How to setup Electrum testnet mode and get BTC test coins

For some reason we need to use BTC test coins, but how to set up the Bitcoin testnet wallet and get the test coin? Now here we go.

 

Set up Testnet mode wallet

In this guide we use Electrum wallet which is a BTC PC wallet to set up the testnet mode. The prerequisite is that you have downloaded and installed the Electrum. If not, you can get it from their official website: https://electrum.org/#download （for these two parts, I will not going to say more than is necessary.）

 

The default net mode of Electrum is mainnet. For how to using testnet mode it's easy (below operations are on windows):

1. Copy your Electrum launcher on your desktop and paste the new copy on your desktop, rename the copy as 'Electrum Testnet' or whatever you want;
2. Right click on the copied icon, choose properties, select 'Shortcut' tab, add " --testnet" at the end of the text field of 'Target'. 

And now double click the icon then the Electrum will be started in Testnet mode! Then create a BTC testnet wallet by following the Electrum step tips, then on the address tab you will see your wallet addresses. These adddresses can be used to get some BTC test coins as below.

 

Get BTC Testnet coin

We can get BTC test coin from BTC faucet websites, here are several available examples sites which we can get BTC test coins from:

• http://bitcoinfaucet.uo1.net/ 
• https://testnet-faucet.mempool.co/  ( max 0.05\hour - 0.01 per request )
• https://coinfaucet.eu/en/btc-testnet/ ( can request once per 12 hours)

 

If you don't need the test coins anymore, you can send this coins back as you want.