Going forward: MultiBit HD and MultiBit Classic

lunarboy

hero member

Activity: 544

Merit: 500

Its probably a bit late for extra features right now.... just in case Tongue

One of the things i'd really like more control over is the individual balance of my addresses within a wallet. It would be very useful to have the ability to view balances for individual addresses and to a limited extent, craft transactions from whichever pool of coins i'd like to spend.

I also wondered about the possibility of adding a user defined 2FA for a high security wallet. say with an e-mail of better still a bitmessage confirmation code.??

My biggest user gripe is actually much more down to earth. I find myself accidentally renaming send addresses or worse writing over the destination address. A simple 'lock field' feature for trusted addresses would be awesome. Wink

lunarboy

hero member

Activity: 544

Merit: 500

Quote from: Mashuri on March 11, 2014, 07:08:17 PM

Will you be including features like multisig, coinjoin, and stealth addresses?

These would be awesome to see. The 'Advanced mode' for multibit could be very functional.

I was also wondering if the import 'classic' wallet into HD could be sent through coinjoin as an option? If we have to use a whole set of new addresses they may as well be taint free.

Abdussamad

legendary

Activity: 3724

Merit: 1586

Quote from: filchef on November 07, 2013, 06:31:39 AM

Quote from: jim618

I expect the first version won't be able to import and export extended public and private keys but it would be a great feature to be able to choose which 'sort' you want to export and import. It will be a bit difficult to explain it to people in a simple fashion though so we might have to put in an 'Advanced' mode or something.

So i will waiting for this future day when I can export pure private and public keys for all my addresses Grin

Then you'll be waiting a long time 'cause with deterministic wallets exporting private keys for individual addresses is dangerous. See this article from vbuterin:

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/8396/deterministic-wallets-advantages-flaw/

Mashuri

full member

Activity: 135

Merit: 107

Will you be including features like multisig, coinjoin, and stealth addresses?

jim618

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1069

That's right - there is no seed so you need copies of the private keys in all your wallets.

I recommend both copying the wallet (and the subdirectories with all the backups in) AND making a private key export.

You only really need one or the other but the only time you'll use a backup is when Something Bad Happened so make both sorts of backups just in case.

skivrmt

hero member

Activity: 994

Merit: 501

This may seem like a silly and basic question, but I have most of my coins stored on 2 different laptops with 2 different MultiBit accounts. If I export private keys to a USB drive is that enough should one of my computers ever crash or get infected? I'm assuming no seed on MultiBit classic, correct?

Thanks for any help!

jim618

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1069

We've got it sending and receiving etc now but still have things like all the Preferences to do.

At the moment we have a 'placeholder' deterministic wallet that is very simple - Mike's going to be working on the HD wallet support in bitcoinj throughout March.

We don't really want people (except early beta testers) using it until we have proper HD wallets in as it will no doubt cause problems for people when the formats change.

It's still 'bleeding edge' at the moment.

oktay50000

sr. member

Activity: 560

Merit: 250

Quote from: jim618 on February 20, 2014, 03:56:29 PM

Thanks for your enthusiasm !

We are busy "baking the cake" at the moment, but like all things it takes a while.

thanks for your hard work mate..
any eta??

jim618

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1069

Thanks for your enthusiasm !

We are busy "baking the cake" at the moment, but like all things it takes a while.

oktay50000

sr. member

Activity: 560

Merit: 250

i want multibit HD Grin

garyrowe

full member

Activity: 198

Merit: 102

Quote from: newts on January 30, 2014, 11:54:11 PM

My input would be to have the ability to install Multi-bit in addition to Miltibit classis, then its just a matter of sending btc over to the new HD wallents. Once Miltibit classic is empty it can be uninstalled . Maybe some fee grace for this, makes it simple.

My last upgrade to the latest version went so smooth I was amazed, it has to be that easy.

MultiBit HD and MultiBit Classic will both be able to operate side by side. Our recommended upgrade path would include a "sweep" of all funds out of MultiBit Classic and into MBHD. This would not be part of the standard install wizard, but rather something the user would do at their discretion through a simple "Request Bitcoin" operation.

