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Topic: Help deciding which light weight bitcoin wallet (Read 1258 times)

hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
I`m trying to pick either Multibit or Electrum.

Anyone using these, tell me the difference or which ones more user appeal.

Thanks!


Edit: I use a Mac

I personally use multibit. I find it to be very user friendly and easy to use.

My concern with Electrum is that your keys are stored on the server, making it not only possible for your keys/wallet to be hacked but also opening the possibility that you lose your seed (and your coins).

Your private keys aren't stored on the server. The seed is used to generate the private keys and addresses, if you save the seed you can always recover your addresses and private keys.
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
Indeed, your private keys on Electrum are not at risk of being viewed by nodes. Your public keys, however, are. It is for this reason that it is said that Electrum is not ideal for those wanting a full level of privacy.

I think you mean address not public key. An address is a hash plus checksum of the public key. The public key itself is exposed only when you spend money from an address. That transaction gets broadcast to all the nodes and once it is confirmed it becomes a part of the blockchain.
hero member
Activity: 882
Merit: 1000
Exhausted
I`m trying to pick either Multibit or Electrum.

Anyone using these, tell me the difference or which ones more user appeal.

Thanks!


Edit: I use a Mac

I prefer Electrum, since I have read the thread https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/we-should-stop-recommending-multibit-on-bitcoinorg-now-562181.
member
Activity: 70
Merit: 10
Deceased
I'm using Multbit and it's been good so far, haven't heard of Electrum.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
Buy and sell bitcoins,
Indeed, your private keys on Electrum are not at risk of being viewed by nodes. Your public keys, however, are. It is for this reason that it is said that Electrum is not ideal for those wanting a full level of privacy.
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
I`m trying to pick either Multibit or Electrum.

Anyone using these, tell me the difference or which ones more user appeal.

Thanks!


Edit: I use a Mac

I personally use multibit. I find it to be very user friendly and easy to use.

My concern with Electrum is that your keys are stored on the server, making it not only possible for your keys/wallet to be hacked but also opening the possibility that you lose your seed (and your coins).

Electrum stores the seed in a wallet on your computer. Address specific private keys are deterministically generated from the seed at runtime. The private keys or seed are not stored on an electrum server. Electrum servers are queried for transaction details. They are sent your bitcoin addresses only. There are many electrum servers and they are all run by volunteers. They are funded solely by donations.
sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
I`m trying to pick either Multibit or Electrum.

Anyone using these, tell me the difference or which ones more user appeal.

Thanks!


Edit: I use a Mac

I personally use multibit. I find it to be very user friendly and easy to use.

My concern with Electrum is that your keys are stored on the server, making it not only possible for your keys/wallet to be hacked but also opening the possibility that you lose your seed (and your coins).
hero member
Activity: 561
Merit: 500
I vote for electrum due to its fast sync time, newbie-friendliness and the ability to select fees clearly.
Multibit is planning to force a big transaction fee so that the developers can take a cut of that...

This is a newb question, outside the ones that electrum provided with the 4-5 btc address.

Is there a way to create more? I cant seem to find this function.

Once you use up all of them, electrum will generate more automatically.
You can always import an address, but that won't be recovered by the seed.

what do you mean?

The seed (12 words) can be used to generate the same private keys (and hence addresses) again and again (deterministic).
But for your imported private key, it can not be generated from your seed.
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 100
I vote for electrum due to its fast sync time, newbie-friendliness and the ability to select fees clearly.
Multibit is planning to force a big transaction fee so that the developers can take a cut of that...

This is a newb question, outside the ones that electrum provided with the 4-5 btc address.

Is there a way to create more? I cant seem to find this function.

Once you use up all of them, electrum will generate more automatically.
You can always import an address, but that won't be recovered by the seed.

what do you mean?
member
Activity: 68
Merit: 10
I vote for electrum due to its fast sync time, newbie-friendliness and the ability to select fees clearly.
Multibit is planning to force a big transaction fee so that the developers can take a cut of that...

This is a newb question, outside the ones that electrum provided with the 4-5 btc address.

