Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet

[prof7bit]

the new version has solved the scrambled screen problem on my huawei :-)

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[apetersson]

the new version has solved the scrambled screen problem on my huawei :-)

good to hear! i disabled screenshot protection for all 2.3 devices. eventually we can build a list of known-positive devices where i can re-enable it (for example my HTC DHD on CM7 does support it)

[Jan]

New version (1.0.5 I think) works perfectly on my DROID BIONIC (Android 4.1.2) and on an older HTC INCREDIBLE (Android 2.3.4)

Nice work. I like the new backup scheme.

One request - a Cold Store capability using an encrypted private key. (Maybe the plan is this will come with BIP38, but if that takes a long time to load on a phone maybe a version with a faster set of SCRYPT parameters could be considered?)

The format used by the encrypted PDF backup already works with the Cold Storage Spending feature. 

[ffe]

New version (1.0.5 I think) works perfectly on my DROID BIONIC (Android 4.1.2) and on an older HTC INCREDIBLE (Android 2.3.4)

Nice work. I like the new backup scheme.

One request - a Cold Store capability using an encrypted private key. (Maybe the plan is this will come with BIP38, but if that takes a long time to load on a phone maybe a version with a faster set of SCRYPT parameters could be considered?)

The format used by the encrypted PDF backup already works with the Cold Storage Spending feature. 

Oh. I hadn't tried it. I hate carrying the password in my pocked with the encrypted key but I guess I could write down 10 of the characters of the password and memorize five of them.

Thanks Jan.

[Technomage]

I recently used Mycelium and noticed that the instant payment feature (scan a QR code with an amount and up to a certain amount it will auto confirm) is gone! Why is that? It was one of the coolest features in the wallet. Please put it back, it makes paying for small amounts so much faster.

[minimalB]

I recently used Mycelium and noticed that the instant payment feature (scan a QR code with an amount and up to a certain amount it will auto confirm) is gone! Why is that? It was one of the coolest features in the wallet. Please put it back, it makes paying for small amounts so much faster.

+1

Or even better, let user decide what is the max threshold for auto confirm.

[Technomage]

Or even better, let user decide what is the max threshold for auto confirm.

That is how it used to be! I had mine set at 20 EUR (you can set an EUR amount for the threshold). A brilliant feature, but gone for now.

[btcdrak]

I also miss something. The ability to select different addresses by swiping left or right over the address/QR code region.
I realise why you have changed it but maybe there is a solution. If you put a two arrows to the left and right of the address area we could still change address without having to swipe into the keys page, select address then swipe back to the main screen.

See my terrible ASCII art for an illustration of what I mean:

___________________________________
|keys|balance|transactions|addressbook|
|---------------------------------------
|                                    ``````        |
|  <<   1bitcoinaddress       `  qr  `  >> | 
|                                    `       `       |
|                                    ``````        |
|--------------------------------------|
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|_________________________________|

[btcdrak]

Alternatively you could do this:

___________________________________
|keys|balance|transactions|addressbook|
|---------------------------------------
|                                   ``````    /\  |
|         1bitcoinaddress      `  qr  `       |  
|                                   `       `   \/  |
|                                   ``````        |
|--------------------------------------|
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|_________________________________|

[Jan]

Or even better, let user decide what is the max threshold for auto confirm.

That is how it used to be! I had mine set at 20 EUR (you can set an EUR amount for the threshold). A brilliant feature, but gone for now.

We removed it for two reasons:
1. We always strive to simplify: Nobody ever reported using it
2. Most importantly: Since any app (including a barcode scanner) can launch the wallet with a bitcoin URI, it would be possible to use the autopay feature continously to empty your wallet.

[HostFat]

2. Most importantly: Since any app (including a barcode scanner) can launch the wallet with a bitcoin URI, it would be possible to use the autopay feature continously to empty your wallet.

Is it the same with NFC?

[Jan]

Alternatively you could do this:

___________________________________
|keys|balance|transactions|addressbook|
|---------------------------------------
|                                   ``````    /\  |
|         1bitcoinaddress      `  qr  `       |  
|                                   `       `   \/  |
|                                   ``````        |
|--------------------------------------|
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|                                                     |
|_________________________________|

Nice ASCII art ;-)

We discussed this quite a bit... and I lost :-)
At version 0.1 - 0.6 (or so) keys/addresses page was on the left
At version 0.7.x - 0.8.x Keys/addresses was on a separate page (some people hated it because it was too difficult to switch address)
At version 0.8.x Keys/addresses was on a separate page and you could swipe addresses at the top. (some people hated it because key management was still too far away)
At version 1.0 keys/addresses is back at the left. Nn address swiping at the top.

