Electrum - Bitcoin client for the common users (friendly and instant)

[Electrum]

http://electrum-desktop.com/
http://f.cl.ly/items/2U0B061D1q2f1g431D1n/Screen%20Shot%202012-08-12%20at%2010.45.51%20PM.png

Download
The downloads can be found on electrum-desktop.com.
Please note that the OSX .app is not all there yet, it seems only to run on >= 10.7 for now.

Why this topic
ThomasV, the author of Electrum, has made it public that he is not going to add new features to the client while a couple of us still see a lot of room for improvement. Genjix and myself (Animazing) have been working on the new version and decided to bump up to the version 1.0 to make a clean start. The code for the client has moved to Github and the code for the server will follow shortly.

About Electrum
Electrum is a lightweight client that was designed to simplify the use of Bitcoin. You do not need to perform regular wallet backups, because your wallet can be recovered from a secret phrase that you can memorize or write on paper. There is no waiting time when you start the client, because it does not download the Bitcoin blockchain; instead, the client relies on remote servers. Everybody can run his or hers own electrum server this keeps the client decentralized.

Why you want it

• Encrypted: your private keys are protected with a password. You are protected from thieves.
• Deterministic: If you lose your wallet, you can recover it from its seed. You are protected from your own mistakes.
• Instant on: the client does not download the blockchain, it gets that information from a server. No delays, always up-to-date.
• Secure: Your private keys are not shared with the server. You do not have to trust the server with your money.
• No downtimes: Several servers are available. There is no single point of failure.
• Ubiquity: You can use the same wallet on different computers. Your wallet is "in the cloud", and that cloud is the Bitcoin blockchain!
• Freedom: Electrum servers do not store user accounts. You are not tied to a particular server.
• No scripts: Electrum does not download any script at runtime. A compromised server cannot compromise your client.
• Free software: Gnu GPL v3. Anyone can audit the code. Anyone can run a server.

Website
The new, open-source, website can be found on http://electrum-desktop.com/. This website uses Github pages and can be edited by pulling the gh-pages branch from github.

Latest release information: v1.0

• New style for the Lite GUI
• History view ported to Lite GUI
• QR Support for sending transactions
• New website
• Client code moved to Github
• Build scripts for OSX

Contributers for this version
Coblee, ErebusBat, Genjix, Slush, Animazing

Issue tracking
The main repository has moved to Github. This means we also have proper issue tracking now. If you find anything weird please create a bug report over at Github.

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[OneEyed]

Excellent news! Thanks for taking care of it, Electrum is really promising.

[ErebusBat]

Sweet... I get a contributor label for two lines of code

Seriously though... Electrum rocks...

[OneEyed]

Sweet... I get a contributor label for two lines of code

Seriously though... Electrum rocks...

Someone please register it on https://ohloh.net/, and contributors will be well identified

[minimalB]

Looks great, Thanks!

[bitfoo]

Thanks for the excellent work!

Will the server still be maintained on gitorious, or will this also be moved to github?

[greatwolf]

Electrum 0.60 flatfly's compact build isn't sync'ing. This started happening the last few days. It stays stuck at 'Synchronizing...' and nothing shows in the History tab. I tried changing servers but all of them seem to be doing this. Any idea what's wrong?

[carafleur]

Great ! thanks for the update
I'm trying to install 1.0 but I get the following error :

Code:

$ ./electrum
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./electrum", line 169, in <module>
    gui.main(url)
  File "/tmp/electrum/lib/gui_lite.py", line 65, in main
    self.mini = MiniWindow(actuator, self.expand)
  File "/tmp/electrum/lib/gui_lite.py", line 131, in __init__
    self.address_input.setPlaceholderText(_("Enter a Bitcoin address..."))
AttributeError: 'QLineEdit' object has no attribute 'setPlaceholderText'

Running on debian 6.0.5
I first tried the 'pip' install, and then the 'git' install, where I realized I was missing "xgettext" (gettext package) and some "zbar" tools for QR Codes (python-zbar python-zbarpygtk zbar-tools packages)
But still, the error occured when launching the ./electrum script.
Any help appreciated !

