Electrum 4.0.0.a0 - New Feature

[HCP]

While messing about with Electrum 4.0.0a0... I stumbled across a relatively minor change which I think is actually a huge improvement to the UI and might help prevent some confusion for new users:



A simple change that I think clearly shows the difference between opening an existing wallet file and creating a new one when you start up. Thoughts?

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[pooya87]

i think it is helpful but not by a lot. people who have been missing the fact that they are "opening" an already existing  wallet even though the GUI was clear about it could similarly miss that additional button and still click next instead to end up opening the existing (default_wallet) file.

[HCP]

I guess they'll fall into the same group as the "Didn't read the 2FA explanation dialog and are now wondering why they are now 'missing' 0.001 BTC" users.

You just can't help some people

[Abdussamad]

That is a good change. Lots of people get confused about this.

There was talk of copying the layout of MS office or libreoffice's open dialog box. A collection of links to recent wallets and a big ass new wallet button. Bauerj was brainstorming it on github:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/3916

[hugeblack]

The whole box that shows the word "wallet:" looks very misleading. I think it would be better if there is an option for the user as follows:

 - Create a new wallet:
 - open your old wallet:

* If your wallet is not present in the wallet files, insert it by clicking here or drop it here.

[NeuroticFish]

I also think that's a good change.

Maybe at some point in the future we'll also see a popup (obviously with a "never show this again" option) after each start asking if the user wants the current wallet or another one (existing or new). I've noticed that File->New is (for some) not as straightforward as we'd expect.

A collection of links to recent wallets and a big ass new wallet button. Bauerj was brainstorming it on github:

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/3916

Yep, this would be great, but at every startup, not at install, as the window title suggests.

[Coin-Keeper]

I like the change too.  Personally I think I would know whether or not the wallet I am opening is a new one or not, but I can visualize how a newer person might get confused.  Another thing that causes "pain" is when a person transfers BTC into a watching wallet, only to realize they lost the matching private keys.  Disabling this possibility is outside of Electrum's capabilities but any warnings about it helps.

[jackg]

I like the change too.  Personally I think I would know whether or not the wallet I am opening is a new one or not, but I can visualize how a newer person might get confused.  Another thing that causes "pain" is when a person transfers BTC into a watching wallet, only to realize they lost the matching private keys.  Disabling this possibility is outside of Electrum's capabilities but any warnings about it helps.

There is a watching only warning?


It'd be nice if they had something like the seed input there where it suggests all the wallets avaliable as a bavigatable drop down scroller.
(I have a default_wallet and a bech32 native segwit one - and typing in the 6 letters gets tedious when I could just use 4 "be" <arrow down><enter>".

[BitMaxz]

Did you try to enable the Lightning? I can't seem to find the option to open a channel from -testnet.
I already have some testcoin but I can't find where I can enable the off-chain feature.

I tried to enable the "Run as daemon after the GUI is close" but nothing shows something like channel tab? Also tried to use the command "add_lightning_request" or any lightning command but the results are nothing.

[HCP]

Did you try to enable the Lightning? I can't seem to find the option to open a channel from -testnet.

The functionality seems "disabled" for me on Mainnet... as you can see from this screenshot, the lightning options are both grayed out in the menus:



I'm guessing it is either not fully enabled as yet or requires an Electrum server that is compatible with Lightning... or both?

[BitMaxz]

Weird I don't have that option even mainnet/testnet.






Another thing that I noticed is this feature when making a transaction as an advanced preview.

[Indymoney]

Weird I don't have that option even mainnet/testnet.






Another thing that I noticed is this feature when making a transaction as an advanced preview.

I just check I also have no options even mainnet this is wired

[TryNinja]

Where did you guys get this version? Did you all build it by yourself from the source code?

[BitMaxz]

Where did you guys get this version? Did you all build it by yourself from the source code?

Yea, but not build by myself I got the copy from HCP because I can't build on my very slow laptop.

[pooya87]

I guess they'll fall into the same group as the "Didn't read the 2FA explanation dialog and are now wondering why they are now 'missing' 0.001 BTC" users.

You just can't help some people

exactly what i had in mind. although as i said it is a helpful change nonetheless.

Another thing that I noticed is this feature when making a transaction as an advanced preview.

i believe this feature is about BIP-174 and the Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions where it "joins" the transaction with another or merges their signatures.

[nc50lc]

Weird I don't have that option even mainnet/testnet.

Mine shows the options but grayed-out like HCP's, whether the lightning setting in the preferences are filled-up or not.


*I just highlighted "Local Watchtower" but it's not clickable too.

I'm running it directly through python 3.8 (not compiled) on Windows10.
-edit-

There's an "enable" button after 'lightning' in the Wallet->Information window.
But it always ends up with an error whenever I click it.

[Lucius]

Where did you guys get this version? Did you all build it by yourself from the source code?

I was interested in the same thing because the only 4.0.0 version I know of is that fake wallet that is using original Electrum for phishing. I hope this doesn't confuse some beginners or maybe even the more experienced ones to search for this version online. The latest official version is still 3.3.8 and can be downloaded from the official Electrum site https://electrum.org/#download

[BitMaxz]

I'm running it directly through python 3.8 (not compiled) on Windows10.
There's an "enable" button after 'lightning' in the Wallet->Information window.
But it always ends up with an error whenever I click it.

I don't also have this button on the information window. I'm using Windows 7 and installed python recently but I can't still find those buttons. It seems it works on Windows 10 and Linux based OS.

I found this guide below

- Make sure you have libsecp256k1 dep installed
- Run from Electrum from master branch
- Go to Wallet > Information > Lightning > Enable
- Try and break stuff

Source: https://twitter.com/lukechilds/status/1195760853703749632

It seems you will need to install libsecp256k1 dep to make lightning buttons works. I didn't try it yet since the lightning buttons don't show on my end.
Try it and maybe it will work on Windows 10.

[nc50lc]

It seems you will need to install libsecp256k1 dep to make lightning buttons works. I didn't try it yet since the lightning buttons don't show on my end.
Try it and maybe it will work on Windows 10.

I can confirm that I don't have secp256k1 installed as I'm having trouble with it on Windows10.
My log also indicated that the error message that I'm getting after clicking "enable" is about lacking the said library.

I'll just try it after a few google searches

[HCP]

Unfortunately, I just don't have much time this week due to "work stuff"™ requiring most of my attention... but if I find a couple of hours, I'll see if I can figure out the "libsecp256k1" stuff... I vaguely recall seeing some errors relating to this while I was building the Windows binaries.

EDIT:

With Ubuntu 18.04 VM:

Code:

sudo apt-get install libsecp256k1-dev

Code:

sudo -H pip3 install libsecp256k1

I can run Electrum 4.0.0a0 within the Ubuntu 18.04 VM using ./run_electrum and then after using the "enable" button on the "wallet->information" dialog, I got a message saying lightning keys had been enabled and the wallet would be closed. Restarting Electrum and re-opening the wallet... I can see this:



clicking the lightning bolt gives this:



I'll have to see if this now works on Windows 10 after compiling the Windows binaries.


EDIT2:

The answer is yes... the Windows binaries appear to function the same