I like it the way it is now for several reasons:
1. It is easy to swipe left to switch address, and you even get a nice overview with balances and everything
2. In version 0.8.x, when you have several addresses, it actually took long time to swipe one address at a time at the top
3. I don't think there should be too many ways of doing the same thing. It is confusing

[Jan]

2. Most importantly: Since any app (including a barcode scanner) can launch the wallet with a bitcoin URI, it would be possible to use the autopay feature continously to empty your wallet.

Is it the same with NFC?

Do no not yet have NFC support, so I cannot tell exactly how it will work.

[Technomage]

We removed it for two reasons:
1. We always strive to simplify: Nobody ever reported using it

Are you serious? That is a killer feature. I've used it ever since it was introduced, and when I demo Bitcoin payments it's especially neat. Please put it back, it's an optional feature after all.

2. Most importantly: Since any app (including a barcode scanner) can launch the wallet with a bitcoin URI, it would be possible to use the autopay feature continously to empty your wallet.

Can't see how this is a showstopper. Simply add a security rule which limits the overall use of the feature.

Smartphone wallets aren't supposed to be the wallets where you keep large amounts anyway, so I don't see why it should even be a goal for you to make it "ultra secure".

Security isn't the top focus of a smartphone wallet, usability is. What you've done now is add annoying security features and removed the killer usability feature. With this I don't mean you can forget security: not at all. It's just that for a smartphone wallet the sane approach is keeping only moderate amounts there, for using. Thus usability is #1, security #2. This is different for wallets designed to store large amounts of coins.

[btcdrak]

We removed it for two reasons:
1. We always strive to simplify: Nobody ever reported using it

Are you serious? That is a killer feature. I've used it ever since it was introduced, and when I demo Bitcoin payments it's especially neat. Please put it back, it's an optional feature after all.

2. Most importantly: Since any app (including a barcode scanner) can launch the wallet with a bitcoin URI, it would be possible to use the autopay feature continously to empty your wallet.

Can't see how this is a showstopper. Simply add a security rule which limits the overall use of the feature.

Smartphone wallets aren't supposed to be the wallets where you keep large amounts anyway, so I don't see why it should even be a goal for you to make it "ultra secure".

Security isn't the top focus of a smartphone wallet, usability is. What you've done now is add annoying security features and removed the killer usability feature. Downhill development

I agree, it should be configurable.

[Technomage]

Also it was a bad idea to force users to verify the backup. They actually have to access the backup and verify it, otherwise there will be an annoying message about that visible at all times. I don't want to access my backup unless I actually have to. Accessing it in itself makes it more likely that something will go wrong. It's an unneeded step. Some of the biggest mistakes with Bitcoin wallets have happened when a user is in a hurry to "secure the wallet". Who knows, I could've pasted the private key to IRC by accident while verifying it (unlikely, but these things happen).

I finally was able to verify my backup after trying it in a different way, but it was a pain in the ass.

It's _quite_ enough for a smartphone wallet to simply whine about the backups until the user clicks on the "I have backed up my wallet. Please stop annoying me" -button. If a user is stupid enough to click on that and not actually have a backup, it's fully their own responsibility. What happens now is that they might not even use the wallet in the first place because of the annoying feature.

Some of the changes in the wallet were actually good. UI changes with the menus and sending/receiving bitcoins are much clearer now. Removing the instapay feature and adding significant annoyance regarding backups was a huge step back however. I'm reluctant to recommend this wallet anymore as the most convenient Bitcoin wallet out there, however I'm not quite sure which one is more convenient. Mycelium just used to be light years ahead of the others, not anymore.

[nybble41]

I´d like to be able to simply save the pdf backup on my sdcard in order to manually transfer it to my pc.
Is that going to be an option?

yes, it will be in one of the next releases. hours after release this is already one of the more frequent requests.

Until the feature is implemented, you can try installing the Save to Phone app. It provides a Share destination which simply saves the shared data to a file on your phone. Works with Mycelium and any other application with a Share action. I used this myself to transfer the backup .pdf to my PC. Hard to believe this isn't built in to Android...

