Guide · Oct 11, 2026

How to see your XBT balance with Shrike and a public Electrum server

By xbt.live · 4 minute read

Connect Shrike to an XBT Electrum server

If you held bitcoin before Aug 8, you hold the same amount of XBT at the same addresses. Normal bitcoin wallets can't show it, because they reject XBT's block headers. Shrike, a Sparrow fork built for the BLAKE2b chain, can, as long as it connects to an XBT Electrum server.

What you need

Shrike, the open-source XBT wallet. Get it from the link on our tools page and check the download's signature.
An XBT Electrum server. Your own node is best. If you don't run one yet, there's a public one.
Your wallet's xpub or a watch-only export to check balances. You don't need to type a seed into anything to see your coins.

The public server

Luis Marcano runs a public Electrum server for XBT on his own node: an unpruned Oracle Knots node with a BLAKE2b-patched Fulcrum indexer. He announced it on Sep 17 as the first public Electrum server for the fork, and published the code for both on GitHub.

Open Shrike and go to Preferences → Server → Private Electrum.
Host: electrum.marcanotrades.com
Port: 4142, with SSL on.
Shrike will warn about a self-signed certificate. Accept it the first time. If the warning ever comes back later, stop and find out why.
Import your wallet as watch-only (xpub, or connect your hardware wallet). Shrike syncs and shows your XBT. It may still say "BTC" in places; it's XBT.

It's a volunteer server, so it can go down or change. We haven't audited it. If it doesn't connect, check his X account for updates.

What the server can see

A public Electrum server can't touch your coins. It can see which addresses you ask about and your IP address, which links them to you. For a quick balance check that's often fine. For real privacy:

Connect over Tor if Shrike's Tor option is available to you, so the server doesn't see your IP.
Run your own node with an Electrum indexer. Then nobody learns your addresses. The Oracle Knots repo is one way to build that stack; most XBT nodes run Knots.

Before you move anything

Seeing your balance is safe. Moving coins is where people lose money, because XBT's replay protection is opt-in. Read replay protection, explained and our claim and sell guide first. If you're keeping your XBT long term, see cold storage.

XBT wallets and tools How to claim XBT

Server details from Luis Marcano's posts on X, Sep 17, 2026. Not financial advice.