Bitcoin Wallet 2.41 released!

[Syke]

My app crashes when trying to import a private key. Is this the same issue?

Depends on the crash. Have you sent a crash report? Which email address did you use (so that I can identify your report)?

Just installed 2.42, still crashes. I'll send in another crash report.

[coqui33]

I keep my savings in several privkeys, none of which is implemented in software anywhere.

I wonder how you manage to transfer your private keys between devices without accidently leaking them.

Like I said, they are not on any devices. Never have been.

[Dabs]

You can't really hide your transactions. It's in the block chain. It has to be.

[coqui33]

You can't really hide your transactions. It's in the block chain. It has to be.

Of course, but we were talking about my privkeys. You cannot retrieve them from the blockchain.

[Syke]

I just want to say, Wow! With the new client and 0.8 servers, I'm doing a full blockchain download on my phone in about an hour.

[Mike Hearn]

Great to hear that Syke!

But we're not done yet. The next version has basically instant startup for new users. It will also sync much faster for people who reset the chain for some reason (but not instant).

[qbits]

Is there any way to import a pre-existing private key?

+1

+1 with QR code scanning please!!

[qbits]

Why don't you just .... send the money from your desktop to your wallet?

Why don't I send the money from my desktop to my wallet? There is no easy way to answer that.

First, I do not keep any money in any desktop. I keep my savings in several privkeys, none of which is implemented in software anywhere. When I must spend money from savings, I temporarily import one of the privkeys into software (armory, blockchain.info, or the like), spend the money, and immediately delete the privkey from the software. I may have inadvertently misled when said that I run a bitcoin-d node on a server. But I do not keep any active privkeys there. I run it just to help the cause, since I must run the server 24/7 for other reasons.

Second, the little money that I must keep on hand (less than one btc), I keep in a privkey that is loaded into BitcoinSpinner both on my smartphone and also on my tablet (same privkey). That way, I can spend from the same privkey, no matter which Android device I happen to be holding.

I keep track of the balances in my several savings privkeys as well as in the petit-cash privkey with the "WalletBalance" Android app.

The reason that your question is hard to answer is that I do not see bitcoins the way many people do. Many people visualize their bitcoins as residing in this wallet or that, in one computer or another. And so the question "Why not move the money from this wallet to that wallet?" makes sense to them. To me, my bitcoins are in my privkeys, which are dispersed across all the nodes. Wallet software is merely a temporary tool for spending money out of a privkey. Again, with the exception of the petit cash that I carry in my phone and tablet, none of my bitcoins are in wallets anywhere. All are in privkeys in the cloud.

+1 I agree 100% coins are not on a PC but rather in blockchain. access to blockchain is unlocked with a key. Personaly I use paper wallets. They are easy to copy and are therefore redundant and at the same time they are offline. Importing into a portable device via QR makes paperwallets real easy to use. and yes electrum client+webcam+qr software can achieve this on a PC. I wonder why you would not want that on an android client?

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Is this client a thin client or does it actually store the block chain? I'd imagine on the limited space on phones it likely does not store the whole blockchain.

Also, is it easily extendible to support other alt-coins?

[Andreas Schildbach]

Is this client a thin client or does it actually store the block chain? I'd imagine on the limited space on phones it likely does not store the whole blockchain.

Also, is it easily extendible to support other alt-coins?

Its a so called SPV client (simple payment verification). That basically means full security for confirmed transactions and ok security for pending transactions. It does not store the blockchain, only the transactions that are relevant to your wallet.

That's probably the best you can get on a mobile (storage space limited) device.

[Krellan]

Will you ever add a sync-on-wifi-only option?

Yes, please!  I just tried the Android app and this is the biggest issue I have with it.  There seems to be no way to turn it on and off, other than force stopping it.

I would love to be able to tell it to only connect to peers and sync up when on Wi-Fi, or better yet, have an option there in the app to let me turn it on and off manually, so that I can have it sync up only if I really want to (and am willing to let it burn through my data plan).

Very nice app.  I'm also hoping I can move its data storage to the SD card, but it seems to have that option grayed out in the "App Info" screen of the application manager, unfortunately.  Is there a way to do this?

[Andreas Schildbach]

Will you ever add a sync-on-wifi-only option?

Yes, please!  I just tried the Android app and this is the biggest issue I have with it.  There seems to be no way to turn it on and off, other than force stopping it.

