Armory 0.96.2 is out (SegWit enabled)

[eduardo_rc]

Is it OK to use Armory with bitcoind built with

Code:

./configure --disable-wallet

?

[goatpig]

Is it OK to use Armory with bitcoind built with

Code:

./configure --disable-wallet

?

Yes. That's how I use it personally.

[jojo69]

Let it go as long as it can, then report here. If it fails, I need these logs.

yeah, it hooked up and worked that time, I am online.  Thanks guys

[johnlu]

Is it OK to use Armory with bitcoind built with

Code:

./configure --disable-wallet

?

I use bitcoind from official released binaries, I added this option in the bitcoin.conf as disablewallet=1.
If I need to run bitcoin-qt as a wallet I run bitcoin-qt -disablewallet=0 in command line.

[walletman]

I have Armory Wallet 0.96.0.4 and when I had 0.96 it doesn't work like it used to. My old computer that died had 0.95 on it and it would sync Bitcoin Blockchain thought Armory. I got a new computer HP omen and had Bitcoin Core d/l and install like I had to done since I started using Armory Wallet for years and download Bitcoin Core then d/l Armory Wallet 0.96 and install and click on Armory an expecting for it to sync to Bitcoin blockchain though Armory Wallet but it wouldn't I figured out I had to let Bitcoin Core sync then Armory will sync up to what Bitcoin Core has sync too. I download 0.96.0.4 and it doesn't show the command prompt anymore but still doesn't sync though Armory, like I like it or like it should, is this the new way that it works or is something not working right? I'm going to d/l the 0.96.0.2 because I see it the latest version and the one I got is a beta version maybe it wil work like it use to or is this the way it going to be for now on going back and forth between bitcoin Core and Armory Wallet I hope not that would be very ignoring.

[walletman]

I downloaded the 0.96.2 and when I was type in my restore codes the bitcoin core connects kept connecting and disconnecting it would work like it should if it was for that. I hit the X to exit and it asks the question it always does to minimize or close I clicked close and Armory was responding had to close Armory and then close db something. But want I want to know is why is the connection to blockchain keep connecting and disconnection every second.

[walletman]

 I Have Armory Wallet 0.96.2 and when it's downloading syncing to blockchain the notification at the bottom left that says connected to Bitcoin Core re-established it keeps popping up every seconded and making a dinging so how do I fix it or stop it from doing that it's very ignoring so why is it doing that I need some help PLEASE.

[goatpig]

It's a false positive, known bug, stop freaking out...

[walletman]

 I Have Armory Wallet 0.96.2 and when it's downloading syncing to blockchain the notification at the bottom left says connected to Bitcoin Core re-established it keeps popping up every seconded and making a dinging and it's slowing down the download of the blockchain and when I click on the X at the top right that on all windows apps the menu to minimize or close pops up  and when I click close at the top beside the Armory- Bitcoin Wallet Management it says Not Responding and it does this every time and I have to force close so how do I fix it or stop it from doing that it's very ignoring so why is it doing that I need some help PLEASE. And my computer is a new HP Omen with Intel i7-7700HQ with 12GB of ram and Nvidia Geforce 1050 and 1TB 7200 Hard Drive I don't know if this info will help to fix the problem. But my old computer was an HP Pavilion DV7 with duo core 2.0ghz with 4GB of ram and 500 GB hard drive but it died I fixed the charging port the first time and the plastic that holds it on the outside got broke off so the port moved around when it was plugged in and the wire on the charging port broke off again so I went and fix it again I was putting the power board back on and hooking up the ribbon cable into the port the little plastic piece that locks the ribbon cable in was missing so I tried superglue bad mistake the superglue got in the port and the metal would not conduct power so I was screwed and it was a dead computer. But on that computer, I had Armory 0.95 on it and it worked fine. I don't know why I'm having so much problem with Armory 0.96.2 on my new computer now I just need HELP PLEASE. 

[goatpig]

Turn off auto bitcoind in File -> Settings and manage bitcoin-qt manually.

[skyhawk]

Turn off auto bitcoind in File -> Settings and manage bitcoin-qt manually.

I've always and only managed bitcoin-qt manually in my instances. Have you considered just removing the functionality for managing Bitcoin Core automatically, and just replacing it with a "Tell me how to connect to your bitcoind [Default 127.0.0.1:8333]" and "Where do the blocks live [Default %USERDATA%\bitcoin or whatever]" in Options?

