Electrum: the blockchain is the cloud

[amincd]

Would it be possible to generate the seed from camera input, perhaps using facial recognition data?

Someone could always take your picture and steal your key as your face isn't private. It could be used as the salt though.

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[jtimon]

Thinking out loud here: it would probably be more appropriate currently to offer facial recognition at the device or application level for unlocking access to a pre-generated seed.

To generate a seed you want it to be deterministic.  Every single time the same value comes out.

I think he gets your point and that's why he said the application would give you access to the seed instead of generating it.
I think he wants to use facial recognition but he wants to store the seed within the app (so you can still lose it).

[jtimon]

Yes, you're right.

[ThiagoCMC]

Hi!

 How hard is to implement a version of Electrum for Litecoin and Namecoin (this with 1-click registration domains built-in)?

Best!
Thiago

[2_Thumbs_Up]

ThomasV, do you have any future plans on an Android client? Your implementation shows a lot of promises for phone devices.

[ThomasV]

ThomasV, do you have any future plans on an Android client? Your implementation shows a lot of promises for phone devices.

I will not develop an android client, but I have started to implement BCCAPI-type functions in the server.
The goal is to be able to use a slightly modified version of BitcoinSpinner directly with the Electrum network.

[riikka]

Hello Thomas!

I really liked your Electrum client - small and immediately usable! The QR showing feature is very useful for mobile clients!

There is a small bug which prevents from restoring the wallet, but I have fixed it and sent you a merge request.

It would be nice to see QR-code printing (for later offline use) and QR-code recognition from the webcam!

[ThomasV]

There is a small bug which prevents from restoring the wallet, but I have fixed it and sent you a merge request.

thanks! I merged it, and immediately released version 0.36b

[2_Thumbs_Up]

ThomasV, do you have any future plans on an Android client? Your implementation shows a lot of promises for phone devices.

I will not develop an android client, but I have started to implement BCCAPI-type functions in the server.
The goal is to be able to use a slightly modified version of BitcoinSpinner directly with the Electrum network.

Thanks, great answer. I just read about BitcoinSpinner and it is open source so it shouldn't be that much work to modify it. I hope whoever does it implements deterministic key generation as well. That way I could use the same wallet seed on my phone and my computer and get a shared wallet without need for synchronization.

I haven't been able to try your client yet since I'm away from my linux computer and the windows version doesn't seem to work for me (everything seems to work except I'm not able to get any recieve adresses), but it seems very appealing to me and I can't wait to try it. Regardless, I have a few feature requests.

1. I think the send tab should have a "choose contact" button. It could be a bit confusing to have two different tabs for sending bitcoins depending on wether you know the reciever or not. I think it would make more sense if the main purpose of the contacts tab only was to manage contacts. Chossing a contact from the contacts tab should bring you to the send tab.

2. Also, you should be able to just write the nick name of a friend from the contact book in order to send money (maybe this is already the case, I haven't ben able to try this feature). No need to mess around with adresses. If I write "friend" and "friend" is associated with an adress the client should recognize it. Auto-completion for this would also be neat.

3. Multiple wallets would be a great feature for those like me that want shared wallets. If I have 3 wallets on my computer, one could be my savings account, one could be shared with my girl friend and one could use the same seed as my android phone. With a nice UI, this would make money management really easy.

[minimalB]

Hi,

I am not too technical, so maybe this question does not make sense.

I am confused because I can't understand what would happen if someone would manage to hack "deterministic key generation" algorithm and therefore get access to all the seeds?

Do you still need to enter your "passphrase" after you restore your wallet?

Tnx.

[ThomasV]

That way I could use the same wallet seed on my phone and my computer and get a shared wallet without need for synchronization.

that's the goal indeed

I haven't been able to try your client yet since I'm away from my linux computer and the windows version doesn't seem to work for me (everything seems to work except I'm not able to get any recieve adresses),

this is strange. care to give more details?

1. I think the send tab should have a "choose contact" button. It could be a bit confusing to have two different tabs for sending bitcoins depending on wether you know the reciever or not. I think it would make more sense if the main purpose of the contacts tab only was to manage contacts. Chossing a contact from the contacts tab should bring you to the send tab.

this is how it works in the standard bitcoin client. I find it awkward, because you end up having a dialog that shows exactly the same thing as your list of contacts

2. Also, you should be able to just write the nick name of a friend from the contact book in order to send money (maybe this is already the case, I haven't ben able to try this feature). No need to mess around with adresses. If I write "friend" and "friend" is associated with an adress the client should recognize it. Auto-completion for this would also be neat.

