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

[SebastianJu]

Ok, i will wait then for the installer, install it, move the directory to portable drive, deinstall and try to start electrum with -p-tag so that it runs portable. So i guess python interpreter is in that portable directory too and no things are stored on drive C somewhere under users\...

[Seth Otterstad]

Is this how I get around the problems I was having installing python on ubuntu 12.04?  I can just run flatfly electrum 1.5.6?

[Tachikoma]

Is this how I get around the problems I was having installing python on ubuntu 12.04?  I can just run flatfly electrum 1.5.6?

No. Flatfly is a Windows build. What is the problem with python on Ubuntu?

[Seth Otterstad]

Phexlix already fixed the python problem in post #433.  However, I am still curious about this:

Can I create my own wallet seed?  When it asks to restore, can I enter 12 words of my choosing?  What list of words does it use?  I ask because certain words electrum chooses are hard for me to memorize.

[ThomasV]

Phexlix already fixed the python problem in post #433.  However, I am still curious about this:

Can I create my own wallet seed?  When it asks to restore, can I enter 12 words of my choosing?  What list of words does it use?  I ask because certain words electrum chooses are hard for me to memorize.

this has been asked many times; I am tired of answering the same question over again.
since we now have a subforum, I will post it in its own thread

[Seth Otterstad]

Phexlix already fixed the python problem in post #433.  However, I am still curious about this:

Can I create my own wallet seed?  When it asks to restore, can I enter 12 words of my choosing?  What list of words does it use?  I ask because certain words electrum chooses are hard for me to memorize.

this has been asked many times; I am tired of answering the same question over again.
since we now have a subforum, I will post it in its own thread

Thanks!  Where can I contribute bitcoins?  I don't see an address on electrum.org or in your sig.

[SebastianJu]

What does it mean if blockchain says that it doesnt know a transaction id?

Yesterday i sent 0.000001BTC to a new wallet as a test. Its in my list of transactions but no confirmation. I tested other full servers and they even dont show the transaction in my transaction list. So i thought that will happen when the first conf is there. But now i copied the t-id into blockchain.info to find out how many unconfirmed transactions are in there but its unknown there too. I mean shouldnt it appear in the list of unconfirmed transactions then?

So does this mean that the server im currently on didnt send the transaction forward or whats the reason?

I thought till now that a full server would be better, because of the word... but pruning is the better solution i read in a manual for server admins for electrum?

By the way... i wrote something wrong... version 1.5.6 from flatfly isnt portable in this sense. I only can specify the electrum.dat with the -w-param. But version 1.6.2 seems to be able to do the same. Only thing is that it still stores some things on C:. I hope Version 1.7 will be portable in some way.

[Tachikoma]

Thanks!  Where can I contribute bitcoins?  I don't see an address on electrum.org or in your sig.

Electrum itself is not accepting donations at this moment. Best is to spread some Electrum love to one (or multiple) server operators.

What does it mean if blockchain says that it doesnt know a transaction id?

Yesterday i sent 0.000001BTC to a new wallet as a test. Its in my list of transactions but no confirmation. I tested other full servers and they even dont show the transaction in my transaction list. So i thought that will happen when the first conf is there. But now i copied the t-id into blockchain.info to find out how many unconfirmed transactions are in there but its unknown there too. I mean shouldnt it appear in the list of unconfirmed transactions then?

So does this mean that the server im currently on didnt send the transaction forward or whats the reason?

It sounds like your transaction was not broadcasted over the network. Do you remember which server you used?

I thought till now that a full server would be better, because of the word... but pruning is the better solution i read in a manual for server admins for electrum?

Pruning is better for server admin since it requires less server resources. When restoring from seed it's important to select a full server, once that's done it shouldn't matter as much.

[SebastianJu]

Yes, i used electrum.datemas.de over TCP/SSL. When i log in there i see the transaction but not on other servers. The receiving wallet sees the transaction too.
The tid is:

Code:

b98b81ea29fc5d2ad5e80c67924313a9996738714a3786a201dbaac008c3b85c

It was done 16hours or so ago and i thought because of the low value it didnt find its way into the blockchain yet. But it is unknown to blockchain and other servers. How can this be?

[gyverlb]

Yes, i used electrum.datemas.de over TCP/SSL. When i log in there i see the transaction but not on other servers. The receiving wallet sees the transaction too.
The tid is:

Code:

b98b81ea29fc5d2ad5e80c67924313a9996738714a3786a201dbaac008c3b85c

It was done 16hours or so ago and i thought because of the low value it didnt find its way into the blockchain yet. But it is unknown to blockchain and other servers. How can this be?

If you didn't include a fee, it might sit here a while. Your transaction is probably very small, but I remember I had to restore a wallet backup to revert a more complex transaction (which probably included several tx inputs and was several kB) that clearly wasn't accepted by the network because I didn't include any fee. It may have got through eventually, but it was sitting in my bitcoin-qt client for more than a day without propagating when I decided to restore and make one with a fee instead.

[SebastianJu]

Yes, i used electrum.datemas.de over TCP/SSL. When i log in there i see the transaction but not on other servers. The receiving wallet sees the transaction too.
The tid is:

Code:

b98b81ea29fc5d2ad5e80c67924313a9996738714a3786a201dbaac008c3b85c

It was done 16hours or so ago and i thought because of the low value it didnt find its way into the blockchain yet. But it is unknown to blockchain and other servers. How can this be?

