New, simple online wallet: www.instawallet.org - no signup required

[FreeMoney]

I knew davout was lazy on bitcoin-central, but I assumed acquiring this meant he was active again. :-(

"lazy" ? That's probably an auto-correction typo, right 
You meant "busy" !
Yes we are all busy as hell trying to deliver as fast as we can.
Server migration is not something you do in a snap when it comes to a service like instawallet, requiring security and performance.

Thanks to davout for this extra effort and thanks to all of you guys for your patience.

Uh, all I know is that like a year ago I really tried to help get bitcoin-central going and support was unreachable and I had to stop recommending and using it. Sorry if he was in a body cast or something, but nothing was happening and withdrawals were unavailable for a suspiciously long time.

[FreeMoney]

I knew davout was lazy on bitcoin-central, but I assumed acquiring this meant he was active again. :-(

I resent this comment.

You obviously don't have the slightest clue about the time it takes to :
 - review IW's codebase
 - review every single patch that is applied to bitcoind in order to provide for IW's functionality
 - properly install, configure, armor, firewall, monitor, optimize, replicate and document a brand new military-grade server
 - read, review and fully understand the extended documentation jav provided me

While at the same time :
 - maintain and improve Paytunia, its Android and iOS apps,
 - maintain Bitcoin-Central.net, support its customers, most of them beginning with Bitcoin, for free, as always

And lots of other stuff.

For the record Instawallet is currently running on and AMD Athlon server with 1GB RAM, 100MB/s connection, and 2x160GB hard-drive.
It will be running on a Xeon 8-core with 24GB RAM, 300GB SSD hard-drive and a 1GB connection, heavy optimizations, a host of security measures, and a rock-solid replication and failover scheme.

A really quick glimpse on how seriously I'm taking this server issue :
So let me just tell you that :
 - I'm working on it, fucking hard,
 - You'll be delighted with the result,
 - I won't take this kind of shit, whoever it comes from

And I even forgot to mention all the heavy testing required before migrating a server that serves hundreds of users with minimal downtime...

I really want to take good care of Instawallet because it deserves to be loved, so I will ask you kindly to please bear with us

ok, I'm sorry. I may be misremembering my experience with bitcoin-central. I realize you're just now getting control of instawallet. Good luck.

[Boussac]

Uh, all I know is that like a year ago I really tried to help get bitcoin-central going and support was unreachable and I had to stop recommending and using it. Sorry if he was in a body cast or something, but nothing was happening and withdrawals were unavailable for a suspiciously long time.

Ok but a year ago is a long time ago: that's precisely about the time bitcoin-central was resolving all the issues entailed in a new service launch.
No bitcoiner was harmed during this process.
Things are settled now an and you can use it with confidence thanks to davout efforts.

[davout]

Cross-posted from this thread

Apart from a couple things left to do the migration is now completed !

Left to do :

• A very small number of accounts (less than 10) need some manual attention to reconcile operations that happened during the time span where bitcoind was listening but the database wasn't properly registering transactions. The accounts in question are identified, if you think your balance is not correct, and if it remains so after 48h have passed please contact me. The reason it might take up to 48h is that the old bitcoind must catch up with the chain after being shut down during the migration, it does so very slowly since it's packed with addresses and accounts. It must be up-to-date with the chain for transaction reconciliation to be accurate.
• The current SSL certificate is valid for https://instawallet.org, a new one will be installed that also validates https://www.instawallet.org

What has been done :

• The backend has been rewritten from scratch to make it much more scalable and responsive. It relies much less on bitcoind, which was a performance bottleneck and delegates the accounting to an SQL database. bitcoind is now only used to notify the backend of incoming transactions, generate an address for each account, and send funds
• Generation transactions are now understood, that means that if you're mining at Eligius, your payouts will be available after 20 confirmations if you direct them to your Instawallet (generations usually take 120 confirmations to mature)
• Balance updates are instant (as previously) but rely on websockets instead of long-polling (if your browser doesn't support WS it will degrade gracefully to long-polling or regular polling)
• A comforting cash-register sound has been added, it plays when you receive funds (except on Safari for iOS)
• Instawallet will now tell you about the confirmed status of your funds, previously you'd get an error message when trying to send, but you had no way to know whether funds were confirmed or not
• The new API is fully backwards compatible with the original API, it will be deprecated at some point but for now it's good enough to me
• The new server is a Intel Xeon 8-cores with 24GB RAM, and a lightning-fast SSD hard-drive. (The previous server had a single-core CPU, 1GB RAM and a regular HDD)
• A paranoid firewall has been set-up, along with serious monitoring, and monitoring of the monitoring
• An iPhone app is available worldwide, for free, in the AppStore, it's called FriendlyPay, it's awesome and it lets you carry Instawallet in your pocket, an Android version is almost ready

If there's anything that should be fixed you may comment here, drop me a line by PM, send me an e-mail at david {at} bitcoin-central.net, or drop by at the office in Boulogne, right near Paris !

I really want to thank Jan Vornberger, Instawallet's previous owner for being very available and responsive during the whole migration process, having thought of such a cool concept, providing me with loads of hand-crafted documentation, and more generally being awesome. He is a gentleman.

Thank you for your attention !

[jav]

I really want to thank Jan Vornberger, Instawallet's previous owner for being very available and responsive during the whole migration process, having thought of such a cool concept, providing me with loads of hand-crafted documentation, and more generally being awesome. He is a gentleman.

