Blockchain.info - Bitcoin Block explorer & Currency Statistics

[julz]

Not that I want to give anybody any ideas, but can't people easily remove the 1% fee from the output of a transaction, given the way the transaction is constructed and signed on the client side? Like use a greasemonkey script or something that does it automatically? Are you just hoping that people won't do that, or is actually not possible somehow?

I don't know if it can be worked around - but I wish it were only 1%. 
It's 1% or 0.01 BTC ...   so for sub 1BTC amounts it's quite a high cut.

I'd hoped to use it as part of a demo to people about how easy it is to shuffle around money using Bitcoin.
Looks like I'll have to use amounts in the order of a few BTC rather than 0.x BTC so that it's not eaten up so quickly by fees.

If it's 1% of 0.01 BTC, 1 BTC is the equilibrium.  Send more than that and you pay MORE in fees.  Yes, it's less by percentage, but you're still spending more BTC on fees.  If you are minimizing fees on demo transactions it doesn't matter the amount as long as it is 1 BTC or less, you will pay the 0.01 BTC minimum.

The point in doing the demos is not really to minimize the total amount in fees... it's to minimize the perception that you're being ripped off just like ordinary banks do.
Also - I'd hoped to actually *give* the entire demo amount to the friend/family member in question - and I don't have enough BTC available at the moment to give multiple BTC to each person. 

I could have given 0.2 or so to a few people - but then the 0.01 fee becomes really obvious and lessens the impact of the demo.
I guess this is old problem of Bitcoin not really being suited to Microtransactions..   but at least with the default client there is only the network fee which is much smaller.

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[giszmo]

cool site! bookmarked.

2 requests though for http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions
* on the map you show flags but not in the list. wouldn't it make sense the other way round? in the map the symbol could rather represent the order of magnitude of the transaction than the country which is clear by the location.
* please make the sound opt-in instead of opt-out. Took me 5 minutes to find the tab that was beeping.

[piuk]

minor point on the popup..  it might be nice if the popup could be 'pinned'.. at the moment it only works as a mouse hover-over, so you can't copy/drag the QR code or get the path to the image.

I've made the QR Code popup in a modal instead, so it should now work on android and over devices with no mouseover.

The firstbits are an ideal (theoretically) unambiguous shortener... provided the address has been seen by the network. For public addresses not yet publicly seen by the network, perhaps Puik could add a temporary otherwise invalid code. The first 8 characters of an address are typically unambiguous (sans vanity codes), something like 1eDj5Efw000 (zero zero zero) might produce a collision list page?

Rather than a separate collision page I could make the to address field drop down with an auto complete list, a plugin like this http://www.devbridge.com/projects/autocomplete/jquery/ should work.

Not that I want to give anybody any ideas, but can't people easily remove the 1% fee from the output of a transaction, given the way the transaction is constructed and signed on the client side? Like use a greasemonkey script or something that does it automatically? Are you just hoping that people won't do that, or is actually not possible somehow?

Yes only one line of code needs to be commented out to remove transactions fees:

txValue = txValue.add(ourFee);

There are certain things I can do to make it more difficult to remove the fees but I'm hoping It won't be necessary. If you want to use this service because of the connivence it provides then I ask that you understand there are costs involved in the upkeep (bandwidth, development costs etc) which need to paid for. This service is front-end for your wallet only, if you feel the fees are too high, you are free to export your keys at anytime.

Also note a) there is no minimum miners fee b) You can group small transactions in one multi recipient transaction to reduce fees.

The site is not profitable at the moment, if at some point in the future it does become profitable I will look at reducing the fees.

cool site! bookmarked.

2 requests though for http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions
* on the map you show flags but not in the list. wouldn't it make sense the other way round? in the map the symbol could rather represent the order of magnitude of the transaction than the country which is clear by the location.
* please make the sound opt-in instead of opt-out. Took me 5 minutes to find the tab that was beeping.

Point taken about the flags, I like the bleep on as default though (If nothing else it reminds you to close the page and stop sucking bandwidth ).

New features

• Offline Mode
• QR Code Scanner (Requires flash)

I need to write a tutorial of how to do this but basically you can now make an online/paper wallet hybrid.

• Login in offline mode (Must have private browsing enabled and disconnect your internet when prompted)
• Generate some new keys
• Print a paper wallet
• Log back in in normal mode, add the bitcoin addresses you just generated
• To make a transaction login in offline mode and when prompted scan the private key QR code off your paper wallet

This way your private keys never touch the internet (even in encrypted form) and even if the site went rouge the keys could not be stolen.

[dvide]

Really love the offline mode!

[julz]

Hmm.. this is a bit scary
"Error getting wallet balance from server"

And it's now showing 0BTC  (there was a small amount in there last time I looked)



On the Paper wallet.. I see the keys.. but all showing 0BTC
When I look up those addresses externally (blockexplorer.com or even the blockchain.info page) they still have a balance though.

I guess the wallet has just temporarily lost it's access to the blockchain or something?

[piuk]

Hmm.. this is a bit scary
"Error getting wallet balance from server"

And it's now showing 0BTC  (there was a small amount in there last time I looked)



On the Paper wallet.. I see the keys.. but all showing 0BTC
When I look up those addresses externally (blockexplorer.com or even the blockchain.info page) they still have a balance though.

I guess the wallet has just temporarily lost it's access to the blockchain or something?

this is an error from the api call /multiaddr

In order to debug this can you try again with your javascript error console open and either email me the output (support@pi.uk.com) or post it here.

