recovered entirely from its <em>seed</em>: the chain of words generated by *Electrum* when creating the wallet. But if you lose your seed, you lose your entire wallet.
Backup your seed outside of Tails. For example, you can write it down on a piece of paper and keep it with you.
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Click onthe <span class="guimenu">[[!img lib/pan-downopen-menu.png alt="menu toggleMain Menu" class="symbolic" link="no"]]</span> button in the title bar and chooseturn on the option **Show Hidden Files**.
You can use hardware wallets that work with the packages included in the version of Debian that Tails is based on. Which wallets work can vary from one Debian release to the next. For example, Trezor hardware wallets stopped working in Debian Bookworm, so they don't work in Tails6.0 or later.