Why is there no "new wallet" function?

[chriswilmer]

It's annoying to have to find the electrum.dat files, rename/delete them, just so that when I close and then re-open Electrum it will let me start a new wallet.

Does anyone else find this frustrating?

[Tuxavant]

This was a oversight in the request for the ability to open wallet files. There is an open item to create new wallets as you described.

[chriswilmer]

This was a oversight in the request for the ability to open wallet files. There is an open item to create new wallets as you described.

Just to be clear, by "open item", you mean that this is currently an unimplemented feature request, yes?

[Tuxavant]

Version 1.8 does indeed have an implemented open wallet function. It is, however, severely limited because there is no "new wallet" function - so you really can only open the original/same electrum.dat file unless you create another from the command line.

There is a standing request for "new wallet" to be implemented, if it hasn't already in the latest repository.

[Abdussamad]

Just run it via the command line:

electrum -w mynewwallet

Then make a shortcut with the above command in it for easy access.

[chriswilmer]

Just run it via the command line:

electrum -w mynewwallet

Then make a shortcut with the above command in it for easy access.

Sure, there are a lot of workarounds, but I think this should be part of the GUI.

[Abdussamad]

Just run it via the command line:

electrum -w mynewwallet

Then make a shortcut with the above command in it for easy access.

Sure, there are a lot of workarounds, but I think this should be part of the GUI.

Yes we'd all like our choice of features to be part of the GUI. But it is a lot of work to support multiple wallets. Just look at a screenshot of armory and compare it to how electrum looks. The whole user interface will have to be overhauled. And would it be worth the effort? Most people are fine with one wallet. They would not like a cluttered UI that would only benefit a small percentage of users. People like you and me that want multiple wallets can use the command line.

[chriswilmer]

Just run it via the command line:

electrum -w mynewwallet

Then make a shortcut with the above command in it for easy access.

Sure, there are a lot of workarounds, but I think this should be part of the GUI.

Yes we'd all like our choice of features to be part of the GUI. But it is a lot of work to support multiple wallets. Just look at a screenshot of armory and compare it to how electrum looks. The whole user interface will have to be overhauled. And would it be worth the effort? Most people are fine with one wallet. They would not like a cluttered UI that would only benefit a small percentage of users. People like you and me that want multiple wallets can use the command line.

There's already an "open wallet" feature. I don't really want to manage multiple wallets, I just want to easily delete my old wallet and start a new one. I think a lot of beginner users would want to do this because they make a lot of mistakes, such as:

1) Posting their seed online asking what it means.
2) Posting their private key online and saying "please send me bitcoins to this address".
3) Forgetting their password. <-- probably really common

Anyway, I didn't think this would be a controversial suggestion. If there are far reaching consequences of having a "new wallet" or "reset wallet" button in the GUI, then I'm sorry for not having thought about them.

[btcven]

Accounts will work as multiple wallets, carrying different seed on the same file as having different wallet files but in the same window. Imported keys will work as a different wallet too, so the belong to a different account. So txs and change don't get messed up.