Armory - Discussion Thread

[cypherdoc]

so why won't Armory work in the presence of a bitcoin.conf file?

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[cypherdoc]

how about an Update button under Help?

[ModusPwnd]

How can I force armory to look at the block chain and update?

When I get coins sent to my armory address they do not show in the armory application.  My bitcoin client is up to date.

The way I force it to update now is by closing it down and restarting it.   

[etotheipi]

How can I force armory to look at the block chain and update?

When I get coins sent to my armory address they do not show in the armory application.  My bitcoin client is up to date.

The way I force it to update now is by closing it down and restarting it.   

Sounds like you're using an older version of Armory with Bitcoin-Qt 0.8+.  Do you have the latest one from: http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/ ?

[testconpastas2]

Hi I'm trying to sign with a btc address into the #bitcoin-otc

http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Bitcoin_address_authentication#Challenge-response

But always i get an error with btcverify. It seems as signning task is not compatible with official client.  at least i cannot get a message signature ending with '=' char.

Any way to use armory for signning at #bitcoin-otc ??

Thank you in advance.

[boozer]

Hello, I'm trying out Armory.  Great program!  I probably just have some newb BTC questions but figured I would start by asking them here   

I created a transaction and Armory created a "change-back-to-self" address.  I don't want any change back, I just want to send it all to the address I specified.  Why was this address created and how can I send the entire BTC amount to an address?

I get charged for every TX so far (i changed the default to 0.004, but it still charges 0.005).  I hear this can come from many things.  It would be helpful to me if there was a note in the program as to why the TX fee is required.  I don't mind the fee, but would like to know more how things are working with it.

[etotheipi]

Hello, I'm trying out Armory.  Great program!  I probably just have some newb BTC questions but figured I would start by asking them here    

I created a transaction and Armory created a "change-back-to-self" address.  I don't want any change back, I just want to send it all to the address I specified.  Why was this address created and how can I send the entire BTC amount to an address?

I get charged for every TX so far (i changed the default to 0.004, but it still charges 0.005).  I hear this can come from many things.  It would be helpful to me if there was a note in the program as to why the TX fee is required.  I don't mind the fee, but would like to know more how things are working with it.

Unfortunately, it's an unavoidable feature of the way the network works.  You can think of every transaction as creating a bill (like a $20 bill), but exactly the size of the transaction.  You can't just send part of a bill, you have to use the whole thing at once.  That means you are always sending too much, you send the remainder yourself as "change" (which becomes a new bill in your wallet).   There is just no way around it, and every Bitcoin client/program has to do that.  If you look at transaction lists on blockchain.info, you'll see there's almost always 2+ outputs for each transaction.  They are randomized order, but you can usually tell which one is which, because it'll be like 9.5 BTC to address A, 2.93827112 to address B... B is clearly the change address from a really awkward-sized input.

However, if you are interested in being ultra-controlling of the software, you can switch Armory into "Expert" usermode, and you can use "Coin Control" when you send a tx to select which coins should be used for your transaction.  You can select a subset of addresses you own, and then click "MAX" for the value to send to the recipient and it will construct a perfectly-sized transaction that will have no change output.  The problem is transactions with other people are not so variable that you just send them whatever amount is "convenient" for the bills in your wallet.  For sending between your own wallets, it makes sense.  For transacting with others, there will almost always be a change address.

[etotheipi]

I get charged for every TX so far (i changed the default to 0.004, but it still charges 0.005).  I hear this can come from many things.  It would be helpful to me if there was a note in the program as to why the TX fee is required.  I don't mind the fee, but would like to know more how things are working with it.

By the way, I never answered this question.  I have a section about this in my FAQ:

http://bitcoinarmory.com/frequently-asked-questions/

It's about halfway down... I'll try to put anchors in the page, so it will be easier to link directly to a given question.

The FAQ page needs a lot of improvement (both in organization and content).  Please let me know if you have specific recommendations for it.  Or if you're familiar with WordPress, tell me how to create collapsable sections, so that each question can be a section and the user clicks on it to expand it.