Safari = Develop->Show Error Console
Firefox = Tools->Web Developer->Error Console
Chrome = View->Developer->Javascript Console

[julz]

Ok here is the error:

XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://blockchain.info/latestblock. Origin https://www.blockchain.info is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.
XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://blockchain.info/multiaddr. Origin https://www.blockchain.info is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.

It turns out it's because I accidentally accessed it using https://www.blockchain.info  but I usually use https://blockchain.info

When I drop the 'www' it works ok again.

[piuk]

Ok here is the error:

XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://blockchain.info/latestblock. Origin https://www.blockchain.info is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.
XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://blockchain.info/multiaddr. Origin https://www.blockchain.info is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.

It turns out it's because I accidentally accessed it using https://www.blockchain.info  but I usually use https://blockchain.info

When I drop the 'www' it works ok again.

Glad to see you got it working. This should now be fixed anyway.

[julz]

Glad to see you got it working. This should now be fixed anyway.

yep. works either way now - thanks.


Another issue I had was on a friends android phone.
On the 'Send Money' page - the 'Review Transaction' and 'Reset Form' buttons were simply nowhere to be seen.
I don't have access to that phone now - but I'll try to take another look some time.

[piuk]

Some interface improvements.

You can now choose where change is returned and what address to take our fee from (Makes it easier to consume the entire balance of one address without calculating percentages).



you can also now archive addresses to hide them from the main view:



After New Year my TODO list is:

• Finish Wallet.dat import / export
• Fix bug julz reported (double spends can show in some circumstances)
• Email & skype notifications + skype two-factor authentication
• Native Android & iPhone apps
• Improve unconfirmed transactions page/li]
  

[HostFat]

• Email & skype notifications + skype two-factor authentication

Please add a also a Gtalk notification

[netrin]

Puik, are you still charging a transaction fee? I don't see mention of it on your site. I didn't receive an answer by PM several weeks ago, so I'll address this publicly. I believe it is too early for you to impose a transaction fee. Your efforts and service are certainly worth paying for, however, I have been playing and testing your site out of pure fascination and for your benefit. I can not justify experimenting if I have to pay you even one penny for the privilege. Donations are different. For your own financial interest, I hope you will reconsider the transaction fee at this time.

[HostFat]

yep, I really hope that you find a better way to get some money.
I think that even some banners are better than this fee.

[gnar1ta$]

How about a monthly/yearly fee option instead so heavy users save some money?

[BkkCoins]

I'll chip in my opinion too. I just looked around the wallet app again and didn't see the fee so maybe you have already made some change there. When I first looked at this wallet I was fascinated and really wanted to explore it. But when you added the fee I removed my few coins and decided not to go this route.

I know it's not fair. You should be able to make money to fund and even profit from the service. But I'm poor, cheap and mostly I'm just so accustomed to an internet where amazing things are free. I truly believe if you start with a fee early on, and for small transactions, it will hamper growth and acceptance. You need to grow the market, earn trust and then you are in a great position to cash in using creative value added services, or even just adverts.

I think you've done an amazing job here and I know that it's a lot of work. Every few days I see new features here and extra effort to explain and support the Bitcoin idea. You've taken wallets further in a month than the official client did in the 8 months I've used it. I hope there is a way to make it viable with basic use remaining free.

[piuk]

Ok how about this. 0-5 transactions per month is free. 5-50 transactions per month is 1% or 0.01 BTC. +50 transactions per month is free.

Would that suit people better? Completely free for low volume users and capped at somewhere around $1.50 / month for power users.

To do this i would  have to include a wallet identifier in calls to /pushtx

Sorry netrin i must have missed your pm

[netrin]

I just don't think you should want to do ANYTHING to suppress testing and growth at this early stage of your project. What you are essentially saying is "please do not test transactions unless you are sending real money" and so I have not.

[piuk]

I just don't think you should want to do ANYTHING to suppress testing and growth at this early stage of your project. What you are essentially saying is "please do not test transactions unless you are sending real money" and so I have not.

The site has nearly 1000 wallets now and barring one severe bug there having been few issues reported. I'm not saying it doesn't need more testing but the site is production ready now.

Growth is only growth if it's sustainable. It's no good attracting users who are expecting the site to be free for ever if at some point that has to change. Growth will be achieved by improving the software and adding better features, i'm confident in a couple of months time the site will blow every other wallet service out the water.

Having said that if anyone has suggestions on how the site can be monotonized without fees than i gladly take them on board.

[NothinG]

I just don't think you should want to do ANYTHING to suppress testing and growth at this early stage of your project. What you are essentially saying is "please do not test transactions unless you are sending real money" and so I have not.

The site has nearly 1000 wallets now and barring one severe bug there having been few issues reported. I'm not saying it doesn't need more testing but the site is production ready now.

Growth is only growth if it's sustainable. It's no good attracting users who are expecting the site to be free for ever if at some point that has to change. Growth will be achieved by improving the software and adding better features, i'm confident in a couple of months time the site will blow every other wallet service out the water.

Having said that if anyone has suggestions on how the site can be monotonized without fees than i gladly take them on board.

Depending on the popularity of the site, ads are a good way.

[HostFat]

I think that a good idea is to make a dynamic fee based on the actual value of bitcoin and the cost of your service.
Than you should ask the fee only for big transaction.

Example:
If someone will transfer 1000 usd ( in bitcoin ), than you can ask 0.xxx% fee in bitcoin.

You have always to base the fee on the usd value of bitcoin.

This will leave open all the possibilities to test the service from common users / small players.

EDIT:
Anyway, as NothinG said I still prefer a totally free service with ads