Safebit Bitcoin Wallet - Bitcoin Evolved [UPDATE!!!]

[Eli]

Nice UI. but it's intrinsically insecure to use bitcoin on windows.

Than use it on OSX, or Linux, or iOS, or Android. Those OSes will be supported out of the box, with support for other platforms being part of the project core ideas.

[Eli]

UPDATE

The project is starting to grow bit-by-bit and it needs to be updated here, I'll try to keep the forum up to speed, but for your daily fix on this project, head to one of the links below where I update on development progress and try to share as much as I can.

I have to admit seeing donations coming in while working on the bitcoin wallet is awesome! And it makes me wish that I could work on this project 24/7, thanks to everyone pitching in!

Important stuff:
Address for donations: 1Cm554iqhU9dLnZsi2LA5s1b576DdfM1GM
Bitcoin Time Capsule donations address: 1Hhvei8iQabcb4Jqap78XmPG79YS3mAuE8 *See below
Homepage: http://bitcoin.gridct.com/
Development blog: http://bitco.tumblr.com/
Source code: https://github.com/elis/bitcoin-wallet
My Google+ Profile: http://profiles.google.com/Eli.Sklar

Bitcoin Time Capsule BTC Donations
Because this client is primarily developed to bring in lay people to Bitcoin I've came up with this idea of Time Capsule Donations; 50% of every donation above 1Ƀ will not be used in the project, but rather saved in a safe place until the client is officially released, and the collected bounty Bitcoin will be given away to one of two options: random users who download the app, or if you provide an email address of someone you would like to receive that 50% it will be used as an invitation email, and I will forward the bounty to your chosen user. No matter how much Bitcoin will be worth by then, so you can donate right now 1Ƀ worth $14.5 (at the time of writing these lines), and by the time the client released, you could be giving someone you care about a lot more than just $7.25 worth of bitcoins (one half of the total donation).

For those time capsule donations that are not assigned an email address random people will be getting $10 worth of Bitcoins when the client is released until all the bounty is released to the public.

Please make sure to send me an email before making the donation to the time capsule with the address you will be using to send the coins. Use coderrr's bitcoin wallet to do so: http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/patching-the-bitcoin-client-to-make-it-more-anonymous/
My email address for this is: eli.sklar+btc@gmail.com (the plus is there so I could easily tag the incoming messages, it's a valid email address)

An example of an integrated exchange. Safebit is looking for investments, contact me for details.

Some info about the progress and future of the project regarding privacy and costs: Safebit (codename for the project, most likely will be changed latter on) is an open-source project. It doesn't mean it's under a do-what-ever-you-want-with-the-code license, and currently it's under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license - this license may change in the future. Eventually the client may be available under multiple licenses, for the time being I prefer to make sure I'm navigating it to the right direction.
In any case Safebit will not be ever used to spy on users or their spending behaviors - I consider this as a "private bank" and as such it will not transmit any data to any unauthorized source. That being said the client may ask users to help improving it by providing anonymous usage statistics and will be used only to improve the quality of the client and will not be sold or given away to any 3rd parties.


Safebit is more than just a Bitcoin Wallet
Some of you may already know that, but I have a lot of plans for Safebit. Apart from being a good looking and an easy to use Bitcoin wallet I hope that Safebit will become a platform for anything related to Bitcoin. I'm currently looking for business partners like the Bitcoin Economy Plugin to integrate inside the app.
I once said I want to create The iPhone of Bitcoin, but this iPhone will be free and open-source so you don't have to worry if your app will be accepted inside the future market-place.

I have my own ideas on what plugins could be developed around the wallet and I'm sure you're thinking about one or two right now, or at least you should, because I really believe that this platform will bring in more users and developers to Bitcoin and will one of the growth engines of Bitcoin in the next couple of years with the most popular technologies out there today (Python, Javascript, HTML, CSS).

As always, I'm waiting to hear your comments and remarks, feel free to catch me on Google+ and by email and chat.

/UPDATE

[jwzguy]

Looking amazing!

[tiCeR]

Sweet sweet sweet its going on cant wait hehe...

[XIU]

Looking better and better so can we download the current code and get it running? Any special instructions/requirements for the python code?

[andrepcg]

BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL!

I really want this :DD

Great work!!

[bitplane]

Nice work! The official Bitcoin client looks like a command line compared to this. Shame about the license though, it would be far more useful if it could be modified.

[Eli]

Nice work! The official Bitcoin client looks like a command line compared to this. Shame about the license though, it would be far more useful if it could be modified.

It can be modified, just not re-distributed at this time.
I would much rather have a massive effort supporting one free and open source Bitcoin client than having a tug of war between otherwise identical clients over single features.

If the entire community would focus it's development time into one single client (up until this point) there wouldn't be a need for Safebit because most of the critical problems would have gone away, but there are dozens of clients each written in it's own unique style and language, and from those even more splinters going to each and his own ideas.

If you wish to contribute to the code it will be greatly appreciated by myself and the rest of the community, from my own experience Design by Committee rarely works.

Please bare in mind that at this time Safebit is only front-facing bitcoin client, and relies heavily on the regular bitcoin client that is downloadable from www.bitcoin.org, so if you'd like to see specific feature you could also help directly to the regular bitcoind client and you would indirectly support this project as well.