Once that has confirmed then the user would be free to archive/uninstall MultiBit Classic. We would obviously recommend that people not delete any private keys in case someone ever attempts to send them funds through an old address. In that circumstance a user would be able to reinstall MultiBit Classic (we will provide maintenance releases and an archive) to open their old wallets and sweep those funds.

At present we have no plans for a combination of HD wallet with a few private keys mixed in. This is because people should not be reusing standard addresses (I know we're all guilty of it, but it leaks privacy). It will also cause more complexity within the code that will incur development effort.

newts

newbie

Activity: 39

Merit: 0

My input would be to have the ability to install Multi-bit in addition to Miltibit classis, then its just a matter of sending btc over to the new HD wallents. Once Miltibit classic is empty it can be uninstalled . Maybe some fee grace for this, makes it simple.

My last upgrade to the latest version went so smooth I was amazed, it has to be that easy.

boozezela

newbie

Activity: 35

Merit: 0

Quote from: jim618 on November 04, 2013, 06:46:22 AM

There are a few things that MBHD won't provide because they create LOTS of support calls and it's just not sustainable going forward if and when there are more users.

For instance, choosing where to put your wallet sounds an innocent feature but causes lots of support calls when people create a wallet and then cannot find it. For MBHD I am only going to put wallets in the user data directory to simplify things. Edit: the wallet file name will be derived from the master public key so users won't even choose the filename (there will still be a description field).

For the love of God, give me the ability to put all the files together with the executable.

Better: instead of having to create a .properties file (like with multibit "classic") within the same directory where the Multibit HD executable is/will be, create one there by default.
Then give an advanced used the possibility to make portability happen just by changing a simple flag. Something like this:

Code:

# Set this to true if you want to carry Multibit around on a USB stick
# Default: false
portable = true

And pick the location for the rest of the files accordingly.

filchef

full member

Activity: 137

Merit: 100

Quote from: jim618

I expect the first version won't be able to import and export extended public and private keys but it would be a great feature to be able to choose which 'sort' you want to export and import. It will be a bit difficult to explain it to people in a simple fashion though so we might have to put in an 'Advanced' mode or something.

So i will waiting for this future day when I can export pure private and public keys for all my addresses Grin

jim618

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1069

Quote from: nomailing on November 06, 2013, 09:37:06 AM

Quote from: jim618 on November 05, 2013, 12:47:29 PM

You are correct that with the mnemonic phrase you can reconstruct all the private keys.

Why have wallet backups?

1) There is more data in a wallet than just private keys (and there will be more in the future). For instance: you can give someone an extended public key and they can put in their contact info they keep on you. Then they can create addresses to send bitcoin to you. Only you and they know the generated addresses are related. It's private, even though it is on the blockchain.

2) We want triple redundancy for the critical wallet info. Namely:
+ Wallet seed
+ Local backup
+ Cloud backup

Each technique may give us '2 or 3' nines of reliability so, in combination, it should be good enough for rolling out to 1,000,000+ users. We don't want a single user losing bitcoin.

Ok, that sounds much better. So I don't need any backup at all to restore all my bitcoins from the mnemonic?
Then, I will prefer to not upload my wallet to a cloud, because I am more afraid of someone breaking into some cloud storage and stealing my coins.

Am I correct that Multibit HD will support my user behavior as follows:
I use Multibit HD on a linux live cd and always backup my wallet file on an external usb drive.
In case of a corrupt usb drive I will still be able to recover my coins using the mnemonic phrase. Of course then I will lose the additional contact infos and labels which I stored in the wallet, but this is only in case my usb stick is corrupted. Correct?

Another question: Can I then export an extended private key, which I can import in some android app to have a small fraction of my coins in a spendable wallet?

Yes you can just use the mnemonic phrase to recreate your wallet (though it will have to replay the blocks from when you created it so eventually this will take a while).

The cloud backups you can simply not set up yes.

