MultiBit

[jim618]

If you click on the amount that is 'Available to spend' on the MultiBit screen it takes you to this help page:

http://multibit.org/help_availableToSpend.html

It is the amount that you have in your wallet that has been confirmed by a block.
MultiBit only allows you to spend bitcoin that have been confirmed by the block chain.


If it took 3 days to confirm a transaction then the probably reasons are:

+ the fee for the transaction sent to you was lower than the minimum amount. (Eventally the bitcoin in the transaction 'mature' and the required minimum fee drops and then a miner includes it).
+ one of the amounts that the person sent to you used was unconfirmed and hence your transaction was only put onto a block when the previous transaction confirmed. Some of the other wallets, notably blockchain.info, allows you to spend bitcoin as soon as you receive it (i.e. it does not wait for confirmations).

The transaction confirmation is a bitcoin network thing, not a MultiBit thing.
I personally always set a fee a bit more than I have to to avoid my transactions getting 'stuck' in the system and then the recipient experiences the 'transaction takes ages to confirm' that you have just seen.

[PTseller]

If you click on the amount that is 'Available to spend' on the MultiBit screen it takes you to this help page:

http://multibit.org/help_availableToSpend.html

It is the amount that you have in your wallet that has been confirmed by a block.
MultiBit only allows you to spend bitcoin that have been confirmed by the block chain.


If it took 3 days to confirm a transaction then the probably reasons are:

+ the fee for the transaction sent to you was lower than the minimum amount. (Eventally the bitcoin in the transaction 'mature' and the required minimum fee drops and then a miner includes it).
+ one of the amounts that the person sent to you used was unconfirmed and hence your transaction was only put onto a block when the previous transaction confirmed. Some of the other wallets, notably blockchain.info, allows you to spend bitcoin as soon as you receive it (i.e. it does not wait for confirmations).

The transaction confirmation is a bitcoin network thing, not a MultiBit thing.
I personally always set a fee a bit more than I have to to avoid my transactions getting 'stuck' in the system and then the recipient experiences the 'transaction takes ages to confirm' that you have just seen.

In this case what you suggest me to do everytime before making any deal ? any information will be good for me thanks what should i tell to buyer and also take care of myself !

[jim618]

If people send you confirmed coins with a 'minimum or more' fee then you should get your transaction confirmation in a block or two.
(This is regardless of the client software you are using).

I guess the safest thing to do, say for large amounts of BTC, is to only release whatever you are selling when you see the usual 6 confirmations. If you get a transaction and it does not confirm then you are in the 'grey zone' where it could be a genuine delay (as I have described above) or it could be someone trying it on (i.e. the transaction is 'fake' in some way and will never confirm).

An unconfirmed transaction is a bit like someone signing the back of a cheque that someone gave them and saying:
 'This cheque will be fine - trust me. Now if you could just give me that gold bar you are selling me I will be off'.

[PTseller]

If people send you confirmed coins with a 'minimum or more' fee then you should get your transaction confirmation in a block or two.
(This is regardless of the client software you are using).

I guess the safest thing to do, say for large amounts of BTC, is to only release whatever you are selling when you see the usual 6 confirmations. If you get a transaction and it does not confirm then you are in the 'grey zone' where it could be a genuine delay (as I have described above) or it could be someone trying it on (i.e. the transaction is 'fake' in some way and will never confirm).

An unconfirmed transaction is a bit like someone signing the back of a cheque that someone gave them and saying:
 'This cheque will be fine - trust me. Now if you could just give me that gold bar you are selling me I will be off'.

thanks for awesome reply will look forward and make good deal and safe deal thank you once again

[bitcoinspot.nl]

Any additional translation needed before the next version?

[bitcoinspot.nl]

Any additional translation needed before the next version?

oops didnt read my inbox

[jim618]

Hi bitcoinspot.nl,
Thanks for asking !
There have been a few strings gone in recently to do with the new Message window. The type of wallet is now localised too - though localising 'serialised' and 'protobuf' will be a challenge! (probably best just to treat them as loan words).

I think I will release what I have now quite soon. I have done:
+ new wallets are created/saved/loaded in the new protobuf format
+ old wallets are loaded and saved in the old format i.e. No change.

At the moment there is no auto-upgrade from old -> new. (that will come next once I have done a utility to loop over the old format wallets to test and validate saving in the new format: backup old : write new).

I think I will QA what I have now and release it so that, for new wallets and users, we start using the new format. I will aim to release it, say, Monday next week giving the weekend for 'testing and tidying' (for me) and time for any localisation you want to do.

[bitcoinspot.nl]

Ok i will see if i can make some time this weekend, i just have a newborn and am moving to a new home, so its a little bit hectic

[jim618]

The main change in the next version of MultiBit is that there is a new wallet format, called 'protobuf'.

In the wallet detail callout (that you get by clicking the twisty in the wallet panel) I have put in an extra tooltip and drill-down help to explain it.
Here is a screenshot:



Hopefully that will be clear to everyone. The 'wallet formats' help will also be a heading in the main Help Contents page.

The next version (v0.4.0) should be out in the next day or two - just spending a bit of time user testing it before it goes on the website.

