Electrum EXPERT Needed (Disadvantages)

[dolphin001]

Hi,

Could anyone please list me and and all disadvantages of Electrum in comparison with bitcoin-qt from any and all aspects such as:

- not being able to withdraw from particular websites if using electrum desktop application
- sometimes or always not being able to send or receive funds if coming (or going to) bitcoin-qt because of using Electrum
- high probability that Electrum in the future won't be able to be used (e.g. permanent server shut down)
- limited free usage (free trail)
- limited incoming and/or outgoing transactions per X time interval (day, month,...)
- limited amount of balance being able to be hold
- limited amount of incoming transaction
- limited amount of outgoing transaction
- not being able to send funds from Electrum to X location
- Electrum fees
- etc

So since I have giant trouble with bitcoin-qt im looking to switch to Electrum but would appreciate if anyone could please list me all Electrum's disadvantages.

[dabura667]

I can't think of any...

I would be interested to see what people come up with... but if you want advantages I could list some.

[btcven]

The only I can think of is not being able to access your coins if you only have it installed in your laptop. If you have an Android you can install it there though. You can even use some unofficial ports to web or web-clients that uses Electrum seeds, but that is less safe.

[fireduck]

Hi,

Could anyone please list me and and all disadvantages of Electrum in comparison with bitcoin-qt from any and all aspects such as:

- not being able to withdraw from particular websites if using electrum desktop application
- sometimes or always not being able to send or receive funds if coming (or going to) bitcoin-qt because of using Electrum
- high probability that Electrum in the future won't be able to be used (e.g. permanent server shut down)
- limited free usage (free trail)
- limited incoming and/or outgoing transactions per X time interval (day, month,...)
- limited amount of balance being able to be hold
- limited amount of incoming transaction
- limited amount of outgoing transaction
- not being able to send funds from Electrum to X location
- Electrum fees
- etc

So since I have giant trouble with bitcoin-qt im looking to switch to Electrum but would appreciate if anyone could please list me all Electrum's disadvantages.

One issue I have had with Electrum is the server.  It seems to take forever to sync.  I'm running a database rebuild now and it is going at the incredibly slow speed of 30 seconds per block.  This is partially solved by having recent databases downloadable (http://foundry.electrum.org/leveldb-dump/?C=M;O=D).  However, assuming in some future these were unavailable, it would take quite some time to sync up a fresh server.

This is the biggest downside that I can see.  However, electrum is still far better than any alternative that I have seen.  I would strongly recommend to anyone searching for a bitcoin client to use it.

When I have time, I plan on making a protocol compatible alternative electrum server.  I *think* I can make it faster but maybe not.

[jonald_fyookball]

It maybe has smaller community of developers than the official client, so less people are reviewing the source code ?

[bitcoinbitcoin]

Do the electrum servers know that all of your addresses belong to the same wallet- because they are querying simultaneously?

And what other additional info is leaked, (beyond what bitcoin-qt or Armory leak)?

[MWNinja]

I'm having some pretty major usability issues, due to having a wallet with many transactions. It takes at least 30 minutes to sync now, even if I just disconnected.  I use a "warm" portable electrum on a fresh OS for security reasons, but this solution is beginning to fail.  I need my wallet to be accessible quickly.

Perhaps some sort of pruning would help? 

[Abdussamad]

I'm having some pretty major usability issues, due to having a wallet with many transactions. It takes at least 30 minutes to sync now, even if I just disconnected.  I use a "warm" portable electrum on a fresh OS for security reasons, but this solution is beginning to fail.  I need my wallet to be accessible quickly.

Does this mean you don't have Electrum permanently installed on your PC? If that is the case then maybe Electrum is downloading the blockchain headers each time you run it and that is the reason for the delay.

[dabura667]

I'm having some pretty major usability issues, due to having a wallet with many transactions. It takes at least 30 minutes to sync now, even if I just disconnected.  I use a "warm" portable electrum on a fresh OS for security reasons, but this solution is beginning to fail.  I need my wallet to be accessible quickly.

Perhaps some sort of pruning would help? 

If by portable you mean the "portable version," packaged executable then I would recommend going for the install version instead.

The install version actually downloads the blockchain headers file on your HDD. I have over 4000 addresses used with a similar number of transactions and my electrum loads in about 10 seconds tops. The sync process doesn't take much longer. I've opened up electrum from scratch, then sent someone bitcoins within 30 seconds before and it showed up on blockchain.info like 5 seconds later.

[BSIG]

Buggy in importing private keys in diff. electrum versions.