Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet

[hgmichna]

My question is, if I ever lose my phone, it's stolen, or anything else happens where I need to use the backup PDF document I created in a fresh installation of Mycelium, will the restore procedure always restore the most current amount of bitcoin associated with that address, or is the backup a snapshot of whatever the balance is when the backup is made?

The backup does not even contain the number of bitcoins in your wallet. It only contains the essential wallet information, i.e. private and public keys.

How many bitcoins are in your wallet is determined by the public ledger, the blockchain, which is stored on all full bitcoin clients (including the Mycelium servers).

Remember, you could still use the wallet from another computer or phone and send bitcoins from it. Likewise, anybody could send money to your wallet at any time, which does not require anything on your side, neither computer nor phone.

Your wallet receives bitcoins even if everything is switched off on your side. You would find those bitcoins as soon as you look at your wallet, which you could do on any web browser, for example on blockchain.info, if you type in your complete wallet address.

[RGBKey]

If someone were to steal my phone, what would be the fastest way to use my backup to recover the coins without another android device?

[ffe]

My question is, if I ever lose my phone, it's stolen, or anything else happens where I need to use the backup PDF document I created in a fresh installation of Mycelium, will the restore procedure always restore the most current amount of bitcoin associated with that address, or is the backup a snapshot of whatever the balance is when the backup is made?

You only need to backup once. Restoring to a new phone with a new install of Mycelium will show the full _current_ balance of your coins. (It goes to the p-p ledger/blockchain to look up your balance.)

[hgmichna]

If someone were to steal my phone, what would be the fastest way to use my backup to recover the coins without another android device?

You have to send the bitcoins to another wallet before the thief does.

Note that it may take the thief some time, because he first has to cut through your protection, like a 6-digit PIN.

For this you need a computer or smartphone. With a Mycelium backup the easier route is to use another smartphone, install Mycelium on it, restore the backup, and send all bitcoins to other wallets, for example to new wallets you create.

You could ask a trustworthy friend with a smartphone to do it for you, if you cannot obtain another new phone quickly enough.

There is a way to restore the wallet to a computer from the Mycelium backup, but I believe it is much more work.

[apetersson]

If someone were to steal my phone, what would be the fastest way to use my backup to recover the coins without another android device?

You have to send the bitcoins to another wallet before the thief does.

Note that it may take the thief some time, because he first has to cut through your protection, like a 6-digit PIN.

For this you need a computer or smartphone. With a Mycelium backup the easier route is to use another smartphone, install Mycelium on it, restore the backup, and send all bitcoins to other wallets, for example to new wallets you create.

You could ask a trustworthy friend with a smartphone to do it for you, if you cannot obtain another new phone quickly enough.

There is a way to restore the wallet to a computer from the Mycelium backup, but I believe it is much more work.

i did create a backuputil.jar that allows you to restore the encrypted key to a desktop unencrypted. i will post a link to this tomorrow

the link will be: https://mycelium.com/wallet/tools.html but i did not upload it yet

[vladman]

Thanks everyone, this is all very helpful.

I think I wasn't fully understanding what the backup was actually doing.  If I understand it correctly now, all it does is enables me to gain access to the balance of bitcoins held in the wallet address that Mycelium uses.

Thanks again.

[hgmichna]

I think I wasn't fully understanding what the backup was actually doing.  If I understand it correctly now, all it does is enables me to gain access to the balance of bitcoins held in the wallet address that Mycelium uses.

To be very precise, it re-enables you to send bitcoins from your wallet. For everything else, like looking at the balance (which can always increase when somebody sends you bitcoins), or to put bitcoins into the wallet, you only need to know the wallet address.

Technically speaking, the backup essentially contains the private key, which you need to send bitcoins.

The backup also contains the public key and the wallet address, which is effectively the same.

[vladman]

To be very precise, it re-enables you to send bitcoins from your wallet. For everything else, like looking at the balance (which can always increase when somebody sends you bitcoins), or to put bitcoins into the wallet, you only need to know the wallet address.

Technically speaking, the backup essentially contains the private key, which you need to send bitcoins.

The backup also contains the public key and the wallet address, which is effectively the same.

Yep, I think I got it now. Thanks for the help.

[Mitchell]

When will you add the “Transaction Confidence” graph to the standard wallet for everyday use and not just for trading?

After we release Local Trader. For now we don't know enough to be more specific than that.

Wait, you guys are behind Local Trader? That Android app for Localbitcoins? If so, I love you!

Anywaaaay, I have been using Mycelium for a year now and I love it. Well done and keep up the good work!

[mav]

A minor bug in the pdf backup to do with the numbering 'Active X of Y' being incorrect.

