MultiBit

[3phase]

Hi Jim,

Greek translation ready. I checked it as much as I could for consistency. My only problem is the capital letters but, as you said, it can't be made perfect, there are several differences between English and Greek shortcut keys. And yes, "mnemonic" comes from "mneme" which is "memory".

Hope this helps, and best of luck with your project. I tested the client and its fairly good and lightweight, as advertised. I'll put it in my signature for promotion as well.

[spiccioli]

Hi Jim,

do multibit wallets have a pool of private keys, like the original Satoshi client, so that you don't have to back it up after every transaction?

And if so, how big is this pool?

spiccioli.

[jim618]

Hi 3phase,

Thanks for the translation and the signature link.
I just grabbed your text and built it: here is a screenshot:



Looks pretty good !

I have also added you to the authors.txt that gets distributed with every copy.
You should not have long to wait before you can download a copy - midweek I am hoping for the next release.

Thanks again

Jim

[jim618]

@bitcoinspot.nl

>> importing keys by typing them in

The hurdle with adding this (which would be very handy) is not the private key but the fact that MultiBit does not have the whole blockchain.   It only has summaries of the blocks, not all the transactions.

In the private key export files are the dates when the private keys were born (or the first transaction) so that I can work out how far back to replay the blocks.  For a key typed in I would have to "go somewhere" to get hold of this information, or replay from the genesis block (which is bad).   Of course this is more to do.


>> secure messaging
AFAIK the signmessage and verifymessage of bitcoind 0.6.0 are not visible in bitcoinj (yet - I imagine it is on Mike's TODO list).
There is no provision to put a general message on a *transaction* so it would need a sidechannel like email or a chat server to pass the messages around.

I have not heard of any work in "bitcoin land" of implementing anything like this (maybe there is someone somewhere I am unaware of).


>> browser integration
EDIT: Sorry missed your last question.
This should be working in anything from version 0.3.0beta1 onwards.
I think when we tested it is was only Chrome on a Mac that did not 'see' the bitcoin registration.

One thing it could be is that you mentioned previously you were running MultiBit off a USB.
How the browser integration works is that when MultiBit is *installed* (for Win and Linux) it registers itself:
"If you get any bitcoin: links, give them to me"

If you have MultiBit on a USB drive that you simply plug in, the host machine will not know that it is supposed to pass the bitcoin: links from the browser to MultiBit.


@spiccioli

>> pool of private keys
There are no hidden keys (i.e. a pool) in MultiBit.   The only private keys in a wallet are the ones listed (as bitcoin addresses) in the 'Request/ Receive' screen.
That being said, if you do want a whole load of private keys added it is quite easy to do.   There is a screen added for support of MultiBitMerchant (web software Gary is working on) where you can add a 1000 private keys to the active wallet in one go.
To enable the 'Merchant' option just add "showMerchantMenu=true" to the multibit.properties.

In the next couple of months there will be quite a bit of work done on wallets/ keys so if you have any ideas or specific use cases in this area I would be interested to hear about them.

[jim618]

Hi Jim,

I just noted a minor bug in the latest release (maybe it was also present in earlier versions):

- After pressing 'Undo last changes' in the 'Preferences' screen, all the tooltips appear very small and without any text.

The bug appeared with the MacOS version. I was able to reproduce it several times.

This has been fixed.   The fix will appear in the next release (v0.3.1)

[da2ce7]

Two Feature Requests.

Secure "New Version of Multibit Available" announcements built into the main screen.
Secure "Securty Update for Multibit" that shows instead multibit, (however multibit can be still run with an override).

Secure "New Version of Java Available" announcements.  (check the version of Java running)
Secure "Security Update to Java - Must Upgrade"  that shows instead multibit, (however multibit can be still run with an override).

I don’t know how feasible such announcements would be.  However it would make me much more combatable recommending multibit to non-tech people.

[spiccioli]

@spiccioli

>> pool of private keys
There are no hidden keys (i.e. a pool) in MultiBit.   The only private keys in a wallet are the ones listed (as bitcoin addresses) in the 'Request/ Receive' screen.
That being said, if you do want a whole load of private keys added it is quite easy to do.   There is a screen added for support of MultiBitMerchant (web software Gary is working on) where you can add a 1000 private keys to the active wallet in one go.
To enable the 'Merchant' option just add "showMerchantMenu=true" to the multibit.properties.

In the next couple of months there will be quite a bit of work done on wallets/ keys so if you have any ideas or specific use cases in this area I would be interested to hear about them.

Jim,

the private key pool is used by Satoshi's client to handle changes and make it possible to backup a wallet and keep using it for a while, see:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=11017.msg157328#msg157328

Now, are those one thousand keys used in the same way?

spiccioli.

[jim618]

With multibit the change goes back to one of your existing addresses.
It is less anonymous but it means you do not need a key pool.

You can export your private keys from a multibit wallet into a file (using the 'Tools | Export private keys' option) and, as long as you do not manually create new receiving addresses, that is all you need.

If something happened to your wallet and you wanted to recreate it you can:
1) create a new empty wallet.
2) import your private keys file using the 'Tools | Import private keys' option.
3) multibit then adds the private keys from the file into the new wallet and replays the blockchain to get the transactions.

There are some screenshots and howto notes here:

Exporting private keys

Importing private keys

[jim618]

Two Feature Requests.

Secure "New Version of Multibit Available" announcements built into the main screen.
Secure "Securty Update for Multibit" that shows instead multibit, (however multibit can be still run with an override).

