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<p><span class="application">Electrum</span>choose <span class="menuchoice"> uses <em>mBTC</em> as the default base unit. 1 mBTC = 0.001 BTC. To change the base unit, choose <span class="guimenu">Applications</span> ▸choice"> <span class="guisubmenu">InternetTools</span> ▸ <span class="guimenuitem">Electrum Bitcoin WalletPreferences</span> </span>.</p>
<p><span class="application">Electrum</span> uses <em>mBTC</em> as the default base unit. 1 mBTC = 0.001 BTC. To change the base unit, choose <span class="menuchoice"> <span class="guimenu">Tools</span> ▸ <span class="guimenuitem">Preferences</span></span>.</p>
<p>Do not blindly trust the bitcoin balance that <span class="application">Electrum</span> displays as <em>unconfirmed</em>. Wait for transactions to be confirmed.</p>
Your wallet can be recovered entirely from its <em>seed</em>: the chain of words generated by <span class="application">Electrum</span> 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 choose <span class="guilabel">turn on the option **Show Hidden Files</span>**.
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.
