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Multisig Setup

Checklist

Recover a Sparrow multisig in Nunchuk or Electrum

Last reviewed: October 2026

TL;DR

Your multisig lives on the blockchain, not in Sparrow. With the descriptor and two of your devices you can open it in Nunchuk, which imports the descriptor directly. Electrum can’t import a descriptor, so there you rebuild the wallet from the three keys. Either way: check that the addresses match before you send anything.

You’d do this if Sparrow stopped being available, wouldn’t run on your computer, or you just want to know you’re not locked into one program. I haven’t recovered this setup in Nunchuk or Electrum myself. The steps follow the developers’ own documentation and source code, checked October 2026. Try it with a watch-only wallet while nothing is wrong, the same way you did the recovery rehearsal.

Sparrow itself is the easiest place to recover: it’s free and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. This page is for when you want or need something else.

What you need

  • The descriptor: the text file on the USB stick or the PDF from step 7. It holds everything below in one line.
  • Or, if you have to type things in by hand: the three xpubs, the three master fingerprints, the derivation path (normally m/48'/0'/0'/2'), 2-of-3 and Native SegWit (P2WSH).
  • Two of your three hardware wallets, unlocked with the passphrase if you use one.
  • A receive address you used before, from your notes or your exchange’s withdrawal history, to compare against.

No descriptor and only two seeds? Read lost your multisig descriptor first. Neither program can calculate your addresses without the third public key.

Option 1: Nunchuk

Nunchuk is a multisig app for desktop and phone. It reads descriptors and BSMS files (the wallet configuration format from BIP129), and works without an account in guest mode. Use the desktop app if your devices connect over USB.

  1. Download Nunchuk from nunchuk.io. Type the address yourself.
  2. In the desktop app, choose Import Wallet, then Recover via BSMS/descriptors, and pick the descriptor file from your USB stick.
  3. Check what Nunchuk shows: 2 of 3, Native SegWit, and three fingerprints that match your notes.
  4. Compare the first receive addresses with your notes. Your balance should appear once it has synced.
  5. To spend, connect two devices and follow Nunchuk’s prompts. The Ledger will ask you to register the wallet again: that registration lived in your Sparrow wallet file, not on the device.

More on how the two compare: Sparrow vs Nunchuk. Using the phone app instead: Nunchuk multisig on your phone.

Option 2: Electrum

Electrum (version 4.8.2, September 2026) still has no way to import a descriptor when you create a wallet. You rebuild the multisig from its parts. There are two routes.

If Sparrow still runs somewhere

Open the wallet in Sparrow, or import the descriptor into a fresh Sparrow, and use File → Export Wallet… with Electrum as the format. Electrum opens that file directly. This avoids typing keys by hand, and it’s the route I’d pick.

From scratch

  1. Download Electrum from electrum.org (type it yourself) and verify the signature, as described in Electrum multisig step by step.
  2. File → New/Restore, give the wallet a name, choose Multi-signature wallet and set it to 2 of 3.
  3. First key: Use a hardware device. Connect a device, then pick native segwit multisig (p2wsh). Electrum fills in m/48'/0'/0'/2'. Leave it unless your notes say otherwise.
  4. Second key: Cosign with hardware device, same script type and path, with your second device.
  5. Third key: Enter cosigner key and paste that device’s public key. Electrum wants it in Zpub form for native segwit multisig (see below).
  6. Finish the wizard and set a wallet password.

Why the Zpub: Sparrow’s descriptor stores plain xpubs. Mixed with keys from your devices, a plain xpub gets refused. Entered for every key, it makes Electrum build the old P2SH address type: a valid wallet with completely different, empty addresses. Electrum has its own converter on its command line, electrum -o convert_xkey <xpub> p2wsh, which works without going online; I haven’t run it myself. Never paste your xpubs into a converter website: anyone with them can see your addresses and balance (what an xpub reveals).

If you have all three devices, use a hardware device for all three keys and skip the conversion.

Check that the addresses match

A wallet with one wrong setting looks perfectly normal. It just has other addresses. So before you trust it:

  • The first receive address is the same as in your notes or in Sparrow.
  • Your balance and past transactions appear after syncing.
  • The fingerprints match the ones written on your descriptor printouts.
  • A receive address shown in the new app matches the BitBox02 or Ledger screen, after registering the wallet on it, as in step 8.

Different addresses usually mean one of four things: wrong script type, wrong derivation path, a device unlocked without its passphrase, or a plain xpub where Electrum needed a Zpub. Fix it before you send anything in or out. Then spend a small amount first, as in the test transaction.

Your seed words stay off the computer

Both apps offer to type in a seed (“Enter cosigner seed” in Electrum). Don’t. If a device is missing, restore its seed onto a hardware wallet, never into a program. And nobody legitimate offers to “recover” your multisig for you if you share your words: that’s always a scam.

Common mistakes

  • Building the Electrum wallet from plain xpubs and concluding the coins are gone.
  • Forgetting to unlock the passphrase wallet on a device before connecting it.
  • Using an xpub converter website.
  • Moving coins before the addresses have been checked on a device screen.

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