Is there a way to create more? I cant seem to find this function.

Once you use up all of them, electrum will generate more automatically.
You can always import an address, but that won't be recovered by the seed.

Oh okay, thanks  Smiley
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
I vote for electrum due to its fast sync time, newbie-friendliness and the ability to select fees clearly.
Multibit is planning to force a big transaction fee so that the developers can take a cut of that...

This is a newb question, outside the ones that electrum provided with the 4-5 btc address.

Is there a way to create more? I cant seem to find this function.

Once you use up all of them, electrum will generate more automatically.
You can always import an address, but that won't be recovered by the seed.
sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 511
I`m trying to pick either Multibit or Electrum.

Anyone using these, tell me the difference or which ones more user appeal.

Thanks!


Edit: I use a Mac

Im using Multibit for quite a while now, and I really like the program.
It start's up really fast, and the blockchain it downloaded on my pc is only 307 mb.
Also I chose multibit because they have it in my language: Dutch
However Ive never heard of Electrum so I wouldnt know anything about that wallet.
member
Activity: 68
Merit: 10
I vote for electrum due to its fast sync time, newbie-friendliness and the ability to select fees clearly.
Multibit is planning to force a big transaction fee so that the developers can take a cut of that...

This is a newb question, outside the ones that electrum provided with the 4-5 btc address.

Is there a way to create more? I cant seem to find this function.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
I vote for electrum due to its fast sync time, newbie-friendliness and the ability to select fees clearly.
Multibit is planning to force a big transaction fee so that the developers can take a cut of that...
member
Activity: 68
Merit: 10
I just need it for gambling, cause sometimes the confirmations will eat up the gambling bet time.

Thanks for all the inputs.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
Buy and sell bitcoins,
Another vote for electrum.  The main advantage is that you only need to write down your secret key phrase once and all current & future addresses in your wallet are backed up.  With multibit you have to keep making backups the more you use it.

It's a huge convenience that the Electrum seed allows access to all addresses. That's one of the things that always bugged me about QT -- remembering to make regular backups. On the flip side, though, it's good practice to be making regular backups... Wink
cp1
hero member
Activity: 616
Merit: 500
Stop using branwallets
Another vote for electrum.  The main advantage is that you only need to write down your secret key phrase once and all current & future addresses in your wallet are backed up.  With multibit you have to keep making backups the more you use it.
newbie
Activity: 5
Merit: 0
I'm currently using Electrum, and have been for months now. It's really lightweight, I was up and running within a minute.

Having said that, multibit are working on some great new features right now, so I might consider them. The transaction fee they've added is a little controversial though, I'm not sure how you'd feel about that: http://www.coindesk.com/cash-strapped-multibit-developers-charge-transaction-fee/
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
Buy and sell bitcoins,
I prefer Electrum when looking for a very lightweight wallet. Syncs extremely quickly. Although, if I were concerned about privacy, I may look elsewhere, due to the its system of nodes (which allow for such quick syncing).
member
Activity: 68
Merit: 10
I`m trying to pick either Multibit or Electrum.

Anyone using these, tell me the difference or which ones more user appeal.

Thanks!


Edit: I use a Mac

Let me list the differences and you can then decide based on that:

Electrum
- Deterministic so you can make one backup and it is good for life.
- Minimalistic interface
- Multiple wallets are opened in separate windows.
- Sends change to a new address. Good for privacy.
- Relies on external servers run by volunteers for transaction data and to broadcast send transactions. This is not good for privacy because those external servers can see all your addresses and transactions (they cannot see your private key though)

Multibit (classic)
- Uses bloom filters for transaction data rather than centralized servers. Better for privacy than Electrum in this regard.
- Not deterministic. You have to create fresh backups each time you generate a new receive address.
- Reuses change addresses. Not so good for privacy.
- Has charts and tickers integrated into the interface.
- Supports multiple wallets in one window.

If you don't care about privacy then electrum is better because of the single backup feature. Note that multibit hd, when it comes out, will be different from multibit classic.

Thanks this helped me to decide. I`ll be going with electrum, until multibit hd comes out.
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