The Electrum development team has released version 4.0.5 of the wallet, which fixes an issue caused by the recent Big Sur macOS update.
The Big Sur update released last week prevented Electrum users on macOS from using the wallet. One Electrum user previously stated:
“The Big Sur update damaged Electrum on Mac devices. Unable to open the app or download any of my wallets. ”
The bug first became known on August 1 after the relevant information was published on Github Electrum, around the time Apple released the beta version of Big Sur.
According to Electrum developer SomberNight, “the root cause of the problem is still unknown,” but it has to do with handling Big Sur Python, the programming language Electrum is written in.
To work around the issue, Electrum users could run software from source or embed an older version of Python in a wallet. On November 18, the Electrum team announced a new version of the wallet that fixes this issue.
Recall that in October, ZDNet conducted a study of BTC thefts from users of Electrum wallets over the past two years. According to the results of the study, during this period, BTC worth $ 24.2 million was stolen from Electrum users.
Additionally, in August, an Electrum user lost 1,400 BTC after downloading an old wallet version running on malicious servers. This vulnerability has been fixed in versions 3.3.4 and higher.