Add a note to the documentation that Armory requires a locally running bitcoind, and will need to be told how to connect and where the blocks live?  At least then people having trouble with bitcoind wont be bugging you....

[walletman]

I unchecked for Armory to automatically run Bitcoin Core and open Armory and then Bitcoin Core still doing the same and still having problems with it not responding when I go to close Armory why can't it just work like 0.95 I had no problems with that version I'm glad I only have $30 on Armory or I be very pissed but still would like to have my $30 which probably worth more now this sucks.

[HCP]

I had similar problems on Windows 10. Try adding these 2 lines to your bitcoin.conf file... It's in the Bitcoin data directory. If you don't have a bitcoin.conf, just create one with a text editor.

Code:

addnode=127.0.0.1
server=1

Make sure Bitcoin Core is NOT running and then try using Armory with the "let Armory run bitcoind/Bitcoin Core in the background" option... That seemed to stop the constant connecting/disconnecting for me...

I get the green "connected" and Armory is receiving new blocks as bitcoind updates in the background...

Note: it may take quite a while for Armory to actually sync up and start doing stuff when you first start it... And this may not actually show on the UI, just give it a few minutes before you try clicking on anything

[goatpig]

Turn off auto bitcoind in File -> Settings and manage bitcoin-qt manually.

I've always and only managed bitcoin-qt manually in my instances. Have you considered just removing the functionality for managing Bitcoin Core automatically, and just replacing it with a "Tell me how to connect to your bitcoind [Default 127.0.0.1:8333]" and "Where do the blocks live [Default %USERDATA%\bitcoin or whatever]" in Options?

Add a note to the documentation that Armory requires a locally running bitcoind, and will need to be told how to connect and where the blocks live?  At least then people having trouble with bitcoind wont be bugging you....

At the cost of having to babysit users that don't know they have to start their node to begin with? And getting flamed for a regression? I can't tell if that's the lesser evil. The issue isn't auto bitcoind really, any experienced user will turn that stuff off, and the current code behavior is to ignore auto bitcoind mechanics if a node is already running locally.

The issue is "plug and play" users, who read no instructions (literally none), have little patience and are outraged that the software just doesn't operate with no effort on their behalf. There is no middle ground to satisfy these people. The UX either needs to be tailored specifically to them, or you have to accept a portion of your user base will be perpetually dissatisfied. I chose the later.

Do not take my tone as condescending. This is literally how a significant portion of the Bitcoin user base operates. These are customers that will swallow hidden costs for a tailored, smooth UX and view Bitcoin as nothing more than a Paypal competitor with promise of valuation. What they basically want is a web wallet. I do not intent to monetize Armory, therefor I view this group as a net negative.

There are plenty of light and web wallet solutions out there that cater to these users. I'm trying to fill the gap for power users and businesses. I'm not going to go out pf my way to make the onboarding easier for a set of users that I am not developing for. It will only result in a half baked solution that will serve nobody.

I agree that auto bitcoind was a mistake to begin with. It brought in a group of users that have no use for any of the features that sets Armory aside from its competition, while increasing the software's maintenance cost. I don't know that it is worth the time to prune this functionality now that I've changed it to just be a fallback mechanism. The notification flicker is a bug and I will deal with it for 0.96.3. The particular user insistently complaining about it either doesn't understand what false positive means, or didn't bother reading my replies. Experienced Armory users probably never run into this bug since they wouldn't start Armory on top of a node mid sync.

Now, I also intent to change the block data access from on disk to over the p2p socket. At that point, the P2P socket will be the only required interface to operate with your node, in which case auto bitcoind will be a whole lot less error prone.

If someone really wants to go out of his way to cater to plug and play users (I don't), he can run a supernode service for these people to connect to so that they may sweep their funds without the need of downloading the blockchain, and move on to a wallet that is more suited for their needs. I don't have the time to take care of this, nor do I want to deal with the group that's going to just piggy back off of the service and complain when I take it down after a while.

 

[skyhawk]

If someone really wants to go out of his way to cater to plug and play users (I don't), he can run a supernode service for these people to connect to so that they may sweep their funds without the need of downloading the blockchain, and move on to a wallet that is more suited for their needs. I don't have the time to take care of this, nor do I want to deal with the group that's going to just piggy back off of the service and complain when I take it down after a while.

Bitcoin's made me enough money that I'd be delighted to run such a service.

