Multibit long term reliability?

[hodedowe]

I just upgraded to MultiBit (I know, I know) and I see that it stores your BTC in a wallet and that it has to talk to a server to get updated. I've been burned by "cloud" software before, so does anyone know if the Multibit server goes down or they go out of business if my wallet will still operate properly?

I'd hate to lose >20 BTC because Mr. Multibit didn't pay his server bill this month

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[Amph]

multibit server? i think you have some confusion there, multibit is just a light version of the client Core, multibit operate with nodes(and you are one of those nodes), there isn't a centralized server to which you connect

[GoingAround]

There's no cloud, you can always export your privatekey to other client and use your bitcoins.

[hodedowe]

Maybe I'm wrong, I thought when it said "Synchronizing" that it was syncing with the multibit server somewhere. Glad to see that's not true.

[Thura]

The MultiBit(HD) client tries to lookup on the MultiBit HTTP(S) server if there is a new software version, and looks up for help pages. If the MultiBit HTTP(S) server is down, You can still use Your MultiBit(HD) client.

You can see what happened the last time when the multibit.org site was down and an explanation by Jim from MultiBit here.

I think You could simulate and test that also by blocking the IP address that resolves from multibit.org in Your computers firewall.

[jim618]

The commenters on the MultiBit architecture are correct.

MultiBit HD connects directly to Bitcoin Core/XT nodes to:
+ get transaction data
+ send transactions

It connects to multibit.org for various housekeeping things but fails over and keeps going if multibit.org is down.
Specifically:
+ it checks a file on multibit.org to see if there is a new version(no multibit.org = no upgrade notification)
+ it gets the help from multibit.org (fails over to a local copy of the help - it'll be a bit out of date but no big deal)
+ if you create a new wallet it does a BRIT exchange to get a list of fee addresses (fails over to a hardwired list).

In V0.1.1 you no longer will see an annoying 'MultiBit HD - internet connection' dialog if our server is down - we've fixed that.

tl;dr; If the multibit.org server goes down you can carry on using MultiBit HD for all your bitcoin related tasks.


Blocking multibit.org in your firewall would be a good way to simulate that yes if you wanted to test it. Please unblock it once you've run the test ! :-)

[bitcoinmasterlord]

The commenters on the MultiBit architecture are correct.

MultiBit HD connects directly to Bitcoin Core/XT nodes to:
+ get transaction data
+ send transactions

So where is this node? It's a server isn't it? I know that the server can't spend the coins but still, he knows all addresses in that wallet, right? Its similar to electrum as long as iam not wrong.

So theoretically i see a risk.

[hodedowe]

The "node" he's talking about is the bitcoin network of servers, not Multibit.



Thanks Jim, I get it now. Now if only you'd make it so we can solo mine against Multibit





TLDR: Still using Multibit.

[sgk]

I just upgraded to MultiBit (I know, I know) and I see that it stores your BTC in a wallet and that it has to talk to a server to get updated. I've been burned by "cloud" software before, so does anyone know if the Multibit server goes down or they go out of business if my wallet will still operate properly?

I'd hate to lose >20 BTC because Mr. Multibit didn't pay his server bill this month

As long as you have your private keys, it does not matter what wallet you use.
So no need to panic. Just export your private keys and store them safely. Also print them on paper and store safely.

As long as you have your private keys, you can always recover your Bitcoins using numerous other wallets even if Multibit goes out of existence.

[Muhammed Zakir]

The commenters on the MultiBit architecture are correct.

MultiBit HD connects directly to Bitcoin Core/XT nodes to:
+ get transaction data
+ send transactions

So where is this node? It's a server isn't it? I know that the server can't spend the coins but still, he knows all addresses in that wallet, right? Its similar to electrum as long as iam not wrong.

So theoretically i see a risk.

Nodes are not servers, they are Bitcoin Core/XT clients which opened inbound connections. See https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node.

[bitcoinmasterlord]

The commenters on the MultiBit architecture are correct.

MultiBit HD connects directly to Bitcoin Core/XT nodes to:
+ get transaction data
+ send transactions

So where is this node? It's a server isn't it? I know that the server can't spend the coins but still, he knows all addresses in that wallet, right? Its similar to electrum as long as iam not wrong.

So theoretically i see a risk.

Nodes are not servers, they are Bitcoin Core/XT clients which opened inbound connections. See https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node.

Oh, right... i don't know how i forgot what it meant.

But Multibit doesn't store the blockchain, so still nobody except the multibit wallet knows all the addresses in that wallet?

It's different to electrum where the servers practically know all the addresses in a electrum wallet?

Sorry for asking you out.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Oh, right... i don't know how i forgot what it meant.

