Bitcoin Forum

Hi All,

Newbie here. I want to install a wallet on my Win7 Pro pc. I was doing some research and from what I can understand some wallets require that you download the whole blockchain and some don't. I have very limited bandwidth so I definitely don't want to download the whole thing.

I googled "Comparison of wallets for Windows" but didn't find anything useful.

Which Windows wallet is best that does not require the whole blockchain to be downloaded?

I also have an Android phone (5.0.1) so if you think the Android wallets are much better let me know.

Thanks for helping a newbie. Cheers,

Advait

Try Electrum, i've never tried it but it's supossed to do just that.

electrum and multibit

first go to this link: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

then click the wallet logo and check the validation feature (on the second line)

if it says "full validation" then it's a full node and you've to download 30GB+
if it says "Simplified validation" then you don't need to download all blockchain.

You should try electrum. Lightweight, secure, ease of use all in mind. Everything that you need to know in this link. http://bitzuma.com/posts/a-beginners-guide-to-the-electrum-bitcoin-wallet/

You can find all the wallets list here. https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

SPV clients like Electrum and multibit doesn't download the full blockchain but it downloads the headers of each block. It trust the miners to enforce the network rules and Bitcoin Core doesn't trust miners this way. If you are only looking to recieve and send Bitcoin, SPV clients are the way to go. If you are looking to use all the developers features and have more control over your privacy, try using Bitcoin Core.

GreenAddress(recommended), Multibit, Electrum and Armory_Offline+CounterWallet.

   -MZ

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the replies. Per your suggestions, I downloaded and installed Electrum. So far so good.

Cheers,

Advait

Electrum is very nice isn't it?

For Android you can use Mycelium. Powerful and with the possibility to local trade bitcoin.

Looks ok, pretty simple and straight forward.

In the Electrum "Preferences" it says the default transaction fee is .000002 BTC or something like that. What is this transaction fee? I'm guessing its a just a way of automatically donating to Electrum when I make transactions? That correct?

Also, how do I mark a thread as "solved"?

Thanks,

Advait

The fees goes to the miners(They help you confirm your tx for the fees you paid) and not to electrum.

Good choice.
Electrum is a great wallet for beginners.

The fees goes to the miners(They help you confirm your tx for the fees you paid) and not to electrum.
[/quote]

OK, thanks. So this fee is voluntary?

Default fee is .0002 BTC per kb of transaction. How many kb in a typical transaction? .0001 kb? or 10,000 kb? I need to know how much I'll be donating.

Thanks for helping a newbie. Cheers,

Advait

Yes, if you didn't set recommended fee(see below), your transaction may not get confirmation.


Recommended fee is 0.0001BTC/1000 Bytes.


It will depend on your transactions. If you have many inputs, your bytes increases and if you don't, your bytes will most probably below 500. As I have said, this will depend on your transaction.

You may want to read these : https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees and http://bitcoinfees.com/ .


Anytime. ;)

   -MZ

The minimum fee you can go is 0.00001 BTC/kb for clients to relay your transactions. Transactions are ranked by their priority, the higher the priority, the more probability it will confirm within the next block. Priority is calculated using coin age (amount of time that specific coin is in your wallet untouched), transaction size and fees. If your priority is high enough(57,600,000), you may try using 0 fees, no guarantees your coins will confirm very fast. To qualify for a free transaction, your transaction size must be below or equal to 9999 bytes. Compressed keys are known to produce lower sized transactions so you are recommended to use it. It all come down to what is the block finder's policy. If the block finder decides to abandon your transaction, the next block finder can then decide to include your transaction once he have found a block.

i suggest you install Electrum from its official website, it is lightweight and easy to use, also you can easily create offline transactions with it
the size is something around 30 MB

You may use Electrum wallet as recommended here, but I would advise you to also consider downloading the core wallet and thus downloading the whole blockchain.
A nice discussion of pros and cons of each you will find here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=950454.0

I like electrum and multibit for windows and blockchain.info wallet for android

you can try electrum or multibit
a lot of people using it, nad seems to be don't have a problem with it
and don forget to lock your wallet  ;)

Electrum or multibit.

I personally prefer to use the full wallet, but it takes almost a day for first time use. After that it operates normally though the load time is still somewhat higher.

Lock it with a good password and use special characters. Don't forget it too. Always, make a backup of your wallet if you are using Multibit and if you're using Electrum, backup the seed. :)

   -MZ

I personally prefer MultiBit, but Electrum is also good. Both of them are good for your purpose.

No matter which wallet you use, do not forget to make regular backup of your wallet and also keep substantial amount of your BTC in 'cold storage'.
(Google for more on cold storage & paper wallets)

Online wallets don't require downloading the whole blockchain file but they are also less secure then Offline wallets .
I would recommend you using Multibit or Electrum , and If I had to choose between those two I would say Electrum because you don' thave to make Regular backups to your private key or wallet and you can recover your Bitcoins with a 12 words seed in case of a computer failure .

~ Madness

Multibit HD solves this.

   -MZ

I personally used Electrum for my desktop wallet, just need sync, dont need to download the data ;) and i dont have a problem with that wallet ;) Looks like all guys here prefer to Electrum :D