Assuming the supernode is running on an isolated host running only bitcoind plus armorydb, can you think of any security risks from allowing internet connections to armorydb (More specifically, to the http proxy that is used)? Can you offer any kind of guidance as to what the bandwidth usage would be like, both upload and download?

[goatpig]

Assuming the supernode is running on an isolated host running only bitcoind plus armorydb, can you think of any security risks from allowing internet connections to armorydb (More specifically, to the http proxy that is used)?

That's the kind short question that leads to a very long answer.

As far the HTTP daemon is concerned, that stuff is pretty solid. Most attacks around these are not directed at the daemon directly but rather but trying to hijack the domain name registration (that won't happen since you're using IP directly), DDoS the service (that's what load balancing and DDoS protection are for), or hijacking the service running behind the daemon. In this case that would be ArmoryDB.

Ultimately ArmoryDB only handles public data. It receives public data from the clients and returns processed blockchain data. In that sense, any hijacking of the DB would effectively result in a DoS attack, not a leak of private keys.

There's a couple caveat to this:

1) The communication layer between the DB and clients is not encrypted, and you can't just shove HTTPS on top of it as it stands. It's therefor easy for an attacker to gather user addresses (on top of the service itself) by sniffing the service's traffic. In contrast, consider that users who would rather resort to such service instead of synchronizing the blockchain themselves either do not understand what financial privacy means or do not value it.

This boils down to a question of ethics then: do I offer a bad service to bad users?

2) Bad users probably don't use follow security practices. Most likely, they use hot private keys, on the same machine they are connecting to the WAN with. This now creates an alley for an attacker to try and access private keys from people connecting to the supernode service. Granted, the attacker would have to somehow hijack the supernode, and then try to hijack the Armory client instance of each individual he is trying to attack. Not an easy task, but then again I have no idea how vulnerable that layer is. Again, Armory was not designed with that use case in mind, it's supposed to operate in a friendly environment (connecting to your own DB over your own encrypted VPN).

Can you offer any kind of guidance as to what the bandwidth usage would be like, both upload and download?

1~100KB both ways at initial connection and per new block, depending on the size of the user's wallets.

What you should be concerned about is mostly the DB bootstrap. That code is not really optimized so it will be slow and resource intensive to sync it the first time around.

[walletman]

I have tried everything and the only thing I can get to work or sync to blockchain to was to uncheck auto bitciond and open Armory and then Bitcoin core but it says connected at the left bottom but its purple not green and it only syncs up to the blockchain from when I open Armory I don't know if I'm going to be able to send and received coins. I have had Armory and love the security and don't want to find another desktop bitcoin wallet app but if I can't figure this out I guess I will which sucks because I used it for years. And the viable I got from gotpigs message was out me basically because I don't know code but I know good bit and enough to figure out stubborn apps or computer problems but this I raise the White Flag and it sucks when I can't figure things out.   

[PhoenixFire]

I have tried everything and the only thing I can get to work or sync to blockchain to was to uncheck auto bitciond and open Armory and then Bitcoin core but it says connected at the left bottom but its purple not green and it only syncs up to the blockchain from when I open Armory I don't know if I'm going to be able to send and received coins. I have had Armory and love the security and don't want to find another desktop bitcoin wallet app but if I can't figure this out I guess I will which sucks because I used it for years. And the viable I got from gotpigs message was out me basically because I don't know code but I know good bit and enough to figure out stubborn apps or computer problems but this I raise the White Flag and it sucks when I can't figure things out.   

You could help yourself out here by following HCP's instructions to create a bitcoin.conf in the right location with the config options he suggested.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2133694.msg21912062#msg21912062
Unless something very strange is going on, that should get you to a green connected state that will update as new blocks are mined on the network.

[naska21]

Hi, the latest version of bitcoin core is 0.15.0 that has a new  database format. If I upgrade my daemon will it work with 0.96.2 Armory? And should I upgrade or may continue to work with 0.14.2?

[achow101]

Hi, the latest version of bitcoin core is 0.15.0 that has a new  database format. If I upgrade my daemon will it work with 0.96.2 Armory?

Yes. Armory does not use or touch Bitcoin Core's databases. It just reads Bitcoin Core's block files (which are not the same as its databases).

And should I upgrade or may continue to work with 0.14.2?

I recommend that you always use the latest version of the software, but do whatever you want.