Electrum vs Trust Wallet Comparison

Electrum creates its own seed phrase: 12 words from the same 2048-word list as BIP39, but with a version number hidden in the phrase's hash instead of a BIP39 checksum, so a wallet that reads only BIP39 phrases cannot restore it. Electrum publishes the format, and it can also restore BIP39 phrases and SLIP-39 shares.

New wallets get a 12-word phrase; 12- and 24-word phrases can be imported. Addresses on a few networks, such as Wanchain and IoTeX, are derived differently from the Ethereum address of the same phrase, so another wallet may not find them.

Browser extension only: source code audit and penetration test; all five findings fixed and the fixes checked by the auditor. No audit of the phone app has been published.

Electrum Technologies GmbH, Berlin, develops and distributes the software and hosts electrum.org. The company holds no user accounts and cannot freeze or reverse payments. Anyone can run an Electrum server, and none of the 84 servers in the app's built-in list is on electrum.org.

The privacy notice names Dapps Platform Bahrain W.L.L., doing business as Trust Wallet, as the company that handles your data. The terms of service are governed by Hong Kong law, with arbitration in Hong Kong. The app stores list DApps Platform Software Services Ltd. and DApps Platform, Inc. as the developer.

Thomas Voegtlin created Electrum in November 2011 and founded Electrum Technologies GmbH in 2013. Two developers, Thomas Voegtlin and SomberNight, have write access to the code; website changes and releases must be signed by both.

Founded in 2017 by Viktor Radchenko and bought by Binance in July 2018, its first acquisition; Binance said at the time that Trust Wallet would keep its autonomy. Security reports go through Binance's bug bounty programme. Trust Wallet does not publish its current ownership structure, so Binance is the last documented owner.