[ANN] Paytunia Bitcoin wallet released today!

[evoorhees]

Absolutely beautiful design. I LOVE it. Will be recommending it as the best option for anyone who's not a hardcore user. I think this is finally an ewallet/phone wallet for the masses. Really well done!!

[Stephen Gornick]

Could not send a payment:

> should not be smaller than 0.05 BTC

Can minimum amounts be eliminated?   If it is "spammy" then ask if I'll pay the fee for withdrawal, but I should have the option to send a 12 millibits payment (.012 BTC) if I want.

[davout]

One caveat ,.... there is no warning if you choose to use a weak password.

That is correct, I've logged an issue to improve this. Thanks for the feedback!

Can minimum amounts be eliminated?   If it is "spammy" then ask if I'll pay the fee for withdrawal, but I should have the option to send a 12 millibits payment (.012 BTC) if I want.

Yes, we're looking into options to improve this, improvement might come from the bitcoin client itself, with transactional fee handling (ie. knowing in advance the required fee prior to actually posting the transaction), it might also come from us partnering with, or launching a mining pool.

The minimal amount constraint will, however, soon be dropped for transfers between Paytunia users.

Absolutely beautiful design. I LOVE it. Will be recommending it as the best option for anyone who's not a hardcore user. I think this is finally an ewallet/phone wallet for the masses. Really well done!!

Thank you!

[Grami]

I have open ticket for iOS beta.) Hoping Apple will not ban this app as it likes.)

[davout]

You wouldn't happen to have a .apk for download somewhere
instead of forcing folks to use the f*%@king app store ?

We have nothing against skipping Google Play and publishing an APK directly, I'm not really sure about what the problem with Google Play though, could you be a little more specific ?

[Grami]

It's very hard for me to understand how anyone interested in bitcoin can bear
to use one of their product or give them a single cent of their money.

Bitcoin is the best currency, iPhone is the best phone

[Grami]

Can you watch porn on your phone ? Or for that matter
do anything that hasn't been approved by the Apple police ?

Sure it's the best phone. If you don't mind living in stepford.

Hm, youporn.com works fine

[davout]

I'm talking about apps. And count yourself lucky
that you still have unrestricted access to the web
on your iPhone. Let's see how long that lasts.

Let's remain on topic, please.

[Grami]

Let's remain on topic, please.

I need iOS betta app. Can you send invite?

[davout]

I need iOS betta app. Can you send invite?

Please open a support ticket from your account.

[Jan]

Absolutely beautiful design. I LOVE it. Will be recommending it as the best option for anyone who's not a hardcore user. I think this is finally an ewallet/phone wallet for the masses. Really well done!!

Beautiful design is not everything.
Isn't this a Bitcoin bank? We should not forget what happened with Mybitcoin. What prevents Paytunia from running away with my money?

There are alternative mobile Bitcoin wallets out there that are just as light weight and fast, the main difference being that your private key is not stored centrally.

[davout]

Beautiful design is not everything.

My bad, I forgot to mention that the code is beautiful too.

Isn't this a Bitcoin bank?

Not really, we're full reserve and we don't lend out money with interests.
We do, however, keep money safe and provide services to our customers, which we think is a good thing.

We should not forget what happened with Mybitcoin. What prevents Paytunia from running away with my money?

- We're nothing like mybitcoin, first of all Paytunia is beautiful like you said .
 - Secondly it's run by a registered and liable French company, my name and the ones of my associates are pretty much public if you care to search a little bit.
 - Finally it wouldn't make sense to rip a few users out of their money and pass on the opportunity to be an important player in the Bitcoin world.

There are alternative mobile Bitcoin wallets out there that are just as light weight and fast, the main difference being that your private key is not stored centrally.

Be my guest, name one that has an iOS version. Yep, that's what I thought

[evoorhees]

It says it can't be installed on my Samsung Galaxy S2 ... :\

That's weird, I'm using it on my Galaxy S2 without issue.

[evoorhees]

Beautiful design is not everything.
Isn't this a Bitcoin bank? We should not forget what happened with Mybitcoin. What prevents Paytunia from running away with my money?

True, beautiful design is not everything. But it's about damn time some bitcoin services finally had it.

What prevents any company from running away with your money (bitcoin related or otherwise)? Even before launching, Paytunia and the people behind it are much more credible. Skepticism is healthy, so just don't keep tons of money somewhere you're not sure of.

[Jan]

Beautiful design is not everything.

My bad, I forgot to mention that the code is beautiful too.

Isn't this a Bitcoin bank?

Not really, we're full reserve and we don't lend out money with interests.
We do, however, keep money safe and provide services to our customers, which we think is a good thing.

