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

[molecular]

hey guys. Just salvaged 20.01 from my dad's old wallet.dat and sent it (after sending a test-mBTC) to his brand-new electrum wallet, which is friendly and instant, but VERY CONFUSING:

...

So now my dad thinks "oh, hey, 'they' doubled my bitcoins, how nice of 'them'. Now I have 40 bitcoins"

That's not very reassuring to a newbie like my dad.

Do you still see the wrong balance after restarting electrum?

No, display is correct now (after breakfast and restart). However I'm not sure wether this was because of the restart or the fact that the transactions have confirmations now (at least the 20.01 I sent from the old wallet had 0 confirmations at the time).



EDIT: note that one transaction where we sent BTC 0.01 of the just-received 20.01 BTC to "nick" (this was to explain to dad how to send bitcoin). I guess that's what made the pruning possible? We did this while the 20.01 BTC transaction still had 0 confirmations.

[ThomasV]

hey guys. Just salvaged 20.01 from my dad's old wallet.dat and sent it (after sending a test-mBTC) to his brand-new electrum wallet, which is friendly and instant, but VERY CONFUSING:

...

So now my dad thinks "oh, hey, 'they' doubled my bitcoins, how nice of 'them'. Now I have 40 bitcoins"

That's not very reassuring to a newbie like my dad.

Do you still see the wrong balance after restarting electrum?

No, display is correct now (after breakfast and restart). However I'm not sure wether this was because of the restart or the fact that the transactions have confirmations now (at least the 20.01 I sent from the old wallet had 0 confirmations at the time).

EDIT: note that one transaction where we sent BTC 0.01 of the just-received 20.01 BTC to "nick" (this was to explain to dad how to send bitcoin). I guess that's what made the pruning possible? We did this while the 20.01 BTC transaction still had 0 confirmations.

can you send me the transaction IDs of the transactions shown in the screenshot? that would be useful

Edit: I believe I have found the problem. it is fixed on github.

[jago25_98]

I hope we can have the proxy support working sometimes soon, especially in the portable build.
At the moment the proxy option is greyed out.

[ThomasV]

I hope we can have the proxy support working sometimes soon, especially in the portable build.
At the moment the proxy option is greyed out.

sorry but I am not aware of the problem. what is going on?

[jago25_98]

I hope we can have the proxy support working sometimes soon, especially in the portable build.
At the moment the proxy option is greyed out.

sorry but I am not aware of the problem. what is going on?

Code:

$ electrum --help
Usage: electrum [options] command
Commands: restore, help, unprioritize, freeze, signmessage, verifymessage, addresses, contacts, create, label, validateaddress, unfreeze, reseed, eval, import, password, sendtx, prioritize, mktx, seed, deseed, balance, payto, history

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -g GUI, --gui=GUI     gui
  -w WALLET_PATH, --wallet=WALLET_PATH
                        wallet path (default: electrum.dat)
  -o, --offline         remain offline
  -a, --all             show all addresses
  -b, --balance         show the balance at listed addresses
  -k, --keys            show the private keys of listed addresses
  -f TX_FEE, --fee=TX_FEE
                        set tx fee
  -s FROM_ADDR, --fromaddr=FROM_ADDR
                        set source address for payto/mktx. if it isn't in the
                        wallet, it will ask for the private key unless
                        supplied in the format public_key:private_key. It's
                        not saved in the wallet.
  -c CHANGE_ADDR, --changeaddr=CHANGE_ADDR
                        set the change address for payto/mktx. default is a
                        spare address, or the source address if it's not in
                        the wallet
  -r REMOTE_URL, --remote=REMOTE_URL
                        URL of a remote wallet

Code:

$ http_proxy="127.0.0.1:8080" electrum 
Install zbar package to enable QR scans
Not connected
Poking
Exception in thread Thread-3:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/threading.py", line 551, in __bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/electrum/exchange_rate.py", line 28, in run
    self.discovery()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/electrum/exchange_rate.py", line 32, in discovery
    connection.request("GET", "/api/ticker.php")
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 958, in request
    self._send_request(method, url, body, headers)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 992, in _send_request
    self.endheaders(body)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 954, in endheaders
    self._send_output(message_body)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 814, in _send_output
    self.send(msg)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 776, in send
    self.connect()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 1157, in connect
    self.timeout, self.source_address)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/socket.py", line 571, in create_connection
    raise err
error: [Errno 111] Connection refused

Not connected
Poking
Not connected
Poking

I can't select http. My proxy is ssh -D so should accept the :50001 port. I've also tried a restrictive corporate http proxy too. I'm not sure if electrum is respecting the http_proxy= environment variable? There is no proxy option I can see or commandline switch?