[Kazimir]

The main change in the next version of MultiBit is that there is a new wallet format, called 'protobuf'.

And protobuf = new small wallet format that also supports encryption? (and the password for decryption is only required if I want to make payments from that wallet, not just when checking its balance?)

[jim618]

Protobuf wallets are a lot easier to add new data to compared to the old format which was quite brittle.
At the moment the new format has identical functionality to the old so it does not have encryption yet.

I thought it would be safest to migrate everyone over to the new format first before adding extra things. There are now thousands of MultiBit wallets in existence so I am doing it one step at a time.

When the encryption goes in (next thing after migrating the old wallets) it will be encryption of the private keys yes. You will be able to see the balance and new transactions will be received always.

Then when you want to spend you will have to type in your password. It will be a field on the 'Send confirm' screen.

There are also some discussions needed with other bitcoinj devs to get agreement on how the encryption is done and stored as the protobuf wallet format is shared amongst all bitcoinj users. A good data format would mean other bitcoinj users will be able to use the encryption functionality easily in their apps.  I am proposing to use the same encryption I use with the private key export as that is already working and you can use OpenSSL to do the decrypt (ie you can decrypt outside of MultiBit if you want).

Edit: In addition, you can also read and write protobuf data with other languages like C++, python and C so potentially non-Java devs could use the same wallet storage format. The wallets would all be interoperable.

[jim618]

There is a new release of MultiBit at:

http://multibit.org


Version 0.4.0

Enhancements:
+  Introduction of protobuf format for new wallets
+  Upgrade to bitcoinj v0.5.1 library
+  Upgrade to XChange v1.01 library
+  Added Message window
+  Minor UI improvements to help browser

Release info
Scan of release checklist


Note: Protobuf wallets you create with MultiBit 0.4.0 are NOT readable in earlier versions of MultiBit

Next up will be a conversion utility to convert old wallets into the new format.

[CrownCloud]

There is a new release of MultiBit at:

http://multibit.org


Version 0.4.0

Enhancements:
+  Introduction of protobuf format for new wallets
+  Upgrade to bitcoinj v0.5.1 library
+  Upgrade to XChange v1.01 library
+  Added Message window
+  Minor UI improvements to help browser

Release info
Scan of release checklist


Note: Protobuf wallets you create with MultiBit 0.4.0 are NOT readable in earlier versions of MultiBit

Next up will be a conversion utility to convert old wallets into the new format.

Awesome !! Will upgrade ASAP !!

[jim618]

Great - thanks speedbus.

I am hoping that (other than some more information in the wallet details panel) people will not see much difference, except that any new wallets they create are smaller and load quicker.

[jim618]

I noticed this morning that the currency ticker has stopped picking up the MtGox data.
I have mentioned it to Tim Molter (the author of the XChange code that MultiBit uses to get the ticker info).
It is most likely that the ticker information from MtGox has changed in some way.

You can see the raw feed if you are interested at:
https://mtgox.com/api/1/BTCUSD/ticker?raw

[Tittiez]

I noticed this morning that the currency ticker has stopped picking up the MtGox data.
I have mentioned it to Tim Molter (the author of the XChange code that MultiBit uses to get the ticker info).
It is most likely that the ticker information from MtGox has changed in some way.

You can see the raw feed if you are interested at:
https://mtgox.com/api/1/BTCUSD/ticker?raw

I'm still on 0.3.5 and its working fine for me.

[jim618]

Yeah, Tim and I have been looking at it.
Seems that sometimes MtGox just does not serve up the data - presumably when it is busy.

[flatfly]

There is a new release of MultiBit at:

http://multibit.org


Version 0.4.0

Enhancements:
+  Introduction of protobuf format for new wallets
+  Upgrade to bitcoinj v0.5.1 library
+  Upgrade to XChange v1.01 library
+  Added Message window
+  Minor UI improvements to help browser

Release info
Scan of release checklist


Note: Protobuf wallets you create with MultiBit 0.4.0 are NOT readable in earlier versions of MultiBit

Next up will be a conversion utility to convert old wallets into the new format.

Nice release!
By the way, how much RAM is it recommended to have (on Windows, for instance)?

[jim618]

Hi flatfly,

Thanks !

For memory, I had a look a while ago and the MultiBit process when it had a 'few, smallish' wallets open and fully synced it was about 120MB RAM.

Wallets with several hundred transactions now store at around a megabyte but in memory the structures will be less efficient.

I think normal users would be able to run it on a device with 256MB RAM no problem.

Storage wise I worked out that MultiBit would not quite fit on a 256MB USB drive (mainly due to the size of the JRE) but would fit happily on a 512MB one. Edit: that was for a completely portable version ie windows plus Linux JRE and all the help stored locally. For a normal install the 150MB you have on your comparison chart is plenty.

I have a Raspberry Pi on order as I reckon it should run on that ok.

Cheers

[ErebusBat]

tl;dr:  Encryption Question
MultiBit seems to be the best full client for my OS (OSX); however the lack of encryption makes me leary.

What is current the best way to mitigate that?  Just use a TrueCrypt volume?  Doesn't that leave my coins at risk when I want to monitor TXs, but not send?

Please advise,

Thanks!