Bitcoin Wallet for Android

[barbarousrelic]

I realize that Transaction Details are experimental, but here's an interesting thing about that: As I said, I sent 20 BTC to my Bitcoin Wallet address last night. I see this transaction on Bitcoin Wallet under "Received". I also see it on blockchain.info

But when I try to view Transaction Details for this transaction on Bitcoin Wallet, it shows a "Receiver" address which is NOT my Android Bitcoin Wallet address.

When I sent my Bitcoins from my laptop address L to my Wallet address W, it sent the remainder of L to address R.

When I look at the Transaction Details, it shows "Receiver" as address R. It should be showing address W.

[barbarousrelic]

I noticed now that it allows me to spend these bitcoins, right when they have passed 100 confirmations. Are 100 confirmations really necessary? That seems way too high - 5 or 6 are OK for the main client, why would 100 be required for Android Bitcoin Wallet?

it appears that this issue is on the bug tracker number 13: http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/list?can=2&q=&sort=priority&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Priority%20Milestone%20Owner%20Summary

[jim618]

Note that coinbase transactions require 100 confirmations before you can spend them.
(In bitcoind you have to wait 120 confirmations for coinbase transactions.)

If the BTC you are spending has just been mined you have to wait longer before you can spend them. This is a restriction of the bitcoin network.
(The reason for this is coinbases do not survive reorgs).

[barbarousrelic]

Note that coinbase transactions require 100 confirmations before you can spend them.
(In bitcoind you have to wait 120 confirmations for coinbase transactions.)

If the BTC you are spending has just been mined you have to wait longer before you can spend them. This is a restriction of the bitcoin network.
(The reason for this is coinbases do not survive reorgs).

My understanding is that 'coinbase' transactions involve newly mined Bitcoins? If so, that was not the case in my issue - the coins had been on my laptop wallet for months. But perhaps this is related to my problem. Maybe Bitcoin Wallet thinks they are coinbase transactions when they are not? I think having the same 100-confirmation point would be too much of a coincidence.

[imsaguy]

My understanding is that 'coinbase' transactions involve newly mined Bitcoins? If so, that was not the case in my issue - the coins had been on my laptop wallet for months. But perhaps this is related to my problem. Maybe Bitcoin Wallet thinks they are coinbase transactions when they are not? I think having the same 100-confirmation point would be too much of a coincidence.

I saw something on the dev list a week or two ago about how they were migrating some stuff to a different format and storing more info about confidence levels or some such.  Did you recently do a software update (or perhaps it did it automatically) of bitcoin wallet?

[Mike Hearn]

Hm, I've sold people Bitcoins in person many times without that issue.

What is the transaction ID of the tx that took 100 confirmations to become spendable? The currently released version of Bitcoin Wallet doesn't understand coinbase transactions anyway (this is coming in the next version about to be released), so it feels to me more like a co-incidence of some kind and there was maybe some other issue.

Issue 13 is something different, related to change outputs.

[Rachel (BitInstant)]

This is exciting! Do you have to download the satoshi client or can you use an e-wallet for the app?

[imsaguy]

This is exciting! Do you have to download the satoshi client or can you use an e-wallet for the app?

The app IS the wallet.  It functions similarly to the satoshi client, but all on your phone or other android device.

[barbarousrelic]

Further information on the same problem I was having.

I have .08 bitcoins in my "Bitcoin Wallet" wallet. They have been there for over a week.

I sent .02 BTC to Satoshi Dice. I lost. Okay. Now I have .06 BTC in my wallet. I try to send another .02 BTC to SatoshiDice. And it tells me I have .06 BTC waiting for confirmation.

Looking at my wallet address on blockchain.info it says that from my wallet, .02 was sent to SatoshiDice and .06 was sent to my same wallet address I was sending from.

So I conclude that Bitcoin Wallet is waiting on confirmations for Bitcoins that were sent from my wallet back to the same wallet.

That isn't supposed to be how it works, is it? If I spend part of my Bitcoins I shouldn't have to wait to spend the remainder of them.

[molecular]

Further information on the same problem I was having.

I have .08 bitcoins in my "Bitcoin Wallet" wallet. They have been there for over a week.

I sent .02 BTC to Satoshi Dice. I lost. Okay. Now I have .06 BTC in my wallet. I try to send another .02 BTC to SatoshiDice. And it tells me I have .06 BTC waiting for confirmation.

Looking at my wallet address on blockchain.info it says that from my wallet, .02 was sent to SatoshiDice and .06 was sent to my same wallet address I was sending from.

So I conclude that Bitcoin Wallet is waiting on confirmations for Bitcoins that were sent from my wallet back to the same wallet.

