[ANNOUNCE] Electrum - Lightweight Bitcoin Client - page 91.

Red Emerald

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Quote from: ThomasV on November 30, 2011, 07:01:30 PM

I have two problems with bccapi

1. The server is not open source. I asked the developer about it, see here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.571018
2. The server needs to know you. It needs to store an account with your addresses, because it keeps track of your transactions as it downloads the blockchain. In other words, its database works just like bitcoind, whereas the Electrum server behaves like a Blockexplorer database

These two facts create a situation where users are tied to a server that belongs to a single individual.
Even if Jan decided to open-source his code, the fact that users need to be known in advance from the server does not favor privacy or freedom of choice.
This is the reason why I decided to write Electrum (https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.585227)

This is the reason why I am interested in using Electrum.

molecular

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Quote from: slush on November 30, 2011, 06:42:12 PM

Quote from: molecular on November 30, 2011, 06:34:07 PM

There is bccapi, very similar to electrum, but in java.

Actually Im playing with BitcoinSpinner, rewriting network layer to be compatible with Electrum servers. Spinner is pretty nice and really easy to use, but did you know that BCCAPI server implementation isnt opensource? ;-)

Goddamnit, none of the android wallets work on my android 2.1 (can't upgrade as it seems). Why is that?

No, I didn't realize BCCAPI server is not opensource. Is the protocol documented?

ThomasV

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Quote from: molecular on November 30, 2011, 06:34:07 PM

Quote from: ThomasV on November 22, 2011, 04:16:56 PM

1. An android client is needed. I tried to do it in python, I compiled python for Android, but it is difficult to use. It might be easier to rewrite Electrum in java.

There is bccapi, very similar to electrum, but in java.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/announcing-bccapi-36892

I have two problems with bccapi

1. The server is not open source. I asked the developer about it, see here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.571018
2. The server needs to know you. It needs to store an account with your addresses, because it keeps track of your transactions as it downloads the blockchain. In other words, its database works just like bitcoind, whereas the Electrum server behaves like a Blockexplorer database

These two facts create a situation where users are tied to a server that belongs to a single individual.
Even if Jan decided to open-source his code, the fact that users need to be known in advance from the server does not favor privacy or freedom of choice.
This is the reason why I decided to write Electrum (https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.585227)

molecular

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Activity: 2772

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slight bug found: missing cairo does not have the same nice explanation on how to install as some of the other dependencies

HostFat

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I support freedom of choice

Quote from: slush on November 30, 2011, 06:42:12 PM

Spinner is pretty nice and really easy to use, but did you know that BCCAPI server implementation isnt opensource? ;-)

Wow! So you will release a Spinner client that works with them? Cheesy

I hope that they will release BCCAPI server source code after this.

slush

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Quote from: molecular on November 30, 2011, 06:34:07 PM

There is bccapi, very similar to electrum, but in java.

Actually Im playing with BitcoinSpinner, rewriting network layer to be compatible with Electrum servers. Spinner is pretty nice and really easy to use, but did you know that BCCAPI server implementation isnt opensource? ;-)

HostFat

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I support freedom of choice

oh, good to know! thank you Cheesy

slush

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Quote from: HostFat on November 30, 2011, 06:13:13 PM

I really like to see this feature:
http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/patching-the-bitcoin-client-to-make-it-more-anonymous
I think that this should be by default on every bitcoin client.

That's called "coin selection" and it is on my list.

molecular

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Quote from: ThomasV on November 22, 2011, 04:16:56 PM

1. An android client is needed. I tried to do it in python, I compiled python for Android, but it is difficult to use. It might be easier to rewrite Electrum in java.

There is bccapi, very similar to electrum, but in java.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/announcing-bccapi-36892

molecular

donator

Activity: 2772

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Quote from: finway on November 05, 2011, 12:19:58 PM

If somebody can't read the codes, they can't have faith on this clients.

huh? then why do people have faith in satoshi client?

BTCurious

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Activity: 714

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^SEM img of Si wafer edge, scanned 2012-3-12.