But Multibit doesn't store the blockchain,

Electrum does not store the blockchain too.

so still nobody except the multibit wallet knows all the addresses in that wallet?

No. An attacker can know, if not all, most of your addresses but I don't know if Multibit is using a modified BitcoinJ which solves this problem.

It's different to electrum where the servers practically know all the addresses in a electrum wallet?

Yes but Multibit's connections to nodes are unecrypted which is far less secure than Electrum's connections. You can add some watch-only addresses which do not belong to you to create false-positive.

Sorry for asking you out.

No problem.

[bitcoinmasterlord]

Thanks for explaining to me Muhammed Zakir. I didn't know that Multibit has unencrypted traffic. :O

But i think electrum is more dangerous. I mean an attacker only would need to set up a server and he would get all the wallet addresses. Im not sure if a wallet needs to connect to him first but the auto connect is enabled by default. And when it's disabled then im still not sure if electrum isn't sometimes connecting to the other servers.

So i think electrum is a mess anonymitywise.

[nonbody]

no servers, i have been using it for the past year and have had only one problem... my payment from genesis mining didn't come through for a week, turns out it was genesis mining not the wallet

[jim618]

Thanks for explaining to me Muhammed Zakir. I didn't know that Multibit has unencrypted traffic. :O

But i think electrum is more dangerous. I mean an attacker only would need to set up a server and he would get all the wallet addresses. Im not sure if a wallet needs to connect to him first but the auto connect is enabled by default. And when it's disabled then im still not sure if electrum isn't sometimes connecting to the other servers.

So i think electrum is a mess anonymitywise.

All the traffic to and from Bitcoin Core nodes (and between them when they relay transactions) is unencrypted.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Thanks for explaining to me Muhammed Zakir. I didn't know that Multibit has unencrypted traffic. :O

See jim618's above post.

But i think electrum is more dangerous. I mean an attacker only would need to set up a server and he would get all the wallet addresses. Im not sure if a wallet needs to connect to him first but the auto connect is enabled by default. And when it's disabled then im still not sure if electrum isn't sometimes connecting to the other servers.

So i think electrum is a mess anonymitywise.

You can choose an Electrum server manually and to create false-positive, you can add watch-only addresses to your Electrum. Nonetheless, both Multibit and Electrum has its own downsides. You will have to make right choice.

http://www.thomasmonaco.com/electrum-vs-multibit-bitcoin-thin-client-comparison/ maybe helpful. Note that, this article compares Multibit Classic and Electrum not Multibit HD.

[hodedowe]

Wait, so Electrum isn't secure?


Say you wanted to put your retirement savings into BTC, like for instance you live in Greece... Putting it in an Electrum Wallet with the cold storage guide here isn't "set-it and forget it" secure?

IF that's true then the guys at Bitcoin need to get their butts together to better prevent theft or cryptocurrency will never take off as a replacement for fiat on any scale that makes it feasible.


edited for readability. Brain gets ahead of fingers sometimes.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Wait, so Electrum isn't secure?


Say you wanted to put your retirement savings into BTC, like for instance you live in Greece... Putting it in an Electrum Wallet with the cold storage guide here isn't "set-it and forget it" secure?

IF that's true then the guys at Bitcoin need to get their butts together to better prevent theft or cryptocurrency will never take off as a replacement for fiat on any scale that makes it feasible.


edited for readability. Brain gets ahead of fingers sometimes.

Electrum is[/is] secure and so does, Multibit.

[bitcoinmasterlord]

Thanks for explaining to me Muhammed Zakir. I didn't know that Multibit has unencrypted traffic. :O

See jim618's above post.

But i think electrum is more dangerous. I mean an attacker only would need to set up a server and he would get all the wallet addresses. Im not sure if a wallet needs to connect to him first but the auto connect is enabled by default. And when it's disabled then im still not sure if electrum isn't sometimes connecting to the other servers.

So i think electrum is a mess anonymitywise.

You can choose an Electrum server manually and to create false-positive, you can add watch-only addresses to your Electrum. Nonetheless, both Multibit and Electrum has its own downsides. You will have to make right choice.

http://www.thomasmonaco.com/electrum-vs-multibit-bitcoin-thin-client-comparison/ maybe helpful. Note that, this article compares Multibit Classic and Electrum not Multibit HD.

What do you mean with false positives?

The thing is that you never know who is behind an electrum server. Could be someone who wants to know what addresses are in certain wallets and wants to do whatever with it.

[shorena]

-snip-
What do you mean with false positives?

Adding someone elses bitcoin address (as watch only ofc) will create wrong assumptions when someone wants to detect which address are yours and how much bitcoin you have.