Bitcoin Forum

As you may know, I used to offer high-quality, fully portable versions of Electrum for all modern Windows platforms, which left absolutely no traces on the hard disk and were working pretty well, according to user feedback.
 
However I've had to stop making them as I recently got a new full-time job, and the testing and build process for portable Electrum was becoming more and more time-consuming, and lately, the number and type of data and config files Electrum uses has changed, which creates new challenges in making a fully portable edition.

So, Windows users, let me know if you are interested in such portable builds. I will use this thread to measure up the demand. If there more than 30 users replying to this post, OR more than 30 BTC is pledged, it will certainly convince me to work on offering portable builds to all users again.

The donation address is: 1337sfeChyyzZLzdHLewXzcaAaJSNTM893

What about agreement with ThomasV to enable automation of build process?

Not using Electrum, otherwise i would donate.
But i think any bitcoin client should be portable anyway.
Would make it much easier to store them on a USB stick.
I always look for portable versions of software, because i often change my windows and with portable apps it safes alot of time.

just start bitcoind/bitcoin-qt with datadir argument.

Of course software has to be portable. A wallet of course too. Its stupid to let your money store at a place windows wants it at.

@flatfly

Are you the developer of Electrum?

I'm new, I don't know much about how it works yet but as of 2013 I only use portable software. I think that's understandable.

So, my question is, why create nonportable software in 2013 in the first place? Shouldn't all software be portable nowadays?

I recommend you to team up with the guys at PortableApps.com, they have an awesome auto-updating format and release the software in that format. If you decide to do so.

Thanks for your work!

@manicminer
Don't do it.
It isn't safer to have an auto-updating feature on Bitcoin clients.

No I'm not the developer of Electrum, but I used to provide portable builds for windows for a long while, because there were no official builds. Now that official builds are available from electrum.org, I have stopped publishing my own builds.   

And yes I'd love to see Electrum being added to portableapps.com as well :)

Sometimes, depending on what the software is you can look at as a user and think security risk. I agree portable software is useful for a lot of people and in a lot of applications, but there's still niches where some caution about moving an instance of an app from machine to machine needs some consideration.

Portable version was indeed very handy!

Pls. enlighen me: which is the official version of Electrum portable? I can't find on their page, clearly.

Also, which one is more of a security risk: an update coming from a trusted source (PortableApps.com) or no update at all?

An update-available notification is enough.

This is definitely a good idea to keep updated.

I agree perhaps someone trusted should be able to compile and sign the binary, and also the auto update would be better as assisted download and sign check

As there is no official portable version yet, I've made an "unofficial" one. The core exe is the slush (windows) build. The portable client works fine! More information in the thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131762.60

Some "advocates" of the official versions criticize that its too hazardous to use an unofficial client.
Its up to you to give it a try.   :)

Bump because I'm poor and can't donate

Thanks  ;)

ok so 30btc is $450.

I'll learn how to cross compile and generate a portable version if anybody wants to give me $450

Actually, if I get some free time I will learn how to do it.

As long as there is a portable client out there somewhere with the disclaimer "portable tends to be used in insecure ways - only use this for small balances"

Good idea!

Bump!

@flatfly:
Would you be interested in making a portable version of the Litecoin client?
And could you make that it shows the balance of each address like in Electrum (maybe copying some code)?
I appreciated your "old" Electrum builds :)

I offer a 120 USD (~6 BTC) bounty for a portable Litecoin client with address balances.

Hi bitcats, are you still interested in this? Finally I have some time to look into it :)

Translate: Now that ~6 BTC worthing the triple, I have some time to look into it :)

Yes Im still interested in a nice port Litecoin client with balances for each address.
Updated bounty: 2.3 btc

Could you help me to write a standalone, fully self-contained (no dependency on other services) function to generate bitcoin addresses using Electrum wallet's Master Public Key? Preferably in PHP.

I'd be happy to donate to the effort.

I published a little bounty project about it here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=163915.0).

Electrum is already portable via windows!

As of matter of fact I requested and the following discussion leads to exact solution:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=100502.msg1731321#msg1731321 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=100502.msg1731321#msg1731321)

Be sure to follow as written.

Now there is an official portable version http://electrum.org/download.html

Great, I just tested it.

I cant see the P and F flags. Are they gone? I dont hope so as they are really useful.

The P and F should still be there but perhaps they are hidden by default and you need to enable expert mode.

No sorry, I just checked, the P and F labels are not shown in advanced mode. The addresses just change the color.
Maybe its an issue with the portable client only.