what shall i do ? why is this bug not more well known? i checked the release notes of 1.9.8 and no mention of this!!
The way the bug worked was in 1.9.7 when you create a new wallet and choose "Restore from seed" then you try to insert a 12 word seed from a previous wallet to restore it. "Create New Wallet" and "Watch-only wallet" are NOT AFFECTED. That is the ONLY TIME the bug happens. However, it happens ONLY if you mistype your seed. If you type your seed correctly, restore is successful. If you type incorrectly, Electrum makes the exact same wallet from issue #613. It is a watch-only wallet. Some person calculated the seed for that 1 wallet, and takes out any bitcoins that are sent into it. So if you restore from seed, and it does not ask you to set a password. That tells you that you have mistyped your seed and created the issue #613 watch-only wallet.Because watch-only wallets don't ask to set a password, but seeded wallets do. You typed in a seed, so you should NOT be making a watch-only wallet. The ONLY way to make a watch-only wallet after putting in the seed is the bug #613. So if you see watch-only on the wallet even though you typed the seed, that is the blackhole. Wow that's some bug! It *should* have been mentioned in the release notes so that we can make informed decisions about when to upgrade or not. |
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what is the difference between the seeds and the private key?
An electrum wallet has one seed. All bitcoin private keys in a wallet are derived from the seed. It makes backups easier since you have to do the one backup of the seed and it's good for life. The downside is that if the seed is revealed to a thief all your bitcoins can be stolen. |
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3. Seem it is true that with one private key you can discover others in the same wallet. There is a warning message in the
electrum wallet about this. This is not the same thing is simply knowing multiple addresses from
the same wallet, but if you have the private key, I think you can figure out some of the other private keys.
You need any one private key + master public key to calculate the master private key (which is the stretched seed as we've covered in other threads) . Just the private key is not sufficient. But note, however, that the master public key is not encrypted in the wallet file. Only the seed is. So exposure of a private key carries significant risk. That is why you have the warning. |
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Perhaps linux mint supports persistent storage? Meaning it is storing something on your hard drive or USB drive so you can carry on from where you left off. Obviously this means that you no longer have a truly offline wallet. also, are the addresses of my offline wallet known to the blockchain ? it must be adverted everywhere? right ? is that a risk?
When somebody (perhaps yourself) sends bitcoin to an address you own the blockchain simply records that such and such an amount has been sent to such and such an address. When it is time to spend the bitcoins you prove ownership of the address by signing the spend transaction using your private key. This can be independently verified by the world at large using your public key. Here is a more detailed explanation: https://bitcoinspakistan.com/blog/private-key-public-key-bitcoin-address-and-the-blockchain/ |
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Why are you creating an offline wallet if you don't know what use it is? Who told you to go create an offline wallet? If you don't have too many bitcoins then an online electrum wallet installed on your computer with a decent password is good enough for most people. Offline wallets are an advanced feature. They are not for newbies. First thank you for the answear. Second, I wish you had told me what is the purpose of the offline wallet. I think I know it but I am not sure! Also english isnt my first language so as soon as it gets technical I cant express myself anymore! Also I am a scared noobie and fear prevents me to thinking straight! Also its too technical for me! The idea is that if your computer is infected with malware your offline wallet is not affected and bitcoins sent there cannot be stolen. To be clear: when I setup an offline wallet and I observe it through electrum on computer connected to the internet, i cannot spend the coins without having to save the tx file and load it on the offline wallet which is located on my usb live key?
Yes. BTW you don't have to store the wallet on your usb key. Just noting down the seed on a piece of paper is sufficient. You can restore from seed whenever you need to spend bitcoins. You will still need a USB drive for the transaction files though. but what if the usbkey get contaminated ? or what if ... I dont know !
If the usb key gets infected then your bitcoins could be stolen. It would have to be pretty sophisticated malware, though. Malware that a) supports both windows and linux b) targets bitcoin users with offline wallets. I don't know of any such malware in the wild. |
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I was using the word "online wallet" to describe the wallet where my coin currently are (ie multibit); and the word "offline wallet" to describe the wallet ive created using linux and that i am observing using electrum
I was wondering how do I send bitcoin from my online wallet (multibit) from my offline wallet (observing with electrum), is it the same as usual ? i take an address from the wallet I observe and I send this address using multibit?
It is same as usual. Just copy the address from the watch only wallet (offline, read only wallet installed on your computer) to your multibit send window and go from there. But then how do I make sure I really own this wallet ? I need to be able to send coins from it.
Write down a few of the addresses in your watch only wallet on a piece of paper. Then follow same procedure as before to recreate your wallet i.e. boot into mint, install electrum, disconnect wifi, create new wallet selecting restore from seed, enter seed. See if the same addresses you wrote down show up. So to do that, I do what you describe in your latest message, right?
Also, what happens if my offline wallet goes online ? how is it dangerous ? for instance if I forget to create my offline wallet with wifi disconnected what does it change? is it out in the public meaning that anyone can log in ?
Also when I want to spend money from my offline wallet, the only way to do that is to transfert through a usb key the tx file ? there is no other way ? what about recreating the seed on a pc connected to the internet? then I can do all that. So i need to keep my seeds secure, right ?
