Upcoming v3.1 features

[HCP]

Can't believe that this has not been highlighted much yet... the upcoming features look great... my personal fav?

* Watching-only wallets and hardware wallets can be encrypted.

Although, I have to say that I'm fairly interested in the new (optional) fee estimation scheme based on mempool values. 

Definitely looking forward to the v3.1 release!

[nc50lc]

I don't know why watch-only wallets need encryption, they must have added that feature based on requests.

Me, I'm going to wait for news before upgrading.
The saying: Don't try to fix it if it's working sometimes applies to updates.

[pooya87]

I don't know why watch-only wallets need encryption, they must have added that feature based on requests.

the new way of encrypting wallet files (which i believe was introduced in version 2.0) has two ways of encryption: 1. encrypting only keys and seed. 2. encrypting the whole wallet file.
watch-only wallets will use the second type which means when you open that wallet it will ask you for a password before showing you the list of addresses. this is mostly for privacy reasons than security.

Me, I'm going to wait for news before upgrading.
The saying: Don't try to fix it if it's working sometimes applies to updates.

it is not a bad idea to wait a little bit but always remember to make backups nonetheless.
and it is "improving" not exactly fixing something that is working! that's different.

[HCP]

I don't know why watch-only wallets need encryption, they must have added that feature based on requests.

As Pooya has suggested, it is because it allows you to put a password on your wallet file so that if someone has access to your computer they cannot see your balance and/or transaction history.

Currently, as soon as you launch Electrum it will attempt to open the last wallet file that was used. If this happens to be your hardware wallet file (or watching only wallet), it just automatically opens showing all your addresses, balance and transaction history.

[codewench]

I don't know why watch-only wallets need encryption, they must have added that feature based on requests.

Recently I set up Electrum watch/receive only wallets on a computer and tablet for Point Of Sale use. The lack of a password means that someone could come by and load a different xpub and thus capture our received payments.