[Radacoin]

Are there any plans to add support for Litecoins to Armory?

[etotheipi]

Are there any plans to add support for Litecoins to Armory?

Unfortunately, that's not something that I can really support with my current set of critical priorities.  But, Litecoin is at least close enough to Bitcoin, that you might only have to change a few constants, and maybe re-write a few functions to make it work.  Bitcoin-Qt (Litecoin-Qt?) is still doing the majority of the work, so Armory probably doesn't need to change too much except to point to the right port.

If someone tries it out, they're welcome to ask questions when they hit snags, but I can't see myself supporting an official version in the near future (it's enough trouble to do regular Bitcoin releases).

[Mooshire]

I sent coins to an address generated by my armory client, but after restarting everything, armory still doesn't show the coins. I verified they should be in the address at blockchain.info. Please help.
EDIT: Coins finally showed up. Great program btw!

[etotheipi]

I sent coins to an address generated by my armory client, but after restarting everything, armory still doesn't show the coins. I verified they should be in the address at blockchain.info. Please help.

No need to fear -- I've never seen Armory lose coins.  This is usually just a result of Armory not having the full Bitcoin history available to confirm your balance.  

What does the bottom-right corner of Armory say?  It should say something like "Connected (225937 blocks)".  Usually when coins don't appear, it's because that number is far lower.  This usually indicates that Bitcoin-Qt is not fully synchronized and Armory should not have been started, yet.  There's a few other reasons it can happen, but I'll wait to find out more information.

Luckily, I just started debugging the auto-bitcoind-management code, and at least it works in Linux.  But a ton of polishing to do on it, and then gotta get it working in Windows, too.  When this is done (hopefully in the next few weeks), there will be no more issues with synchronizing Bitcoin-Qt ... Armory will run it in the background, and only connect to it when it detects it is synchronized (enough).  

[Serenata]

Heya etotheipi.

Thanks again for the nice software which I've been using for almost a year now.

I recently upgraded to Bitcoin-Qt v0.8.0 and noticed that Armory stopped showing my balance and stuff. So I went to http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/ and grabbed the following files:
armory_0.87.2-testing_windows_all.msi
armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc

The computed SHA1 for armory_0.87.2-testing_windows_all.msi doesn't match the one found inside armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc
Two different programs I used, are saying that the SHA1 hash of the downloaded file is e9f67376c5f2072b03ed692b6344a91109d784b0 but the SHA1 hash inside armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc is 68fc84d041bdb2d36a2b88c7d7b84d14709b8e14fabd19a7c384a60f787bc678

Am I doing something wrong here?

EDIT: I just noticed that the download page at https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinarmory/downloads/detail?name=armory_0.87.2-testing_windows_all.msi shows the correct SHA1 hash, so I guess it's all OK (I guess the hashes in armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc are outdated...)

[etotheipi]

Heya etotheipi.

Thanks again for the nice software which I've been using for almost a year now.

I recently upgraded to Bitcoin-Qt v0.8.0 and noticed that Armory stopped showing my balance and stuff. So I went to http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/ and grabbed the following files:
armory_0.87.2-testing_windows_all.msi
armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc

The computed SHA1 for armory_0.87.2-testing_windows_all.msi doesn't match the one found inside armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc
Two different programs I used, are saying that the SHA1 hash of the downloaded file is e9f67376c5f2072b03ed692b6344a91109d784b0 but the SHA1 hash inside armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc is 68fc84d041bdb2d36a2b88c7d7b84d14709b8e14fabd19a7c384a60f787bc678

Am I doing something wrong here?

EDIT: I just noticed that the download page at https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinarmory/downloads/detail?name=armory_0.87.2-testing_windows_all.msi shows the correct SHA1 hash, so I guess it's all OK (I guess the hashes in armory_0.87.2-testing_sha256sum.txt.asc are outdated...)

The hashes in that file are SHA256 hashes of the files, not SHA1.  That's why there was a difference.  There was not a great reason for picking SHA256 over the default, other than it seemed appropriate for Bitcoin which is reliant on SHA256.