[westkybitcoins]

Finally got around to trying out the newest version and backing up the keys on one of my phones. Here's my feedback:

1) This method of backing up is excellent. It's reasonably simple, and having the necessary components be split into two parts (the PDF and the password) allows for a lot of flexibility. While I personally am a little nervous about the idea of having to decrypt the keys by hand should I not have access to Mycelium (I like to have low-level access to my data,) I understand most people will never even think of this. And, I can always write out the private keys by hand anyway. Great work on this!

2) I've never used the autopay feature, but then I don't spend my bitcoins all that often. But I can see how for those who do, this could be a very big deal. It never got in the way when I wasn't using it. I can see wanting to limit the overall spending though; a spending cap (that goes down whenever a spend occurs) may be a good solution for that since "power users" shouldn't mind setting that up.

3) I do think the "forced backup" and highly visible backup notices is a bit of overkill. Before this version of the app, I wrote down all my private keys by hand. To suddenly have the app decide my keys aren't backed up, with no way to get rid of the message other than using the PDF-and-verify method, was a bit annoying. Being able to inform the app that you've backed up already would be a nice alternative option; you can't protect users from all their mistakes forever.

4) I noticed and missed the lack of ability to swipe between keys right away, but I'm already over it.

5) An option to send the PDF to the memory card would be great.

[apetersson]

Thanks everyone for their constructive feedback!

1) We did not think anyone would notice autopay gone, so you have proved us wrong. With some security enhancements it can make a comeback. One particular problem was the fix in fiat. What do you think about a limit set in btc/mBtc/uBtc ? That would make the process more secure, faster (because it does not need to wait for up-to-date exchagne rate), and ready for offline payments.

2) Save-to-sdcard/phone is an important feature, as well as "show as qr code" for encrypted backups, like the "single key export". IMO, an "airgap" as an optical link between camera+smartphone has excellent security and privacy properties.

3) Having this backup verification is very important. What good is a backup if you don't know if you will be able to use it? And yes, if the user wants, he can still shoot himself in the foot. Maybe we should add a textbox where you enter "IGNORE BACKUP WARNING" to disable the nagging?

but i have to fundamentally disagree with this statement:

Smartphone wallets aren't supposed to be the wallets where you keep large amounts anyway, so I don't see why it should even be a goal for you to make it "ultra secure".

Security isn't the top focus of a smartphone wallet, usability is. What you've done now is add annoying security features and removed the killer usability feature. Downhill development

while i recommend keeping funds on paper (like the encrypted pdf, or a paperwallet) all bitcoin software must be taken to the highest standards. for example, if you keep a private key unecrypted on your phone sdcard on a well-known location, this will invite malware to take it. this is one of the reasons we decided to discontinue JPG backups.

[Technomage]

1) We did not think anyone would notice autopay gone, so you have proved us wrong. With some security enhancements it can make a comeback. One particular problem was the fix in fiat. What do you think about a limit set in btc/mBtc/uBtc ? That would make the process more secure, faster (because it does not need to wait for up-to-date exchagne rate), and ready for offline payments.

I wouldn't mind having to set a BTC based limit. It's an advanced feature anyway so that would be fine.

3) Having this backup verification is very important. What good is a backup if you don't know if you will be able to use it? And yes, if the user wants, he can still shoot himself in the foot. Maybe we should add a textbox where you enter "IGNORE BACKUP WARNING" to disable the nagging?

I don't mind the verification feature in itself, it is good, my problem is that it is mandatory. If there was any way of disabling the backup warning, it would fix any issues I have with it.

while i recommend keeping funds on paper (like the encrypted pdf, or a paperwallet) all bitcoin software must be taken to the highest standards. for example, if you keep a private key unecrypted on your phone sdcard on a well-known location, this will invite malware to take it. this is one of the reasons we decided to discontinue JPG backups.

I do agree with this. What I meant is that for User Interface purposes you should not force security down the user's throat if the main purpose of that wallet is to be convenient. There must be a balance, and what I meant is that with the mandatory backup verification you broke that balance.

Mycelium for me represents the high end of convenient Bitcoin payments. I recently went to demo Bitcoin payments to a restaurant and I always like to show off the autopay feature, and it didnt work anymore, it was a disappointment. Then I had to work with the extremely annoying mandatory backup verification. These changes were significantly removing the convenience factor.

I think you can strike a great balance between usability and security and you've done a great job so far. Better job than many others. I'm hard on you because I really like the wallet and want it to be as good as possible. I'm always telling people to use Mycelium if they want a convenient payment wallet for Bitcoin.