If you didn't include a fee, it might sit here a while. Your transaction is probably very small, but I remember I had to restore a wallet backup to revert a more complex transaction (which probably included several tx inputs and was several kB) that clearly wasn't accepted by the network because I didn't include any fee. It may have got through eventually, but it was sitting in my bitcoin-qt client for more than a day without propagating when I decided to restore and make one with a fee instead.

I know that it happens that a small transaction, that doesnt have a fee, isnt processed. But at least it should be known to blockchain.info so that it can be taken into blockchain. I mean if the electrum servers now start to decide which transaction they give to the blockchain that would be strange. I mean the fee isnt for the servers anyway. Its for the miners. So the server shouldnt be able to decide what transaction should be propagated. If the miners then decide that the transaction isnt going into next block ok, but an electrum server?
If its really the case that electrum server block transaction for some reason i would like to know which servers arent doing such things.

And yes, its a small transaction as a test. Without a fee. I know that such transactions arent processed for days because asicminer, when paying dividend always sends a transaction that have the amound of shares one owns in satoshis and one for the real dividend. Both without a fee. And the large transaction goes into blockchain fast while the small can take days. But at least its known for blockchain.info as a transaction that isnt included into a block yet.

[gyverlb]

Yes, i used electrum.datemas.de over TCP/SSL. When i log in there i see the transaction but not on other servers. The receiving wallet sees the transaction too.
The tid is:

Code:

b98b81ea29fc5d2ad5e80c67924313a9996738714a3786a201dbaac008c3b85c

It was done 16hours or so ago and i thought because of the low value it didnt find its way into the blockchain yet. But it is unknown to blockchain and other servers. How can this be?

If you didn't include a fee, it might sit here a while. Your transaction is probably very small, but I remember I had to restore a wallet backup to revert a more complex transaction (which probably included several tx inputs and was several kB) that clearly wasn't accepted by the network because I didn't include any fee. It may have got through eventually, but it was sitting in my bitcoin-qt client for more than a day without propagating when I decided to restore and make one with a fee instead.

I know that it happens that a small transaction, that doesnt have a fee, isnt processed. But at least it should be known to blockchain.info

In my case mine wasn't (this is why I suspected nodes refused to transmit it).

so that it can be taken into blockchain.

Blockchain.info is just a site, even if it knew the transaction there woud be no guarantee that a miner will include it in a block. A tx can be taken into the blockchain without being seen by blockchain.info before.

I mean if the electrum servers now start to decide which transaction they give to the blockchain that would be strange.

I don't think they do but the bitcoin nodes they are connected to can refuse to accept a transaction and it can then sit on the electrum server which tries to transmit it endlessly without success.

[Tachikoma]

1.7 Released

[SebastianJu]

Strange... then maybe the servers should connect to more nodes so that one of them accepts the transaction. I mean if the transaction isnt spread into the net then no miner can try to include it into the next mined block. That wouldnt be ideal for a currency i think.
By the way... what node is this? Are these the normal bitcoin wallets? How can they decide to not propagate a transaction? I didnt spam the network or anything. It was a single, small transaction.

Strange thing... i hope something can be done here because one has to trust that transactions are being able to process. Even though it can take a while with no fee and small transaction. But a node that decides not to accept? Doesnt sound like a good thing to me.

[SebastianJu]

3 days now and only electrum.datemas.de knows the transaction. No other server nor blockchain.info knows anything. Thats not normal isnt it?

[ThomasV]

3 days now and only electrum.datemas.de knows the transaction. No other server nor blockchain.info knows anything. Thats not normal isnt it?

if your transaction is unconfirmed, and only exists at one server, that means that it was not propagated through the network.
there might be various reasons for that (the most common cause is insufficient fee)

To fix this situation, use another server.
The first transaction you will do will, when it gets confirmed, invalidate the unconfirmed transaction that is still in electrum.datemas.de's memory, and it will disappear from there.

[SebastianJu]

3 days now and only electrum.datemas.de knows the transaction. No other server nor blockchain.info knows anything. Thats not normal isnt it?

if your transaction is unconfirmed, and only exists at one server, that means that it was not propagated through the network.
there might be various reasons for that (the most common cause is insufficient fee)

To fix this situation, use another server.
The first transaction you will do will, when it gets confirmed, invalidate the unconfirmed transaction that is still in electrum.datemas.de's memory, and it will disappear from there.

Ok, with such a small amount it wouldnt be a risk if 2 transactions would be run. But how can the one server delete the first transaction? I mean he had to know that its not needed anymore and that the new transaction replaces the old one.

But its still strange. Is it the fault of this server? Maybe he didnt give it forward or should connect to more nodes or is it the fault of the nodes that dont accept the transaction? So that maybe the bitcoin client has to be changed. I mean if you first has to get the mercy of a node to propagate and then have to wait for the mercy of a miner to include the transaction it sounds somewhat unstable for me.
So where to search the problem? I mean a currency that is blocking a transaction for a reason you dont know and cant change?

I will try another server now.

[ThomasV]

I mean he had to know that its not needed anymore and that the new transaction replaces the old one.

bitcoin does that. it's called a double spend.

[SebastianJu]

I mean he had to know that its not needed anymore and that the new transaction replaces the old one.

bitcoin does that. it's called a double spend.

For that it does have to be the same sender and the same target plus the same amount? That wouldnt be possible then if using change addresses right?

[stepkrav]

Hello, will the freeze option work even if other addresses' balance is 0 ? Thanks