But now that you mention it, I realize that the googledownload page gives the SHA1 hash.  Maybe I should switch back...  sorry for the confusion!

[Serenata]

The hashes in that file are SHA256 hashes of the files, not SHA1.  That's why there was a difference.  There was not a great reason for picking SHA256 over the default, other than it seemed appropriate for Bitcoin which is reliant on SHA256.

Soz! My bad >.<

[ModusPwnd]

How can I force armory to look at the block chain and update?

When I get coins sent to my armory address they do not show in the armory application.  My bitcoin client is up to date.

The way I force it to update now is by closing it down and restarting it.   

Sounds like you're using an older version of Armory with Bitcoin-Qt 0.8+.  Do you have the latest one from: http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/ ?

I was using the current version of armory with bitcoin-qt 0.7.2.  But since this I have not been able to even get armory going... 

I have bitcoin-qt 0.8 on one PC, bitcoin-qt 0.7.2 on another.  On each of them armory crashes when its started.  Either right away, or after 2 or 3 minutes while offline scanning the blockchain.  It just says armory has stopped working and then closes.  ugg...  Not much info I know, but this is what is happening to me.

[etotheipi]

How can I force armory to look at the block chain and update?

When I get coins sent to my armory address they do not show in the armory application.  My bitcoin client is up to date.

The way I force it to update now is by closing it down and restarting it.   

Sounds like you're using an older version of Armory with Bitcoin-Qt 0.8+.  Do you have the latest one from: http://bitcoinarmory.com/get-armory/ ?

I was using the current version of armory with bitcoin-qt 0.7.2.  But since this I have not been able to even get armory going... 

I have bitcoin-qt 0.8 on one PC, bitcoin-qt 0.7.2 on another.  On each of them armory crashes when its started.  Either right away, or after 2 or 3 minutes while offline scanning the blockchain.  It just says armory has stopped working and then closes.  ugg...  Not much info I know, but this is what is happening to me.

How much RAM does your system have?  Is this Windows or Linux? 

I suspect this is more resource-usage issues.  I keep saying it -- I'm going to be upgrading the blockchain stuff soon to "fix this".  Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of another important (major) upgrade, so I wanted to finish that first... but the system usage is my number one priority after that! 

[ModusPwnd]

8 GB RAM, Windows 7 64 on the machine with bitcoin-qt 8.0
4 GB RAM, Windows 7 64 on the machine with bitcoin-qt 7.2

I have re-installed on each machine.

[etotheipi]

8 GB RAM, Windows 7 64 on the machine with bitcoin-qt 8.0
4 GB RAM, Windows 7 64 on the machine with bitcoin-qt 7.2

I have re-installed on each machine.

Can you email me the log file?  I doubt I'll see anything in there, but you never know...  (etotheipi gmail com)

Unfortunately, I don't have anything else to suggest other than re-synchronizing your blockchain from scratch.  Usually mid-scan crashes have to do with a corrupted blockchain file... though that wouldn't explain why both of them crash.

[etotheipi]

Just a teaser to show that I haven't totally been slacking (well, I have been busy, so I haven't been able to work on it as much as I wanted to):



I have been anxious to resolve the resource usage, but I was in the dead middle of this auto-management upgrade.  It's been a total PITA, but it will be totally worth it.  I'm convinced that many problems are due to bitcoind/-qt not being synchronized properly before people start it.  It sounds so simple, but people have very little patience... and this is the number one barrier between me and my non-Bitcoin friends who would otherwise try my program.  This can actually make using Bitcoin-Qt easier, as I give some explanation of what's going on, and what to expect.

And once I have this released, I'm going full-throttle into persistent-blockchain Armory.  This will come with instant-load after bitcoind/-qt is synchronized, and it should clear up a plethora of instability issues caused by fighting over the blkfiles with bitcoind/-qt.  And I wish I had a better way to refer to that software other than "bitcoind/-qt"...  (In the app, I now just refer to it as "Please download the base Bitcoin software from www.bitcoin.org").