Secure "New Version of Java Available" announcements.  (check the version of Java running)
Secure "Security Update to Java - Must Upgrade"  that shows instead multibit, (however multibit can be still run with an override).

I don’t know how feasible such announcements would be.  However it would make me much more combatable recommending multibit to non-tech people.

That is a very good idea to have some sort of secure notification inside MultiBit (a bit like Electrum's wall).

So that it does not get lost "up the thread" I have raised this in the multibit github project here:
https://github.com/jim618/multibit/issues/20

[jim618]

There is a new release of MultiBit at:

http://multibit.org


Version 0.3.1

Enhancements:
+  Greek translation added - thanks 3phase!

Substantial UI upgrade done:
+  On page wallets
+  New layout styling for text panels
+  New iconset
+  Use of system colours
+  Context sensitive help

Bug fixes:
+  Fix for tooltip size being very small after set preferences undo

Release info
Changes included - Mar 13th 11:00 to Mar 28th 11:00 inclusive
Scan of release checklist


Next up: Gary, Tim and I are putting in the bitcoin ticker

[bitcoinspot.nl]

Great, the ticker means that you can make a request for bitcoin and fill in the amount in euro's ?

wow man, great work, if you add the encrypted wallet im going out with a usb-stick and will try to convince some shop-owners for the benefits of bitcoin

[jim618]

Hi bitcoinspot.nl,

We have penciled in the space at the top right of the screen for the ticker but have not got it fully laid out yet. Initially it will be standalone but the idea is to integrate it properly with the amounts yes.

Encrypted wallets (and migration of the wallets to protobuf format) is the next big chunk of work yes.

I completely agree with you that encrypted wallets are essential for real world usage.

[CrownCloud]

Hmm.. The font looks just too small here  

Or is it supposed to be like that ?


Just found the font size changing option in the Preferences New version looks great !

[jim618]

Hi speedbus,

Thanks !

RE: the font size, it is strange, for a new install of MultiBit I now pick up the system specified default font and point size but they always seem to be on the small size (point size 11 on Windows XP for instance).   Once you set it to whatever you prefer it remembers it so no big deal.

[Tittiez]

Love the new UI! Much less bulky and more organised. Great work!

Edit:

Oh yeah I almost forgot, I have a small problem. I sent a small amount of BTC (0.075 + 0.0001tx) on the 23rd and it still reports unconfirmed, but the receivers side its confirmed and usable.

Its no big deal, just bugs me. What would be the best way to fix this? Reset the block-chain?

[jim618]

Thanks !
It is a lot easier to navigate around I find and it is nice to be able to hide the QR codes if you are not using them.   They are distractingly ugly !


Edit: re: the unconfirmed transaction - the best bet is to do a 'reset blockchain and transactions' on the wallet with the unconfirmed transaction and you should sync back to what is on the blockchain.



On another note, I was checking the MultiBit donations and just wanted to say thanks to the donor in mid-march, and also to btctip.com who tipped me via Twitter.   Always nice to see BTC flowing in.   :-)

[freemoney458]

Hi Jim,

the new UI looks really nice.

I have some improvement suggestions regarding the position of the different buttons in the 'Send' and 'Request' panel.
They seem scattered at different positions in the panel. Also on the side panel they are scattered on the top and on the bottom.
I always have to reorient myself mentally when switching the panels.

1) I suggest that you group them more consequently in one area of the panel, say e.g. in one line at the top or the bottom.
This way the user will have a more consistent feeling where he finds which button.

2) Also, the 'More' and 'Less' buttons have an icon that seems to point in the wrong direction.
That is at least my impression. Maybe you can try it out with reverse direction.

Great work so far Jim, I am eager to see the next steps!

[freemoney458]

With multibit the change goes back to one of your existing addresses.
It is less anonymous but it means you do not need a key pool.

You can export your private keys from a multibit wallet into a file (using the 'Tools | Export private keys' option) and, as long as you do not manually create new receiving addresses, that is all you need.

Hi Jim,

I suggest you put this explanation somewhere in the official documentation, because it really is a nice feature compared to the Satoshi client.
It makes maintaining backups much easier.

[jim618]

Hi freemoney,

I know what you mean about the buttons.

The logic I have used so far is:

1) cut and paste for the address needs to be near the address
2) send needs to be near the amount
3) the arrow on the less and more points to the direction you want to move the dotted separator
    (I have tried this both ways round actually - I might change the icons for something simpler like "+" and "-" as neither seems ideal)

4) the cut/paste/zoom are on the bottom mainly because otherwise it (roughly) doubles the width of the side panel.
If you have a large screen it does not matter but for smaller screens the whole MultiBit screen starts getting quite wide.  I want the screen to 'work' down to 1280x1000 which a lot of smaller laptops have.

I will play around with the side panel icons on the top row which I agree would be more consistent (probably on the right of the combo box or there will be two sets of cut and paste icons right next to each other)

It is actually quite a challenge to get something that works and looks reasonable on both small screens and big screens on all of Win/ linux/ Mac.

Thanks for your feedback.   :-)


re: private key export as a backup.
Good point - I will put it in the online help.

[phr33]

You can now connect to a single node with the following property in multibit.properties:
singleNodeConnection=<name of node>

I've tried this and specified this in multibit.properties to connect to another machine on my LAN.
I then saw that it connected to more than one peer. Acctually it seems like it's connecting just like without the singleNodeConnection.
No errors when I specify a host that is not running any client.

Is there an automatic fallback to any host when this feature is used?

Thanks