I would love to be able to tell it to only connect to peers and sync up when on Wi-Fi, or better yet, have an option there in the app to let me turn it on and off manually, so that I can have it sync up only if I really want to (and am willing to let it burn through my data plan).

Very nice app.  I'm also hoping I can move its data storage to the SD card, but it seems to have that option grayed out in the "App Info" screen of the application manager, unfortunately.  Is there a way to do this?

Data usage of Bitcoin Wallet is negligible. If you want to spare your data plan, you should switch off mobile data and/or roaming in the Android settings.

[Krellan]

OK, thanks.  Relieved to learn it doesn't download the entire blockchain.

Is it possible to move the storage to a SD card?  I tried it on my phone, but the "Move To SD Card" option in Applications Manager was grayed out.

[Mike Hearn]

It should only be using a megabyte or two of data at most - is it really needed to move it to sdcard? How much data/storage do you see it using as reported by android?

[Syke]

It should only be using a megabyte or two of data at most - is it really needed to move it to sdcard? How much data/storage do you see it using as reported by android?

Version 3.08

Total: 4.75MB
App: 3.72MB
Data: 1.03MB

[Mike Hearn]

Yeah, so 1mb of data. Is that seriously a problem for you?

[prof7bit]

I like this wallet very much and I use it on a very low end device (Huawei Ideos X3) and its working like a charm but I have problems with my small display size and it has become much worse with the latest Version:



The bar at the bottom is extremely large (previous version didn't have this), scrolling through the transaction list is a much worse experience now with this little height left. Also in the previous version there was a display of the synchronization progress after app was started, now there is no indication anymore at all whether it is synched already, I always have to enter the network monitor via the menu and then swipe left to look at the date of the latest block just to determine whether its synched already because there is no other indication anymore, the previous version showed a small black status bar with progress that disappeared when done. This was **much** better.

Please revert the UI changes back to the previous version.

[elebit]

Another UI question: How do I know that my client is synchronized with the block chain?

There used to be an indicator how many days of blockchain data was left to download, but at least for me that information has completely disappeared. I sometimes start the software to let it catch up but now I suddenly have no idea it it's done or not. Am I not supposed to do this? What did I miss?

[Mike Hearn]

The indicator still appears if there's more than 7 days of activity to catch up on. We took out the indicator if there's less than 7 days to go because synchronization is nearly immediate then, and there's little point. By default there won't ever be more than 7 days because the app syncs in the background at night.

If you look in the network monitor then you'll notice that by the time you manage to open it, you're normally already caught up. So don't worry about it. You can just assume that whatever you're looking at is accurate.

With regards to the height issue, I agree, although reverting back to the old UI probably isn't the right solution. The bottom bar was added to make it clearer how to use the app for new users who might not figure out the unlabelled buttons in the top action bar.

I think a better approach is to just shrink the top area that's currently devoted to the address and the qrcode. There isn't really any point in showing your full address all the time - a few characters could be displayed and if you want to see the whole thing, just tap it to reveal the address book. The blockchain.info fork does this and I think it looks better. Andreas, what do you think?

[Andreas Schildbach]

Pro7bit, thanks for your suggestions!

Regarding the send and request buttons, without labels they were not visible enough (even for experienced users). So for "normal" sized screens, I decided to move them to a bottom action bar so I can label them. On "small" screens I kept them in the top action bar for the exact reason you are showing in your screenshot. Now, the issue is that your phone is classified as "normal" sized rather than "small". This is something your device declares, the app has to rely on that information. If you have installed a custom ROM, you should probably change this - it affects other apps as well.

I planned to reduce the size of the wallet address part together with the introduction of HD wallets. The "from address" will also go away at the same time, its a concept that is not reliable (some even say it does not exist). Basically, with HD wallets I want to switch from "one address per wallet" to "one address per payment" (which is the original idea by Satoshi).

Regarding the blockchain progress, the idea of the changes is that you only should care if there is a problem. A blockchain not up to date is no problem, as long as its in the progress of catching up. So it only shows error states (no network, out of storage, ...). A special case is a replay, during which you cannot/should not send payments. Which is why during a replay, progress is shown.

Mike, there is no such thing as a "7 days" threshold. There is a one hour threshold though, everything below counts as fully up to date.