Quote from: HostFat on November 30, 2011, 06:13:13 PM

I really like to see this feature:
http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/patching-the-bitcoin-client-to-make-it-more-anonymous
I think that is should be by default on every bitcoin client.

+1

HostFat

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I support freedom of choice

I really like to see this feature:
http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/patching-the-bitcoin-client-to-make-it-more-anonymous
I think that this should be by default on every bitcoin client.

And also an option/feature to add private keys

slush

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Quote from: ovidiusoft on November 30, 2011, 04:42:51 PM

It is already possible, you can simply create a script or an alias like:

This is a good example why storing keys outside of app settings is a good idea...

Quote

Also, ThomasV suggested another (better) solution for Linuxes. You run the client with the wallet file set in /dev/shm (temporary storage in RAM):

Well, it is nice that it can be done, but as far as keys are stored only in the encrypted form, I don't see it as a real threat. Keeping unencrypted keys in the memory is much worse, but it probably don't have a solution (until there will be hardware tokens keeping private keys outside the machine completely).

ovidiusoft

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Quote from: FreeMoney on November 30, 2011, 04:19:33 PM

Electrum already has the deterministic wallets working right? Is it possible and reasonable to have a feature where the wallet is cleanly deleted after every use and regenerated next time it is needed?

It is already possible, you can simply create a script or an alias like:

Code:

alias electrum='/path/to/electrum.py ; rm -f ~/.electrum/electrum.dat'

The client would also be easy to patch to not commit the file to disk at all. You start it, it asks for the mnemonic phrase, generates the keys, and when you close the client the data is purged from memory.

Also, ThomasV suggested another (better) solution for Linuxes. You run the client with the wallet file set in /dev/shm (temporary storage in RAM):

Code:

electrum.py -w /dev/shm/electrum-wallet.dat

But can you tell me what the usage scenario is? I don't think it's that useful, do you think it would be a security feature? What are you trying to prevent happening?

FreeMoney

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Strength in numbers

Quote from: slush on November 24, 2011, 10:23:26 AM

Today I thought about features I'd like to see in best-bitcoin-client-ever, there is my brain dump. Maybe if others have some nice ideas it will be good to make a pool of them to let programmers pick what they want to implement.

* Firstbits support (in progress)
* Qt GUI (in early steps, not sure with results. I have many possible improvements of GUI in my head, however they're related to basic gui design, so nothing to reveal yet)
* Coin selection
* Notification for new client version (as protocol is in early stage it's important to tell users they have to upgrade)
* Send bitcoins to email (using server-side escrow, sending back not withdrawed coins)
* Wallet in the cloud (sync wallets across multiple computers)
* Server failover (server peer switching)
* Make network layer more robust (permanent connection, interface for browser clients, but fallback to poling for restrictive networks)
* Make wallet format more robust

Fristbits!

After that.. better wallet format seems good.

Coin selection sounds fun, though in practice I imagine it'll mostly involve people paying a little extra in fees and having false sense of added privacy since they'll screw it up.

Electrum already has the deterministic wallets working right? Is it possible and reasonable to have a feature where the wallet is cleanly deleted after every use and regenerated next time it is needed?

divergenta

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I just tried it and it works great in my opinion.
I'm so glad that it's written python so noobs as me play around with the code hehe.

BTCurious

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^SEM img of Si wafer edge, scanned 2012-3-12.

Windows binary:
Electrum 0.28 Build 1

ThomasV

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Quote from: finway on November 30, 2011, 04:58:08 AM

pygtk is hard to install on windows xp

allways say : " import _gtk error: load dll failure."

I know. slush is working on a Qt gui for Electrum.

finway

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pygtk is hard to install on windows xp

allways say : " import _gtk error: load dll failure."

ThomasV

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I just released a new version, version 0.28

changelog:
* the wallet_dir option was replaced by a wallet filename option
* pycrypto is no longer used, it was replaced with slowaes (native python)

both slowaes and python-ecdsa are native python, and are included in the package, so the installation should be highly facilitated.

Note that the wallet format has changed. if you have encrypted your wallet, you will need to upgrade it with a script.
you can either uncrypt your wallet before the upgrade (the easiest option), or run the upgrade.py script that will upgrade your wallet to the new format.

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