Jeremy Burman Blog

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In my previous post, I briefly described the tools that I use on Windows 10 for managing cryptocurrency (Litecoin specifically) and the steps needed to get going. In this post I’ll go into a bit more detail on how to actually complete the steps. Please refer to the end of this post for a list links for reference.

The first step will be to download both the KeePass and Electrum-LTC programs. While optional, I highly recommend taking the time to verify the programs as well and establish the habit going forward. While not completely bullet proof (you’ll at least have to trust the site that you download the verification keys from), it will prevent you from accidentally using a version of the program that has been altered by a third party.

To perform the verification of the downloaded programs, I use the GPG tooling in Linux. Alternatively, you could install Gpg4win; however, since Windows 10 has new support for true Linux distributions why not go directly to the source? To do so, you will need to first enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux (see the link at the end of this document or search how to in your favorite search engine.) Once WSL is enabled, visit the Windows Store and pick a distribution of Linux (I use Ubuntu, but there is Suse and others.) Once installed, launch the Bash command line shell.

Optional Step – Mounting a Removable Drive in WSL

If you are doing everything on an internal hard drive, then this next step can be skipped. In my case, I have a MicroSD card slotted into my Surface Pro and encrypted with BitLocker. WSL does not automatically mount a removal drive so this needs to be done manually. For example, if the MicroSD is mounted to drive letter D: in Windows then the following commands need to be run the mount it in WSL.

$sudo mkdir /mnt/d

Then, to mount the drive (and again on subsequent Bash sessions):

$ sudo mount -t drvfs D: /mnt/d

When I’m finished, I can unmount it with.

$ sudo umount /mnt/d

Download and Verify KeePass

I will be keeping all of my downloaded files in D:\software (so in WSL that will be /mnt/d/software)

Start by downloading the latest version of KeePass. I prefer the Portable version so as to keep my system cleaner (it simply runs out of a folder and does not need to modify the Windows Registry etc.) Next, from the signatures page, download the PGP .asc file corresponding to the version of the program that you downloaded and place it in the same folder as the downloaded program file. For example, if you downloaded the portable version KeePass-2.37.zip then also download KeePass-2.37.zip.asc. The other piece of information that you need off of the signatures page is the Key ID of the program signer (see screen shot below).

KeePassASC

Over in the Bash window, run the following command (make sure you grab the actual Key ID off of the page when you run it)

$ gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys <keyIDvalue>

Below is an example with output.

image

Once the key has been imported to your local “key ring,” the KeePass .zip file can be verified with the .asc file by running the gpg --verify command. See the example below.

image

The main thing that you are looking for here is the “Good signature” message, and the warning message here can be ignored. You can also compare the key fingerprint to the one that was displayed on the website where you downloaded the .asc file from.

Download and Verify Electrum-LTC

The good news is that now that you’ve verified KeePass, the process for Electrum-LTC is nearly identical. Head over to the Electrum-LTC site and first download the .exe (once again, I recommend the portable version) and the corresponding .asc file. Also, visit the link to the “Pooler” signature. I’ve highlighted all three items for the portable version in the image below.

image

Import the Pooler public key (example below) and then run the gpg --verify command on the Electrum files.

image

Fwew! That was a bit of work, but now with both the programs verified we are finally ready to setup our Litecoin wallet. However, I am going to end this post here and will save that for the next one.

Reference Links

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