Topic: New to Bitcoin, help with wallet program? (Read 1623 times)

Why do you disagree? You do know SPV clients are very weak in some situations of bitcoin.

You can restore your wallet from something in your head. Secure backups are harder and more expensive (at least for me) to accomplish securely than memorizing 12 words.

I do have encrypted backups of my satoshi wallet.dat at different places (at friends, on usb sticks, various hd backups). But I spent more time doing these (and have to do them all over again periodically) than memorizing my electrum seed... once.

So many, like not validating blocks them selfs, which leads them to use the block depth as a way to validate transactions have gone thru when that isn't true. Also double spending attack is a lot easier with a SPV client.

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/wiki/SecurityModel.

There is a reason that SPV is the main client or should be endorsed as a main only client.

Which are?

Clearly.

And I disagree.

But if a user would rather avoid bitcoin than use a full node, then the network isn't going to get any assistance from them anyhow.  At least with a "lightweight" client, the bitcoin community would get the benefit of increased user base. Those who have an interest in running a full node can do so.  Those who would choose to use a lightweight client should at least be told that the option exists.

There isn't hiding, but full nodes need to be publicized more they are what keeps the network healthy, and not these programs that are meant to be run along sided a full node.

All wallets (including the reference client Bitcoin-Qt) have weaknesses and drawbacks.  This doesn't mean that they don't also have strengths and benefits as well.  What is needed is good education about the options available so that users can make educated decisions.  The users and the community do not benefit from hiding the fact that other wallet options exist and refusing to talk about them.

Not true.  Electrum has the added benefit of providing a "Deterministic" wallet.  Increasing the diversity of clients being used also decreases the chances of a weakness/flaw in one client being exploited to affect the entire network.

blockchain.info has improved usability since it isn't tied to a single computer, and provides useful and easy to use tools to backup your wallet and receive alerts.

I assume you mean from this page:
http://www.weusecoins.com/getting-started.php

I really wish they'd update that page to at least include Electrum and blockchain.info in the "Step 1 - Get A Wallet" section.  Even better if they'd explain the benefits of these other wallets.

I got the wallet program from weusecoins.com

I am getting there currently 2676 blocks remaining I will soon be able to utilise my Bitcoin

I paid 12.99 on ebay, I was willing to do that to get started but in future would look to learn more about how to use the currency. 

I am intrigued

 
Their page? Does that mean a guide page about bitcoin at the internet service?  Or does it mean bitcoin.org, weusecoins.com, or some other page created by a bitcoin user?

Well, with bitcoin being a currency, it probably looked more like a currency exchange, but I see your point.

I don't know what you paid, but bitcoins on Ebay can be a bit expensive at times.  In the future you may want to look into localbitcoins.com.  Depending on where you live, they may be able to help you find someone local who is willing to exchange bitcoins for local currency in person.  You could also look into BitInstant.com although they are a bit limited as to which countries they operate in. You can look at the following page to get an idea for approximately what the current exchange rate is between bitcoin and your favorite currency: http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currencies/


Like with any public forum, you can encounter some pretty rude, and/or unhelpful people here, but you'll find that many of the people here sincerely want bitcoin to succeed on a global scale as a mainstream currency.  Because of this, there are some very intelligent, and highly educated people here who are very willing to share their expertise and assist you in learning as much as you'd like to know about bitcoin.

Hi all

So heres where I am at 6756 blocks remaining, 96.83% done.  I think that figure is reducing by about 300 blocks an hour so should be at least another day.  However I know its not an exact science so we will see.

I did try to obtain my private key so I could use Blockchain info as reccommended but didnt work.  I just ended up with error messages so abandoned the idea and decided patience was the key here. 

Molecular: How I came to try to use Bitcoin was I had an internet service I wanted to pay for and they took Bitcoin so I thought sounds pretty cool, I will give that a go.  I went to their page and just seen the guide saying I would need a wallet to get started (fine says me) lol. 

I wasnt too sure how to go about buying a Bitcoin looked a bit like a stock exchange page on all the pages I went to so I fell back to what I know EBAY.  The seller has asked me if I have received my 0.01 Bitcoin deposit I had to message back saying "not sure yet still trying to install wallet"

I would say I am someone who would be classed as a casual user but after the effort put in to getting the client maybe I will find out more about Bitcoin and go from there instead of only using it for this transaction.

I have appreciated all the replies, especially with the fact that it all seems very technical to me and above my head.

Thanks folks

and I think bitcoin is also the best store of wealth, without any fees.

FTFY

i think bitcoin is the best payment method in the world , without any fees.

Understood.  Knowing this, I'll avoid suggesting to new users that they dump their private key and import it into Electrum.

If they don't have any pending transactions to an address in their Bitcoin-QT wallet, then I'll continue to suggest abandoning the client without waiting for the download to complete and switching to something like Electrum.

On the other hand, if they do have a pending transaction to an address in their Bitcoin-QT wallet, and are anxiously waiting for the "synchronization" to complete so they can make a payment, I'll avoid suggesting Electrum and instead advise them that blockchain.info can import the wallet and immediately access the coins they are waiting on.

no, it does not have a "wallet import" function.
it does have an "address import", but it does not work with the "compressed" key format used in the recent versions of bitcoin-qt (introduced in version 0.6). I am working to fix that.

In any case, I would not recomment the import/export of private keys to a new user; the security offered by deterministic wallets is an important feature that they lose if they import keys

Does Electrum provide a "wallet import" function that can read a wallet.dat from Bitcoin-Qt and import the private keys?

If not, this is the one thing that holds me back from recommending Electrum to brand new users who already installed Bitcoin-QT, and already have a transaction pending, but are in the frustrating position of waiting for the blockchain to download.  Talking a new user through dumpprivkey is far more complex than linking to the wallet import page at blockchain.info

This users experience shows that probably bitcoin.org frontpage should be changed to advise about the existence of other clients and online wallets.

The satoshi client is really not the best way to go for probably >80% of newbies. Try it on a netbook, it's frustrating. I can see us losing a whole bunch of people this way.

The alternatives are abosultely developed far enough to be usable.

I'm sure this has been discussed. Is there a thread about potentially adjusting bitcoin.org accordingly?

EDIT: Groovegal, can I ask: how did you go about getting a client. Did you in fact find bitcoin.org using google and then download the satoshi client from that page?