Topic: POLL: Which bitcoin client do you use? (Read 1893 times)

bitspinner on my phone

Interesting.  I'll look into that.  In the meantime, I'll delete my post as it may be incorrect due to a misunderstanding on my part about how Electrum works.

Wrong! Electrum clients verify transactions locally using SPV, the light-client payment verification method originally suggested by Satoshi. Which means a rogue server just can't show clients any fake transaction. There are other attacks possible in theory, but to my knowledge this is not one of them.

That's not completely accurate, there are several levels of trust.  I use Electrum because it combines the small local footprint of a light client, without the need to trust a third party with my private keys.  Electrum basicly uses a specially designed p2p network overlay to offload the blockchain database to a remote server (stratum server) but it keeps the wallet.dat local, and all transactions are created and signed locally.  While it's true that certain blockchain based deceptions can theoretically be performed against a particular Electrum client, this is far from an easy fraud method, and there is no case of this happening in the wild that we know of.

I used bitcoind because I'm planning on using the Armory or something like it when it finishes updating the block chain in about three months from now....

Could you elaborate?

You could do it trust-less,it be a pain but could be done

The advantage is mobility, lower cpu/memory usage.
Like i said, for an average user only looking to store/spend, using any of the light desktop clients(opensource and downloaded from trusted website) is fine.
For web wallets, there are 2 kinds

1) Hosted wallets
You have to trust the wallet provider to not run off with your coins or get compromised.(I would not use this for anything more than a few BTC)

2) Hybrid wallets (Blockchain.info)
Here the wallet and private keys are encrypted by a password only you know, such that even the server administrator cannot get to your keys.
Theoretically this is as safe as the desktop light clients.
Yet, you have to continually trust the service that it's source is not changed to send back your password to the server or that the server is compromised to send your password to a 3rd party.

Unless you read the entire javascript source everytime you login, you can never be 100% sure.


For all options, a compromised PC means you will lose your coins as soon as your wallet is decrypted.

yay i'm on the winning team with bitcoin QT  

I'm a total noob to bitcoins, is there any advantage to download another client or sign-up for an online wallet?
Eventually I want to have an interactive website so the web page can send and receive payments, etc

Im assuming you mean have a wallet in cold storage and use blockchain.info to watch your address and notify you of any incoming transactions?

That does not give you trustless verification.
You would have to trust blockchain.info to be telling you your balance and incoming transactions.

Lets assume the owner of blockchain.info or a hacker who compromises blockchain.info servers wants to get your goods without paying for it.
He can alter the blockchain DB and post fake incoming transactions to your address which you will trust and ship out your goods.
Without a full client running, you have to trust someone.

For a small retail shop/cafe selling low cost items, it might be OK to use blockchain.info or any light client as your risk is minimal.

You could use cold storage and blockchain.info inside of a full client, I have implement that before.

If you are running a Bitcoin business selling goods/services and need to receive Bitcoins, a full client is your only logical choice.
A full client is the only way to verify transactions, check for double spends without having to trust anyone else.

For a spending account with small balance, monitoring your balance, other clients are great.

The inconveniences of the full client give you something no other client can, trustless verification.
For anyone else who does not receive bitcoins often or does not need to receive bitcoins from untrusted parties, it might make sense to use the ligher/web clients.

How do you see yourself using it?  Personally, I have BitcoinSpinner on my android smartphone and Electrum on my desktop.  I can't really recommend a full client anymore, the bootstrapping is a huge burden; and we don't really need more full clients anymore.  10K copies distributed across the Internet is enough.

That's like telling someone you are thinking of purchasing a vehicle and asking which vehicle you should buy and why. It depends on the purpose of the vehicle.  Is it for a large family?  Do you need to tow heavy loads? How many miles do you expect to put on the vehicle each year? Do you intend to keep the vehicle for many years, or sell it after a few?  How tall are you? Will you spend a lot of time driving in hot environments? Cold environments? Is comfort important to you? Is fuel efficiency important to you? Etc.

It's the same with a wallet. It depends on the purpose of the wallet.

Will you be storing a very large amount of bitcoin in the wallet?  Will you need access to the bitcoins while mobile? Will you only be receiving bitcoins, or will you be sending them as well?  Will you be sending a lot of transactions frequently? How important is security to you? What level of technical ability do you have?  How important is anonymity to you? There are many other factors as well.  Each wallet has it's benefits and it's shortcomings.

When I'm ready to purchase a vehicle, I learn as much as I can about several vehicles that seem like they might fit my needs, and then make an educated decision about the best fit for my purposes.  I recommend that anyone choosing a bitcoin wallet do the same.  (Learn about the various features and limitations of the available wallets and make an educated decision about which wallet will best fit your purposes.)

Didn't think so.

So then what are your recommendations, and why?

Multibit - Online Spending, Bill Paying 40%
Blockchain mobile app - Mobile Spending 40%
Satoshi-Qt - Savings 20%
Electrum - testing

No. Especially when in this subforum most people know only the qt client.

No.

And does this poll do anything positive for those who have yet to choose a bitcoin client? Would a solid majority vote be a reliable endorsement for that particular client?

For the sake of knowledge of it's existence I'll mention:
https://www.instawallet.org

But I wouldn't recommend it for anything except very briefly holding extremely small amounts of bitcoin.  You don't have control of the private keys, and therefore there is no way to back up your wallet, or prevent people at the wallet hosting company from running off with your bitcoin.