Thanks David! It's great to see Instawallet in capable hands. I wish you guys much success in your endeavors! :-)

[marcus_of_augustus]

Cool.

the iPhone FriendlyPay app didn't come up when searching the App. Store 

An iPhone app is available worldwide, for free, in the AppStore, it's called FriendlyPay

when it is available it needs to be put up in bright lights somewhere .... InstaWallet for iPhone big, imho.

Post it in the comments to the latest Forbes story regarding iPhone bitcoin Apps for example ....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/04/26/be-your-own-bank-bitcoin-wallet-for-apple/

[coinuser4000]

[/quote]

For the record Instawallet is currently running on and AMD Athlon server with 1GB RAM, 100MB/s connection, and 2x160GB hard-drive.

[/quote]

Hahaha well no wonder it's always crashing.

[davout]

Hahaha well no wonder it's always crashing.

Actually what was happening is that the requests would time out when the previous Instawallet was calling bitcoind.
bitcoind is currently unable to handle requests concurrently due to the locking strategy it uses.
So the only thing left to do was to delegate most of the handling to an SQL database, and only call the client when really needed.
But of course, beefing the hardware up can't do much bad

[Boussac]

The FriendlyPay app is now available on the appStore for iOS device: it's a mobile version of instawallet, using instawallet.org as backend.

[bitlotto]

Any chance you could add a feature where you can pay multiple addresses in one transaction? Just like the "Add recipient" feature in Bitcoin or blockchain.info.

[marcus_of_augustus]

The FriendlyPay app is now available on the appStore for iOS device: it's a mobile version of instawallet, using instawallet.org as backend.

Tested this app. now. Good work, extremely simple like Instawallet itself, I like it, this has great potential.

[davout]

Any chance you could add a feature where you can pay multiple addresses in one transaction? Just like the "Add recipient" feature in Bitcoin or blockchain.info.

I'm not sure about such a feature.
What makes Instawallet's strength is that it is extremely simple and straightforward.
I think it is better to focus on core functionality (and add push notifications for balance updates, improve the scanning part...), keep the app simple and extremely reliable.

[Boussac]

The FriendlyPay app is now available on the appStore for iOS device: it's a mobile version of instawallet, using instawallet.org as backend.

Tested this app. now. Good work, extremely simple like Instawallet itself, I like it, this has great potential.

Thanks ! (that's a bump)

Unfortunately Friendlypay was pulled from the appstore by Apple's anti-bitcoin patrol today..

[giszmo]

1BTC lost

Hi,

I sent 1BTC to a friend (receiving address 1PWd56wQ9jAbrpcBAWuuhz77kBrQErxPBP ) and as along the way to get things going she had to send me the url I now, days later wanted to move it on to another wallet and wanted her to do it. She opened a new wallet with the receiving address 15ZmtzJMQH3UwpztWMx45y4rH8bj6wRuUr and sent the 1BTC but it never arrived.
Is there any issue about sending between instawallet accounts?

This was not a very good advertisement so far

[davout]

1BTC lost

Hi,

I sent 1BTC to a friend (receiving address 1PWd56wQ9jAbrpcBAWuuhz77kBrQErxPBP ) and as along the way to get things going she had to send me the url I now, days later wanted to move it on to another wallet and wanted her to do it. She opened a new wallet with the receiving address 15ZmtzJMQH3UwpztWMx45y4rH8bj6wRuUr and sent the 1BTC but it never arrived.
Is there any issue about sending between instawallet accounts?

This was not a very good advertisement so far

No, it should work just fine.
Just e-mail the support with a bit details because it isn't very clear for me right now.

[Alphonso Bedoya]

A big bump for this site. It is clean, simple, and every newby I show it to gets it instantly. I have used it for over a year with NO problems. Thanks for the excellent work.

[giszmo]

1BTC lost

Hi,

I sent 1BTC to a friend (receiving address 1PWd56wQ9jAbrpcBAWuuhz77kBrQErxPBP ) and as along the way to get things going she had to send me the url I now, days later wanted to move it on to another wallet and wanted her to do it. She opened a new wallet with the receiving address 15ZmtzJMQH3UwpztWMx45y4rH8bj6wRuUr and sent the 1BTC but it never arrived.
Is there any issue about sending between instawallet accounts?

This was not a very good advertisement so far

No, it should work just fine.
Just e-mail the support with a bit details because it isn't very clear for me right now.

Hm … had no clue what could have gone wrong but now I have a theory. Will ask her to check her browser history before bothering support again. Unfortunately she is pretty new to it … not bitcoin, computers

Edit: We found it. Sorry for bothering. At first I couldn't understand what might have gone wrong.

[Stephen Gornick]

There are a couple reports of issues where the blockchain shows the transaction having confirmed, but the Instwallet balance wasn't credited.

Here's one, which I'll quote here since the person reporting it is still stuck in the newbie forum:

Blockchain confirms the transaction but there's no update in the Instawallet balance.

There is no announcement of any problem here though, nor on the site nor on the Twitter account @Instawallet

[davout]

There are a couple reports of issues where the blockchain shows the transaction having confirmed, but the Instwallet balance wasn't credited.

Here's one, which Ill quote here since the person reporting it is still stuck in the newbie forum:

Blockchain confirms the transaction but there's no update in the Instawallet balance.

There is no announcement of any problem here though, nor on the site nor on the Twitter account @Instawallet

It's resolved now, balances have been corrected and instant update is operational again

[mb300sd]

I just sent BTC to an instawallet and the coins are not showing up!

Has something changed? I'm used to them showing up immediately and being spendable after 2 confirms.

Address is 12CcBCfRGPQQE5WQtSfBPRj5vBRCnNdoLC