We should not forget what happened with Mybitcoin. What prevents Paytunia from running away with my money?

- We're nothing like mybitcoin, first of all Paytunia is beautiful like you said .
 - Secondly it's run by a registered and liable French company, my name and the ones of my associates are pretty much public if you care to search a little bit.
 - Finally it wouldn't make sense to rip a few users out of their money and pass on the opportunity to be an important player in the Bitcoin world.

There are alternative mobile Bitcoin wallets out there that are just as light weight and fast, the main difference being that your private key is not stored centrally.

Be my guest, name one that has an iOS version. Yep, that's what I thought

It has been shown that you can make a light-weight and fast Bitcoin client where you do not give away your private keys.
Since you have the resources to develop clients for multiple platforms, how come you didn't choose to let your users be in control of their keys?
In doing so your customers would be a lot safer against a disgrunted employee, or a successful hacker.

[kwukduck]

My coins belong on my phone, nowhere else

But nice initiative for new users.

[minimalB]

Be my guest, name one that has an iOS version. Yep, that's what I thought

blockchain wallet is pretty neat and gives you control of your private keys
https://www.blockchain.info/wallet/iphone-app

I believe keeping keys private / locally is HUGE!

[Stephen Gornick]

I believe keeping keys private / locally is HUGE!

I had replied to another thread but that hasn't had any response there so I'm reposting it here as it applies to this thread as well (well, it applies to most every mobile app which can spend bitcoins):

What I am concerned with is "the Linode problem".  All these mobiles are managed devices.   They can be fully controlled by someone other than the owner of the device.  Yes, they are managed by the carrier but possibly that carrier has people that cannot be trusted or, just as bad, has people who don't maintain secure systems themselves such as what reportedly is what happened at Linode.

The importance is thiis.  An attack that defrauds M-Pesa's customers en mass means Safaricom figures out at some point that there's a problem, halts all affected systems to prevent further losses, and in the end eats some, most or all of the customer's losses.  A similar attack through the managed services of the mobile network to steal bitcoins from mobiles means just that the individual mobile user alone loses out.  Just like how Linode disavowed any responsibility to Slush, Bitcoinica, etc. for the tens of thousands of bitcoins lost, Safaricom would likely maintain the same position.

So, this is a fundamental question -- is the practice of storing bitcoin private keys on the mobile something that exposes it to too much risk to where it shouldn't even be considered?  i.e., bitcoin apps for mobile need to be under the same model that mobile banking (like M-Pesa) uses?

[weex]

This is a bit OT for Paytunia but to address Stephen's concern, I would take a practical approach and compare the threat to others of using a mobile device that is effectively under the control of an untrusted party. I would recommend only storing spending money on your mobile...enough to get you through a few days. This can be analogized to the amount of cash a reasonable person might like to carry with them.

Compare the stolen bitcoins problem with the importance of the email accounts we access from our mobile phones. An email account can often be used to reset passwords on 10s of services that might be of more long-term importance than the $50-100 worth of coins on a phone. Just trying to put it in perspective...

Also, I guess we should not ignore that it's much easier to turn 1000 or 100,000 phones with bitcoin into money than that many email accounts. So maybe carry a bit less and reload more often?

[Jan]

I believe keeping keys private / locally is HUGE!

I had replied to another thread but that hasn't had any response there so I'm reposting it here as it applies to this thread as well (well, it applies to most every mobile app which can spend bitcoins):

What I am concerned with is "the Linode problem".  All these mobiles are managed devices.   They can be fully controlled by someone other than the owner of the device.  Yes, they are managed by the carrier but possibly that carrier has people that cannot be trusted or, just as bad, has people who don't maintain secure systems themselves such as what reportedly is what happened at Linode.

The importance is thiis.  An attack that defrauds M-Pesa's customers en mass means Safaricom figures out at some point that there's a problem, halts all affected systems to prevent further losses, and in the end eats some, most or all of the customer's losses.  A similar attack through the managed services of the mobile network to steal bitcoins from mobiles means just that the individual mobile user alone loses out.  Just like how Linode disavowed any responsibility to Slush, Bitcoinica, etc. for the tens of thousands of bitcoins lost, Safaricom would likely maintain the same position.

So, this is a fundamental question -- is the practice of storing bitcoin private keys on the mobile something that exposes it to too much risk to where it shouldn't even be considered?  i.e., bitcoin apps for mobile need to be under the same model that mobile banking (like M-Pesa) uses?

My android device is certainly not managed by my carrier. My carrier provides access to their network but can do nothing on my phone. My carrier has no software running on my device, and the worst thing they can do is not providing access to their network. They have the same power over my device that my ISP has over my desktop computer. Nothing.
You cannot compare M-pesa with Bitcoin.