[Tuxavant]

Looks like you're missing some options in that help output. Try upgrading (were at 1.5.7) and you'll see '-p PROXY, --proxy=PROXY' option.

[Tachikoma]

I hope we can have the proxy support working sometimes soon, especially in the portable build.
At the moment the proxy option is greyed out.

sorry but I am not aware of the problem. what is going on?

Code:

$ electrum --help
Usage: electrum [options] command
Commands: restore, help, unprioritize, freeze, signmessage, verifymessage, addresses, contacts, create, label, validateaddress, unfreeze, reseed, eval, import, password, sendtx, prioritize, mktx, seed, deseed, balance, payto, history

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -g GUI, --gui=GUI     gui
  -w WALLET_PATH, --wallet=WALLET_PATH
                        wallet path (default: electrum.dat)
  -o, --offline         remain offline
  -a, --all             show all addresses
  -b, --balance         show the balance at listed addresses
  -k, --keys            show the private keys of listed addresses
  -f TX_FEE, --fee=TX_FEE
                        set tx fee
  -s FROM_ADDR, --fromaddr=FROM_ADDR
                        set source address for payto/mktx. if it isn't in the
                        wallet, it will ask for the private key unless
                        supplied in the format public_key:private_key. It's
                        not saved in the wallet.
  -c CHANGE_ADDR, --changeaddr=CHANGE_ADDR
                        set the change address for payto/mktx. default is a
                        spare address, or the source address if it's not in
                        the wallet
  -r REMOTE_URL, --remote=REMOTE_URL
                        URL of a remote wallet

Code:

$ http_proxy="127.0.0.1:8080" electrum 
Install zbar package to enable QR scans
Not connected
Poking
Exception in thread Thread-3:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/threading.py", line 551, in __bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/electrum/exchange_rate.py", line 28, in run
    self.discovery()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/electrum/exchange_rate.py", line 32, in discovery
    connection.request("GET", "/api/ticker.php")
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 958, in request
    self._send_request(method, url, body, headers)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 992, in _send_request
    self.endheaders(body)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 954, in endheaders
    self._send_output(message_body)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 814, in _send_output
    self.send(msg)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 776, in send
    self.connect()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/httplib.py", line 1157, in connect
    self.timeout, self.source_address)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/socket.py", line 571, in create_connection
    raise err
error: [Errno 111] Connection refused

Not connected
Poking
Not connected
Poking

I can't select http. My proxy is ssh -D so should accept the :50001 port. I've also tried a restrictive corporate http proxy too. I'm not sure if electrum is respecting the http_proxy= environment variable? There is no proxy option I can see or commandline switch?

A few things.

By the looks of the screenshot you are running an older version. Please try updating your client.

The timeout error you are receiving is from the exchange part that tries to retrieve btc/usd information from Intersango, since it seems to be down.

[jago25_98]

Thanks folks. I should have spotted it was v1!

Time to upgrade. Big shame I'm on Gentoo though. It seems to have gone to the dogs since they started dropping packages that aren't updated anymore:

no yaourt,
no pip
no python-pip...

and it's been the same for the last 10 packages I've wanted to test... hard work these days... just moved from Ubuntu as it was going away from GNU and the sharing caring thing too much imho.. enough to cause problems down the line I think... modern but lazy

[Tachikoma]

Thanks folks. I should have spotted it was v1!

Time to upgrade. Big shame I'm on Gentoo though. It seems to have gone to the dogs since they started dropping packages that aren't updated anymore:

no yaourt,
no pip
no python-pip...

and it's been the same for the last 10 packages I've wanted to test... hard work these days... just moved from Ubuntu as it was going away from GNU and the sharing caring thing too much imho.. enough to cause problems down the line I think... modern but lazy

pip is easy enough to install. Give it a go

[ThomasV]

I [...] had to restore from seed [..], losing all my transaction labels every time.

I am thinking about a centralized service that would store and serve transaction labels for electrum users.
this is useful not only for restore, but also if you use the same wallet on different computers.

in the meantime, please note that you can save/restore your labels manually, using Electrum's "set" and "get" commands.

it works like this:

Code:

electrum get labels > labels_filename

and, to restore them:

Code:

electrum set labels "`cat labels_filename`"

the "set" and "get" commands are quite versatile, and can be used with all wallet or config variables, except those that are critical for security.

[jago25_98]

Thanks for the help folks.

