Bitcoin Wallet for Android

[Andreas Schildbach]

@phelix: Watch only wallets are planned exactly for this usecase. However, HD wallets should come first, because sharing keys will only be possible with HD wallets in a reliable way.

@2weiX: For now, I would put the backup file on an USB stick and put that into a safe. HD wallets will make it possible to write down the master key (more secure than printing btw.)

@stan.distortion: Thanks for pointing out the thread, I replied there.

[jim618]

Hi Andreas,

This week I have _finally_ moved over from an iPhone to an Android phone.
The first app I installed was you Bitcoin Wallet.

Good job !
It all runs pretty smoothly. I've got the private keys exported and then reimported them into a MultiBit wallet which is working fine too.

:-)

[Andreas Schildbach]

Great to hear! Which phone did you get?

[jim618]

I got a Samsung Galaxy S3.

I think the years when iPhone was the clear favourite is over - it's much better than my old iPhone 4 (which my niece will get as a freebie)

[Andreas Schildbach]

I got a Samsung Galaxy S3.

I think the years when iPhone was the clear favourite is over - it's much better than my old iPhone 4 (which my neice will get as a freebie)

+1

(except for the implicit statement that iPhones have ever been favourable :-)

[Mike Hearn]

Heh. The Nexus 4 is much better than the S3, so if you like the S3, then that's good news for the future I guess.

[symbot]

Hi Andreas...

I got a BlackBerry Q10 last week and installed your Bitcoin Wallet software from AppWorld.  It seems to work great!  Thanks for taking the time to port it!

[goose20]

Hi all,

I have been using this app for some time with no problems. Then in the last few days the transactions would 'freeze' - stating that 'this transaction is not yet transmitted...' I waited a few days and finally sync'd the blockchain.

Now the balance in the wallet prior to sync and the transactions that was 'frozen' have disappeared. I have checked blockchain and not in there.

Anyone know what happened to my btc (both balance and pending)

Re my private key on the phone - i have exported it encrypted and can find it when i hook it up to my pc, but how do i view/decrypt it? it says can use openssl etc but i have no idea how to do this

Thanks in advance for any advice/help.

[2weiX]

had the same issues, but assumed it was my VPN config, because it always resumed after reboot w/o VPN.


then, feature request: shared sending of some sort. I dunno, maybe mikegogulski can make an api sorta thing and give you a rebate?

[Andreas Schildbach]

In such cases its best to report a bug via the app, because that includes your logfile and (optionally) a dump of your wallet.

The longer you wait with this, the smaller the chances we'll find the issue.

For feature request its best to use the issue tracker at
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/list

If you reset the blockchain, your outgoing stuck tx should be either gone or confirmed - depending on if they made it into the blockchain.

Either way, the Bitcoins will not be lost.

[MaTachi]

Apparently was the box for inputting the fee removed in version 3.09 [link]. Now it's instead calculated in the underlying library bitcoinj. How does this work? Is it still possible to do transactions with a fee of 0 BTC?

[goose20]

In such cases its best to report a bug via the app, because that includes your logfile and (optionally) a dump of your wallet.

The longer you wait with this, the smaller the chances we'll find the issue.

For feature request its best to use the issue tracker at
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/issues/list

If you reset the blockchain, your outgoing stuck tx should be either gone or confirmed - depending on if they made it into the blockchain.

Either way, the Bitcoins will not be lost.

Ok, i have done that. i still have a micro balance now and i managed to export and decrypt private key. (its 52 characters in length and starts with L). I tried to redeem it at Mtgox but it says the wallet has no coins in it?? So then i checked importing it at blockchain wallet and it DOES have the micro coins balance in it. The missing coins totals to only 0.3xxx BTC... but I am worried about whether to continue using it and telling friends to cease using it also it the wallet has issues with it. I'm just glad that i moved 16.2 BTC out before doing the reset.


Thanks again.

[Andreas Schildbach]

Ok, i have done that. i still have a micro balance now and i managed to export and decrypt private key. (its 52 characters in length and starts with L). I tried to redeem it at Mtgox but it says the wallet has no coins in it?? So then i checked importing it at blockchain wallet and it DOES have the micro coins balance in it. The missing coins totals to only 0.3xxx BTC... but I am worried about whether to continue using it and telling friends to cease using it also it the wallet has issues with it. I'm just glad that i moved 16.2 BTC out before doing the reset.

I'm not sure what you mean with "micro balance". If you received transactions below the dust limit (~0.0001 BTC), I'm afraid it will be difficult to spend the value and that's perhaps the reason other services don't include that in a "redeemable amount". To be sure, you need to check with the service in question.

Because of this problem, Bitcoin Wallet shows a warning with every incoming dust transaction.

[goose20]

OK that's fine about micro transfers. But it still doesn't explain the missing 0.3 btc. If only a % of the wallet users have btc disappear on them, it would add up to a considerable sum pretty quick.

I am not saying anything deliberate is happening, but there needs to be an explanation as to what occurred. A wallet contains a balance of 0.x000 prior to replaying the block chain, and is then replaced with 0.00x00 after the reset.

Something's up with that.

[Andreas Schildbach]

OK that's fine about micro transfers. But it still doesn't explain the missing 0.3 btc.

Its hard to say, unless you can send me a wallet dump from before the blockchain reset.

Perhaps you had a pending incoming tx that was never confirmed. With the reset, it was just removed from the wallet.

[goose20]

Goonie, are you the dev? if so, we have been emailing and you already have the dump of my wallet. If you are not, how do i get that to you?
Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

[Andreas Schildbach]

Yes, I'm the dev.

The wallet dump I have from you is from after the blockchain replay as far as I can tell, and the dump is ok - shows the correct amount of Bitcoins.

Its possible that your wallet was somehow corrupt before. There have been bugs in the app during the last months that could have caused this. Especially dangerous are your incoming dust spam transactions that spend to a lot of addresses (not only yours) - the app currently does not handle these tx very well. We are working on improving this.

[goose20]

Its a possibility i guess, but the missing btc amounts total 0.3 btc and there is no way 'dust spam transactions' amounted to this much.

Its just weird is all.
Am just worried about using the app going forward. 0.3 btc might not be much, but the 16+ btc i transferred out right before the replay of the blockchain is alot (for me anyways). What if i hadn't sent that amount out before the replay. Would it be in the 'never never' now too?

[Andreas Schildbach]

If in future you see what you think is a wrong wallet balance, send me the wallet dump (before replaying the blockchain) and I'll look into it.

[goose20]

I know you are trying your best to help, but what clues do you suggest i look for? Clues that would lead me to think my wallet had an incorrect balance before the fact? I  am confused.

Transactions go in and out of an account, why would the balance ever be incorrect? How often should one re-calculate balances manually? I think this is something that will only be known after the fact.

You do a reset and the balance is different. It shouldn't be different. But now it is. Was it wrong before. Or is it wrong now. Is there any way to tell 100%?

Just because the system says it is "x.x" now doesn't mean the system can't be wrong now. It reminds me of that old movie 'The Net' with Sandra Bullock. "Sorry maam the system says your not so and so but rather miss someone else, and the system can't be wrong".

Anyways, no point crying over spilt milk. Good luck with your future efforts with the app. Like I said at start, the app worked great for ages