Bitcoin Wallet for Android

[barbarousrelic]

I like that this version of Bitcoin Wallet has a "disconnect" feature. However, I am noticing that this app Bitcoin Wallet is randomly starting up and connecting to nodes at apparently random intervals. I choose the "Disconnect" option and it disconnects, and then will randomly start up again at a later time. I am running this on a Droid 4 running Android 2.3.6.

Is sync on charge turned on?

Yes, but the program still starts when I'm not charging.

[1713944300]

1713944300

[1713944300]

1713944300

[1713944300]

1713944300

[1713944300]

1713944300

[1713944300]

1713944300

[Mike Hearn]

The sync on charge feature is undergoing some flux at the moment - Andreas is experimenting with different things. It has been changed to "sync every hour as long as you have sufficient battery power" without being relabeled, I think, so if you disable sync on charge it'll stop doing that.

As I said, for me at least, it doesn't have much battery impact. But this is on a Galaxy Nexus with ICS, so top-end hardware. It may vary for you.

I think the next step is "sync hourly if you have battery power, with an option to limit usage to wifi only". On ICS you could also have it automatically stop if you're approaching your monthly 3G data limit.

Longer term, the ability to set Bloom filters on connections and restrict address announcements means that in theory, you could maintain a set of P2P connections indefinitely with minimal battery drain, so you'd receive coins the moment they were sent to you, even if the phone was asleep. It requires some protocol upgrades and could put our supply of sockets under strain again if not implemented well, so I wouldn't hold your breath for that. A solution based on a relay server that talks C2DM to the client is a shorter term approach but it's less decentralized.

[Andreas Schildbach]

I like that this version of Bitcoin Wallet has a "disconnect" feature. However, I am noticing that this app Bitcoin Wallet is randomly starting up and connecting to nodes at apparently random intervals. I choose the "Disconnect" option and it disconnects, and then will randomly start up again at a later time. I am running this on a Droid 4 running Android 2.3.6.

Is sync on charge turned on?

Yes, but the program still starts when I'm not charging.

This is not intended. Could you use the issue tracker for bugs like these?

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

I'm not continually reading this forum, so I will miss some posts.

[barbarousrelic]

I like that this version of Bitcoin Wallet has a "disconnect" feature. However, I am noticing that this app Bitcoin Wallet is randomly starting up and connecting to nodes at apparently random intervals. I choose the "Disconnect" option and it disconnects, and then will randomly start up again at a later time. I am running this on a Droid 4 running Android 2.3.6.

On further observation, I'm pretty sure Mike Hearn is right on this one - it appears it is connecting all on its own at half past every hour, then disconnecting.

I tried turning off 'sync on charge' and closed the program (selecting "Disconnect") but it still does it. I will try restarting my phone and see if that makes a change.

[Andreas Schildbach]

I released beta 2.14 of Bitcoin Wallet:

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/downloads/detail?name=bitcoin-wallet-2.14.apk

I have changed some things around autosync. If you feel like it, would you update and tell me if your problem is still there?

Feedback via bugtracker is appreciated:

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

[burger]

When will you update the app with the new translations form transifex?

[Andreas Schildbach]

When will you update the app with the new translations form transifex?

I just updated the app with French, Spanish, Turkish and Swedish from Transifex. Will be included in 2.15. Thanks for your help in translating!

However, I noticed that Transifex is far from ideal for Android. It reformats passages, effectively breaking layouts. For some reason, some translations replaced the "three dots" Unicode character with three separate dots. So there is still some manual work necessary. Also, it can't deal with HTML entirely, so all the help pages are not represented there.

[Jouke]

Is it me or is the client getting updated a lot recently? Is it safe to update?

[Andreas Schildbach]

Yes, you can update.

[tgmarks]

And yes, there have been a few updates recently.  Thank you Goonie for all your recent work in this.

[fornit]

in this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76528.0 there are some usage statistics for bitcoinspinner, multibit and  blockchain.info wallet.
it would very informative if you could provide your statistics too. thank you!

[Bananington]

I have root on my device and I'm trying to replace my devices wallet files with the wallet.dat from my PC, but I don't see a wallet.dat file on my device. Do I have to get the private key from my PC wallet and export that? If so, how do I get my private key?

[Andreas Schildbach]

but I don't see a wallet.dat file on my device.

There is no wallet.dat.

See http://bitcoin-wallet.googlecode.com/git/wallet/README

[Bananington]

but I don't see a wallet.dat file on my device.

There is no wallet.dat.

See http://bitcoin-wallet.googlecode.com/git/wallet/README

I see that now... :/

Grrr, I need/want my phone to be a miniature PC. lol.

[Mike Hearn]

Why do you want to move a PC wallet to your phone? Just send the money from PC to phone and you are done.

[Bananington]

Why do you want to move a PC wallet to your phone? Just send the money from PC to phone and you are done.

I also plan on continued use of my PC client. I want to have access to the same things I have access to on both devices. I don't want to have to get on my PC or my phone to access certain coins.

For example, I have tor on both devices, I have PGP apps on both devices, etc. I'm trying to create redundancy and in doing that, portability.

[MoonShadow]

Why do you want to move a PC wallet to your phone? Just send the money from PC to phone and you are done.

I also plan on continued use of my PC client. I want to have access to the same things I have access to on both devices. I don't want to have to get on my PC or my phone to access certain coins.

For example, I have tor on both devices, I have PGP apps on both devices, etc. I'm trying to create redundancy and in doing that, portability.

Would an encrypted tunneling app from your phone to control your pc work?

[Bananington]

Why do you want to move a PC wallet to your phone? Just send the money from PC to phone and you are done.

I also plan on continued use of my PC client. I want to have access to the same things I have access to on both devices. I don't want to have to get on my PC or my phone to access certain coins.

For example, I have tor on both devices, I have PGP apps on both devices, etc. I'm trying to create redundancy and in doing that, portability.

Would an encrypted tunneling app from your phone to control your pc work?

You mean like logmein.com's service? I can't afford to leave my PC on 24/7. Neither do I want to anticipate a future need for remote access. Oh, and Wake On Lan isn't something I'm interested in. :/ Sorry, but I have a specific desire to copy my PC wallet to my phone and use it.

I appreciate the suggestions people. Thank you.

[MoonShadow]

I can't afford to leave my PC on 24/7.

Oh, wow.  How 1990.  I didn't know people still turned their computers off unless it locked up.

[Bananington]

I can't afford to leave my PC on 24/7.

Oh, wow.  How 1990.  I didn't know people still turned their computers off unless it locked up.

Lol. Really now? I just thought people who don't take care of their electronics leave them on all of the time. One of my many pet peeves. What can I say? I bitch quite a lot. It's probably the lack of Mary Jane in my life ATM.

Anyway, my mom can't afford me leaving my computer on 24/7. Alas, I am but a poor college student struggling to pay for simple health care.