I was thinking,
 maybe it should be easier to password and backup the wallet. I know that's really an aspect that should be handled by the O/S but it would encourage backing up this way. I really like the way blockchain.info emails a passworded backup after every transaction. Could something like that be duplicated? Should something like that be duplicated?

[molecular]

I am thinking about a centralized service that would store and serve transaction labels for electrum users.
this is useful not only for restore, but also if you use the same wallet on different computers.

awesome! I want this!

Did you think about encrypting the labels client-side?

in the meantime, please note that you can save/restore your labels manually, using Electrum's "set" and "get" commands.

it works like this:

Code:

electrum get labels > labels_filename

and, to restore them:

Code:

electrum set labels "`cat labels_filename`"

the "set" and "get" commands are quite versatile, and can be used with all wallet or config variables, except those that are critical for security.

cool. I tried this and it works as expected.

One slight improvement (or maybe not, I'm not sure) would be to not overwrite the existing labels on "set labels" command. This seems to be happening here, so I had to combine 2 json lists into one manually, which is certainly doable of course.

[Dargo]

I just installed Electrum 1.6.1, and having trouble importing keypairs. Apparently the command for this has changed from "import" to "importprivkey". At terminal, I'm entering,

electrum importprivkey <public key>:<private key>

I'm asked for my password, and after entering that, the return I get is

Keypair imported: False

Any ideas as to why this isn't working? I know I've got the right keypair. My distro is peppermint 3 (based on Ubuntu 12.04) if that helps.

Dargo

[ThomasV]

I just installed Electrum 1.6.1, and having trouble importing keypairs. Apparently the command for this has changed from "import" to "importprivkey". At terminal, I'm entering,

electrum importprivkey <public key>:<private key>

I'm asked for my password, and after entering that, the return I get is

Keypair imported: False

Any ideas as to why this isn't working? I know I've got the right keypair. My distro is peppermint 3 (based on Ubuntu 12.04) if that helps.

Dargo

the syntax is now the same as with bitcoind:
electrum importprivkey <private key>

[Dargo]

I just installed Electrum 1.6.1, and having trouble importing keypairs. Apparently the command for this has changed from "import" to "importprivkey". At terminal, I'm entering,

electrum importprivkey <public key>:<private key>

I'm asked for my password, and after entering that, the return I get is

Keypair imported: False

Any ideas as to why this isn't working? I know I've got the right keypair. My distro is peppermint 3 (based on Ubuntu 12.04) if that helps.

Dargo

the syntax is now the same as with bitcoind:
electrum importprivkey <private key>

Thanks, that did it (I guess I should have guessed this). BTW, this change isn't documented in help - the result of

electrum help importprivkey

is

Imports a key pair
Syntax: import <address>:<privatekey>

D

[matthewh3]

Is there any easy instruction about on how to connect to Electrum over I2p and Tor.

[jago25_98]

Is there any easy instruction about on how to connect to Electrum over I2p and Tor.

1) Use the browser/vidalia Tor bundle
2) set electrum proxy to 127.0.0.1:9050
- can't remember if it's http or socks. To get the proxy option you need the "classic gui" and click on the green circle bottom right

[Tuxavant]

- can't remember if it's http or socks. To get the proxy option you need the "classic gui" and click on the green circle bottom right

socks

[cjanthony]

electrum -p socks5:127.0.0.1:9050 -w wallet.dat

or run Tor browser bundle. In Tor Browser/Firefox ... Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced --> Network --> Settings ... note the randomly generated port number by SOCKS Host. Then for example:

electrum -p socks5:127.0.0.1:44444 -w wallet.dat

You can test the port easily with tor-resolve:

tor-resolve electrum.org 127.0.0.1:44444

[cedivad]

hi
I am using electrum 1.01-e (windoze flatfly compact build, )
I was not able to connect to any server due to some reason(possibly firewall problem, note icon was red, blocks -1)
thomasv from IRC told me to manually change <connect to > field to
electrum.novit.ro:8081:h

it worked and network went green

now my question:

I didnt set any passwords with electrum client. I cannot change existing passwords (there are two pwd areas, one is python other is wallet encryption area)
are there some default passwords?

Hi, there is no default password. It is empty. What happens if you just set one, do you get an error message? The 2nd area is to confirm your new password, just type it again. 

Guess what?
Same problem. With the difference that Electrum was holding the money needed to pay the Avalon.

I have no words to describe this.

I've never been asked for a password nor he showed me the seed.

I should have tested it before, but i was confident i wouldn't have any problem.

Now, since that really, i didn't set any passowrd, if someone has an idea on how to recover it...