[done]

Very 

[bitplane]

It can be modified, just not re-distributed at this time.
I would much rather have a massive effort supporting one free and open source Bitcoin client than having a tug of war between otherwise identical clients over single features.

That's currently an ideological barrier to entry for other devs though. Putting an ND license on it goes against the spirit of github, it will prevent people from forking and submitting their pull requests.

If the entire community would focus it's development time into one single client (up until this point) there wouldn't be a need for Safebit because most of the critical problems would have gone away, but there are dozens of clients each written in it's own unique style and language, and from those even more splinters going to each and his own ideas.

I disagree, like you said, that would be design by committee. Diversity is important, the best front-end will win the support of the users, the best back-end will win the support of the developers. You obviously have good design skills which is something we've been calling out for, you have a clear vision of what a user-friendly client should look like. That's something that people can rally behind!

If you wish to contribute to the code it will be greatly appreciated by myself and the rest of the community, from my own experience Design by Committee rarely works.

I agree, the best open source projects have a benevolent dictator running a tight meritocracy. It's your project, you've made the best looking client so far, you get to decide what goes in and what stays out, but an ND license will just encourage other people to make competing clients. I'm actually tempted, your UI is an inspiration.

[Eli]

It can be modified, just not re-distributed at this time.
I would much rather have a massive effort supporting one free and open source Bitcoin client than having a tug of war between otherwise identical clients over single features.

That's currently an ideological barrier to entry for other devs though. Putting an ND license on it goes against the spirit of github, it will prevent people from forking and submitting their pull requests.

If the entire community would focus it's development time into one single client (up until this point) there wouldn't be a need for Safebit because most of the critical problems would have gone away, but there are dozens of clients each written in it's own unique style and language, and from those even more splinters going to each and his own ideas.

I disagree, like you said, that would be design by committee. Diversity is important, the best front-end will win the support of the users, the best back-end will win the support of the developers. You obviously have good design skills which is something we've been calling out for, you have a clear vision of what a user-friendly client should look like. That's something that people can rally behind!

If you wish to contribute to the code it will be greatly appreciated by myself and the rest of the community, from my own experience Design by Committee rarely works.

I agree, the best open source projects have a benevolent dictator running a tight meritocracy. It's your project, you've made the best looking client so far, you get to decide what goes in and what stays out, but an ND license will just encourage other people to make competing clients. I'm actually tempted, your UI is an inspiration.

Ok, I see what you mean. What would you recommend in my situation? Although I wish this project to remain open-source, I am nonetheless interested in making money off of it, and by allowing people to redistribute it would basically mean that anyone can use the code/design of Safebit and rebrand it as they see fit, and I find it a bit discomforting.

My understanding of open-source licenses is very limited, and I don't have the time to research those right now, and paying a lawyer to do it is out of the question (I'm running on fumes in regards of funding ).

With that being said, I'm all ears to other licenses and ideas that will allow devs to do whatever they feel like, but without the "problem" of using the code/design under a different name/management.

[Test Bank Guy]

Have you built a "donate" button or address into the program?

Anyways it looks great man, good work!

[bitplane]

Ok, I see what you mean. What would you recommend in my situation? Although I wish this project to remain open-source, I am nonetheless interested in making money off of it, and by allowing people to redistribute it would basically mean that anyone can use the code/design of Safebit and rebrand it as they see fit, and I find it a bit discomforting.

Yeah, that's the main problem. If you want to make money from the project then you'll be lucky to find other devs to contribute for free

[Crystal Excursion]

"LIKE"... very Good Sir.

[david4dev]

This looks really nice  . I haven't managed to get it working yet on my computer but I think this may be because my blocks are pretty out of date.

I'm interested in the code but I'm not sure where to start looking. Which parts have you written and which are part of other libraries (eg. I see web.py and python-bitcoin)?

I could potentially help out with some of the code. I know python pretty well and can help with Linux integration and packaging. In fact I have my own Bitcoin related project 'Wallet Manager' (it enables encryption and backup of wallets) which could be better off as a plugin or integrated feature of this app.

Unfortunately the licences of our programs are incompatible and I only like to code for free software which your program isn't because of the nc and nd flags.  I think changing the licence to something free would help to get more contributors. Personally I'd recommend the AGPL 3 since your app is basically a web app but anything from the WTFPL to the AGPL is fine IMO.

I'm not saying I wouldn't help out under the current licence but I don't code for free unless the software is free.

[Eli]

Have you built a "donate" button or address into the program?

Anyways it looks great man, good work!

On my To-Do list.

And thanks for the kind words!

[coblee]

I just got it running on my Mac. I needed to install the latest python and change the login credentials in main.py.
Looks good!

[Eli]

New Icon for Safebit!

Thanks to Zanimanski Valery who was kind enough to create an icon for the application based on my request.
Check out his Dribbble profile

This is one sexy icon, and it looks great even on the smallest scale (16x16).

Props for the awesome work Valery!

[TYDIRocks]

This is amazing! Keep up the work! I would help you if this was in Visual basic xD

[Eli]

I just got it running on my Mac. I needed to install the latest python and change the login credentials in main.py.
Looks good!

Cool to hear!
Hope to get some basic functionality this weekend (like sending coins).

Will update when some new stuff are added!