• Have ten addresses in your wallet (none archived, not sure if this matters or not)
• Make a pdf backup
• Note in the pdf the order of X in the title 'Active X of Y' says [1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] when it should say [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

There are ten QR codes so the backup is still fully functional, but it is disconcerting to get to the end of the list and see '9 of 10' instead of '10 of 10'

[apetersson]

link to the offline desktop is online now, source is also on github. it is in fact a simple tool:

https://mycelium.com/wallet/tools.html

github source for this tool:
https://github.com/mycelium-com/wallet/blob/master/public/backuputil/src/main/java/com/mrd/bitlib/BackupUtil.java

[RGBKey]

link to the offline desktop is online now, source is also on github. it is in fact a simple tool:

https://mycelium.com/wallet/tools.html

github source for this tool:
https://github.com/mycelium-com/wallet/blob/master/public/backuputil/src/main/java/com/mrd/bitlib/BackupUtil.java

Thanks a lot for this, gives me more peace of mind.

[Rassah]

Small request, to help us comply with the IRS's guidance on bitcoin it would be very useful if I could export the list of transactions in the app as a csv and upload it to Google Drive.

It's already on our ToDo list from the time someone suggested exporting it for merchant/sales purposes.

Wait, you guys are behind Local Trader? That Android app for Localbitcoins? If so, I love you!

It's similar to Localbitcoins, but it's not affiliated with Localbitcoins in any way. We just made a similar service that's easier to use.

[Mitchell]

It's similar to Localbitcoins, but it's not affiliated with Localbitcoins in any way. We just made a similar service that's easier to use.

Sooo, you guys didn't create that app? You are confusing me man
I am talking about this one: com.thanksmister.localtrader

[Rassah]

It's similar to Localbitcoins, but it's not affiliated with Localbitcoins in any way. We just made a similar service that's easier to use.

Sooo, you guys didn't create that app? You are confusing me man
I am talking about this one: com.thanksmister.localtrader

Oh. We never heard of it before, are not affiliated with it in any way, and we have been working on Local Trader, and calling it by that name, since at least last summer. So, at best, this is a case of "Great Minds Think Alike," and at worst it's someone trying to ride on the coattails of our announcement.

[Mitchell]

It's similar to Localbitcoins, but it's not affiliated with Localbitcoins in any way. We just made a similar service that's easier to use.

Sooo, you guys didn't create that app? You are confusing me man
I am talking about this one: com.thanksmister.localtrader

Oh. We never heard of it before, are not affiliated with it in any way, and we have been working on Local Trader, and calling it by that name, since at least last summer. So, at best, this is a case of "Great Minds Think Alike," and at worst it's someone trying to ride on the coattails of our announcement.

Ah, I see. Thanks a lot! Anyway, keep up the good work ^^

[Jan]

A minor bug in the pdf backup to do with the numbering 'Active X of Y' being incorrect.

• Have ten addresses in your wallet (none archived, not sure if this matters or not)
• Make a pdf backup
• Note in the pdf the order of X in the title 'Active X of Y' says [1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] when it should say [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

There are ten QR codes so the backup is still fully functional, but it is disconcerting to get to the end of the list and see '9 of 10' instead of '10 of 10'

This was fixed a while ago, and will be part of the next release. Note that all the QR codes are present, it is just the numbering that is off by one.

[RGBKey]

Is it intentional that when you scan in a new private key it doesn't ask you to make a new backup?

[Jan]

Is it intentional that when you scan in a new private key it doesn't ask you to make a new backup?

Yes. The wallet only requires you to verify backups of keys generated internally. Imported keys already have an external source, and are assumed to be backed up already.

[EricKennedy]

Bounty offered to Mycelium developers

We are developping the BitID authentication protocol. Basicaly it's an open standard to facilitate user's registration in login on a service using its Bitcoin key (it could be compared to "Facebook connect" on the UX and flow). User scans a QRcode which contains a bitid:// URI, it's parsed for validity by the wallet and a confirmation is prompted. After choosing a Bitcoin address, the URI is signed and a POST is made in the callback addres contained in the URI.

For the full explication of the protocol, examples and demo please refer to our GitHub :
https://github.com/bitid/bitid

To be successfull, BitID must be implemented in most of the popular wallets. We would like to start the development with Mycelium (because it has already the signing message functionality). To motivate developers we are offering a bounty of 1 BTC.

What is needed to do :

• register the bitid:// scheme (so it is activated in case of click)
• throw a bitid:// intent when scanning a BitID QR code
• decode the URI and verify its format
• display a request for authentication showing the domain name callback and ask for validation
• ask the user to pick up or create a Bitcoin address for the authentication (show the last Bitcoin address used if this is a known callback address)
• sign the BitID URI with the private key
• POST the signature, the URI and the public key to the callback URL
• completion dialog : success/retry/cancel

Please PM me for more details and specifications.

Eric