The interest of the offline wallet through electrum is to prevent the spending of the bitcoin ? i can only receive coins ? I can not spend them because to spend them I need to have access to the seeds or to the usb key ? so my usb key needs to be secure too right?
Why are you creating an offline wallet if you don't know what use it is? Who told you to go create an offline wallet? If you don't have too many bitcoins then an online electrum wallet installed on your computer with a decent password is good enough for most people. Offline wallets are an advanced feature. They are not for newbies. |
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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. |
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Easiest way is as follows:
- Run elecrum
- Go to file menu > save copy
- Give it a suitable name and save it some place convenient
Then just upload to your cloud storage.
IMO it's too risky to store a wallet on a cloud service, but you may feel otherwise.
Will it still have my normal password encryption ? If you set a password first then the backup will be encrypted too. You can set a password from wallet menu > password. You can also open your backup file and see for yourself whether it has the password or not. To open use file > open. Then right click on an address on the receive tab and select sign message. Try to sign a message and it will ask your for the password if the wallet is encrypted. You can also use this approach to confirm that you have correctly memorized the password. |
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If you have better advice for him besides "send a letter to Japan," please reply to him in the thread below.
I suppose that someone losing 300 BTC on Gox and moving 800 BTC like it was spare change still controls a very large number of coins and/or fiat, so : 1. Get a good lawyer. One that knows how liquidations work in Japan. 2. If it works like it does in developed countries, then the liquidator representing the company is not allowed to accept any new payment or delivery from former partners after the liquidation starts. 3. Let your lawyer write to the liquidator and/or the Japanese court and demand the bitcoins to be sent back to you. It will cost you between $10k and $100k and you have a 50% chance of recovering them. Japan is a developed country so I don't know why you are implying otherwise in 2. I also don't see how it would cost so much just to get a lawyer to write a letter. |
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^^ Your running bitcoind as root?
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Easiest way is as follows:
- Run elecrum
- Go to file menu > save copy
- Give it a suitable name and save it some place convenient
Then just upload to your cloud storage.
IMO it's too risky to store a wallet on a cloud service, but you may feel otherwise.
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i guess the fear is i want to send 1 BTC...and I accidentally hit
the shift key and type ! and since a 1 and ! look similar,
I might not even notice.
You type an exclamation point and it replaces it instantly with the total number of coins you can send. The exclamation point is never displayed in the send field. There is no possibility of making a mistake with this shortcut. Try it and you'll see. |
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does send from let you use mutliple inputs?
You can shift click to select range of addresses or ctrl click to select non-continuous addresses. Then right click and select send from. |
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BIP39 also uses checksums IIRC. So if a seed contains a word from the BIP39 list, and has a validating checksum, it's correct. If it only has a word from the BIP39 list, they typed it incorrectly. And if it doesn't contain a BIP39 word, then do the usual procedure for restoring older style electrum seeds.
Aren't there words that are present in both dictionaries? Instead of trying to infer the seed version from the seed we should let the user select which version seed it is - pre 2.0 or 2.0+. Worst comes to worst he has to try both options. Not a big deal. For example Armory expects you to select the version when you restore from paper backups. |
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Quick question
I've done an experiment on electrum
I've started fresh and said "restoring from seed" where the seed is a 256 bit hexnumber (like the output of a sha256)
With that, I got 24 mnemonic words and a given set of 5 bitcoin addresses
Then, I deleted my wallet and started again, this time I've used the first 128 bit of that 256 bit hexnumber I've used earlier as the seed in the input GUI.
With that, I got the 12 mnemonic words, which matches the first 12 mnemonic words from the prior experiment.
I also got 5 Bitcoin addresses that differs entirely from the prior experiment.
So it seems like, although the Electrum documentation says it takes a 128 bit seed, that it actually can take more, leading to a different set of bitcoin addresses.
Can anyone explain what is going on?
And perhaps the documentation on Electrum's website could be updated to specify this.
Thanks
Yes that's correct. It can take an arbitrary size seed but it is not recommended unless you know what you are doing. See the caveat I wrote about on page 2: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=153990.msg6627649#msg6627649 |
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I'm printing out my first cold wallet with 1BTC on it to keep long term.I plan to HODL for at least a few years.
Should I add extra to cover a future tx fee? If yes, then what tx fee would you recommend I add?
Thanks.
No. Old coins don't need to pay any fee. |
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There is a third option. Kill 1.x branch. No more updates for that. Anyone who upgrades to 2.0 gets told that their coins are going to be migrated to a new wallet and asked whether they will agree to this. If they say no electrum closes. If they say yes a new wallet is generated and their coins get swept to a key in the new wallet. The old wallet file is backed up in case the user wants to refer to labels and stuff.
The above is a pretty hardcore stance but I just thought I'd mention that this is another way to do it. It would save the developers a lot of time because they could ditch the legacy code (after a few versions where you are allowed wallet upgrades).
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Well I live in India(a country in S.E.A  ) , and here in Delhi, India I can find you some people who will be ready to give you cash for btc, so if you come to delhi do tell it to me India is in south asia not south east asia. There is a difference. @OP: which countries in particular do you mean? There is a forum for country specific threads here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=11.0 |
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