MultiBit

[freemoney458]

Hi Jim,

the new currency conversion features are absolutely awesome!

I also like very much that MultiBit now shows the transaction volume in one column instead of two, it saves a lot of screen space.

One proposal for the currency conversion:
The exchanges always produce several prices, especially ask and bid rate.
Some users might want that incoming bitcoins are shown with the 'bid' exchange rate and outgoing bitcoins with the 'ask' exchange rate.
Others might want the exact opposite behaviour or that the latest price shall be used.
This can be very user specific and might even be different depending on the use case, e.g. if the user in one case acts as a local exchanger and in another use case acts as a simple consumer.

Here are my suggestions:
1. The user should be able to set the automatic currency conversion behaviour of MultiBit individually per wallet. This way users can handle different use cases by using different wallets.
2. Automatic currency conversion to BTC prior to sending BTC: The user should be able to specify in the send dialog which price to use (ask, bid, latest). The default rate should be used according to 1.
3. Automatic currency conversion to BTC prior to requesting BTC (=creation of a new address): Same like 2.
4. Automatic currency conversion behaviour in the transactions pane should be fixed per wallet according to 1.

Thinking about it, it might as well be a very bad idea due to the complexity for the user. It might create more trouble than it is worth...
Anyhow, I wanted to mention it.

Cheers,
freemoney458

[jim618]

Hi freemoney,

Thanks for your ideas and feedback.

Yea I can imagine people wanting to tweak the rates used in various ways:
1) bid/ ask/ last as you mentioned
2) smoothing rates or daily rates (perhaps for their accounts as GAAP uses daily rates)
3) 'tweaking' ie shift the rate a percent or two to make a profit
4) other stuff I have not thought of

Currently I am just using the last rate from Mt Gox (well I get the rate every 60 600 seconds so it will be a little out of date) which is the simplest I think.

Having a single amount rather than Debit / Credit is definitely better I agree - I must admit I have copied this format from the other clients !

[jim618]

Just added the ability to swop the amount that appears in the single wallet panels between BTC and fiat. Screenshot:

Edit: Changed - see further down thread.

[Mike Hearn]

Awesome. I'm loving MultiBit these days.

Shouldn't it be "swap" not "swop"?

[slush]

Hm, what about displaying both amounts next to each other (on same vertical level)? Tooltips imho should not be used for such kind of information.

[jim618]

@Mike
Thanks ! I am enjoying the currency work actually as it will make it more useful for everyday use.
Apparently swop and swap are variants of each other. I am not sure which is the more common one for all English speakers.

@Slush. There is not much space in the single wallet panels - basically two lines the top one of which is the description. There may well be other icons appearing on the bottom row over time (eg an icon for your device when you plug it in so I don't want to overcrowd it.

To get the full balance info you want to see (maximally) the estimated + available balance in both currencies so you are going to want to click the single wallet panel to make it the active one. Then everything appears in the header.

[Grouver (BtcBalance)]

If only Multibit was bound to Java.

[Mike Hearn]

The one I'm used to seeing is "swap" at least, "swop" looks odd.

I agree with Slush that it'd be nice to be able to see both BTC and fiat balances simultaneously, somehow. Perhaps by making the wallet panels a bit wider.

[promankirov]

I'm trying MultiBit.
It seems a very good client.

Thanks to the developers!

[jim618]

I will put the amount in the single wallet panel as 'xxx BTC (fiat amount)' and widen the panel if required.

Simplifies the control as well as it is one less click-to-do-something.
That makes the tooltip unnecessary so I will remove it.

In finance they always talk about 'swaps' so I think that is the more common one yes.

@promankirov: thanks !

[jim618]

If only Multibit was bound to Java.

I presume you mean 'not bound to Java'.
It is a pretty useful abstraction layer - I doubt I could get stuff working on all of Win/ Linux/ Mac without it.

You can put both MultiBit and an installation of Java on a USB drive and not have it installed on your machine if you want.

[jim618]

I have updated the wallet panel to show both the BTC and fiat amounts:

[World]

will be nice if different wallet has a different fiat amounts calculation for each country

[jim618]

Hi World,

It is one of things with customisation, where do you stop ?

I figure the majority of people will want to convert to their 'home' currency so I have put in a 'per user' setting. Not sure it is worth having another level of settings to go down to the 'per wallet' level.

[jim618]

Initial layout of the currency support in the Send panel:



It is not fully hooked up yet : the idea is you can type in either the BTC amount field or the fiat one and the other automatically fills out.
The Request panel will be similar.

It is a straight copy from blockchain.info as that is the best usage I have seen.

[jim618]

I have progressed the currency conversion and done a little infographic (that I will probably use in the help) on using it:



There is a bit of finishing off to do but hopefully I will get a live version with the currency support in by the end of this week.

[flooraccount]

Thank you. Problem solved.

[Binford 6100]

hi jim, any plans to support send to many? creating multiple outputs in one tx, like the satoshi client does?
i just noticed I can't do that and got used to it ...
besides that great client : )

[jim618]

Hi Binford 6100,

Mainly as I have other things I want to get in, I don't plan to add it in for the foreseeable future no.

[jim618]

If you look at the transaction [redacted] you can see the second [redacted] output you are trying to spend is already spent. That is why your transaction is not propagating through the network (ie it is only seen by the peer you first sent it to).

You should be able to scrub that transaction from your wallet if you do a 'Tools | Reset Blockchain and Transactions' if you choose the date THE DAY BEFORE the transaction. (it removes transactions using UTC time so if you are east of the UK if you choose the day before you avoid timezone problems).