I expect the first version won't be able to import and export extended public and private keys but it would be a great feature to be able to choose which 'sort' you want to export and import. It will be a bit difficult to explain it to people in a simple fashion though so we might have to put in an 'Advanced' mode or something.

jim618

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1069

Quote from: steeev on November 05, 2013, 08:58:45 PM

hi, i'm just wondering if Multibit HD will be able to freeze addresses - like the Electrum wallet does...

also, i'm running multibit from a memory stick, will this be an option for HD ?

incidentally, are there any images of the new look/layout fo HD ?

TBH I am not sure how and what we are going to provide in address management yet. We are still thinking about it.

You should be able to run it from a memory stick yes. It will have a Jave runtime in it so it should be better.

We are still playing around with the UI so don't really want to show it yet. It is still early days for it yet so there is still a lot to do in it yet.

nomailing

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

Quote from: jim618 on November 05, 2013, 12:47:29 PM

You are correct that with the mnemonic phrase you can reconstruct all the private keys.

Why have wallet backups?

1) There is more data in a wallet than just private keys (and there will be more in the future). For instance: you can give someone an extended public key and they can put in their contact info they keep on you. Then they can create addresses to send bitcoin to you. Only you and they know the generated addresses are related. It's private, even though it is on the blockchain.

2) We want triple redundancy for the critical wallet info. Namely:
+ Wallet seed
+ Local backup
+ Cloud backup

Each technique may give us '2 or 3' nines of reliability so, in combination, it should be good enough for rolling out to 1,000,000+ users. We don't want a single user losing bitcoin.

Ok, that sounds much better. So I don't need any backup at all to restore all my bitcoins from the mnemonic?
Then, I will prefer to not upload my wallet to a cloud, because I am more afraid of someone breaking into some cloud storage and stealing my coins.

Am I correct that Multibit HD will support my user behavior as follows:
I use Multibit HD on a linux live cd and always backup my wallet file on an external usb drive.
In case of a corrupt usb drive I will still be able to recover my coins using the mnemonic phrase. Of course then I will lose the additional contact infos and labels which I stored in the wallet, but this is only in case my usb stick is corrupted. Correct?

Another question: Can I then export an extended private key, which I can import in some android app to have a small fraction of my coins in a spendable wallet?

steeev

full member

Activity: 128

Merit: 103

hi, i'm just wondering if Multibit HD will be able to freeze addresses - like the Electrum wallet does...

also, i'm running multibit from a memory stick, will this be an option for HD ?

incidentally, are there any images of the new look/layout fo HD ?

jim618

legendary

Activity: 1708

Merit: 1069

You are correct that with the mnemonic phrase you can reconstruct all the private keys.

Why have wallet backups?

1) There is more data in a wallet than just private keys (and there will be more in the future). For instance: you can give someone an extended public key and they can put in their contact info they keep on you. Then they can create addresses to send bitcoin to you. Only you and they know the generated addresses are related. It's private, even though it is on the blockchain.

2) We want triple redundancy for the critical wallet info. Namely:
+ Wallet seed
+ Local backup
+ Cloud backup

Each technique may give us '2 or 3' nines of reliability so, in combination, it should be good enough for rolling out to 1,000,000+ users. We don't want a single user losing bitcoin.

nomailing

full member

Activity: 126

Merit: 100

Quote from: jim618 on November 04, 2013, 08:58:59 AM

As the wallet used in MultiBit HD is a hierarchical deterministic wallet it has a seed from which all the Bitcoin addresses can be calculated. (BIP 32)

This seed can be transformed to a mnemonic phrase, typically 12 words long. (BIP 39). At wallet creation the user is strongly advised to write this mnemonic phrase down on a piece of paper and keep it safe.

The seed is the master private key which can be used to sign spends. It can also be used to create a master public key which can be used to generate addresses but cannot sign spends.

If this is true, then I don't understand why it is necessary to have a wallet backup at all.
Why couldn't it work without a wallet backup?

For example, why not like this:
mnemonic phrase -> seed -> master private key -> all-your-private-addresses

This would work on a live-cd without having any wallet backup stored on any cloud or whatever. Just a simple list of 12 words...

EDIT: Or if you want to use 256 bit security in BIP 32 then you use 24 words in BIP 39.

Topic: Going forward: MultiBit HD and MultiBit Classic (Read 11202 times)