Having now used the original Bitcoin client and Electrum, it seems clear that the 'thin client' application such as electrum is probably a lot of people's tool of choice for a lightweight wallet, but to be honest, I like using the original wallet as it gives a better feel for how the Bitcoin system/network is working as a whole, i.e. taking time (in some cases a long time) to download the full block chain from the genesis block. After a recent 'receive' into my wallet, had a mild panic when the transaction was not showing up (could be seen on 'blockchain.info', until I realised it would not be 'registered' by my wallet until the most recent blocks -which included my transaction and subsequent confirmations- had been downloaded). But really, this was a good reminder of exactly how the block chain and system as a whole works.
Do thin clients (such as electrum) not encourage users to 'not be a node' in the chain by simply connecting to a BC server, without keeping a copy of the block chain ? in this case surely some nodes will (or currently are) acting as servers for many users, thus creating a 'trust' issue between 'clients' connecting and the node itself (i.e. is the server a genuine honest version of the chain?), especially if there are significant 'clients'. Is it not the case that the more nodes the better ? and along a similar theme, should there not be more sites like blockchain.info to avoid too much trust going into a single blockchain infromation site ? I'm guessing I'm going to receive a shed load of alternative site options now for blockchain.info
!! Would love to code up my own data delving application for the block chain if I had time to do it !
