diff --git a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/apprun.sh b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/apprun.sh
index 47d024ce6..a841a7938 100755
--- a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/apprun.sh
+++ b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/apprun.sh
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${APPDIR}/usr/lib/:${APPDIR}/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu${L
 export PATH="${APPDIR}/usr/bin:${PATH}"
 export LDFLAGS="-L${APPDIR}/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -L${APPDIR}/usr/lib"
 
-exec "${APPDIR}/usr/bin/python3.7" -s "${APPDIR}/usr/bin/electrum" "$@"
+exec "${APPDIR}/usr/bin/python3.8" -s "${APPDIR}/usr/bin/electrum" "$@"
diff --git a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/make_appimage.sh b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/make_appimage.sh
index cf078bb90..c2b8df7d2 100755
--- a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/make_appimage.sh
+++ b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/make_appimage.sh
@@ -14,9 +14,7 @@ PIP_CACHE_DIR="$CACHEDIR/pip_cache"
 export GCC_STRIP_BINARIES="1"
 
 # pinned versions
-# note: compiling python 3.8.x requires at least glibc 2.27,
-#       which is first available on ubuntu 18.04
-PYTHON_VERSION=3.7.10
+PYTHON_VERSION=3.8.12
 PKG2APPIMAGE_COMMIT="eb8f3acdd9f11ab19b78f5cb15daa772367daf15"
 SQUASHFSKIT_COMMIT="ae0d656efa2d0df2fcac795b6823b44462f19386"
 
@@ -41,7 +39,7 @@ download_if_not_exist "$CACHEDIR/appimagetool" "https://github.com/AppImage/AppI
 verify_hash "$CACHEDIR/appimagetool" "d918b4df547b388ef253f3c9e7f6529ca81a885395c31f619d9aaf7030499a13"
 
 download_if_not_exist "$CACHEDIR/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/$PYTHON_VERSION/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz"
-verify_hash "$CACHEDIR/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" "f8d82e7572c86ec9d55c8627aae5040124fd2203af400c383c821b980306ee6b"
+verify_hash "$CACHEDIR/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" "b1d3a76420375343b5e8a22fceb1ac65b77193e9ed27146524f0a9db058728ea"
 
 
 
@@ -51,8 +49,8 @@ tar xf "$CACHEDIR/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" -C "$BUILDDIR"
     cd "$BUILDDIR/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION"
     LC_ALL=C export BUILD_DATE=$(date -u -d "@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "+%b %d %Y")
     LC_ALL=C export BUILD_TIME=$(date -u -d "@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "+%H:%M:%S")
-    # Patch taken from Ubuntu http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python3.7/python3.7_3.7.6-1.debian.tar.xz
-    patch -p1 < "$CONTRIB_APPIMAGE/patches/python-3.7-reproducible-buildinfo.diff"
+    # Patch taken from Ubuntu http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python3.8/python3.8_3.8.5-1~20.04.debian.tar.xz
+    patch -p1 < "$CONTRIB_APPIMAGE/patches/python-3.8-reproducible-buildinfo.diff"
     ./configure \
       --cache-file="$CACHEDIR/python.config.cache" \
       --prefix="$APPDIR/usr" \
@@ -66,7 +64,7 @@ tar xf "$CACHEDIR/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" -C "$BUILDDIR"
     # to result in a different output on macOS compared to Linux. We simply patch
     # sysconfigdata to remove the extension.
     # Some more info: https://bugs.python.org/issue27631
-    sed -i -e 's/\.exe//g' "$APPDIR"/usr/lib/python3.7/_sysconfigdata*
+    sed -i -e 's/\.exe//g' "$APPDIR"/usr/lib/python3.8/_sysconfigdata*
 )
 
 
@@ -88,7 +86,7 @@ appdir_python() {
   env \
     PYTHONNOUSERSITE=1 \
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$APPDIR/usr/lib:$APPDIR/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu${LD_LIBRARY_PATH+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}" \
-    "$APPDIR/usr/bin/python3.7" "$@"
+    "$APPDIR/usr/bin/python3.8" "$@"
 }
 
 python='appdir_python'
@@ -166,7 +164,7 @@ info "finalizing AppDir."
     move_lib
 
     # apply global appimage blacklist to exclude stuff
-    # move usr/include out of the way to preserve usr/include/python3.7m.
+    # move usr/include out of the way to preserve usr/include/python3.8m.
     mv usr/include usr/include.tmp
     delete_blacklisted
     mv usr/include.tmp usr/include
@@ -189,7 +187,7 @@ strip_binaries()
 {
   chmod u+w -R "$APPDIR"
   {
-    printf '%s\0' "$APPDIR/usr/bin/python3.7"
+    printf '%s\0' "$APPDIR/usr/bin/python3.8"
     find "$APPDIR" -type f -regex '.*\.so\(\.[0-9.]+\)?$' -print0
   } | xargs -0 --no-run-if-empty --verbose strip -R .note.gnu.build-id -R .comment
 }
@@ -204,11 +202,11 @@ remove_emptydirs
 
 info "removing some unneeded stuff to decrease binary size."
 rm -rf "$APPDIR"/usr/{share,include}
-PYDIR="$APPDIR"/usr/lib/python3.7
+PYDIR="$APPDIR"/usr/lib/python3.8
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/{test,ensurepip,lib2to3,idlelib,turtledemo}
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/{ctypes,sqlite3,tkinter,unittest}/test
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/distutils/{command,tests}
-rm -rf "$PYDIR"/config-3.7m-x86_64-linux-gnu
+rm -rf "$PYDIR"/config-3.8m-x86_64-linux-gnu
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/{opt,pip,setuptools,wheel}
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/Cryptodome/SelfTest
 rm -rf "$PYDIR"/site-packages/{psutil,qrcode,websocket}/tests
diff --git a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/patches/python-3.7-reproducible-buildinfo.diff b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/patches/python-3.8-reproducible-buildinfo.diff
similarity index 88%
rename from contrib/build-linux/appimage/patches/python-3.7-reproducible-buildinfo.diff
rename to contrib/build-linux/appimage/patches/python-3.8-reproducible-buildinfo.diff
index 8ee527158..e13cbdd76 100644
--- a/contrib/build-linux/appimage/patches/python-3.7-reproducible-buildinfo.diff
+++ b/contrib/build-linux/appimage/patches/python-3.8-reproducible-buildinfo.diff
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 --- a/Makefile.pre.in
 +++ b/Makefile.pre.in
-@@ -766,6 +766,8 @@ Modules/getbuildinfo.o: $(PARSER_OBJS) \
+@@ -756,6 +756,8 @@ Modules/getbuildinfo.o: $(PARSER_OBJS) \
  	      -DGITVERSION="\"`LC_ALL=C $(GITVERSION)`\"" \
  	      -DGITTAG="\"`LC_ALL=C $(GITTAG)`\"" \
  	      -DGITBRANCH="\"`LC_ALL=C $(GITBRANCH)`\"" \