3. Multiple wallets would be a great feature for those like me that want shared wallets. If I have 3 wallets on my computer, one could be my savings account, one could be shared with my girl friend and one could use the same seed as my android phone. With a nice UI, this would make money management really easy.

I agree. these are good ideas.note that you can already handle multiple wallets with electrum, although not simultaneously.

[ThomasV]

Hi,

I am not too technical, so maybe this question does not make sense.

I am confused because I can't understand what would happen if someone would manage to hack "deterministic key generation" algorithm and therefore get access to all the seeds?

Do you still need to enter your "passphrase" after you restore your wallet?

Tnx.

there are two secrets: your encryption password and your key generation seed.
to access your wallet, you need access to:
your seed OR ( your password AND your encrypted wallet file)

which one do you refer to when you write "passphrase"?

[2_Thumbs_Up]

I haven't been able to try your client yet since I'm away from my linux computer and the windows version doesn't seem to work for me (everything seems to work except I'm not able to get any recieve adresses),

this is strange. care to give more details?

Sure. I know I have a wallet seed at least, because if I press the s button in the corner i get my seed together with my mnemonic code. I have also managed to encrypt the wallet with a password which seem to work fine as well. It's the recieve tab that doesn't seem to work. If I look at your screen shot of this tab you have a "New adress" button in the bottom left corner. I don't. I have a "QR" button and a "Copy to clipboard" button, nothing else. The field where my adresses are supposed to be is completely empty and without the "New adress" button I don't seem to be able to generate any adresses.

[ThomasV]

Sure. I know I have a wallet seed at least, because if I press the s button in the corner i get my seed together with my mnemonic code. I have also managed to encrypt the wallet with a password which seem to work fine as well. It's the recieve tab that doesn't seem to work. If I look at your screen shot of this tab you have a "New adress" button in the bottom left corner. I don't. I have a "QR" button and a "Copy to clipboard" button, nothing else.

that's normal. the screenshot is old.

The field where my adresses are supposed to be is completely empty

that's not normal. any error message in the console when you create your wallet?

[Ean]

I have had some problems creating wallets (at least before the last update). Sometimes it just printed one address and then it gets stuck.

In addition, it sometimes freezes when I want the balance. The GUI seems to work in those cases. (This has happend after the update as well.)

[minimalB]

there are two secrets: your encryption password and your key generation seed.
to access your wallet, you need access to:
your seed OR ( your password AND your encrypted wallet file)

which one do you refer to when you write "passphrase"?

Hi,

thanks for reply.

So... i have my wallet and it is encrypted with my "passphrase". I have to enter it if i want to send BTCs.

What i wanted to ask is: does "passphrase" matters if somebody hacks (or otherwise gets) my secret seed?

My concern is... if someone hacks "deterministic key generation" algorithm... then every electra user is in danger, right?

Tnx.

[Red Emerald]

My concern is... if someone hacks "deterministic key generation" algorithm... then every electra user is in danger, right?

The generation algorithm isn't what needs to be hacked.  The seed private key would have to be hacked.  This doesn't even really make sense if you know how public/private keys work. 

If private keys could be discovered in some way then all of bitcoin (and banks and more) are at risk, not just electrum users.

[O_Shovah]

Hello

I have succesfully run Electrum on my ARM Ubuntu system.

Many thanks for this work so far.

But my understanding of "the client" topic is still marginal.
I would like to run p2pool on that ARM system wich needs a bitcoin client to supply the chain.
(Recompiling the original client for ARM has been unsucsessfull on my side so far)

Do you consider Electrum suffiecient for p2pool or is it missing some parts that would be nessesary.

I hope those aren't to dumb questions.

Thanks in advance

[ThomasV]

Hello

I have succesfully run Electrum on my ARM Ubuntu system.

Many thanks for this work so far.

But my understanding of "the client" topic is still marginal.
I would like to run p2pool on that ARM system wich needs a bitcoin client to supply the chain.
(Recompiling the original client for ARM has been unsucsessfull on my side so far)

Do you consider Electrum suffiecient for p2pool or is it missing some parts that would be nessesary.

I hope those aren't to dumb questions.

Thanks in advance

no, this will not be sufficient.
if you could not compile the original client, perhaps you should try libbitcoin?

[O_Shovah]

Thank you for the quick answer Thomas

I will have a look into libbitcoin.

([offtopic] Maybe someone else could try on an ARM compilation of the original client)

I would simply be a cool thing to have a 4 W p2pool full integrated host.