That isn't supposed to be how it works, is it? If I spend part of my Bitcoins I shouldn't have to wait to spend the remainder of them.

Actually let me second that question. I came to the same a similar conclusion when I tried Bitcoin Wallet recently with a friend.

[Mike Hearn]

Yes, we know. I'll fix that soon.

[molecular]

Yes, we know. I'll fix that soon.

Oh, allright. Didn't know it was a known issue, just getting into this part of the bitcoin world . Thanks for your great work, btw!

[Andreas Schildbach]

Bitcoin Wallet 2.23 fixes bugs and is based on bitcoinj 0.6.

The main user-facing feature is pictured in the image. You can watch pending transactions propagate through the network. As peers report the transaction, a grey circle grows. Finally, it is replaced by the well-known green block chain confirmation indication.

For the sender, this helps determining if a transaction was actually sent.

For the receiver, confidence in the validity of the transaction builds, as each peer should validate each transaction. However, this is just an indication. Nothing beats the validation power of the block chain.

Install/Upgrade Bitcoin Wallet from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet

[tgmarks]

Thanks for the continued work, I like the improvement.

[barbarousrelic]

Wonderful!

Version 2.3 RC implements import and export of private keys to external storage. Would you help testing?

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/downloads/list

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/detail?id=10

[Wekkel]

Wonderful!

Version 2.3 RC implements import and export of private keys to external storage. Would you help testing?

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/downloads/list

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/detail?id=10

Is there a guide on how to work with imported/exported keys?
For instance, what can I do with an exported key, how does the password relate to that (the private key is encrypted when exporting it from the Bitcoin Wallet app, etc). Will be useful for n00bs like me 

[Andreas Schildbach]

Is there a guide on how to work with imported/exported keys?
For instance, what can I do with an exported key, how does the password relate to that (the private key is encrypted when exporting it from the Bitcoin Wallet app, etc). Will be useful for n00bs like me 

I added a little bit of info to the README (see FILES section).

The main use case is backups, which should not need much explanation. On devices with SD card, export to your SD card directly or if external storage is in fact internal, pull your backup via USB cable. Importing is the other way round (-:

For many people, the usecase will be a wallet shared between two devices. However, I advise against such a setup (due to the risk of creating invalid transactions). For this reason, I have not documented it.

[Wekkel]

Is there a guide on how to work with imported/exported keys?

I added a little bit of info to the README (see FILES section).

The main use case is backups, which should not need much explanation.

Well, the problem is that I use Windows (XP). Exporting the key to SD Card is no problem. The program also asks for a password to encrypt the private key thus exported. The point is: what should I do when I copy this encrypted private key to my Windows machine? I don't think that a bash with openssl commands will be at my disposal in windows.

Background: as with 2.23, I am having some trouble with 2.3 to get a fully updated blockchain in the Android app. Updating the chain is flacky (also after full reset of blockchain). It took me all day today to get it updated by restarting the app and numerous FC's. Now that it is updated, not all transactions are shown (compared to blockchain.info).

Don't worry, your e-mail inbox is probably full with my crash reports 

Anyway,  I want to know how I can access the funds in the wallet by other means if necessary.

It is still the most gorgeous UI I have seen for an Android app so I hope the wrinkles will be ironed out in the future.

[Andreas Schildbach]

Well, the problem is that I use Windows (XP). Exporting the key to SD Card is no problem. The program also asks for a password to encrypt the private key thus exported. The point is: what should I do when I copy this encrypted private key to my Windows machine? I don't think that a bash with openssl commands will be at my disposal in windows.

There is OpenSSL for Windows. However, I can't help you with that since I use Windows only for gaming.

You can try importing the file into Multibit, it's also available for Windows.

Background: as with 2.23, I am having some trouble with 2.3 to get a fully updated blockchain in the Android app. Updating the chain is flacky (also after full reset of blockchain). It took me all day today to get it updated by restarting the app and numerous FC's. Now that it is updated, not all transactions are shown (compared to blockchain.info).

Don't worry, your e-mail inbox is probably full with my crash reports 

Your device only assigns very little memory (32 MB) to each app. Thus, you are experiencing lots of out of memory errors. Try uninstalling all apps you don't really need.

It is still the most gorgeous UI I have seen for an Android app so I hope the wrinkles will be ironed out in the future.

The plan is that memory requirement will be lowered considerably by receiving only transactions that are relevant to your wallet. However, this is still some time in the future (needs enhancements of protocol and upgrades of Satoshi clients), so your best bet is upgrading to a decent phone like the Galaxy Nexus.

[Andreas Schildbach]

I just released 2.31 final to market. So key import/export is now available to everyone. Well mostly everyone. I had to raise the minimum requirement to Froyo (Android 2.2) and above.