[Tachikoma]

Great ! thanks for the update
I'm trying to install 1.0 but I get the following error :

Code:

$ ./electrum
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./electrum", line 169, in <module>
    gui.main(url)
  File "/tmp/electrum/lib/gui_lite.py", line 65, in main
    self.mini = MiniWindow(actuator, self.expand)
  File "/tmp/electrum/lib/gui_lite.py", line 131, in __init__
    self.address_input.setPlaceholderText(_("Enter a Bitcoin address..."))
AttributeError: 'QLineEdit' object has no attribute 'setPlaceholderText'

Running on debian 6.0.5
I first tried the 'pip' install, and then the 'git' install, where I realized I was missing "xgettext" (gettext package) and some "zbar" tools for QR Codes (python-zbar python-zbarpygtk zbar-tools packages)
But still, the error occured when launching the ./electrum script.
Any help appreciated !

Part of the Lite GUI were rewritten using functions that were introduced in QT 4.7. I checked the Debian packages but sadly they don't have 4.7 in their stable branch yet. You could try a manual install via the QT site.

We took the gamble that most distros would have 4.7 in their package distribution, sadly this does not seem to be the case.

[marcus_of_augustus]

watching ... like a hawk.

[ThomasV]

ThomasV, the author of Electrum, has made it public that he is not going to add new features to the client while a couple of us still see a lot of room for improvement.

can you clarify this point?

[Tachikoma]

ThomasV, the author of Electrum, has made it public that he is not going to add new features to the client while a couple of us still see a lot of room for improvement.

can you clarify this point?

Some longer and shorter term plans as I understand them at this point:

• Full functional lite-gui, having all the basic features the lite-gui needs.
• Working binary for all operating systems and distro's.
• Improved user friendly Wizard on first launch.
• Build in alt-chain support.

[carafleur]

Part of the Lite GUI were rewritten using functions that were introduced in QT 4.7. I checked the Debian packages but sadly they don't have 4.7 in their stable branch yet. You could try a manual install via the QT site.
We took the gamble that most distros would have 4.7 in their package distribution, sadly this does not seem to be the case.

Argh, and it's not in backports either 
Switching to ubuntu would really bother me, so I'll have to stay with 0.61 :sigh:

[Tachikoma]

Part of the Lite GUI were rewritten using functions that were introduced in QT 4.7. I checked the Debian packages but sadly they don't have 4.7 in their stable branch yet. You could try a manual install via the QT site.
We took the gamble that most distros would have 4.7 in their package distribution, sadly this does not seem to be the case.

Argh, and it's not in backports either 
Switching to ubuntu would really bother me, so I'll have to stay with 0.61 :sigh:

http://qt.nokia.com/downloads

[JompinDox]

Electrum 0.60 flatfly's compact build isn't sync'ing. This started happening the last few days. It stays stuck at 'Synchronizing...' and nothing shows in the History tab. I tried changing servers but all of them seem to be doing this. Any idea what's wrong?

Try to PM flatfly, he's usually very helpful.

[2weiX]

I just switched from winxp to mint13 and am in need of a desktop client.
this seems promising.
is there the function to sign messages with this?

[Tachikoma]

I just switched from winxp to mint13 and am in need of a desktop client.
this seems promising.
is there the function to sign messages with this?

Yessir!

Code:

./electrum help signmessage
Signs a message with a key
Syntax: signmessage <address> <message>

[2weiX]

consider me a user then^^

[ErebusBat]

I am loving Electrum....  just need some free time to finish setting my server then there will be another Electrum server available too.

[ErebusBat]

Does anyone have any feedback / info on the electrum wallet for chrome?

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hfdeddmpdncodjalbadbanlcombfeoll?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

Given that you would be giving your private keys to this I would like some more info.